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O&CRR The Oregon and California
Railroad.
Railroad Meeting. The president announced the object of the meeting, and introduced Mr. S. E. Elliott, civil engineer, who addressed the citizens on the subject of railroads, setting forth in a clear and logical manner the interests of our people, and the advantages that would be gained by the construction and completion of a branch Pacific Railroad from Marysville to Portland, through the rich and fertile region of Southern Oregon. The speaker was followed by Messrs. Douthitt, Fay and Gaston, in well-timed and appropriate remarks. The following preamble and resolutions were read and adopted: Whereas: That in the Pacific Railroad Bill, as it has passed and became a law, there is no provision made for a branch railroad, connecting the Sacramento River with the Columbia, via the Rogue River, Umpqua and Willamette valleys, which provision thus omitted in said law was contained in House Bill 364 of the 2nd Session of the 3th Congress, introduced and advocated by the Hon. Mr. Campbell, March 14th, 1862, and as such an omission is an act generally injurious to the interests of the people of Oregon and Northern California, therefore be it Resolved, 1st, That we are determined to do all in our power to remedy the same by obtaining the same grant of land from the government for such branch railroad, as is contained in the present Pacific Railroad; to wit: Five alternate sections on each side of said road, and aid in bonds to the amount of $16,000 per mile for the valleys, and $48,000 per mile for the mountains. Resolved, 2nd, That we are decidedly in favor of a railroad connecting the Willamette and Sacramento valleys; that we will cooperate with our fellow citizens in other counties, and our friends in California, in urging our representatives in Congress to labor to procure grants of lands, and the aid of loans similar to that extended to other great lines of public improvement, of national importance and military necessity, that we feel the importance of presenting our requests backed by statistics, facts, and careful surveys in regard to the military necessity and practicability of such road; and of its prospective importance to the country in developing its agricultural and mineral resources, and enlarging its business operations and with proper estimate of its cost, statement of grades, and other facilities for its construction; and that so far as procuring aid from the government in the construction of said road, the interests of California and Oregon are identical, and that we will act as if no state line divided us. Resolved, 3rd, That a committee of ten be appointed by this meeting, to solicit and receive subscriptions, to aid in making a preliminary survey of such proposed road; that the condition of such subscriptions shall be, that the amount so subscribed and paid in shall entitle the contributors to the same privileges as the California contributors, in regard to being incorporators of the road under its California charter; and that the same shall be paid when the survey has made certain progress in Oregon--one half when the survey has reached the Umpqua, from the South, and one half when the survey has been completed from the Umpqua to the Willamette Valley; that the amount so subscribed and paid in, be deposited with James T. Glenn of Jacksonville, and be subject to the engineer in charge of said survey. On motion the meeting adjourned, to meet on Wednesday, the 10th day of June, 1863, at 4 o'clock P.M. E.
F. RUSSELL, Sect.
Jacksonville, May 15, 1863.Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, May 20, 1863, page 3 CALIFORNIA AND OREGON RAILROAD CO.--A preliminary organization was made at Marysville on the 1st inst., and the following gentlemen are a part of the Board of Directors:--Gov. A. C. Gibbs of Portland, I. R. Moores of Salem, S. Ellsworth of Eugene City, and J. C. Tolman of Jacksonville. The parties concerned seem to have enlisted in the enterprise with great energy. We hope they will "roll it along" successfully and speedily. Morning Oregonian, Portland, June 9, 1863, page 2 RAILROAD SURVEY.--Mr. Elliott and his party are encamped near town, having arrived yesterday on their surveying tour of the California and Oregon railroad. They have found no difficulty for a good railroad grade so far, but anticipate the heaviest work between here and Oregon, near Siskiyou Mountain. Mr. Elliott has a number of maps and charts of the country surveyed between Marysville and this place, via the Sacramento River, Soda Springs and Shasta Valley. The company consists of sixteen men. [Yreka Journal, Aug. 5th. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, August 8, 1863, page 3 ALL ABOARD! TO SAN FRANCISCO IN TWELVE HOURS.--Mr. S. G. Elliott, with his corps, are now between Jacksonville and Cottonwood, surveying the line of the Oregon and California Railroad. They are making rapid progress, and will be here in a few days. A respectable sum of money should be in the hands of the agents in this county to pay over to Mr. Elliott. Has it been collected. If not, see to it that the subscription lists are at once circulated and a fair sum raised for this great enterprise. It requires no arguments to prove that a railroad connecting Southern Oregon--with the rich soil of her valleys, her pastoral resources, the inexhaustible wealth in gold, silver, copper, iron, quicksilver, and paints that are known to be hidden in her hills--with San Francisco and thus give us the world for a market, would increase the value of property a hundredfold. Give us a railroad and manufactories will spring up as if by magic--the hum of machinery will be heard all around us. We know of no portion of America so capable of sustaining a dense population as Southern Oregon. Let a railroad survey be made, and capitalists will not be long in learning that investments in a road from Portland to Marysville will ultimately return them large dividends, and we have reason to hope that Congress will aid the enterprise by donations of land, if our people bestir themselves and do their duty in the premises. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, August 15, 1863, page 2 OREGON RAILROAD.--There will be a meeting of the Directors of the California and Oregon Railroad Company, on Friday morning at Judge McCann's office, to arrange for a final organization, which is thought can be perfected at Yreka in November, when Elliott will be ready to report the result of the preliminary survey. Mr. Elliott writes from Jacksonville, Oregon, which place the survey had reached on the 12th inst., that the maximum grade over the Siskiyou Mountains (the only big obstacle on the route) will not exceed 85 feet to the mile--considerable less than the maximum on the Central Pacific. Marysville Daily Appeal, Marysville, California, September 23, 1863, page 3 RAILROADS.--There are no doubt many who would liberally aid the California and Oregon Railroad project if they could be made to realize the fact that, when the survey is completed, and proper presentation of the merits of the enterprise--its necessity to the government in case of a foreign war, and its ultimate great profits to a company that will secure a charter for its consideration--the government will offer such inducements, by donations of land, as will attract sufficient capital to ensure its completion. We are not at present prepared to present arguments and facts to show that there is ground for reasonable hope that the road will be built within five years, and, in case of a foreign war, a possibility that the government may hurry its completion in two or three years. To the doubting minds we commend the following quotation from the Albany (N.Y.) Evening Journal, whose editor owns up to an agreeable surprise to see the Hudson River Railroad paying an honestly earned dividend. He says: "We were originally among those who could not believe that it would ever be built, who thought it irreverent to attempt to rival God's magnificent, glorious highway, the Hudson River. If our files were searched, we should be found expressing that the idea of a 'railway to the moon' was scarcely more preposterous than the proposed one along the banks of the Hudson River." The opinion was borrowed from an assertion oft repeated twenty-five years earlier, that none who witnessed the commencement of the Erie Canal would live to see it completed. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, September 26, 1863, page 2 THE RAILROAD SURVEY.--Mr. Elliott and party of the California and Oregon railroad survey will shortly be here. The expedition has demonstrated the practicability of a road at a moderate cost, so far as the survey has extended. From Jacksonville there are no great difficulties and from the Canyon none. Capitalists in California are becoming daily more interested in it and the feasibility of the road is becoming more plain. The Willamette Valley ought not be behind in furnishing means to assist in defraying costs of survey, but thus far very little has been subscribed. Will not our citizens take steps to secure a respectable subscription? Oregon Statesman, Salem, September 28, 1863, page 2 CALIFORNIA AND OREGON RAILROAD.--The Jacksonville (Oregon) Intelligencer, of Sept. 19th, has the subjoined remarks, going to show the interest taken in the above project in Oregon: "In our remarks, heretofore, in relation to the project of a railroad passing through our valley, we must confess a want of confidence in the success of the enterprise. This, we believe, has been the case with a great portion of our community. At the same time we do not believe that there is one intelligent man living in Rogue River Valley but wishes the project well, and what is necessary at the present time is to convince them of the probability of the success of so great an undertaking. During the past week Mr. Elliott has succeeded in extending the line of the survey up to this place. His party passed through town on Thursday, and camped at the ranch of Mr. Miller, one mile from town. From a personal examination of the maps and profiles of the route surveyed, together with our knowledge of the country over which the line passes, leads us to the conclusion that the only serious difficulty which presents itself to our people, and which was the main cause of the want of faith in the project, viz: the crossing of the Siskiyou Mountains, has been removed, and we are free to acknowledge our delight at so bright a prospect in the future for our beautiful valley. It must appear evident to every sane man that in this day of railroads with so favorable a line together with the vast resources of the country through which the line passes, when properly presented will not only secure all the necessary legislation from Congress, but will call the attention of capitalists to the Pacific Coast, who, when once acquainted with our true position, will bring millions of dollars with them, all of which will find its way into the pockets of our enterprising farmers, merchants, and mechanics. In view of so bright a future let our people wake up and give the project that encouragement which its great merits demand, and the known liberality of the people of this valley would seem to indicate. Shasta Courier, Shasta, California, October 3, 1863, page 1 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON RAILROAD.--The Washington correspondent of the Sacramento Union, Jan. 20, makes the following statement: "Cole, of California, yesterday introduced into the House a bill amendatory of the Pacific Railroad Act, which provides for the issuance by the government of its bonds to a company which shall build and equip a railroad from the western terminus of the Pacific Railroad at Sacramento to the California River, Oregon. The terms of the aid asked for are the same as the terms granted to the Pacific Railroad Company--grants of alternate sections of land, bonds at the rate of $16,000 per mile in the valleys, and $48,000 per mile in the mountains, etc. The bill was referred to the Committee on the Pacific Railroad." Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, March 19, 1864, page 7 The bill failed in May 1865. OREGON RAILROAD SURVEY.--We are informed by Colonel Barry that he has his party nearly ready and will start for the Calapooia Mountains within the next ten days, where he will commence again on the railroad survey for an Oregon branch of the Pacific Railroad. He has secured the services of James M. Curley, Esq., as Chief of Engineers and Topographer, who will have charge of the operations in the field and note the topography of the country. Mr. Curley is distinguished in his profession, and his well-known scientific ability is a sufficient guarantee that the results of the survey will be reliable. The party will be composed of eight men, the names of all of whom we do not now remember. W. J. Plymale, Esq., will accompany Col. Barry as his assistant, and his well-known energy and extensive acquaintance with the Willamette Valley will render his services valuable. If time and circumstances permit, it is the intention to push the survey through to Puget Sound this season. It is unnecessary for us to notice this praiseworthy undertaking further at present. Nearly everyone is familiar with its object and purposes. The people of Oregon must move in earnest soon if they ever expect to derive any benefit from the great Pacific Railroad. We must have a branch road to Oregon. There are now two bills before Congress, each providing for a branch to Oregon. It is not probable that both will become laws, granting aid to two branches to Oregon. Which, then, shall the influence of our state be cast for? The one running from Salt Lake to the navigable waters of the Columbia River, or the one running from Marysville, California, to Portland, Oregon; or shall a compromise line be advocated, running from Lassen's Meadows to Portland. These are questions which are now engaging the attention of those who look ahead to a glorious future for Oregon; and Col. Barry's survey is intended to call attention to them and aid in settling them.--Jacksonville Sentinel. Morning Oregonian, Portland, June 2, 1864, page 2
THE CALIFORNIA AND
OREGON RAILROAD.--The
articles of incorporation of the California and Oregon Railroad Company
have been filed at Sacramento according to law. The capital stock is
fixed at $15,000,000, divided into 150,000 shares of $100 each. From
Marysville to the Oregon line, the distance is 286 miles. The work of
building the road is to commence the coming autumn. This road will
eventually be extended to Portland. As we have often said, it is
necessary for the growth of our state. We hope to see our share of the
work begun ere long.--Oregonian.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, July 15, 1865, page 2 RAILROAD MATTERS.--A railroad meeting was held in Portland on the night of December 18th; General Lovejoy was elected to preside. The committee appointed at the former meeting presented a lengthy report, in substance as follows: Recommending Congressional aid to the Northern Pacific Railroad; designating the Idaho and Salt Lake branch of the Union Pacific Railroad as the one of paramount interest to Portland Oregon; recommending Congress to extend the time in which the Oregon Central Railroad Company may complete the first twenty miles of their road and yet receive the aid heretofore granted; recommending that the state grant aid to a road from Portland, on the east side of the river, to Eugene City, to the amount of $1,000,000; and another $1,000,000 to extend the road to Jacksonville. These are substantially the recommendations of the report, though it contained a great deal of matter setting forth facts, figures and arguments. The motion to adopt the report was argued at considerable length by Gibbs, Chapman, Shattuck, Upton and McCarver. The report was finally adopted without more than a half dozen opposing votes. The Portland and Humboldt road was ignored altogether in this report, save a mere mention of the organization of the company. The "railroad feeling" in Southern Oregon is indicated by the following from the Jacksonville Reveille: "A bundle of petitions was last night brought to the post office from Canyonville, with a request to the postmaster to circulate them. The petition is to the United States Congress and the Oregon delegation in Congress, asking them to secure a grant of lands to enable the Oregon Central Railroad Company, of Portland, to complete the proposed road between California and Oregon; and said petition remonstrates against any legislation that may deprive Southern Oregon of any of the benefits of the 'proposed' road. Through what counties of Oregon will the 'proposed' road run? Is it the road from Eugene, via Fort Klamath, to the Humboldt?" The Railroad Movement.
The people throughout the state are taking much interest in the various
railroad projects proposing to unite us with the rest of the world. We
have had considerable excitement in Southern Oregon; and now that the
discussion of the various plans seems to have assumed a temperate tone,
it is proper to examine the several points of agreement and
disagreement among our citizens. First: It seems to be universally
conceded that a railroad uniting Portland and Sacramento, and passing
through Umpqua, Rogue River, and the rich valleys of Northern
California, is an imperative necessity. Everyone admits that our
agricultural and mineral, and indeed all our other industrial
interests, demand it. Secondly: Our people consider it a matter of
strict justice and right that the original appropriation of Congress in
aid of the O.C.R.R. should be strictly applied for the sole benefit of
a road cleaving the rich valleys throughout the whole length of the
state; and that no portion thereof should be diverted for the use of
any other road. They regard the grant of each alternate section for
twenty-five miles on each side of the road, as given for the benefit of
the people of the whole state, and are certainly a unit against the
bestowal of any portion of it to any road, other than that for which it
was made. Third: There is no difference of opinion as to the duty of
Congress to allow an equivalent amount of land to be selected from the
unappropriated lands of the United States, in lieu of those along the
route that may prove worthless, or which may already be settled upon.
Upon the foregoing points our people seem to be united; but on the
manner of accomplishing their recognition and ultimate fulfillment,
there is radical and serious discord. Want of space will not permit
their discussion at present, but we intend to recur from time to time
to a subject of so much vital importance to Southern Oregon, and will
give the points of disagreement next week.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville,
January 25, 1868, page
2
THE OREGON BRANCH OF THE PACIFIC
RAILROAD
I and Mr. Pengra have been engaged during the past week in preparing a
railroad bill, chartering a company to construct a road from Portland
to the valley of the Humboldt River. Allow me to press upon the
citizens of Jackson and Douglas counties the necessity of making a
survey of the different passes of the Cascade Mountains in Jackson
County. I am confident two or three good passes can be found east of
Rogue River Valley. Mr. Pengra has made a survey of the route by
Diamond Peak, which is practicable, but the country for 125 miles is
either mountainous or a barren ash bank, and the elevation is 5,500
feet. If the road should be constructed through Douglas and Jackson
counties, it would avoid this desert, and cross the mountains at a more
eligible point. If the survey was made it would show a strong argument
to Congress in favor of the charter, and the passage of the bill. The
name of the company will probably be "The Oregon Branch of the Pacific
Railroad.""Letter from B. F. Dowell," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, April 18, 1868, page 1 RAILROADS.--On the outside of today's paper will be found a letter from B. F. Dowell, which touches on the subject of railroads. It appears that Mr. Pengra and Congressman Mallory are at loggerheads, the latter insisting that the road shall run through the Umpqua and Rogue River valleys, and that under no circumstances whatever shall it be allowed to pass the Cascade Mountains by way of Diamond Peak. We want a railroad--badly; and if this or any other company will take hold and build it, our people should make no objection. We have no preference for any company, and will feel rejoiced, in common with all our citizens, when we can see an immediate prospect of communication by railroad with the outside world, and a market for our surplus produce.Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, April 18, 1868, page 2 OREGON CENTRAL.--The opening ceremonies of the O.C.R.R. took place at Portland on Thursday, before an immense concourse of people. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, April 18, 1868, page 2 Railroad Legislation.
