JOHN DAY AND POWDER RIVER.

485

which yielded from twenty to fifty dollars a day. Nor were the mines the sole attraction of this region: the country itself was eagerly seized upon; almost every quarter-section of land along the streams was claimed and had a cabin erected upon it, with every preparation for a permanent residence.

About a dozen men wintered in the Powder River Valley, not suffering cold or annoyed by Indians. This valley was found to contain a large amount of fertile land capable of sustaining a large population. It was bounded by a high range of granite mountains, rising precipitously from the western edge of the basin, while on the north and south it was shut in by high rolling hills covered with nutritious grass. To the east rose a lower range of the same rolling hills, beyond which towered another granite ridge similar to that on the west. The river received its numerous tributaries, rising in the south and west, and united them in one on the north-east side of the valley, thus furnishing an abundance of watercourses throughout.

In this charming locality, where a little handful of miners hibernated for several months, cut off from all the world, in less than four months after the snow blockade was raised a thriving town had sprung up and a new county was organized, a hundred votes being cast at the June election, and the returns being made to the secretary of state as "the vote of Baker county." The Grand Rond Valley had always been the admiration of travellers. A por

S

85 Ebey's Journal, MS., viii. 237-8.

86 They assumed to organize,' said the Statesman of June 23, 1862, 'and named the precincts Union and Auburn, and elected officers. One precinct made returns properly from Wasco county.' The legislative assembly in the following September organized the county of Baker legally by act. Sydney Abell was the first justice of the peace. He died in May 1863, being over 50 years of age. He was formerly from Springfield, Ill., but more recently from Marysville, Cal. Portland Oregonian, May 28, 1863. At the first municipal election of Auburn Jacob Norcross was elected mayor; O. M. Rowe recorder; J. J. Dooley treasurer; A. C. Lowring, D. A. Johnson, J. Lovell, D. M. Belknap, J. R. Totman, aldermen. Or. Statesman, Nov. 17, 1862. Umatilla county was also established in 1862.

tion of the immigration of 1843 had desired to settle here, but was prevented by its distance from a base of supplies. Every subsequent immigration. had looked upon it with envying eyes, but had been deterred by various circumstances from settling in it. It was the discovery of gold, after all, which made it practicable to inhabit it. In the winter of 1861-2 a mill site had been selected, and there were five log houses erected all at one point for greater security from the incursions of the Snake Indians, and the embryo city was called La Grande. It had at this date twenty inhabitants, ten of whom were men. It grew rapidly for three or four years, being incorported in 1864,37 and after the first flush of the mining fever, settled down to steady if slow ad

vancement.

graze on.

The pioneers of Grand Rond suffered none of those hardships from severe weather experienced in the John Day region or at Walla Walla. Only eighteen inches of snow fell in January, which disappeared in a few days, leaving the meadows green for their cattle to La Grande had another advantage: it was on the immigrant road, which gave it communication with the Columbia. Another road was being opened eastward fifty miles to the Snake River, on a direct course to the Salmon River mines; and a road was also opened in the previous November from the western foot of the Blue Mountains to the Grande Ronde Valley, which was to be extended to the Powder River Valley.

38

37 Owens' Directory, 1865, 140; Or. Jour. House, 1864, 83. The French voyageurs sometimes called the Grand Rond, La Grande Vallée, and the American settlers subsequently adopted the adjective as a name for their town, instead of the longer phrase Ville de la Grande Vallée, which was

meant.

38 The last road mentioned was one stipulated for in the treaty of 1855 with the Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, which should be 'located and opened from Powder River or Grand Rond to the western base of the Blue Mountains, south of the southern limits of the reservations.' The explorations were made under the direction of H. G. Thornton, by order of Wm H. Rector. The distance by this road from the base to the summit is sixteen miles; from the summit to Grand Rond River, eighteen miles; and down the river to the old emigrant road, twelve miles. It first touched the Grand Rond

Such was the magical growth of a country four hundred miles from the seaboard, and but recently opened to settlement. In twenty years it had become a rich and populous agricultural region, holding its mining resources as secondary to the cultivation of the soil.

River about midway between Grand Rond and Powder River valley, and turned south to the latter from this point. Ind. Aff. Rept, 1861, 154; Portland Oregonian, Feb. 6, 1862.