The late decision of Judge Boise has shown that under the constitution
of Oregon, it is beyond the power of the state to give any aid to
railroads. It is unnecessary to discuss the narrow and short-sighted
policy that guided the framers of our state constitution. We must look
at the fact of its restrictive power and what is best to be done to
increase our prosperity and develop our resources. It must require a
vast amount of credulity to induce any person to believe that the
Oregon Central Railroad Company can ever secure sufficient aid from
private capital to construct their road from Portland to this valley,
much less to build it to the southern boundary of the state, on the
other side of the Siskiyou Mountains. With the aid of the donation of
land already granted by the general government, it is within the range
of possibility that this company may build their line to the head of
the Willamette Valley. We confidentially predict that right there it
will stop, unless the people of this end of the state take steps to
enforce and secure its further progress. The drain of the Willamette
Valley is the great object sought for by those interested in this road
in the northern part of the state, and we warn the people of Southern
Oregon that when, if ever, the head of the Willamette Valley is reached
the object shall have been accomplished and the interests of Southern
Oregon overlooked. The task of building a road to that point will be
difficult enough. Trifling as are the engineering obstacles, and
favorable as is the topographical character of the country,
the road,
so far, has made but little substantial progress, and Eastern
capitalists are chary of lending their aid to it. With so many
difficulties meeting this project through a valley almost level, and
presenting comparatively few obstacles to railroading, it is easy to
imagine those it will meet when the Calapooia Mountains are
encountered. People are foolish if they think the "Oregon Central" will
be built through to this valley simply because we desire it; and they
miscalculate if they think the company can ever build it to this point
without substantial aid from government.We call the attention of our representatives and of those from Douglas County to this matter, and urge them to see that the best interests of Southern Oregon are not lost by neglect. A bill granting a subsidy of thirteen million dollars to a road tapping the great overland line at the bend of the Humboldt River, and providing for its consolidation with the Oregon Central, is now before Congress. It has so far met with the most favorable consideration, First, because it will greatly resist in the settlement and development of a large and unoccupied territory, known to be rich in minerals, in timber, and well adapted for agriculture. Second, because the construction will prove of immense advantage to the government in the transportation of supplies, and ultimately enable it to withdraw its troops from the Indian country between here and Humboldt by facilitating the subjugation of the hostile Indian tribes. We hope that our legislature will memorialize Congress on this subject. The friends of the "Oregon Central," and those in favor of any road through this portion of the state, must at once see that the aid asked for will certainly ensure the building of the road, and give us an Eastern outlet for our surplus, and an Eastern inlet for fresh population. It will cost nothing to ask and if Congress declines to give us any assistance because of our own neglect, then our representatives will not have been true to the best interests of their constituents. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville,
July 18, 1868, page
2
THE RAILROAD
"Letter
from B. F. Dowell," Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville,
August 15, 1868, page
1from
Rogue River Valley to the Klamath River should be surveyed during the
summer and fall by subscriptions in Douglas, Josephine and Jackson
counties. The citizens in these counties generally oppose what they
term "Pengra's road by Diamond Peak." They bark at Pengra, but so far
they have simply acted the "dog in the manger," without doing anything
towards showing the practicability of the route through Douglas and
Jackson counties. Pengra is not alone in this road, but the wagon road
stock is owned by many of the most influential citizens of the
Willamette Valley. It is natural for them to favor the route along
their road, so as to advance the price of the land which was donated to
them by Congress. If the citizens of Douglas and Jackson do not exert
themselves in a practical way, it is more than probable the Willamette
Wagon Road Company will have more influence in the next Legislature and
in the next session of Congress than Douglas and Jackson counties. If
their story is believed in the next Legislature, they may memorialize
Congress in behalf of the Diamond Peak route. If Congress only has one
survey to look at, the members may change the bill so as to compel the
road to go along the surveyed route. The passes up Rogue River, up
Little Butte Creek, through Dead Indian Prairie, and up Emigrant Creek
should all be surveyed before the meeting of the Legislature. The
survey should show the highest and lowest altitude of each and all of
these passes.
If Douglas, Jackson and Josephine counties do not subscribe more and do more towards the construction of this road than the "Willamette Wagon Road Company," they may not be surprised if the road should go by Diamond Peak, and not through Umpqua and Rogue River valleys. OREGON BRANCH R.R.--Mr. Dowell, who has just returned from Washington, is sanguine of the success of the railroad through this valley to the bend of the Humboldt at an early day, if proper steps are taken by ourselves to assist it. Mr. D. has, in connection with Mr. Mallory, worked for the road, faithfully and earnestly, all winter--not from any personal motive but from a desire to forward the interests of Southern Oregon and, indeed, of the whole state. It is due from the citizens of this valley that they now cooperate to secure so desirable an end, and their attention is again called to the fact that a preliminary survey of the passes out of this valley, eastward, is absolutely necessary. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, August 29, 1868, page 2 (Communicated.)
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville,
September 19, 1868, page
1The Lake Country--The Branch Railroad. As
many inquiries have been made in regard to the southeastern part of our
state in order to determine its fitness for settlement, or the
practicability of building a railroad through it, [it] may not be
inadmissible for me to give my views on the subject, as I have some
experience in that region. In summer I have roamed its broad grassy
plains in search of the fleet-footed antelope, hunted the antlered buck
in its beautifully timbered hills, or have angled for the golden trout
in its pellucid waters. Roaming these lovely plains, with a verdant
carpet beneath, evergreen trees around, clear streams flowing in silent
majesty, wild fruits in "luscious glory pendant," and a bright blue sky
above, one's ideas of the romantic and beautiful are made bright and
vivid. But this summer experience is not all. In winter I have looked
for months on fields of ice and snow, in the colder parts of that
region.
The discussion of the Humboldt railroad idea has brought forth some curious representations, some of them apparently not well consisting with each other, and of course calculated to produce sorry impressions. Some would convey the idea that the Lake country is a paradise, and other extremists would represent that it is a vast sage plain, almost entirely destitute of water and timber, and hence that hundreds of miles of the railroad route would lie through a region approximating in features and condition to the desert of Sahara, even having nomadic Snakes drifting around amid the sands, like wandering Arabs. There is a very natural disposition to enlarge upon the truth, and from this comes that flying into extremes of which so many are guilty; and in this way the imagination may be so distorted as to make a sage plain appear to spread out and envelop many a beautiful valley, or a little valley to become immense by gobbling up some huge sage plain. Now, fellow citizens, if the pen's point has driven these false impressions into your minds, allow me to make an humble effort to disabuse them from some of these hallucinations. Being ourself of a romantic, fierce and fiery nature, we may allow our imagination to soar a little before we bring our pen to the last period, but we will try to keep the wanderings within the bounds of truth and reason. Opposite the southern part of Rogue River Valley, the Cascade chain is broken down to a broad summit plateau, not of great altitude, with gradual descent on either side. This bench is called the Dead Indian Country. South of this the country is rougher but not usually as high, admitting of a route across the mountains to a fine pastoral and agricultural region, lying on lower Klamath, Rhett and Wright lakes, and stretching off to the southern extremity of Goose Lake, and beyond. This is the route of the old emigrant road, established in 1846 by fifteen pioneers then living in the Willamette Valley. The Dead Indian plateau admits of a splendid route from Ashland, via Grubbonia in Dead Indian, Lake of the Woods, norther extremity of Middle Klamath Lake, Fort Klamath, Klamath Indian Agency, Williamson River, to Sprague River Valley, thence intersecting the Central Military Road from Eugene City. Then passing the central road in almost a direct line from Ashland, to Goose Lake Valley. We will make it our peculiar province to describe this route, as by this we may illustrate, as we proceed, the characteristics of a country almost every foot of which we are familiar with. Leaving Ashland we ascend the eastern rim of the basin in which Rogue River Valley is contained, by a good wagon road, and at the end of about sixteen miles find ourselves at Grubbonia in Dead Indian. Around us for miles is a splendid pastoral region, now extensively used for grazing purposes every summer. This plateau is here near twenty miles wide, is well watered and magnificently timbered, and has many beautiful prairies. Although on the summit of the Cascade Mountains, the latitude of this region is not so great, but that in case a construction of a railroad through it, it would be extensively settled, in fact we think this will occur at no distant day even if the railroad should pass some other way. Leaving Grubbonia we pass on through noble forests of pine, cedar, fir and yew, the tall sugar pine standing among them like a monarch, until after having crossed the plateau we find ourselves ready to descend the eastern side of the mountains. This we find an easy task. About a mile and a half down a gradual descent, we find ourselves on the first bench of the Cascades. Here surrounded by evergreen forests, coming down at many places to the water's edge, reclines placidly the clear beautiful Lake of the Woods, which is near three miles long. North and east is a beautiful prairie about half a mile wide, and covered with fine meadow grass. Passing along on the southern border of the lake, if the day should be clear, we can see far below us in the clear water a long extent of the Cascade chain, reflected from the smooth surface. Among the lesser summits and pinnacles we can see Mt. Pitt's basaltic spire piercing the clouds, and clad in garments of everlasting white. (TO BE
CONTINUED.)
PILOT
ROCK. [Attributed to Isaac
Cox]
Ashland, Sept. 2nd, 1868.O.C.R.R.--Ben Holladay & Co. have purchased the contract of A. J. Cook & Co. for constructing the Oregon Central (East Side) Railroad. Four hundred Chinamen are to be brought from California and set at work immediately. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, September 19, 1868, page 2 (Communicated.)
The Lake Country--The Branch Railroad. CONCLUDED.
Reaching the eastern rim of the summit plateau, we descend gradually
about three miles to a prairie, and two miles further brings us to the
Pelican Bay on Klamath Lake, scarcely forty miles from Ashland. Here we
intersect the old Ft. Klamath road which crosses the mountains further
north, and at a greater altitude.
In order to avoid the marsh land lying near the lake, we change our course more to the north, and following the mountain's foot some miles we take our direct course again, and commence crossing the upper Klamath Valley. This valley is about fifteen miles long, and from eight to fifteen wide, lying at the northern extremity of the principal Klamath Lake, and eight miles below the Klamath Agency, at the head of navigation on the Lake. This valley, although in some parts containing pumice stone, is generally covered with a luxuriant carpet of grass, abounds in fertile soil, and is beautifully timbered, the prevailing variety tamarack being dispersed in groves all over its level surface. The Cascades "swing around the circle" on the west and north, shooting aloft their extinct volcanic peaks, and sending down a long tapering ridge on the east to separate this valley from that of the Klamath Marsh. Beautiful clear streams run their unchangeable floods across this splendid valley. On by Ft. Klamath we pursue our way, and about 40 miles from where we first saw the lake we reach the Klamath Agency. The climate of this valley is tolerably severe--local causes of course, such as proximity to the mountain chains, effect changes of climate, and hence this valley will be found colder than the valleys further east, through which the railroad would pass. But notwithstanding this fact, a great variety of garden vegetables and cereals can be produced, and at Link River, thirty miles south, cucumbers and like tender plants flourish and mature. Pursuing a course nearly due east from the agency, in three miles we strike Williamson River at the junction of Sprague River with that stream, and pursuing our course a few miles further, alternately through forest and meadow, we find ourselves in Sprague River Valley 50 miles in extent. Since coming into the Klamath Basin we have been traveling through a country comparatively level, passing great streams of water bursting from the earth and suddenly becoming rivers by uniting with other great springs, and then running slowly across the prairies to mingle with the lake waters, or some of its large tributaries. Making our way up Sprague River Valley towards the source of its beautiful stream, we see antelope scampering across the broad meadows, and eventually diving out of sight in grand old forests. Golden trout are dancing in the clear streams, their scales shining like burnished gold in the transparent waters; and prairie chickens, rising near us, sound an alarm and diving a little way through the air disappear in the tall rye grass. The soil of this valley is generally very fertile, its climate is comparatively mild and will someday teem with a healthy population--most of it now on the Reservation. Again pursuing our direct course beyond this valley, we cross several low divides, usually timbered, and between them, rich valleys, and having climates comparatively mild, as we are now getting far way from the fields of snow. We pass near the valleys of Chewaucan, Lake Albert, Summer Lake, Christmas Lake and others--all well timbered, well watered and fertile. Some ninety miles from Ft. Klamath we reach Goose Lake Valley, than which none of the others are near so extensive; yet it possesses the usual characteristics of those we have described, and is capable of supporting a very large population. I believe it has been decided by the prospectors of the railroad to Humboldt to leave the matter as to where the road shall cross the Cascades to the decision of the directors or stockholders of the company. This idea is a sensible one--many who otherwise would have opposed it now support it. The whole of Oregon will now lend it their aid, and the bill before Congress to extend government aid to the enterprise will certainly become a law. We of this section, in case the enterprise goes on as it is now shaped, apprehend no danger of its crossing the Cascade wall at any other place than through our gate. Instead of turning off at Sprague River Valley from its direct course towards Rogue River Valley, and bearing off, nearly at a right angle through one hundred miles or more of country almost entirely unfit for settlement, to cross the mountains at a greater altitude, the road will certainly be constructed from Sprague River Valley on through a country presenting no considerable obstacles, the most of which will admit of settlement either by way of Ft. Klamath or Link River into Rogue River Valley, and thence through Southern and Middle Oregon. If the different railroad interests could be united on this route, in a few short years the iron steed, fresh from the sterile plains of Humboldt, will rush with all the fierceness of his fiery nature along the graded sides of the Umpqua Canyon. We may regard it as a significant fact when the iron band shall be drawn from the Central Pacific to the heart of our state, that it shall come so near following the footsteps of the fifteen pioneers who first marked a way for civilized people across the then wild land. I opine that in a few years more Southeastern Oregon will teem with an energetic population. Flocks will graze on a thousand hills--the hunter will chase the antelope across the grassy plains--will dive into secluded forests after the nimble stag, or climb after the retreating big horn on lofty crags, like Victor Emmanuel scaling some Alpine height after the fleeting chamois; and the fisherman, seated like some "sedentary frog" on an "ancient log" spanning some crystal river, will behold in the glassy water the splendid trout swallowing his hook and know "just when to haul." You and I may stand on some rocky spire and from our pinnacle behold the iron horse tearing down the side of the Cascade wall, his nostrils wide dilated and clouds of smoke arising--and then we may see him flying like the wind across the plains, pausing at some prairie town to increase or decrease his burden, and again speed onward--onward towards the rising sun. PILOT
ROCK.
Ashland, Sept. 22nd, 1868.Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, October 3, 1868, page 2 SURVEYING.--A surveying party under Mr. B. F. Myers will start from Ashland on Monday to examine and survey some of the passes between this valley and the Klamath Basin, and report their practicability as railroad routes. The people of Ashland deserve credit for their enterprise. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, October 10, 1868, page 3 The Oregonian says: It is greatly to be regretted that so angry a controversy has risen between the East and West side railroads on the subject of the land grant. It is unfortunate for the state that the respective parties are wasting their strength fighting each other, instead of pushing forward with their work, as the interests of the state require. We are among those who believe that the interests of the Willamette Valley demand two roads, and therefore we are anxious to see both roads built, and can be partisans of neither. Both are essential to the interests of this valley, since it must be obvious to everyone that a road on one side of the river will be of little service to the other side. But the controversy between them is plainly the result of a supposed antagonism which cannot be easily quieted. "Oregon," Daily Alta California, San Francisco, October 24, 1868, page 1 The Railroad Survey.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville,
November 14, 1868, page
2
In another column will be found a report of a survey through some of
the passes of the "Cascades," for which the public are indebted to the
enterprising citizens of Ashland. Although the passes examined are much
lower than that over the Siskiyou, there is another which the surveyors
had not time to reach. At Grubb's house on Dead Indian Prairie, the
water is 400 or 500 feet lower than the crest of the mountain west of
it--the water flows into Little Butte Creek, and it is within 10 feet
as high as any part of the land between there and the Klamath
country--hence we conclude that there is still a much lower pass than
those surveyed by Messrs. Rockfellow and Myers. If this be the case it
should be known to a certainty and it would be well for the citizens in
that vicinity to have it surveyed also.
We regard a railroad through this valley as a certainty, should Mr. Mallory's bill pass; and if it fails to pass it will not be for lack of energy on his part. Let our people show a corresponding zeal and they will have a road before three years are over. Correspondence.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville,
November 14, 1868, page
2
EDITOR SENTINEL:--Having
spent ten days in the Siskiyou Mountains, east and southeast of
Ashland, examining its passes and surveying a route for a railroad, we
would respectfully submit the following report.
Altitudes being one of the objects of the expedition, we obtained of Judge Tolman, en route for the field of exploration, the height of the Toll Road Pass, and also that of the Mountain House at the foot of the mountain, taken, perhaps, from the surveys of Lieut. Williamson in 1855 or 1856. The elevation of the former we found to be 4,580 feet, and that of the latter 2,231 feet. Having determined in our own mind through the representation of numerous individuals that the Emigrant Road Pass was the pass, we determined first to make its ascent, establish its elevation, and explore its approaches. Its elevation we found, by leveling, to be about the same--perhaps a littler higher than the Toll Road Pass--while the approaches were rugged and uninviting, though we think not by any means insurmountable. It was now the opinion of Judge Tolman, who had accompanied us thus far, as also that of ourselves, that the Dead Indian passes were more practicable, and thither we directed our steps, concluding as we did so that the better plan was to survey the route as we went. So taking Shepherd's place, at the lower crossing of Emigrant Creek, on the Emigrant Road, and two miles below the Soda Springs, which is about the same elevation as the Mountain House (2,231 feet) as the initial or starting point, we run up Emigrant Creek to its forks in a southeasterly direction. Then turning in a northeasterly direction we continue the survey around the west side of the mountain, overlooking nearly all of the Bear Creek and Rogue River valleys, to Grubb's Dead Indian Pass, a distance of twenty-five miles, and an elevation of 4,500 feet; grade 94.76 feet to the mile. Then continuing in a north-northwesterly direction, we reach Condrey's Pass, at a distance of thirty miles from starting point, and at an elevation of 4,500 feet; grade to the mile 75.19 feet. Of the route surveyed we would represent that though for the most part a steep sidehill, it is nevertheless generally smooth, and presents but little obstructions to the spade, except in the timbered portions, which comprise, perhaps, about one-fourth of the distance. In regard to curvature we would represent that it is almost wholly comprised of curves, the shortest of which, however, need not have a radius of less than five or six hundred feet. In regard to timber for ties and trestle work, and stone for masonry, there will be found to be plenty for all such purposes--better still in Grubb's Pass, by the construction of a tunnel a half mile in length through a white chalky substance, easily cut with a knife, the elevation may be reduced three to four hundred feet. It is our opinion that this is the best route to be found for the exit of a railroad from this valley. Other persons, however, whose opinions are entitled to respect, think differently, and we shall be but too happy if they shall succeed in finding anything more inviting to the enterprising railroad builders. In making this survey, after entering what is called the cove, on Walker's Creek, we discovered to the southeast a deep cut through the crest or rim of the cove, leading back toward the Emigrant Pass, and through which the road could doubtless be easily engineered to the said pass; and Mr. Songer informs us that just beyond this pass through the Cove crest, near the head of what is called Samson Creek, there is another pass through the main mountain that is much lower than any of the others. If that be true this is the particular spot we ought to have seen, and the very place the road ought to go, while Mr. Colver contends that to the south of the Emigrant Pass is a lower one than any yet examined, with favorable approaches. So while we have two that we know to be eminently practicable, fortune has favored us with a goodly number of passes from which to choose. But besides all these, there is still another one somewhat obscured from us Bear Creek people, that comes in for its share of merit. It is claimed by some that by following up some one of the Butte Creek tributaries, Antelope for instance, the summit of the Dead Indian country be reached without ascending so high by several hundred feet, as on any of the other routes. We hope this is true, for what we want is a pass sufficiently low, not only to attract attention, but to command it; and we hope the people of that country will lose no time in making the survey and report upon the route. A profile of the route surveyed will be made out in due time. RECAPITULATION.
Elevation of Emigrant Creek Pass 5,590 [corrected to 4,590 in the Nov.
28 issue]Elevation of Grubb's Dead Indian Pass 4,600 Elevation of Condrey's Dead Indian Pass 4,500 Elevation of Shepherd's Emigrant Creek Pass 2,231 Distance from Shepherd's to Grubb's Pass 25 miles; grade 94.76 feet to the mile. Distance from Shepherd's to Condrey's Pass 30 miles; grade 75.19 feet to the mile. B. F. MYER,
Ashland, Ogn., Nov. 11th, 1868.A. G. ROCKFELLOW, Surveyors. Southern Passes of the Cascades.
Morning Oregonian, Portland, November 19, 1868, page 1
The citizens of Ashland, Jackson County, recently organized an
expedition to go into the Cascade Mountains and examine routes and
altitudes with a view of making a report on the practicability of
crossing the mountains with a railroad. We publish the report from the Sentinel:
Altitudes being one of the objects of the expedition, we obtained of Judge Tolman, en route for the field of exploration, the height of the Toll Road Pass, and also that of the Mountain House at the foot of the mountain, taken perhaps from the surveys of Lieut. Williamson in 1855 or 1856. The elevation of the former we found to be 4,580 feet, and that of the latter 2,231 feet. Having determined in our own minds through the representation of numerous individuals that the Emigrant Road Pass was the Pass, we determined first to make its ascent, establish its elevation, and explore its approaches. Its elevation we found, by leveling, to be about the same--perhaps a little higher--as the Toll Road Pass, while the approaches were rugged and uninviting, though we think not by any means insurmountable. It was now the opinion of Judge Tolman , who had accompanied us thus far, as also that of ourselves, that the Dead Indian passes were more practicable, and thither we directed our steps, concluding as we did so that the better plan was to survey the route as we went. So taking Shepherd's place, at the lower crossing of Emigrant Creek, on the emigrant road, and two miles below the Soda Springs, which is about the same elevation as the Mountain House (2,231 feet) as the initial or starting point, we ran up Emigrant Creek to its forks in a southeasterly direction. Then turning in a northeasterly direction we continue the survey around the west side of the mountain, overlooking nearly all of the Bear Creek and Rogue River valleys, to Grubb's Dead Indian Pass, a distance of twenty-two miles, and an elevation of 4,600 feet; grade, 94:76 feet to the mile. Then continuing in a north-northwesterly direction we reach Condry's Pass, at a distance of thirty miles from starting point, at an elevation of 4,500 feet; grade to the mile, 75:19 feet. Of the route surveyed we would represent that though for the most part a steep side hill, it is, nevertheless, generally smooth and presents but little obstructions to the spade, except in the timbered portions, which comprise, perhaps, about one-fourth of the distance. In regard to curvature we would represent that it is almost wholly composed of curves, the shortest of which, however, need not have a radius of less than five or six hundred feet. In regard to timber for ties and trestle work, and stone for masonry, there will be found to be plenty for all such purposes--better still in Grubb's Pass, by the construction of a tunnel a half a mile in length through a white chalky substance, easily cut with a knife, the elevation may be reduced three to four hundred feet. It is our opinion that this is the best route to be found for the exit of a railroad from this valley. Other persons, however, whose opinions are entitled to respect, think differently, and we shall be but too happy if they shall succeed in finding anything more inviting to the enterprising railroad builders. In making this survey, after entering what is called the cove, on Walker's Creek, we found to the southeast a deep cut through the crest or rim of the cove, leading back toward the Emigrant Pass, and through which the road could doubtless be easily engineered to the said pass; and Mr. Songer informs us that just beyond this pass through the cove crest, near the head of what is called Sampson Creek, there is another pass through the main mountain that is much lower than any of others. If that be true, this is the particular spot we ought to have seen, and the very place the road ought to go. While Mr. Colver contends that to the south of the Emigrant Pass is a lower one than any yet examined, with favorable approaches. So while we have two that we know are eminently practicable, fortune has favored us with a goodly number of passes from which to choose. But besides all these, there is still another one somewhat obscured from us Bear Creek people that comes in for its share of merit. It is claimed by some that by following up one of the Butte Creek tributaries, Antelope for instance, the summit of the Dead Indian country can be reached without ascending so high by several hundred feet as on any of the other routes. We hope this is true, for we want a pass sufficiently low not only to attract attention, but to command it; and we hope the people of that country will lose no time in making the survey and report upon the route. RAILROAD.--We are pleased to be able to inform the people of this valley that the late action of Congress upon the railroad subject simply revives the grant of 1856, and that it is obligatory upon the company to build their road through the valleys of Umpqua and Rogue River. That this road will be built in a few years is beyond doubt, and when called upon--as we will undoubtedly be--our people should contribute liberally toward the completion of this great undertaking. We can now sit and listen to the music of the electric current as she travels along the wire; but when her twin brother, the iron horse, surmounted by that indigenous embodiment of democratic buzzes, the steam whistle, begins to scream upon our mountaintops and through our valley, a new life indeed will be given our people, and a way opened to the outer world. Will the Railroad Be Built
Through this Valley.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville,
May 1, 1869, page
2
From the very best information we can glean on the subject we are
inclined to answer no. We presume that the railroad question is
tolerably unfamiliar to our readers as for over a year the struggle
between the "east side" and the "west side" companies has been
thoroughly ventilated in the Oregon press. Our people are aware that
the strife was over the right to a grant made in 1866, that the grant
lapsed to the government, and that recent legislation revived it again
for a year. There are conflicting opinions with regard to the value of
that grant. Some contend that it is ample to induce capitalists to take
hold and build the road; but the fact that they have not already done
so does not seem to warrant any such conclusion. In our opinion, it is
nearly a barren one. What is it? It is a donation of twenty sections of
land for each mile of railroad and telegraph built and in working
order, such land to be selected from a strip twenty miles wide on each
side of the line of road. Should the land within that limit be claimed
or occupied, then the company have the privilege of going ten miles
beyond, making thirty miles on each side of the road. For this
privilege the road is subject to be taken at any time by the government
and used for the transportation of mails, troops and munitions of war
at the charge and expense of the company. It is needless to say that
this amount of unoccupied land or any considerable portion of it cannot
be found along the line of a road traversing Western Oregon, and that
which could be secured would be principally grazing and timber land,
much of which is nearly valueless, and we candidly believe that the
money value of the grant, instead of being $16,000 will fall short of
$3,000 per mile. We find two interests at work, either or both of which
may secure a road for some portion of this state. One seeks for its
object the drain of the Willamette Valley. The other points to a
connection between the Central Pacific road and Puget Sound. Neither of
these combinations care particularly for Southern Oregon. The first,
because the trade of the southern counties is not commensurate with the
engineering obstacles to be overcome south of Eugene City. The second,
for the reason that the local traffic of Southern Oregon is of slight
importance in comparison with short and cheap connection between the
termini. It is said that a bill granting land and the right of way for
a railroad between the bend of the Humboldt and Portland has become a
law, and we have it from the best authority that the Central Pacific
Company will soon place surveying parties on the route and push work as
rapidly as possible.
We fear that unless some inducement is offered by the people of Jackson, Josephine and Douglas counties, the road will cross the Cascade Mountains so far north as to be of little practical benefit to us. A detour from the point where their road will enter the Klamath Basin, through the Cascade Range and into this valley will lengthen their road at least sixty miles, involving an expense of at least two million dollars. To accommodate the people of Southern Oregon, is it unreasonable that the company that will build this road should demand some substantial encouragement? We think not. How much, then, will the people of the three southern counties give? How much of their land will they donate? How much stock in the road will they take? These are questions that will have to be satisfactorily answered, and if the people of Southern Oregon really want a railroad, they will find it necessary to wake up and offer some inducements to build it. There is not a farmer in this or Umpqua valleys who could not well afford to give half his land to secure a road--the remainder would then be worth double what the whole is now--and we hope we speak uncharitably when we say that many of them instead of giving would claim heavy damages for the right of way. We hope our conclusions may prove incorrect, but if our readers will glance back at the history of the east side and the west side companies and note the humbuggery they have practiced--the exhibition of fictitious bills of lading of iron--the telegrams referring to purchases of rolling stock, and the sale of bonds that were nothing but a blind, they must see at once that there is no hope from that quarter. The only hope, in our opinion, is that the Central Pacific will make the connection with Puget Sound, and we believe that they can be induced to build their road through this valley if proper encouragement be given them. ARTESIAN WELLS.--We have received a very well-written article from Rock Point on the subject of "artesian wells." We would publish it, as we thought it would be of any public benefit; but unfortunately the people of this valley cannot be enlisted to any public enterprise. They are too busy twirling their thumbs and waiting for somebody to build a railroad. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, May 1, 1869, page 2 RAILROAD THROUGH SOUTHERN OREGON.--The Oregon Central Railroad Company have received a proposal from the contractors--which has been accepted--and a contract will be made so that they will construct the road to the California line through Umpqua and Rogue River valleys.--Record. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, May 8, 1869, page 2 RAILROAD MATTERS.--Elsewhere [below] will be found a communication on the subject of railroads. In some respects it is erroneous, some of its conclusions having been drawn from the supposition that a grant had been made for the "Humboldt Branch." In other respects it is correct and the people of Southern Oregon can learn by it who their friends have been. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, May 15, 1869, page 2 How Southern Oregon Lost the
Railroad.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville,
May 15, 1869, page
2
EDITOR SENTINEL:--I
observe in your last issue you asked, and I think correctly answered, a
question which probably sets at rest the question of a railroad through
Umpqua and Rogue River valleys for the next generation. You ask, in
view of the present legislation, if a railroad will be built through
your valley. The answer is, no.