CHAPTER XX.

MILITARY ORGANIZATION AND OPERATIONS.

1861-1865.

APPROPRIATION ASKED FOR-GENERAL WRIGHT-SIX COMPANIES RAISEDATTITUDE TOWARD SECESSIONISTS-FIRST OREGON CAVALRY-EXPE DITIONS OF MAURY, DRAKE, AND CURRY-FORT BOISÉ ESTABLISHED— RECONNOISSANCE OF DREW-TREATY WITH THE KLAMATHS AND MODOCS-ACTION OF THE LEGISLATURE-FIRST INFANTRY OREGON VOL

UNTEERS.

SOMETIME during the autumn or winter of 1860 the military department of Oregon was merged in that of the Pacific, Brigadier-general E. V. Sumner commanding; Colonel Wright retaining his position of commander of the district of Oregon and Washington. The regular force in the country being much reduced by the drafts made upon it to increase the army in the east,' Wright apologized for the abandoment of the country by troops at a time when Indian wars and disunion intrigue made them seem indispensable, but declared that every minor consideration must give way to the preservation of the union.2

Fearing lest the emigrant route might be left unprotected, a call was made by the people of Walla

1 There were only about 700 men and 19 commissioned officers left in the whole of Oregon and Washington in 1861. The garrisons left were 111 men under Captain H. M. Black at Vancouver; 116 men under Maj. Lugenbeel at Colville; 127 men under Maj. Steen at Walla Walla; 41 men under Capt. Van Voast at Cascades; 43 men under Capt. F. T. Dent at Hoskins; 110 men at the two posts of Steilacoom and Camp Picket; and 54 men under Lieutcolonel Buchanan at The Dalles. U. S. Sen. Doc., 1, vol. ii. 32, 37th cong. 2d sess. Even the revenue cutter Jo Lane belonging to Astoria was ordered to New York. Or. Argus, June 29, 1861.

2 See letter in Or. Statesman, July 1, 1861.

Walla Valley to form a company to guard the immigration, a plan which was abandoned on learning that congress had made an appropriation asked for by the legislature of $50,000 for the purpose of furnishing

an escort.3

Although no violent outbreaks occurred in 1861, both the people and the military authorities were apprehensive that the Indians, learning that civil war existed, and seeing that the soldiery were withdrawn, might return to hostilities, the opportunities offered by the numerous small parties of miners travelling to and fro heightening the temptation and the danger.* Some color was given to these fears by the conduct of the Indians on the coast reservation, who, finding Fort Umpqua abandoned, raised an insurrection, took possession of the storehouse at the agency, and attempted to return to their former country. They were however prevented carrying out their scheme, only the leaders escaping, and the guard at Fort Hoskins was strengthened by a small detachment from Fort Yamhill. Several murders having been committed in the Modoc, Pit River, and Pah Ute country, a company of forty men under Lindsey Applegate, who had been appointed special Indian agent, went to the protection of travellers through that region, and none too soon to prevent the destruction of a train of immigrants at Bloody Point, where they were found surrounded. On the appearance of Applegate's com

3 Or. Argus, June 15, 1861; Cong. Globe, 1860-1, pt ii. 1213, 36th cong. 2d Bess.; Id., 1324-5; Id., app. 362.

On the Barlow route to The Dalles the Tyghe Indians from the Warm Spring reservation murdered several travellers in the month of July. Among the killed were Jarvis Briggs, and his son aged 28 years, residents of Linu county, and pioneers of Oregon, from Terre Haute, Indiana. Or. Statesman, Aug. 26, 1861. The murderers of these two were apprehended and hanged. The Pit River Indians and Modocs killed Joseph Bailey, member elect to the Oregon legislature, in August, while driving a herd of 800 cattle to the Nevada mines. Bailey was a large and athletic man, and fought desperately for his life, killing several Indians after he was wounded. Samuel Evans and John Sims were also killed, the remainder of the party escaping. Or. Statesman, Aug. 19, 1861.

Ind. Aff. Rept, 1863, 59; Portland Oregonian, Aug. 27, 1861; O. C. Applegate's Modoc Hist., MS., 17. Present at this ambush were some of the Modocs celebrated afterward in the war of 1872-3; namely, Sconchin, Scarface, Black Jim, and others.