While such an event is much to be deplored, it is not sudden or unforeseen. The moment the Legislative Assembly of 1868 designated the East Side Company instead of the West Side Company, the true friends of our interests abandoned all hope. In 1866 the Legislative Assembly designated the West Side Company as the one entitled to the land grant (20 sections per mile), which company filed their acceptance of the act of Congress within one year, the time limited by the act, and was recognized by the Secretary of the Interior as the company entitled to the grant. Some six months subsequently, the East Side company was formed, and as the knowing ones there believed, with the intention of running their road over the Pengra route, which would play Southern Oregon out of the ring. This opinion was strengthened by the fact that the president of the East Side Company declared at different times that the company intended to go over the Pengra route; in fact the people here regarded the east side movement from the beginning as intending to betray us. However, this East Side Company made an application for the land grant, and was informed that their claims could not be recognized, inasmuch as they had not filed their assent within one year, as prescribed by the act of Congress. This was the situation of affairs at the time Ben Holladay appeared upon the scene and acquired an interest in the east side road; and Ben, at about the same time, in Portland, said to ex-Governor Gibbs, Col. C. Reed and others that he intended to run the road by the most direct route to the Pacific Railroad; but about the meeting of the Legislative Assembly last September, Ben's tactics changed; he became greatly in love with Southern Oregon. He wanted to go back to Congress and be backed by a resolution of the Legislative Assembly recognizing the East Side Company as entitled to the land grant. The West Side Company, however, did not ask any further legislation, but was content to take the act of Congress as it then stood, giving the twenty sections on condition that the road run through Umpqua and Rogue River valleys. The Republican members from Southern Oregon, in the last Legislature, were unanimously of the opinion that the act of Congress should not be tinkered with any further; it was good enough for us; and when I went down to Salem I believed that common justice would cause the Legislature to not disturb the designation of 1866, made to the West Side Company; but I soon found myself mistaken, and at the end of three weeks it became evident that Ben's tactics had won. The representatives of the Democracy of Southern Oregon were a unit for the east side, and it became clear to the Republican members that we were about being sold out, and it was as painfully evident then as now. Under these circumstances I used every argument of which I was capable to the Democratic representatives of Southern Oregon to rebuke this gigantic fraud upon the people's rights; but Ben's blandishments, his jovial suppers, and repeated assurance that it was all right, had so completely captivated our Democratic friends, that if even Jeff Davis had told them that they were miserably sold, they would scarcely have believed him--and when at last I found it being pressed to a vote, I offered the following amendment to the resolution: "That the said designation to the East Side Company is made only on condition that the said company shall file in the office of the Secretary of State their bonds with sufficient security, to be approved by the Governor in the penal sum of one hundred thousand dollars in U.S. gold coin, to be paid to the State of Oregon on condition that said road is run upon any other line than through the Umpqua and Rogue River valleys of Southern Oregon." (This is the resolution substantially, though I have not perhaps got the exact words.) But how was this great measure for our mutual protection treated by the representatives of Jackson and Josephine counties? Though their votes would have caused its passage, yet it was nevertheless kicked overboard and the people have to reap the bitter fruits of their representatives' folly. In the last Alta I observe the following: "The California and Oregon road, now that the branch is provided for, will, it is said, not take a direct line northward from Marysville, passing near Shasta, Yreka and Jacksonville, as the route was first surveyed, but will run north-northwestward in the valley of Pit River, striking the summit of the mountains in the region of Klamath Lake, and then turn north-northwestward of Portland." This, then, is the last act in Ben's drama, assisted by the first-class actors of Jackson and Josephine counties. That the audience have been disappointed is true, but the whole play points out a moral from which the wise may well profit, never to let a certainty pass beyond your power when you have the shaping and control of events, merely because an adventurer assures you that precautions for the people are unnecessary. And when in future years the unfortunate farmer will find his grain worthless for want of a market, when our vast wealth of lumber will remain as ever on its primeval hills, undisturbed by the ax of the lumberman, when enterprise of every kind shall wither, languish and die, then the Democratic representatives of Southern Oregon can boast that they carried out in full the good old principles of their party, never to loan the credit of the state or nation for the purpose of internal improvement. S.F.G.
Canyonville, May 6th, 1869.Ben Holladay has arrived in Portland. It is understood that work will soon be commenced on the east side railroad. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, July 3, 1869, page 2 An Oregon paper says that the state needs a railroad or roads from Puget Sounds up the Willamette Valley to Jacksonville, and that there (Jacksonville) the road should stop, for fear of making us tributary to California if it should extend into that state. That fellow ought to have a leather medal. State Rights Democrat, Albany, Oregon, July 3, 1869, page 3 THE RAILROAD.--Col. Ross, one of the directors of the O.C.R.R. (east side), returned from Salem on Monday. He is very sanguine about the railroad, and says that Mr. Holladay assured him that it would be pushed through to the California line as rapidly as possible. Holladay has now sole control of the road, and is determined to finish the first twenty miles in time to secure the franchise. Iron for that number of miles has arrived, and no doubt it will be done. All right! Everybody wants the road built as soon as possible, and no doubt when built, it will be well patronized. Let it come! Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, September 18, 1869, page 3 RAILROADS
are
the all-absorbing questions of Southern Oregon. The agents of the
Northern Pacific Railroad have made favorable reports, and it is
expected that this road will soon be completed to Puget Sound and
Portland. This road has the most magnificent land grant of any road in
the world. Congress has donated to it forty sections to the mile, and
the land is much richer and better timbered, and a great deal more
water is found than is on the Pacific railroad now in operation. It has
a great deal of the finest land on the continent, while a large
proportion of the land on the Central Pacific and Union Pacific
railroads is of the poorest land that can be found in the United States.
The Oregon railroads are both being rapidly constructed. The East Side have commenced laying down their ties, and they expect to get twenty miles completed by the 1st of January, 1870, to secure the land grant. The stockholders in the West Side predict that the East Side will fail to complete the first twenty miles by the first of January, and the whole question as to which side will have the land grant will go before the people in the next June election, and again before the next Legislature, and which side will win, no one can tell. For my part I wish both great success. Both roads are practicable, and both in time will be of great benefit to Oregon. It is impossible for the East Side to do the way business of the West Side route, and is equally impossible for the West Side road to do the way business of the East Side. The produce of the Willamette Valley, as a general rule, will go down the river to find a railroad. This the proprietors of both roads well know, but the great fight is who shall have the land grant. I say bury the hatchet and unite both companies, and ask Congress to grant land to both sides, and ten chances to one it will be done. HOME AGAIN.--Mr. Dowell returned from the Supreme Court on Saturday last. While north he visited Portland, and took a good look at the railroad operations. He thinks there is no doubt whatever of our having the road extended through the valley in good season. Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville,
October 2, 1869, page
3
HEAVY TRANSACTION.--Several of the heaviest instruments of writing ever recorded in Jackson County, Oregon, were last week spread upon the records by County Clerk Henry Klippel. The documents contain 68 folio pages of mortgage deeds and releases. In the latter the German bond-holders release a mortgage of $10,900,000 held against the Oregon and California Railroad, and existing since 1870. The new mortgage dated May 20, 1881, conveying all the railroad property of the line, binds H. Villard and other gentlemen constituting the present O.&C.R.R. Co. in the sum of $10,900,000, payable to Heinrich Hohensemer and fifteen other capitalists of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, Germany, named in the instrument of writing. Mr. Richard Koehler, of Portland, is acting for the German bond-holders. Puget Sound Argus, La Conner, Washington, September 3, 1881, page 2 THE O.&C.R.R. EXTENSION.--Notwithstanding the very inclement weather, work on the proposed line of railroad between Roseburg and the state line continues. Colonel Hurlburt, with a force of ten men, is now on the Siskiyou Mountains running lines in hope he can find a more favorable location for the proposed tunnel than found by J. S. Howard, who located it at 400 feet below the summit. Mr. Stahlberg is on the Roseburg end with his party, engaged in running a permanent line, and had progressed some distance this way before returning to set the side stakes. He will perhaps locate the line as far as the big end of Cow Creek this season, the greater portion of which time will probably be spent in the Cow Creek canyon locating the best route. It will thus be seen that Villard means business, and that Jackson County will be connected with the rest of the world by railroad in less than two years. This connection with California will be made over a rough country and at great expense; but that it will be made in the near future is now beyond cavil. Vancouver Independent, Vancouver, Washington, December 15, 1881, page 8 RAILROAD CONJECTURES.
The suspension of work on the Siskiyou and Buck Rock tunnels is
exciting much comment, and everyone is speculating as to the cause of
the abrupt termination of the work so ably commenced. Some believe that
the action of Congress on land grants to railroads has something to do
with it, while others are of the opinion that the property will change
hands at an early date, and there are still others who advance the idea
that the funds of the present owners have been exhausted. We believe
the most probable cause to be an unsatisfactory survey. The line at
present crosses the wagon road about half a mile below the Toll House,
and then doubles and then runs back several miles to obtain a grade,
passes through the Buck Rock tunnels, five in number, and then turns
again and follows a ridge back past the Toll House, and thence along
the mountainside to the Siskiyou Tunnel, making the road eleven miles
in length from the Toll House to the Siskiyou Tunnel, whereas the
actual air line distance does not exceed one and a half miles. The road
almost crosses itself in its crazy efforts to secure a grade to reach
the Siskiyou Tunnel, which is located well upon the mountainside. At
this late day the company makes the discovery that, by putting through
a tunnel 7,000 feet in length, they can save ten miles of road, besides
the construction of the five Buck Rock tunnels, which would always
require one or two watchmen at each tunnel. One thousand two hundred
feet remain to be finished at the Siskiyou Tunnel, and the aggregate
number of feet yet to be completed at the Buck Rock tunnels is 3340,
making a total of 4540 feet unfinished in the six tunnels. If the
proposed big tunnel is put through, which will start near the Toll
House, it will require only 2460 feet more than the completion of the
present tunnels, and the saving of the construction of ten miles of
road would more than offset the additional cost of tunneling, besides
saving the wear and tear of rolling stock over the extra ten miles, and
the cost of keeping the track in repairs in after years.--Yreka Union.Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, February 23, 1884, page 4 OREGON & CALIFORNIA.
Rogue
River Courier, Grants Pass, May 6, 1887, page 1Through Trains Expected About the 1st of October.
SAN FRANCISCO,
April 28.--"Colonel," said your correspondent to Charles F. Crocker,
vice president of the Southern Pacific railroad, "the people of Oregon
are very desirous of knowing what will be the policy of your company
toward Portland and toward Oregon in general, and what will be the
management of the northern branch of the road; that is, whether there
will be a manager located in Portland or whether that section will be
managed by officers located in San Francisco."
"These questions are somewhat premature," was the reply. "We have not yet outlined a policy for ourselves." "Then can you not state some few facts bearing on this subject, and let the people interested draw conclusions?" "I can say this, and you can then understand why I cannot definitely answer your questions. We have not yet elected whether we will foreclose the mortgage on the Oregon and California Railroad, or whether we will take up the old bonds of the company and issue new ones guaranteed by the Southern Pacific in their stead. According to the transfer it is optional with us which of these two we choose. We must make our election, however, within 90 days from the 1st of April. This matter is receiving careful consideration and the choice will be made before the time expires, but just how long before or what the choice will be, I cannot say. From the nature of the case you can see that this point must be determined before a decision is reached as to the management of the road. It is probable that we will not take formal possession of the Oregon & California line until after connection is made with the road on this end of the line. A transfer of securities, however, will be made before this time. It is yet a question whether the two roads will be operated as one through line or whether they will be operated much as if they were two independent roads, but having close relations with each other. This, also, may depend on whether we elect to foreclose the mortgage or issue new bonds in place of the old ones. Of course, if we decide to foreclose the mortgage, the definite settlement of several questions may be long delayed. There is the long, necessarily long, process of foreclosure before the courts. If, on the other hand, we decide to take up the old bonds and issue new ones, the transfer can be quickly and easily made, and we can then give our attention to the question of how the Oregon section shall be managed. At present the O.&C. is in the courts and Mr. Koehler is receiver of the property. We believe he is managing it to the best possible advantage, and from what we can learn, he is popular in his state. We are also satisfied with the other officials of the road in a body. Answering your question as to whether there will be a manager located in Portland after the connection is made and the Southern Pacific takes formal possession of the Oregon branch, I am disposed to think such action will be taken. At present it seems to me this would be the best, both for Oregon, for California and for the road. I am also disposed to think that this office force should be nearly, if not quite, as full as it now is, but as I have said, these are questions to which no close thought has been given. Certainly no plan has been formulated. They are questions for the future." "May I ask your opinion of when the connection between the two roads will be made?" was another question propounded. "Sooner than October?" "No, sir; until lately we had not dared to hope that through trains could be running before next January, but contractors now give us to understand that the date may be about the 1st of October." Assessor Jackson has assessed the Southern Pacific roadbed at $10,000 per mile in Jackson County, whereat the railroad officials are considerably exercised. "North Pacific News," People's Advocate, Chehalis, Washington, September 6, 1895, page 1 The railroad company in Jackson County brought suit against the county to restrain. the collection of $18,000 taxes, alleged to be due the county. With the Oregon & California company is joined in the suit the Southern Pacific Company, against which no taxes are assessed. As the Southern Pacific Company is a foreign company, this would give the federal courts jurisdiction, should that company remain a party to the suit. "Brief Pacific Coast News," People's Advocate, Chehalis, Washington, May 28, 1897, page 7 A RAILROAD TOWN.
Everybody knows that much of the prosperity of this fair city is due to
the mighty power of stored energy in the railroad employees located and
centered here. Thinking the public would like to look at the faces of
the bright and energetic citizens from whom they in a very large
measure feed upon, we present them.The List of Employees of the Southern Pacific Shows What Is Located Here and Doing Business with Ashland--A $20,000 Monthly Payroll Makes Ashland a Happy City. R. M. Foster is assistant master mechanic, and the engineers, firemen and roundhouse men report to him. G. C. Morris conducts the affairs of the conductors and brakemen. TRAIN DISPATCHERS.
G. C. Morris, Chief Dispatcher.
C. W. Martyn, First Trick Dispatcher. J. L. May, Second Trick Dispatcher. L. L. Mulit, Third Trick Dispatcher. C. H. Thomas, Operator. E. B. Pengra, Operator. F. J. Beltz, Operator. C. A. Lounsbury, Stenographer. ASHLAND STATION.
D. L. Rice, Agent.
P. B. Whitney, Freight Agent. W. B. Freeland, Day Clerk. H. C. Emery, Baggageman. O. Thompson, Night Agent. J. N. Webb, Night Clerk. ROADMASTER.
G. W. Donnell, North of Ashland.
M. H. Burkhalter, South of Ashland. ON SISKIYOU MOUNTAIN.
50 Section Men.
25 Bridge Carpenters. 70 Men Extra Gang. TRACKMEN.
Ashland, North--John Clint, foreman, with 5 men.
Ashland, South--W. A. Homes, with 5 men. ENGINEERS.
FIREMEN.
CONDUCTORS.
Valley
Record, Ashland, April 18, 1901, page 2
Oregon Railroad History.
Last Wednesday was the fifteenth anniversary of the driving of the last
spike on the railroad connecting Portland and San Francisco. On the
17th day of December, 1887, the result for which people of Southern
Oregon and Northern California had been hoping and praying for over
twenty years had been accomplished, and the principal cities of both
states were at last linked together by bands of steel. Many were the
vicissitudes attending the building of this road. In the latter part of
the '60s Ben Holladay--the man who started the first stage line from
St. Joe, Mo., across the plains and who originated the famous "pony
express"--commenced the construction of the Oregon & California
R'y. from Portland south toward the California line. About the same
time the California & Oregon R.R. commenced building northward
through California. The country was new, its resources undeveloped, and
after various trials the roads stopped--the Oregon road at Roseburg and
the California end at Redding. Until 1881 the situation remained in
status quo, and the old Concord coach, drawn by its team of six fine
horses, rocked on the brink of precipices, slowly climbed the steep
mountainside or dashed madly down toward the valleys along the 320
miles of rough and dangerous road between Roseburg and Redding. In 1881
work was commenced on the extension of the O. & C. road from
Roseburg south and finally came to a halt against the rugged sides of
the Siskiyou Mountains above Ashland, when Henry Villard, who had built
the Northern Pacific and was back of the O. & C. extension, lost
his fortune in the whirl of Wall Street. Again there was a long period
of inaction. The O. and C. road became in railroad parlance nothing but
"two streaks of rust and the right of way." Finally the Southern
Pacific Co. acquired title to the Oregon road under a ninety-nine
years' lease, and immediately the extension of the California end of
the road was commenced. The Siskiyous, against whose rock-bound sides
the Villard millions had been hurled in vain, were pierced with
tunnels, ravines were bridged, outstanding points cut in two, and
finally on that memorable day in December, fifteen years ago, the dream
of Ben Holladay when he sent his first stage coach on its long journey
across the plains was realized, and from Maine to Florida, from Florida
to the Columbia River stretched continuous bands of shining steel,
bearing the commerce and progress of the world ever westward as the
star of empire leads the way. Fifteen years ago Dan Cawley drove the
last coach of the Overland Stage Line across the Siskiyous, and as he
rolled up his whip and tossed the reins to the hostler at the end of
that drive a new era commenced and an old one passed away. The old
landmarks--here where Black Bart, the poet highwayman, held up his last
stage; there where a stageload of theatrical folks went off the grade;
yonder where a wheel ran off and precipitated a load of passengers over
a bluff--are hardly decipherable anymore and, in many cases, are
forgotten; but here and there throughout Southern Oregon live
white-haired old men, who in years gone by held with firm hands the
reins over those six bounding steeds and guided the rocking coach
around the perilous curves and along the frowning precipices which
lined the route of the Overland Stage Line.Thus forever ended in Southern Oregon the "Days of the trail and the footlog,
Medford Mail, December 19, 1902, page 2And the flying pony express; When the antlered pride of the forest Yielded his skin for a dress; When blankets were used for leggings, And tied with a buckskin thong; And over the mantel the rifle Hung from an antler's prong." SOME RAILROAD HISTORY
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 16.--(To the Editor.)--Mr. Lyman's History of
Oregon fails to give the correct story of the organization of the
Oregon & California Railroad Co., at Salem, an organization
that
resulted in the construction of the railway now operated.S. A. Clarke Tells of the Incorporation of the Oregon & California. In the fall of 1866, returning from the East via Panama, I met with S. G. Elliott, who had been in Washington, working for the land grants that finally aided the construction of the line from Sacramento to Portland. As we became acquainted he explained the project to me, and desired that I should organize an Oregon company to work in harmony with that with which he was connected. At his persuasion I remained a few days in San Francisco to meet the men he represented, chief of whom was Ralston, a famous financier at that time. Their attorney drew up a document that was signed by a number of the prominent men of San Francisco, proposing to work in harmony with the Oregon company and aid the financing of the enterprise. Arriving at Salem, I introduced the matter to my friends, E. N. Cooke, the McCully Brothers, Governor Woods and J. H. and I. R. Moores, who all favored it. They suggested that as Joseph Gaston had been trying to work up some railroad scheme, they would like to include him in the organization. He could do them neither good nor harm, but they wished to help him to business. Acting on their desire I introduced the matter to Gaston and told him of their kind wishes. Not long after this, when I proposed to draw up incorporation papers and organize the company, my friends told me that Gaston had already obtained the signatures of the gentlemen I named to him as incorporators. They signed supposing that he was working with me. Gaston repaid my kindness to him by stealing the business away from me and leaving me out. Then he took the incorporation papers his friends had signed to Portland, where--as I was reliably informed--capitalists gave him $6000 to let them own the company. That corporation was known as the "Oregon Central." I immediately drew up other incorporation papers, that were signed by the same gentlemen, in the name of the Oregon & California Railroad Company. These were placed on file with the secretary of state before the first articles were, and so had precedence, the Oregon & California being finally designated by the Oregon Legislature as entitled to the land grant, and under it the road was finally built. Mr. Gaston's part in the enterprise was the betrayal of the Salem friends who had been so anxious to assist him. The company was organized with I. R. Moores as president, and S. A. Clarke as secretary, and so remained for three years, when it was turned over to Ben Holladay. S. G. Elliott took the first contract to build the road, and had made some progress when Holladay bought him out. When Holladay came into possession I handed in my resignation, having bought the Statesman newspaper. I had business enough of my own. My faithful labors for that enterprise had no reward, as Holladay never paid even the salary that the board of directors had agreed on for the last two years. All the satisfaction I had was the kindly good will of the original incorporators, whose confidence I enjoyed. It is at least due that when the history is written credit be given to the one who took such active part in the organization and early management--and got so little return for the years expended. S.
A. CLARKE.
Oregonian, Portland,
July 22, 1903, page 11Inter-Urban Cars.
The Southern Pacific Company is to put on this spring inter-urban cars
between Forest Grove, Hillsboro and Portland. The cars are now being
built in the East and each will be propelled by gasoline engines and be
capable of giving the car a high speed. These cars are built on the
plan of the large electric cars and are to make hourly trips, but their
schedule will not change the present train service on that section of
the West Side road.The inter-urban traffic is increasing so rapidly that on the Southern Pacific road throughout Rogue River Valley that it will be but a few years until the company will be inaugurating special car service between Grants Pass, Gold Hill, Medford and Ashland. It is no uncommon occurrence for ten to twenty passengers getting off and on the train at Medford coming from or going to other towns in the valley, and this inter-urban traffic is certain to increase rapidly from this on, as the population of the Rogue River Valley grows and the time is not distant when the through trains will not be able to properly accommodate the local passenger service. It will not be so far in the future when Rogue River Valley will have 100,000 people and then there will be an hourly train service by fast gasoline or electric cars between the several towns of the valley, reaching, maybe, over into Siskiyou County, Calif. Medford Mail, March 24, 1905, page 8 OREGON RAILWAY HISTORY
ARTICLE BY JOSEPH GASTON IN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY.
Joseph Gaston contributes to the June
number of the Oregon
Historical Quarterly
an interesting article on "The Genesis of the Oregon Railroad System,"
and incidentally gives some of the early history of railroad
construction in Oregon. In this article Mr. Gaston traces the
development of "the Oregon System," as he terms it, from its inception
in the subscription of Jackson County people to a fund to make a survey
for a railroad from Jacksonville to Portland, to the completion of the
framework of this system by Henry Villard in connecting the constructed
Oregon road with the completion of the Northern Pacific in 1883, and
gives to Mr. Villard the credit of the original idea of this Oregon
system and its successful execution.Writer Shows Genesis and Development of What He Terms the "Oregon System." It is exceedingly interesting to note from what small beginnings this great Oregon railroad system, now composed of more than 2000 miles of main and branch lines in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, took its start in what was in 1863 a remote, inland and isolated region in Rogue River Valley. And it is no more than justice to Jackson County and to its courageous and far-seeing pioneers, who contributed from their limited funds the means to start a far greater enterprise than they conceived of, that their efforts should be duly and fitly recognized in the permanent history of the state. And to this end Mr. Gaston has not only incorporated the names of the originators of the Oregon & California Railroad in his article in the Historical Quarterly, where they will be preserved for all time in honorable remembrance, but he has placed in the archives of the Oregon Historical Society the original subscription paper with the genuine original signatures thereto, a copy of which is given herewith: The following subscriptions are received for the purpose of paying in part the cost of making a preliminary survey for a railroad route, connecting the Pacific Railroad in California with the City of Portland, Or. We, the undersigned subscribers, agree to pay the amount hereunto subscribed by us, for the above purpose, to S. G. Eliot on demand by him. On the final organization of the railroad company it shall be optional with the undersigned to become stockholders in said company to the amount subscribed by each at the rate of $10 per share, with the privilege of one vote to each share, or not. If they choose to become stockholders as above, they each shall be credited on the books of the company for the full amount subscribed by each. If they do not become stockholders, said company, as soon as able, shall pay them back the amount subscribed by each. October, 1863. Subscription List.
Mr. Gaston shows in his article in the Historical Quarterly
how this original agreement and subscription was followed up by
connected and continued efforts by parties connected therewith, until
the land grant was secured from Congress and companies organized in
pursuance thereof and the railroad built from Portland through Rogue
River Valley to the state line. His article contains also interesting
notices of the leading men from time to time connected with this
railroad development--Ben Holladay, Henry Villard, Richard Koehler,
Colonel Chapman, B. J. Pengra and others.
Oregonian, Portland, August 26, 1906, page 11 HIGH COST OF SISKIYOU GRADE
PORTLAND, Feb. 8.--General Superintendent J. M. Davis of the California
division of the Southern Pacific railway told a story of almost
insuperable difficulties encountered by the company in operating over
the Siskiyou Mountains to Examiner Ward Prouty of the Interstate
Commerce Commission today. He gave this recital to prove that the
company could not afford to haul lumber across this formidable range
for $3.40 and $3.60 a ton, as ordered by the commission. Many
interesting facts were presented in regard to the operating
difficulties faced, and the expense of the work.Southern Pacific Officials Testify Regarding the Expense of Mountain Operation as an Excuse for Resisting Ordered Reduction in Rates. The maximum grade on the Siskiyous is 3.3 percent, and for 52 miles of the mountain section the curvature ranges from 6 to 14 degrees. In a distance of 207 miles there is 107 miles of the rack on a curve, only 100 miles of the reach being left on a tangent. When Barnum & Bailey's circus of 84 cars was taken over the mountain last summer Mr. Davis said that 16 locomotives had to be used. In the matter of brake shoes alone the general superintendent declared the company underwent a heavy expense at this point, because of the extraordinary grades. In the past year he said that 11,170 shoes had been removed from the company trains at Ashland, whereas only 164 were removed at Red Bluff on the southern run. Shoes are about two inches thick when put on, but when it is found at Ashland that they are worn to ¾ inches thickness, they are removed, because it is found that crossing the mountains will wear out more than a half-inch [of the] shoe. This heavy duty is made necessary to prevent accidents on the steep grades. A rail that had been used five years on this section and had become what the company regarded unsafe was put on a valley reach, and had been in use 14 years since, showing the difference in wear where curves were heavy and where the track was on a tangent. Ties were also removed before they decayed on the mountain section, because of the heavy rain, whereas they were kept until they decayed in the other sections, making about two years in the difference of the life of a tie on the two sections of track. In the matter of tonnage that could be handled, Superintendent Davis estimated that the same locomotive could handle ten times as much gross tonnage in the valley as on the Siskiyou section. The consolidated freight engine, weighing 187,000 pounds, and with 43,000 pounds tractive power, prevailed on the Siskiyous, yet Superintendent Davis says it requires four of these engines to get a train of 38 to 40 cars across the mountains. Putting the figures into what he styled the most instructive units, he said that they could handle but 32 tons for 1000 pounds of tractive power. Getting the average for each locomotive, he thought 348 for the figure, which is materially less than the company made the average at the former hearing, and for this discrepancy attorney J. N. Teal took the witness to account. On cross-examination, attorney Teal made the witness say that there had been no change of grades, curves, tunnels or other physical condition of the track since the 1908 decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission. On this point the attorney is emphatic, as he is trying to prove that the increase ordered by the railway from the commission rates of $3.40 and $3.65 to $5 is without any chance of cost changes since the commission made its previous inquiry. Medford Mail Tribune, February 8, 1911, page 1 JOSEPH GASTON RECALLS RIVALRY OF
"It's
work--not education--that makes men,"
said Joseph Gaston, pioneer railroad builder, a day or two ago.
"Education will help a man if he will make use of it, but education
without capacity and energy won't take you very far.EARLY RAILROAD BUILDERS OF OREGON By Fred Lockley "I was born in 1833 in the country in Belmont County, Ohio. I think a boy is fortunate to be born and raised in the country. My father died before I was born so I was raised by my grandparents. Our people came from France, the family being Huguenots. From France, they went to the north of Ireland and from there came to America. "In 1862 I was living in Jacksonville, Or., where I was engaged in mining. As the mining did not prove very profitable, I entered into partnership with John H. Reed in his law business. "Early in 1863 S. G. Elliott, a promoter from California, decided that Oregon was an open field for railroad work. He believed that if he ran a survey from Marysville, California, to Portland, Or., Congress would give him a land grant, which he could dispose of at a good profit. "He entered into arrangements with George H. Belden, a civil engineer who lived in Portland. They started from Marysville in May, and by October they had reached Jacksonville. Mr. Elliott had been in command of the expedition from Marysville to Jacksonville, and at Jacksonville Belden claimed that he should take command of the expedition from Jacksonville to Portland. He said that this had been the verbal agreement at the time the original arrangement was made. As their ideas of where the road should be located differed widely, and neither of them would yield, the enterprise was wrecked and left stranded at Jacksonville. The surveying party, consisting of 12 men, had not been paid so they seized on the outfit to secure their payment. "Colonel A. C. Barry, who had served in the Civil War and had been discharged for disability, had helped finance Elliott and Belden, and at his request I endeavored to save the enterprise from complete wreck. I persuaded the men to stay in Jacksonville that winter, and as we had no money to board them at the hotel, I got permission from the county officials to allow them to stay in the county hospital, where there were good, comfortable beds. "I visited the farmers throughout the Rogue River Valley and told them how valuable a railroad would be in developing Jackson County and the entire district. I told them how necessary it was to have their cooperation and help, and to keep the surveying party there all winter so they could be ready for work in the spring. They brought in donations of flour, fruit and meat and other products, and so we were able to keep the party there without expense through the winter. Farmers Are Interested.
"The first man to give me a donation was Bill Hanley's father. He
subscribed $10 to be paid in wheat at Allen's mill. The subscriptions
ranged from $2.50 to as high as $25, most of it being paid in wheat. I
remember John S. Herrin promised ten bushels of wheat to be delivered
at Foudray's mill."Elliott had thrown up the thing in disgust and gone back to California the preceding fall. Colonel Barry came up to Jacksonville and helped inspire the men with confidence. I kept busy that winter, getting subscriptions from everyone that I could interest throughout the entire Rogue River Valley. "The agreement in each case was that for the supplies furnished, each subscriber would become a stockholder at the rate of $10 per share with the privilege of one vote for each share. If they did not wish to become stockholders, I promised that we would pay them the amount subscribed at some time when we were able. "Colonel Barry told me that he had considerable influence in Congress, and if we could get the survey put through to Portland he felt sure that he could get a land grant. During the winter, the engineers and transit man worked up their notes of the survey. "When spring came we were ready to go to work, but we had no money and no outfit. I induced a young rancher to loan us four horses and his wagon, and Colonel Barry and my brother went ahead and ran the level. "I prepared petitions to Congress asking it to give us the land grant and as Barry visited the various ranchers he secured their signatures to the petition. He also lived on the country, almost everyone taking the surveying party in without charge and furnishing supplies. Colonel Barry was a good forager, having had experience during his service as an officer in the army. "Colonel Barry discovered that the people of the west side of the Willamette were more anxious to support the road than those on the east side so the survey was made from Eugene to Portland on the west side, our original survey going through Monroe and Corvallis and on through Holmes Gap in Polk County, opposite Salem. "Our surveying party finally reached Portland where we raised money enough to pay the men off. I moved from Jacksonville to Salem where I opened a law office so that I would be nearer the scene of operations. "The subscribers to the fund of wheat, provisions, supplies and cash authorized me to endeavor to secure further subscriptions and to organize a company and apply to Congress for a grant of land to aid in the construction of a railroad from the Columbia River to San Francisco which was to pass through the Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue River valleys. Railroad Company Is Organized.
"We organized a company under the name of the California &
Columbia
River Railroad Company. I was made the secretary and Colonel Barry
chief engineer."The field notes were worked up and the results of the survey were laid before the Oregon legislature. I had prepared a bill providing for the granting to our road of the proceeds of the half million acres of public lands which had been granted to Oregon for internal improvements. My bill, however, was not accepted, and the legislature in lieu of it passed an act levying a tax of one mill on the dollar on all taxable property in the state, the proceeds to be applied to the payment of the interest on the construction bonds of our company. "To put the matter in proper shape before Congress I wrote to every farmer I knew as well as other prominent men throughout the state, asking them to give me the facts about the resources of their particular section. I issued a booklet of about 50 or 60 pages entitled "The Resources of Oregon," and, by the way, this was the first booster booklet issued in the state of Oregon. "In this booklet I spoke of the vast body of standing timber in Oregon and referred to it as one of the resources of the state. Timber was regarded as a detriment rather than an asset, and people then in Oregon thought I was crazy for referring to the timber as a resource. This booklet, accompanied by the report of our survey, with maps and profiles of our proposed road which were prepared by Colonel Barry, was sent to every congressman. "Some time before, George H. Williams and Governor A. C. Gibbs had visited my home at Jacksonville. Governor Gibbs, as well as Judge Williams, was a candidate for the United States Senate. I told Judge Williams about our proposed bill and he said, 'If you will help get me elected to the United States Senate, I will work for your bill.' He also met Colonel Barry and asked him to help secure his election, promising that he would get the bill through Congress if he was elected United States Senator. "He told Colonel Barry that the aid he wanted was to have him visit the various members of the Oregon legislature and get them to pledge their support to him for Senator. Colonel Barry had used every cent he had in working for our road so he struck out afoot and walked over 150 miles, visiting different members of the legislature and securing their pledges for Williams. "Williams was elected. When Colonel Barry went back to Washington to secure the promised help of Judge Williams, Judge Williams told him that he had heard from the people in Salem and that it would hurt him politically to advocate this land grant. "Colonel Barry interviewed each member of Congress and each Senator. C. Cole, a member of Congress from California, came to our rescue and introduced a bill which was passed and became a law on July 25, 1886. This granted 20 alternate sections of public land per mile from Portland to the California line. "Judge Williams, influenced by the people on the east side of the Willamette River, who wanted the road to run on the east side in place of the west side, had an amendment passed to the bill providing that the land grant should go to the company that should be designated by the Oregon legislature. Cole suggested that we change the title of our company so we changed it, making it the Oregon Central Railroad Company. The Oregon legislature in the '60s used to meet in the fall. It met in September, 1866, about six weeks after Congress had given us the land grant. Articles of Incorporation Filed.
"Our articles of incorporation were signed by John H. Mitchell, W. S.
Ladd, H. W. Corbett, S. G. Reed, J. C. Ainsworth, C. H. Lewis and other
well-known citizens of Portland and Oregon."A joint resolution, introduced by E. D. Foudray of Jacksonville designating the Oregon Central Railroad Company as the company to which the land grant should be given, was passed by the legislature. "We opened our books to take subscriptions to the capital stock of our road, or the Barry survey, as it was known, and of all of those whose signatures were attached to this prospectus I am the only one now alive. "We received no subscriptions whatever from Salem or elsewhere on the east side, as they were opposed to the Barry survey, but the west side subscribed generously to the stock. "S. G. Elliott of California, who had abandoned the railroad plan in disgust, found that we were making progress, so he came up to Oregon. He planned either to secure control of our company or to organize a new one. Elliott, almost a year before, had taken out articles of incorporation for the Oregon & California Railroad Company, the principal offices to be in Jacksonville. The incorporators were Californians, but nothing was ever done with it. When he came up to Salem he came to me and offered me a large amount of stock in the new company and also a position if I would throw the other company overboard, which, of course, I refused to do. He took it up with the incorporators of our road and they realized what I had already discovered--that he was an unscrupulous promoter, pure and simple, and they refused to have anything to do with him. "Being unable to drive us out--on the 22nd of April, 1867, he incorporated the Oregon Central Railroad Company of Salem. He incorporated it for $7,250,000 and had the proposed company itself subscribe for $7,000,000 worth of bonds. This was a sort of scheme to lift yourself over the fence by pulling at your own bootstraps. "We were up against it for funds. Mr. Ainsworth had advanced nearly $40,000. S. G. Reed had done everything he could for me. Multnomah County gave us all the money they had in the treasury, which had been voted to be paid as interest on our bonds; so did Washington County. Just about when we were at the end of our resources, Edward Russell, an Englishman, who was manager of the Bank of British Columbia here, called on me and said, 'I am going to London on a visit. If you will give me power of attorney, I think you can sell half a million dollars' worth of your bonds.' "I went to the directors of our road and they said it was preposterous to think that he could sell them to London, nevertheless, it wouldn't cost us anything to give him power of attorney and let him try, so we did so. To our utter surprise, within 30 days after he had got to London we received a cablegram saying, 'I can sell half a million dollars' worth of your bonds at 65 cents on the dollar. Answer if you will accept.' You can imagine how elated I was, for this meant $325,000 with which we could push the road. I went to Captain Ainsworth with the message, and he said, 'Let me have a day to think it over.' I went back the next day and he said, 'I have cabled to Russell declining his proposition.' It was the one great mistake we made. "Russell held the matter open for us for 30 days. When he returned he told me all about it. He had met a representative of the Turkish government in London who was trying to raise money. This man could not raise the money on his Turkish bonds, but thought by combining with some other bonds he could secure money. He finally went to one of the big bankers and told him he could sell him a million dollars in Turkish bonds and a half million dollars' worth of Oregon Central Railway bonds at 65 cents on the dollar for the lot. This offer was accepted, but we made the error of our lives and turned the offer down. Well, that settled it for us. "Holladay and his bunch got their 20 miles of poorly constructed road built, put an engine and two cars on and it was recognized as the official company to whom the land grant should go. "Just about here, though, Holladay got a jolt that nearly put them out of business. Judge Deady declared their acts fraudulent and said they had no right to the use of their corporate name--that they could not come into court in any condemnation suit and that they had no legal existence and all their acts were void and they could not hold the lands granted by Congress. They were up against it good and plenty now and they decided not to send a boy to the mill to get the meal. They secured the services of William M. Evarts, one of the keenest lawyers of the country. Evarts refused to get back of the legality of the road, but said that inasmuch as the franchise was a grant from the state it could be questioned only by the state, and as it had not been so questioned, it could exercise any rights until so questioned and that inasmuch as the land grant was from the federal government the right to the grant could be disputed only by the grantor, and not having been questioned, that the grant could be assigned and transferred by the Salem company. "Holladay immediately organized a new company called the Oregon & California Railroad Company and transferred all of the assets of the Oregon Central Railroad Company of Salem to this new corporation. He then sold ten and a half million dollars of the bonds of the land grant in Germany. "This company later came to grief, as you know, and Koehler was sent over from Germany to represent the interests of the German stockholders. We built our road on the west side from Portland to the Yamhill River. I also built 40 miles of a narrow-gauge road from Dayton to Sheridan, with a branch to Dallas. "I will be 80 this year. All of my associates in the building of the first railroad in Oregon have taken the one-way trail." Oregon Journal, Portland, March 30, 1913, page 20 As the [rail]road on the Siskiyou Mountains is soft and in poor condition, the railroad company will keep four stages there in case of accident. A slide of earth may cover the track at any time so that it may not be possible to move it inside of several days. It is then that the stages will prove handy. "Oregon News," The Eye, Snohomish City, Washington, January 14, 1888, page 2 CLIMBING BY RAIL.
How It Is Done on This Coast. MOUNTAIN-WORK DIAGRAMS. Pretty Pieces of Engineering That Were Not Worked Out in a Day.
To run a
railroad over a high mountain range to pull heavy trains over it would
in the early days of railroading have been considered a marvel. Even in
this day of daring railroad construction, wonder at the triumphs of
engineering skill is hardly to be suppressed by the fact of their
commonness. An English tourist who came into San Francisco last week
over the Mount Shasta route said to a Chronicle reporter:
"In coming to your coast I set out with the intention of not being surprised at anything. On the line between St. Paul and Portland I had my determination shaken a little, but in coming down from Portland to your city and passing over those giant mountains, where the railway makes such ascents and descents, twisting in and out along the sides of canyons of such immense depth that the passenger almost loses his head in looking down the dizzy height; when one travels for miles to gain a hundred yards in his direct journey, so circuitous is the route, I felt myself willing to go any length to express my wonder, and even awe, at the marvelous sights of which I had been a witness." *
* *
By the newly constructed Oregon line one
gains a
better idea of the roughness of the country lying between San Francisco
and Portland than if he were to make a balloon voyage. In sympathy with
the wonderful power that is exerted in his behalf the rail passenger
participates, as it were, in the labor of climbing the heights
interposed by nature in the pathway of the engineers. From Redding, the
head of the Sacramento Valley, which is at an altitude of 550 feet, the
railroad contorts itself upward to an altitude of 3002 feet in a
distance of eighty-six miles. It may be truly said that there is not a
more pretentious piece of engineering work on this continent when it is
considered that the line built is not a narrow but a broad gauge and
that the sharpest curves are under sixteen degrees. It is to the
courtesy of Chief Engineer William Hood of the Southern Pacific
Company, the man who planned this successful invasion of nature's
mighty ramparts, that the Chronicle
owes
the opportunity of presenting [illustrations of] the alignment of the
California and Oregon road over the steepest portions of its route.The diagram representing a section of the line between Dunsmuir and McCloud, along the Sacramento River, is intended to illustrate how a gain in an elevation of about 1000 feet in ten miles was made by the engines. The road here describes a double horseshoe, of a most elongated form, the line doubling upon itself three times. From the southern end of the section shown to the point marked as the eighteenth crossing of the Sacramento River is a distance of about four miles. The road proceeds to the crossing and then turns directly around and runs toward the starting point, thus covering an apparently useless stretch of another four miles, the doubling process bringing the line back within 100 yards of the lower track, though it is over 200 feet above it. In an air line the distance from Dunsmuir--just below the southern end of the section shown--to McCloud is only six miles, but by the railroad it is nearly fifteen. Railroad and river part company at an altitude of 2800 feet, and the "Big Bend," a detour of necessity, by which an additional elevation of 200 feet is reached, interposes its graceful curves. This bend was made to scale one of the foothills of Mount Shasta. The grade is a severe one, being what the engineers call a "2-2" grade--2.2 feet to the 100. The station immediately south of McCloud is only one-half a mile distant from it on an air line, and yet eleven times that distance, or five and one-half miles, must be traversed, so rugged is the country over which the railway is built. Having invaded old Shasta's kingdom, a process which required much labor, the work of the engineering force was really only just begun, for there was the great Siskiyou chain to cross. There was positively no getting around this immense barrier, which casts its huge bulk along the northern line of the state. Chief Hood and his band of engineers fought their way upward inch by inch, and, at last finding themselves in a country where climbing was out of the question, plunged their line through the mountains by boring tunnel after tunnel at frequent intervals--in some places at nearly a mile above sea level. But this is not the first tunneling experience met with on the route, for there are twelve tunnels and for that matter eighteen river crossings in eighty miles of the line south [sic] of Delta [in Shasta County, 38 miles north of Redding]. *
* *
The section of the California and Oregon
line from
Gregory to Colestin, shown in one of the accompanying diagrams, is
another tortuous piece of road. For two miles above the state line the
road runs along the Cottonwood Valley and is comparatively straight. It
runs almost due north to a point where the valley is abandoned, and the
ascent of the high Siskiyou Range is begun. Then it proceeds westerly
for about two-thirds of a mile, then due south for nearly the same
distance, afterward running southwesterly and then making a grand
circuit in a ten-degree curve nearly back to the point at which it took
its sudden turn southward. There is a fourteen-degree curve a mile
below Gregory and another near Colestin. Running north of Colestin two
miles, the Siskiyou tunnel [Tunnel
13],
about 3000 feet in length, is reached. This tunnel is at the summit of
the ridge, which is more easily attained from the south than from the
north, though the grades on the southern side are quite steep, running
about 150 feet to the mile.The diagram of the section of the same line between Siskiyou and Steinman shows the most difficult piece of engineering found on the whole line. To get down into the Bear Creek Valley, and to reach Ashland without too precipitous a descent, it was found necessary to make long swings back and forth down the mountainsides. An idea of the waste of time and distance imposed by the law of gravitation may be gained by comparing the comparatively straight alignment of the stage road, now abandoned, with that of the railroad, which may be easily done by reference to the sketch. The distance from Siskiyou to Steinman by the stage road is two miles, while by rail it is eight. The diagram shows four tunnels in a distance of less than ten miles. A peculiar feature of the first elongated horseshoe north from Siskiyou may be observed by close references to the diagram, though it cannot be fully appreciated except by an actual view of the road itself. This horseshoe is six miles long from end to end, and near its turning point are two tunnels. Just as the train passing toward Portland is about to enter the first of these yawning clefts in the rocky hill, the passenger, by putting his head out of the car window, sees almost directly below him, at a distance of about 100 feet, the mouth of another tunnel on the opposite bend of the road, and about half a mile further down the canyon still another. In passing over the six-mile detour above Siskiyou Station the train goes back to a point directly on a line with Siskiyou, not having made any actual progress on the air-line distance to Portland, though nearly an hour is consumed in that part of the journey, and there is a difference of over 500 feet in elevation. By getting off the train at Siskiyou and walking down the North Fork of Carter Creek to the other end of the great curve, the passenger may reach that point ahead of the train. As may readily be seen, however, by the diagram, there is still another wide detour from the tunnel at the end of the bend around to Steinman and beyond that station. This stretch of road is about the same length as that last mentioned--six miles--but the tracks are closer together at the ends of the horseshoe. For this reason onward progress is very slow, the gain being less than five-eighths of a mile for the whole distance. But, lest the remarkable fact might escape the reader, it will be well to mention that in this double horseshoe there are nearly ten miles of track which have been laid to gain an actual distance of only two and one-half miles. So closely are the two ends of the upper horseshoe to each other that a man may walk back and forth from track to track three times before the train can run around the long circuit between the points to and from which he has gone afoot. There are many other remarkable pieces of engineering on the California and Oregon line, but it should be stated that the specimens presented are those of the toughest nuts which the engineers of the Southern Pacific Company were called upon to crack. San Francisco Chronicle, July 22, 1888, page 6 THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC.
Discrimination Against Portland and Oregon Considered. The Law Cited That Provides an Adequate Remedy--History of the Act. PORTLAND,
Oct. 22, 1888.
TO THE EDITOR
OF THE OREGONIAN:Having observed the discussions going on in the board of trade and through the columns of the Oregonian respecting discrimination by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company against Portland, I have concluded to submit a few thoughts upon the subject. The idea of discriminating against Portland, as Oregon's commercial metropolis and shipping point, is not a new one; it was manifest as early as 1863, when a company was organized in California to construct a railroad from the Central Pacific Railroad in California to the Columbia River or Portland, Or., and a bill was introduced in Congress to make a land grant in aid of its construction. Without any thought by the Oregon people of antagonism to Oregon interests everybody seemed to favor its passage. Different places were spoken of as the terminal point of the road in Oregon, and such was the interest left in having railroad connection with the outside world that the general feeling was: "Give us a railroad, no odds where the terminal point shall be." The bill was pending in Congress giving the land grant to the California company; the surveyors had reached Eugene City, creating great enthusiasm, and a public meeting was called to endorse the enterprise. On the day this meeting was to be held, I happened to reach Eugene City on business, perhaps in attendance upon court, and the great interest manifested in the endorsement of the enterprise attracted my attention to the extent that [it] gave rise in my mind of the thought that if the bill should pass in its then shape, giving the grant to the California company to build the whole road, they would begin at Sacramento, and build towards Portland as fast or as slow as they pleased, and as they built towards Portland the trade would necessarily run to California, even till they would be in sight of Portland, and that it would be an irresistible antagonism and discrimination against Oregon and her commercial metropolis, whatever that might be. I determined upon a remedy, and immediately prepared, and when the meeting was organized submitted and procured the passage of the following preamble and resolutions: "WHEREAS, we learn that the surveying party on the contemplated route for the California and Oregon Railroad has arrived in the Willamette Valley, and that the chief engineer, Mr. Elliott, is now on a tour in the lower counties for the purpose of learning facts respecting the route and the means to be obtained in aid of the survey and improvement, therefore "Resolved, That all grants of land, and other aids by the government of the United States, and means to be appropriated should be expended in equal portions in Oregon and California, and commencing the work in Portland, Oregon, and progressing southwardly, and at Sacramento, Cal., progressing northwardly, so that each state and section may derive equal advantages therefrom, while the road shall be in process of completion." The preamble and resolution were unanimously adopted. On my return to Portland the subject was brought before the people of this city; two public meetings were held and the proceedings of the Eugene meeting endorsed, with memorials and petitions to the same effect forwarded to Congress. The result was that the measure was modified as we requested. Senator Nesmith in his later days told me that he well remembered the circumstances and that upon the receipt of the proceedings in Oregon he did just as we had suggested, and on the 25th day of July, 1868, the act of Congress passed. It will be found in the 14th vol. of the statutes at large, page 230. Independent of the advantages that have accrued to Portland, to Oregon, and, indeed, to the whole Pacific Northwest, through the modified provisions of the bill as it became a law, causing the immediate and early construction of the railroad from Portland southerly through the Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue River valleys, facilitating transportation, infusing new life and increased energy into our people, inaugurating new and important enterprises, developments and prosperity in Oregon, surpassing the most sanguine expectations of our people. So that instead of the last spike in the construction of the entire road being driven at Portland, it was, to our great joy, recently driven and celebrated at Ashland, near the southern boundary of the state. I say independent of these advantages which have accrued to Portland and Oregon under the present act of Congress, it does not stop at this, for in the letter and spirit of the act ample provision had been made for their protection and preservation even against discrimination in freights and fares. DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PORTLAND.
Oregonian,
Portland, October 23, 1888, page 6
This will be considered:
First--As it relates to the line of road between Portland and the junction with the Central Pacific Railroad in California. Secondly--As to the line of transportation between the ports of Portland and San Francisco, and Thirdly--As in the right of the company to remove its office from Portland to San Francisco. In respect to all three of these questions the law is plainly on the side of Portland and Oregon. As the act of Congress providing for the construction of the road is lengthy, I will quote only two sections bearing particularly upon these questions: "Section 1. Be it enacted, That the California & Oregon Railroad Company, organized under an act of the state of California to protect certain parties in and to a railroad survey to connect Portland in Oregon with Marysville in California, approved April 6, 1863, and such company organized under the laws of Oregon as the legislature of said state shall hereafter designate, be and they are hereby authorized and empowered to lay out, locate, construct, furnish and maintain a railroad and telegraph line between the city of Portland in Oregon and the Central Pacific Railroad in California, in the manner following, to wit: the said California Railroad Company to construct that part of said railroad and telegraph within the state of California, beginning at some point to be selected by said company on the Central Pacific Railroad in the Sacramento Valley, in the state of California, and running thence northerly through the Sacramento and Shasta valleys to the northern boundary of the state of California, and the said Oregon company to construct that part of said railroad and telegraph line within the state of Oregon; beginning at the city of Portland in Oregon, and running thence southerly through the Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue River valleys to the southern boundary of Oregon, where the same shall connect with the part aforesaid to be made by the first-named company. That the company completing its respective part of the said railroad and telegraph line from either of the termini herein named to the line between California and Oregon before the other company shall have likewise arrived at the same line, shall have the right, and the said company is hereby authorized, to continue in constructing the same beyond the line aforesaid, with the consent of the state in which the aforesaid part may lie, upon the terms mentioned, until the said parties shall meet and connect and the whole line of said railroad and telegraph shall be completed. "Sec. 7.--That the said companies named in this act are merely required to operate and use the portions or parts of said railroad and telegraph lines mentioned in section 1 of this act for all purposes of transportation, travel and communication, so far as the government and the public are concerned, as one connected and continuous line of road, and in such operation and use to afford and secure to each other equal advantages and facilities as to rates, time and transportation, without any discrimination whatever, on pain of forfeiting the full amount of damages sustained on account of such discrimination, to be sued for and recovered in any court of the United States or for any state of competent jurisdiction. "Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That said 'California & Oregon Company,' and the said 'Oregon Company' shall be governed by the provisions of the general railroad and telegraph laws of their respective states as to the construction and management of the said railroad and telegraph line hereinbefore authorized in all matters not provided for in this act. "Whenever the word 'company' or 'companies' is use in this act, it shall be construed to embrace their 'associates, successors and assigns,' the same as if the words had been inserted or thereto annexed." Now we see that by section 7 of the act that the California company and the Oregon company are each, so far as the public is concerned, to operate and use said roads for all purposes of transportation as one continuous road, and to afford and secure to each other equal advantages and facilities as to rates, time and transportation without any discrimination whatever. Therefore taking the two roads operated as one line between Portland and the junction with the Central Pacific, affording equal advantages and facilities to each in either direction, the point of equality in charges in opposite directions would necessarily be at a point equidistant between Portland and the junction with the Central Pacific, and as the point of shipment should vary from the said equidistant points, so would the charges vary, diminishing in one direction as they increased in the other. TO ILLUSTRATE
The entire distance from Portland to the California junction is 664
miles; the point equidistant is 332 miles from either end of the entire
line, which point is six miles southerly from Medford, in Jackson
County, Or.
Now suppose a shipper at a point fifty miles south of the point of equal distance before mentioned ships wheat north to Portland, and at the same time and from the same point ships wheat to the Central Pacific junction. On the first his charges are increased by the fifty-mile rate, while his charges on the latter would be proportionately diminished. Now if managers of the entire line, to benefit Portland or for any other reason, should make the rates to Portland in such case as cheap or cheaper to Portland than to the California junction, it would be an unlawful discrimination against the public and the California road and its point of junction. On the other hand, suppose a shipper from a point fifty miles north of the dividing point ships wheat to the California junction and also to Portland. On his shipment to California junction his charges would be increased by the distance of fifty miles, while on his shipments to Portland his charges would be proportionately diminished. But in the latter case the manager of the entire line of road steps in, and makes it cheaper, vastly, to ship from the point fifty miles north of the dividing point to the California junction than to Portland on the shorter line. This would be unlawful and gross discrimination against the Oregon road, against this Oregon public, and against the city of Portland, and in violation of the letter and spirit of the 7th section of the said act of Congress. The difference in the two cases supposed is that the former does not exist, while the latter is true even to a greater extent than has been stated. "II. As to the line of transportation between Portland and San Francisco: It will be borne in mind that Portland is a commercial depot and a shipping point as well as San Francisco, and so far as the two roads--the California and the Oregon--are concerned, entitled to equal facilities and protection against discrimination. Under the act of Congress neither road can lawfully become a factor with other lines to the prejudice of the other. But the Southern Pacific Company has become the associate or assignee of both roads, and claims to dictate their management and regulation of their charges for freight and fares without respect to the obligations imposed upon each of the two roads by the act of Congress, but section 9 of the act declares that the 'associates,' 'successors' and 'assigns' of either or both roads shall be bound by the same obligations that bind both the Oregon and California companies towards each other and the city of Portland, so that this question is not determined by considerations of equity alone, but also by the positive provisions of the act of Congress." Take Roseburg as a point of shipment of wheat in both directions; the Southern Pacific Company as the associate successor or assignee of both roads dictates the charges for freight on grain from Roseburg, in Oregon, to San Francisco, 1.434 cents per ton per mile. Now, upon this basis, to afford equal facilities to the Oregon road and the city of Portland, as provided by the act of Congress, the same rates per mile must be given in the opposite direction, from Roseburg to the city of Portland, a distance of 197 miles, which, at 1.434 cents per ton per mile, would be little less than $2.88 per ton from Roseburg to Portland, instead of $6 per ton now charged. This is unlawful discrimination against Portland. It is the grossest and most intolerable of anything of the kind that has come to my knowledge. But fortunately the law has provided a speedy and complete remedy, not only in this case but in others liable to occur in the not distant future, of the approach of which our people should beware. "III. The right of the Southern Pacific Company to remove the office of the Oregon Railroad Company to San Francisco." The Southern Pacific cannot do with the Oregon company what the Oregon company could not of itself do. As we have already seen, the act of Congress provides that the two roads shall each be constructed and managed under railroad laws of their respective states. The Oregon Railroad Company was organized under the laws of Oregon, and as such designated as the company to receive the land grant, and construct and manage the road. As provided by the state law the Oregon company in their articles of incorporation designated Portland as the place of their principal office. The office in the sense of this law is not an empty building. It is the place where all the officers pertinent to the corporation transact their business, and keep their books and official papers, and where at all seasonable hours they may be found. Among the officers of the corporation are the president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer and auditor. They may not all be located in the same room or building, but they must be located in the city of Portland, unless by an amendment of their articles of incorporation, and even in such case cannot be located out of the state. The Southern Pacific Railroad Company was cordially welcomed to our state, and it was to be hoped that it would not, either as associate or assignee, or successor of either or both of the two roads referred to, or of any other road within the state be guilty of any acts of unlawful discrimination against Portland or any part of the state. W. W. CHAPMAN.
Merger of Oregon Lines.
For some time a consolidation of the Harriman lines in Oregon has been
expected, and on April 1st this consolidation will go into effect. By
this merger the Southern Pacific lines in Oregon are absorbed by the
O.R.&N. Co., and the general offices of the two companies in
Portland will be made one. Excepting a few of the higher officials, who
are not giving out any information just at present, railroad men are at
sea in reference to prospective changes.
The first official notice of the change was made in a circular posted in the offices of the Southern Pacific Co., bearing date of April 1, 1904, as follows: "Effective this date all officers and employees of the lines in Oregon north of Ashland will report to Mr. E. E. Calvin, general manager of the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, at Portland, Or. "J. KRUTTSCHNITT,
Medford
Mail, April 1, 1904, page 8"Director of Maintenance and Operation "Approved: E. H. HARRIMAN, President." Gus Newbury Offers a Plan.
To the Editor:I listened with very much interest to the Oregon land grant discussion at the Crater meeting last evening, and it seems to me as though the argument advanced by Mr. Gore was entirely sound and the history of the situation as presented by him must have been indeed a revelation to most of the people who were there assembled; and certainly the government should make some provision for the reimbursement to Jackson County and other counties for the losses which these counties sustained because of the cancellation of the contract which the government had with the Oregon-California Railroad Company, but this, it seems to me, does not solve the whole difficulty. Even though we should be reimbursed for the losses which we have thus sustained because of our tax situation, the lands would still not be upon the tax roll for future assessment and for future revenue to the various counties in which these lands are situated. Not long since, we had a great war, and several thousands of young Americans volunteered their services to their country in that war. Many of them who volunteered did not get across the water, but they wished to go nonetheless. A great many of them got across the water who were drafted. The government said to each one of these soldiers: "You may take a piece of land and live on it seven months and make your final proof," and my suggestion is that the government should be generous enough to say to each one of these soldiers who enlisted, and to each one of them who went across the water, that "You may select any 160-acre tract of these Oregon-California lands and by making application therefor, the land will be yours without any settlement upon the lands." This would in very short order place all of the valuable lands of this grant upon the tax rolls of the country and they would be returning a revenue to the various counties. I make the distinction between the fellows who enlisted, or who went across as against the fellow who had to be taken by the scruff of the neck and thrown into the service and who didn't get across, for he is not entitled to the same consideration as the other fellow who did volunteer or who went across. The wealthy men of the country, by reason of the war, doubled and quadrupled the wealth they had at the beginning and took no chances, and the fathers of influential sons, like Edsel Ford and the Scripps boys (the owners of influential newspapers in America), escaped a draft and were released when drafted, and it seems to me as though it is a mighty tall consideration to pay to the boy who volunteered or hazarded his life or his health on the other side to allow him to take, without any further obligation on his part, a 160-acre tract of these lands as a compensation to him for these services. He offered and risked all that he had--his health and his life! the millionaire of the country risked nothing--he had a cinch before he invested and if he had no cinch, he made no investment in war activities, and certainly some consideration that does not require additional obligation on his part should be exercised in behalf of the soldier who enlisted or who went across the water; and a happy solution of the public land question in America so that the lands would be returning a revenue to the taxing bodies of the state, is to make the lands available to each one of these soldiers as compensation for his services in this great war. If this will be done all of the lands worth anything will soon be upon the tax roll. Why should not Senator Stanfield and the other members of Congress from Oregon be enlisted in behalf of the soldier of the country by procuring the passage of an act of Congress making these lands available for the soldier who performed his duty in this great war, and thus solve the whole tax situation so far as the future is concerned: for certainly when the soldier would receive his patent, the tract of land would be placed on the tax roll at its reasonable valuation and a revenue would be returned to the various counties in which these lands are situated. GUS NEWBURY.
"Communications,"
Medford Mail
Tribune, November 27, 1925, page 13
LAST RAIL IS LINKED
NATRON CUT-OFF LINE
First Train to Operate in 60 Days--Biggest Railroad Project Since War Completed--Will Cut Operating Costs.
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore., June 15.--(AP)--Rails of the Natron cutoff,
Southern Pacific line, were connected last night, marking the
completion of the biggest railroad project in the United States since
before the World War.
Medford
Mail Tribune, June 15, 1926, page 1The first train, a work train, will be sent over the new line this morning. Passenger traffic, however, will not be started until sixty days, according to F. C. Burkhalter, assistant general manager of the road. Although ends of steel have been joined, the first passenger train, a local between Klamath Falls and Portland, will not be put into operation for sixty days. There is considerable work in re-ballasting and re-lining tunnels to be effected before it will be safe to route traffic over the new line, it was said. Work on the Natron cutoff started on October 11, 1923. The project involved one of the heaviest units of railroad construction in the West, including fourteen tunnels, one of which is 4000 feet long, burrowing under the backbone of the Cascade Mountains. The joining of the rails, at a point four miles north of Odell Lake, marks the fulfillment of the pledge of Edward H. Harriman, who announced here shortly before his death that the Natron cutoff would be built. His death and the advent of war impeded the project. It was revived several years after the war and definite announcement of construction was made in the early fall of 1923. The new line will carry the greater burden of freight and passenger traffic between San Francisco and Portland. It will eliminate heavy grades in the Siskiyou Mountains and in the Cascade Mountains near Roseburg. Operating expenses of the Southern Pacific will be cut down considerably. First Train Steamed Through Town
for Ashland May 4, 1884;
Forty-three years ago the first railroad was completed between Oregon
and California when, on December 17, 1887, Charles Crocker, president
of the Southern Pacific, drove the "last spike" joining the two states
with clasping bands of steel rail. The ceremony took place at Ashland
and was witnessed by several hundred people, special trains bringing
state officials and prominent men from the largest cities of both
commonwealths.South Link Completed in 1887 On that day the last stagecoach was run between Cole's Station and Ashland, and the railroad project, which had been launched at East Portland more than 20 years before, was brought to a glorious finish. The overland journey, which had been seven days between Portland and Sacramento in 1860, was cut to 38 hours. As Crocker "drove home" the last spike, a telegrapher flashed the news over the wires and in the cities, towns and hamlets of Western Oregon and Northern California bells were rung, whistles blown and cannons fired, signaling the completion of the great enterprise. The building of that railroad from East Portland south through the Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue River valleys, and north from Marysville through the Sacramento Valley, is told in the story "From Trail to Rail" now being published in the Southern Pacific Bulletin, according to A. S. Rosenbaum, district agent for the company. Plans for railroads were promoted in Oregon as early as 1850, but it was 13 years later before the steps were taken that materialized into the building of the line that now connects the state with California. Joseph Gaston received a ready response in 1863 when he solicited funds to make a survey for a railroad. The farmers were anxious for better means of transporting their crops. The few wagon roads leading to the navigable Willamette River were muddy and impassable in winter. In summer the rough, dusty roads were traveled with great difficulty. Two companies "broke ground" for the railroads in April, 1867. One of them, Joseph Gaston's "West Side" company, started from Portland. A small amount of grading and bridge building was all that was done in the first four years. Under new management, the road was built to St. Joseph in 1872 and extended to Corvallis early in 1880. The other project, Ben Holladay's "East Side" company, started work in east Portland. Twenty miles were ready for operation on Christmas Day, 1869. The first regular passenger train was run to Salem on October 11, 1870; to Jefferson on November 27, and to Albany on December 8. During 1871 the road was opened for traffic to Harrisburg on June 25 and to Eugene on October 15. The terminals of the railroad in Oregon and California were then 345 miles apart. The stagecoach journey between Eugene and Red Bluff was four and a half days in summer and a day longer in winter. The railroad reached Roseburg on December 3, 1872. There construction halted for eight years. Ben Holladay failed financially and was succeeded by Henry Villard, who represented the German capitalists whose money was invested in the project. Work was started again in June, 1881. Trains were operated to Glendale on May 13, 1883; to Grants Pass on December 2, 1883; through Medford to Phoenix on February 25, 1884, and to Ashland on May 4, 1884. It was at this point that Villard's regime "crashed" and Ashland was the terminal until the Southern Pacific acquired control of the railroad in 1887 and completed the final gap. Medford Mail Tribune, March 29, 1930, page 5 MAYOR GETS CLEAR CITY PARK DEED
Mr. Pipes' Research Results in Straightening Out Unknown Tangle--Espee Not Donor--Papers Will Be Filed Monday.
Through months of research, expenditure of stamps for correspondence
and several trips to Portland at private expense, Mayor A. W. Pipes,
who retires from office next Tuesday night, will present Medford with a
belated Christmas present when he files tomorrow with the county
clerk's office a deed giving the city ownership without any restriction
whatever of the city park.Heretofore the city park, which is the plot of ground bounded by Ivy, West Main, Holly and 8th streets, has always been regarded as having been deeded to the city by the Southern Pacific railroad for park purposes only, but Mayor Pipes' investigations developed that the Southern Pacific railroad did not at any time ever own the site, and he has obtained a deed for Medford without any restriction from the North American Company of New York City, a New Jersey corporation, whose successors [antecedents] originally deeded the park site for park purposes only. In other words, the title to the city park is vested complete in the city by this deed, which the mayor files tomorrow, and the city can do as it pleases with this plot. The Library Park immediately adjoining and generally regarded erroneously as a part of the city park, the two parks being separated by only Ivy Street between them, was deeded many years ago to Medford by the late C. C. Beekman of Jacksonville without any restriction. Thus Medford owns both parks, which are practically one, to do with as it pleases any time in the future. The story of how Mayor Pipes unearthed the myth that the Southern Pacific had deeded the park to the city and of how he obtained the unrestricted deed from the original donors is a rather complicated one. It will be remembered when early in his term as mayor, Mr. Pipes at that time was of the belief that the city park would be the logical site for the contemplated new court house, a public controversy arose, and the idea was abandoned. However, as during the controversy the contention had been made by opponents of the park site for a courthouse that the park had been deeded for park purposes only, and the mayor later deeming that the question was of great importance whether the Southern Pacific or other donor had made such a restriction, began an investigation to develop the real facts of the case. He did not dream at that time the investigation would be so intricate or take such a long time to ferret out the facts. He began by getting the Southern Pacific Company attorneys at Portland interested in the matter. They willingly cooperated, delved a long time into the company's musty old files, and finally told Mayor Pipes that the Southern Pacific had not deeded the park site, but that it had been deeded by the Oregon & Transcontinental Company, a railroad or holding company for railroads, that had surveyed the route through Medford and obtained the right of way, etc., in competition with the Northern Pacific railroad. This was in the early '80s. Further delving developed the fact that the Oregon and Transcontinental Company before it sold its right of way only to the Southern Pacific deeded to Medford the city park for park purposes only. But the Oregon and Transcontinental Company had other interests here which were taken over by the North American Company, a New Jersey corporation with offices at 60 Broadway, N.Y., and therefore the latter company thus became possessed of the rights of those interests. On learning this, Mayor Pipes began corresponding with the North American Company, with the result that that company agreed to deed the city park property over again to Medford, this time without any restriction whatever. Mayor Pipes has had possession of this deed since last April, but thought it best not to make the matter public until at the practical close of his administration. The unrestricted deed is of great importance to the city, and may prove of untold value in Medford's future development, especially as regards the development of the civic center program. Medford Mail Tribune, January 4, 1931, page 1 "My father secured work on the construction of the Oregon & California Railroad, then being extended from Roseburg to Ashland. I was about 13 years old at the time. We put in the next two years between Roseburg and Ashland, moving our tent as the road advanced. I drove a two-wheel cart, hauling dirt to make fills on the right of way. I was paid $4 a day for myself and team." George L. Humphrey, quoted by Fred Lockley, "Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man," Oregon Journal, Portland, January 12, 1932, page 10 Dad Boyd, Who Drove First Train Through Valley, Dies
Once Isaac (Dad) Boyd was wealthy, had a family, and had many friends.
An epidemic took the lives of his wife and child in the East and then
he lost his wealth. He came west four years ago back to Southern
Oregon, where he had lived as a young man. Still suffering from his
grief of years before, he failed to regain his fortune, and yesterday
he died at the county poor farm.(By Ernest Rostel) Today only three sympathetic friends, a minister and an undertaker were present when they buried him in the potters' field at the I.O.O.F cemetery, a vagrant breeze through leaves of the oak trees his only requiem. The years of lonesomeness left their mark on Dad Boyd. When he lived in a small cabin on Crater Lake Avenue a small white dog was his company, and the two were inseparable companions until the old man, almost eighty, became sick last winter and was removed to the county poor farm. A fall on icy pavement hastened his removal. Mr. and Mrs. Glen Fabrick, during the years that the old man was enjoying better health, did much to make his life enjoyable, but when sickness indicated danger for his well-being while living alone, the poor farm was the only solution. He had developed heart trouble but remained cheerful and enjoyed life as best he could in his new surroundings. He was planning to move back to Medford as soon as he felt better, but early yesterday morning death overtook him while he slept. A half smile, akin to the greeting he used to give passersby from a bench on which he was wont to sit on warm afternoons by Cleo's news stand, lingered on his lips when he was found. Mrs. Glen Fabrick, Mrs. Lyda King and Mrs. H. Sleight were at the graveside where Rev. Alexander Bennett delivered a funeral oration that would have done credit to a king. Dad Boyd went to college once and spoke often of the time he was engineer for the Southern Pacific railroad and at the throttle of the first train that was ever driven over the tracks in Southern Oregon. It had railroad officials as passengers. Medford Mail Tribune, July 31, 1930, page 6
"After attending private school I went to Annapolis in 1873 and graduated in the class of 1877. When I entered there were 92 in the class, but only 35 of us graduated. After graduating I put in two years as an ensign in the Asiatic squadron. I was on the flagship Hartford, commanded by Admiral Jenkins. We put in two years in China, Japan, the Philippine Islands and the South Seas. "I resigned from the navy upon the conclusion of this cruise and became a civil engineer, being employed as locating and constructing engineer on the Oregon & California railroad between Roseburg and Jacksonville. From 1880 to 1883 I was in charge of construction work of the railroad in Southern Oregon. For a good deal of that time I lived largely on deer meat and trout. I am very fond of fishing, so I had all the fishing I wanted in the Rogue River. I remember one time of catching a steelhead trout that weighed 18½ pounds. It took me more than an hour to land it. They certainly put up a game fight. No, I didn't kill any deer, though of course I saw them constantly. Somehow I couldn't find it in my heart to shoot a deer. When I was in that country there was a small sawmill where Medford is now located. [He is mistaken. He's probably referring to a mill in Phoenix.] Grants Pass was only a stage station. Many of the smaller communities have sprung up along the railroad since I was there 60 years ago. I had some very interesting experiences locating and building the road through Cow Creek canyon. Richard Pollard Habersham, quoted by Fred Lockley, "Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man," Oregon Journal, Portland, August 11, 1930, page 6 C. C. Hockley, state engineer in Oregon for PWA, was told last week by Jackson County commissioners that a nice little subway could be punched through the Siskiyou Mountains for anywhere from $3,000,000 to $10,000,000. Hockley was in Medford to get ideas of projects that would be financed under the $4,880,000,000 measure now before Congress. Among the things he heard was the proposal for the tunnel, which would be a nice thing for those in a hurry to get from California to Oregon, or vice versa. The tube would be ten miles long and take from five to seven years to build. When it is completed those who now "go over the hump" would be able to go through the hump by train in three hours or less or in one hour less if by automobile. In the dim dark days [during Prohibition] going over the hump was a popular pastime for many in Southern Oregon, the journey always ending at Hornbrook, Cal., whose chief industry was catering to the thirsty ones from arid Oregon. The proposed subway would have drainage, ventilation lights and all modern fixin's. Arthur Jones, "The Week in the Northwest," Oregonian, Portland, February 10, 1935, page B1 O&C Wealth Actually Began
with
Jacksonville Man's Uncomfortable Ride By EVA HAMILTON
It all began with a Jacksonville farmer's uncomfortable ride--the
wealth that comes to 18 Oregon counties from the resource management of
revested Oregon and California (O&C) railroad grant lands.Mail Tribune Staff Writer At least that's the impression gained from reading a bit of history brought from the family files by Mrs. Charles Risse of Medford. As the former Gertrude Haskins, she has become possessor of written documents, clippings and photographs treasured by her father, the late Leon B. Haskins, and other relatives. The railroading history seemed to gain more pertinence recently with announcement of addition of 243,000 more acres of land to the management of the Bureau of Land Management under the same treatment afforded the O&C lands. From O&C lands $57,789,348.30 was realized by 18 Oregon counties during fiscal year 1974, and more than $9 million by Jackson County in calendar year 1974. The farmer's discomfort, riding on the Oregon-California stage between a fat man and a hoop-skirted woman, provoked his remark: "Dadgum, we need a railroad." A number of farmers agreed and Jacksonville got the first survey under way which led to some colorful railroading activity and competitive battles, followed many years later by the Revestment Act of 1916 which returned to the government title to lands granted to the Oregon and California Railroad. It wasn't as simple as it may sound. The first survey for a railroad from Portland to California was started in 1863. On the original subscription list financing the survey were such well-known names as Lindsay Applegate, O. C. Applegate, Wagner & McCall's mill, J. G. Van Dyke and R. S. Belknap. Some paid cash, up to $25 (more of them $10) and others donated supplies and grain. In addition to the small amount of money, there was a federal grant in sight. The surveys were made and presented to the Oregon Legislature. in 1864. Senate Bill No. 14, according to an article in the Oregonian, proposed to grant this railroad one-half million acres of public lands granted to Oregon for internal improvements, 20 alternate sections per mile of railroad. The railroad was to be constructed through the Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue River valleys. Representative M. C. Cale of California had introduced a bill in Congress granting these lands to the California and Oregon Railroad Co., which would construct the road from Portland to the California line. The Jacksonville survey reached Portland, and a corporation was formed called the Oregon Central Railroad Co. In the list of incorporators were W. S. Ladd, H. W. Corbett, J. C. Ainsworth, Joseph Gaston and Jesse Applegate, all names still familiar in Oregon history; and others whose family names still appear in Portland landmarks if not in the telephone books. This line was to be built on the west side of the Willamette River. Competition soon arose. S. G. Elliott of California, backed by considerable capital, came along to incorporate another Oregon railroad company to build a line on the east side of the river. It was incorporated in Salem for $7,250,000 and the promoters proposed to sell shares at $100 each. It, too, expected to get the federal land grant. By April 15, 1868, both of these million-dollar corporations were ready to break ground. The west side Central Oregon railroad moved dirt first. Ceremonies were held in Portland and according to the Oregonian report everyone, "old men, middle-aged men, even ladies, vied with each other to throw dirt into the first car." The following day the east sideline held groundbreaking ceremonies perhaps 500 yards from the east bank of the river. "A monster procession" marked this endeavor. At the close of the ceremonies, Chinamen went right to work. The west side line hired white help. Stock was sold, bonds issued and sold on the London market. The company came into $300,000. Among the shareholders were Ladd and Tilton, Joseph Teal, F. Dekum and Samuel Lowenstein. Before the legislature convened in September, 1868, Ben Holladay appeared and lined up with the east side venture. He had lots of money and traveled to Salem to spend much of it on the legislature, at least $35,000, which was "big money" in those days. The legislature disqualified the west line and designated the east side line as the proper one to receive the grant Oct. 20, 1868, history reports. Promoters of the west side line, however, did not surrender. Battle lines were drawn to get the grant by getting the work done. Washington, Yamhill and Polk counties stayed loyal. Portland contributed $150,000 in cash and lands, Washington County $25,000 and Yamhill $20,000. Both sides engaged in a race against time, convinced that the government would honor the line which got the most work done. Railroad jobs were offered; work proceeded at top heat. Each side envisioned over a million dollars a year to be gained from mining freight alone, according to the newspaper report. The outcome was that Congress, pressured by agents, extended the time of filing acceptances and provided that the company which put 20 miles of road into operation should receive the land grant. Holladay put a "dinky" engine on the east side tracks and the line was first to go into operation for 20 miles. It got the land grant. The west side line had been pushed as far as Hillsboro and its promoters didn't give up. In December, 1869, Joseph Gaston was sent to Washington for a west side grant. His efforts and those of Sens. Corbett and Williams obtained 200,000 acres for the line with the sale price limited to $2.50 per acre. (It was the last railroad land grant made by Congress, according to a review of the events made in 1939.) Gaston took over and built the line to Forest Grove and southward 47 miles. Holladay titles were attacked in the court, but he continued to fight and changed the name of his company to "Oregon & California Railroad Company." He was accused of disgracing the lines [sic--lives?] and ruining the political fortunes of "more men in Oregon than all other events in state history." But he pushed the railroad line to Roseburg before he quit. It took 19 years from the first groundbreaking ceremonies for an Oregon to California line to make the grade. In 1887 the Southern Pacific took over both lines and made them part of its system. In 1916, as previously mentioned, the Revestment Act returned to the government title to lands granted to the Oregon and California Railroad. In 1926 the Stanfield Act provided relief to the O&C counties in which these revested lands are located. A total of $7,140,000 was paid to the 18 counties for back taxes covering the years of 1916 through 1926. From 1927 to 1937, however, the receipts had been sufficient only to meet the counties' tax obligation from 1927 through 1933. The combination of the depression of the '30s and an unsatisfactory financial arrangement "again spelled chaos in the western counties" and there was an appeal for a revision of the "basic policy for the administration of the O&C lands," according to a history issued by the state office of the BLM. The O&C Act of 1937 changed the basis for payments to counties from tax equivalency to a percentage of the gross receipts. In fiscal year 1952 the counties received 75 percent of total receipts ($6,053,458) over five times the estimated tax equivalent. The 1953 Interior Department Appropriation Bill altered the effect of the 1937 Act by providing that the U.S. Treasury be reimbursed for construction of access roads from 25 percent of the receipts. Without changing the formula of 50 percent to the county treasuries the counties' support to the O&C program approximated $10,000,000 annually in recent years. Efforts still are made to change things more as other counties look with covetous eyes at the funds coming to the 18 O&C counties. But some residents of the Rogue Valley point out that with all that O&C wealth they are just as deprived of railroad transportation today as was that Jacksonville farmer more than a century ago. Medford Mail Tribune, April 4, 1975, page B8 Last revised March 28, 2024 |
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