Overlanders in the Columbia River Gorge, 1840–1870: A Narrative History Historical Research Associates, Inc. Purchase Request 7700V0022 Submitted to: National Park Service National Trails Submitted By Jackie Gonzales, PhD Morgen Young, MA Historical Research Associates, Inc. September 24, 2020 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION: PURPOSE OF STUDY AND METHODS 1 A NOTE ON NAMES AND TERMS 2 CHAPTER 1: THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE BEFORE 1840: GEOLOGICAL, NATURAL, AND EARLY HUMAN HISTORY 9 GEOLOGICAL OVERVIEW OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE 9 LANDSCAPE AND HYDROLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE 10 INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN THE GORGE 13 FUR TRADE AND MILITARY EXPEDITIONS 15 MISSIONS BEFORE 1840 21 A CHANGED WORLD 23 CHAPTER 2: OVERLANDERS ON THE OREGON TRAIL 25 OVERVIEW OF THE OREGON TRAIL 25 POLICIES AND BOOSTERISM SPURRING MIGRATION TO OREGON 25 INDIGENOUS DISPOSSESSION AND A LEGAL SYSTEM OF WHITE SUPREMACY 27 THE OVERLANDERS 29 TYPICAL ROUTES AND NUMBER OF TRAVELERS 30 TRAVELING ON THE TRAIL 36 REACHING THE COLUMBIA RIVER 37 CHAPTER 3: FORT WALLA WALLA TO THE DESCHUTES RIVER CONFLUENCE 41 RIVER AND COMMUNITIES CA. 1800 42 ARRIVAL OF WHITE FUR TRADERS AND MISSIONARIES (CA. 1805–1840) 45 EARLY OVERLAND TRAVEL (1842–1846) 46 FORT WALLA WALLA AND PREPARING FOR THE DOWN RIVER JOURNEY 46 RIVER TRAVEL ON THE UPPER COLUMBIA 48 LAND TRAVEL FROM FORT WALLA WALLA TO THE DESCHUTES RIVER 49 THE WAÍILETPU INCIDENT (1847) 51 CHANGES IN OVERLAND TRAVEL AFTER THE WAÍILETPU INCIDENT (1847–1856) 52 UMATILLA RIVER ROUTE 52 MAIN ROUTE SHIFT TO SPANISH HOLLOW/BIGGS JUNCTION 53 CROSSING THE DESCHUTES 54 ARRIVAL OF STEAMSHIP TRAVEL ON THE UPPER COLUMBIA (1858–1870) 58 FIRST STEAMSHIPS 58 GOLD RUSH IN IDAHO 59 STEAMSHIP TOWNS 60 CHAPTER 4: CELILO FALLS AND THE SHORT AND LONG NARROWS 63 RIVER AND COMMUNITIES CA. 1800 63 COLUMBIA RIVER NARRATIVE HISTORY i CELILO FALLS 66 THE NARROWS 68 EARLY EUROPEAN TRAVEL THROUGH CELILO FALLS AND THE NARROWS (CA.1805–1842) 74 THE FIRST OVERLANDERS IN THE RAPIDS (1843–1846) 77 PRIMARILY INLAND TRAVEL (CA. 1846–1855) 79 EFFECTS OF INDIGENOUS REMOVAL ON THE NARROWS (1855–1859) 80 DALLES-CELILO PORTAGE ROAD (1859–1863) 81 DALLES-CELILO PORTAGE RAILROAD (1863–1870) 82 CHAPTER 5: THE DALLES TO THE CASCADES 87 RIVER AND COMMUNITIES CA. 1800 87 THE “SUNKEN FOREST” 91 KACLASKO, WASCOPAM, AND THE DALLES 93 FUR TRADING POSTS AT THE DALLES (1829) 93 WASCOPAM MISSION (1838–1847) 93 MILITARY PRESENCE AT THE DALLES (1847–1867) 95 THE DALLES, 1851–1870 97 TRAVEL FROM THE DALLES TO THE CASCADES 101 WATER JOURNEY FROM DALLES TO CASCADES 101 TRANSPORTING LIVESTOCK BY RIVERBANK TRAILS (1843–1860) 105 STEAMSHIP FROM DALLES TO CASCADES (1851–1870) 109 CHAPTER 6: THE CASCADES RAPIDS AND PORTAGES 113 THE CASCADES RAPIDS CA. 1800 113 DESCRIPTIONS OF RAPIDS AND EXPLANATION OF THEIR ORIGINS 113 INDIGENOUS VILLAGES AT THE CASCADES 118 PORTAGE TRAILS AND EARLY ACCOUNTS OF PORTAGES 119 EARLY ACCOUNTS OF OVERLANDERS (1843–1850) 122 IMPROVEMENTS AT THE CASCADES PORTAGE (1851–1870) 127 MULE-POWERED TRAMWAY (EARLY 1850S) 127 UPPER CASCADES LANDING IN THE EARLY 1850S 130 MILITARY PRESENCE AT THE CASCADES (1848–1858) 132 PORTAGE ROADS AND RAILROADS (1856–1860) 134 CHAPTER 7: THE CASCADES TO THE WILLAMETTE RIVER 141 RIVER AND COMMUNITIES CA. 1800 141 EARLY FUR TRADE ERA (1824–1840) 144 EARLY OVERLANDER TRAVEL (1840-1849) 146 WATER TRAVEL FROM THE LOWER CASCADES TO FORT VANCOUVER 146 LIVESTOCK TRAILS AND FERRY 150 FORT VANCOUVER (1843–1846) 151 STEAMBOAT AND US MILITARY ERA (CA. 1850–1870) 153 STEAMBOAT TRAVEL FROM LOWER CASCADES LANDING 153 LIVESTOCK TRAILS IN THE STEAMBOAT ERA 156 US MILITARY AT FORT VANCOUVER 157 ii COLUMBIA RIVER NARRATIVE HISTORY GOLD RUSH 159 CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION 161 CHAPTER 9: EPILOGUE 165 A CHANGED RIVER: THE COLUMBIA RIVER AFTER 1870 165 CASCADE LOCKS AND CANAL 165 RAILROADS 166 DALLES-CELILO CANAL 168 DAMS ON THE COLUMBIA 169 BIBLIOGRAPHY 173 ARCHIVES AND OTHER REPOSITORIES WITH PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS 173 GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS AND ARCHEOLOGICAL REPORTS 173 BOOKS AND ARTICLES 175 NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS 185 List of Maps Map 1. Columbia River from the Snake River to the Willamette River Hydrological Hazards, Natural Features, and Settlements viii Map 2. Hydrological Hazards of the Columbia River From the Snake River Confluence to the Willamette River Confluence 8 Map 3. Oregon Trail Routes near the Columbia River 32 Map 4. Snake River Confluence to Deschutes River Confluence 40 Map 5. Deschutes River through the Columbia River Narrows 62 Map 6. The Dalles to the Upper Cascades Landing 86 Map 7. Upper Cascade Landing to Lower Cascade Landing 112 Map 8. Lower Cascades Landing to Willamette Confluence 140 Map 9. Changes to the Hydrology of the Columbia River after 1870 164 List of Figures Figure 1. Samuel Augustus Mitchell created this 1846 map of Oregon, California, and Texas. Here, the map is zoomed into the Oregon Country and the tentative border between US and British territory at the 49th parallel. 5 Figure 2. The Dalles Rapids, passing through the tight channel that became known as the Narrows. Photograph by Carleton E. Watkins, ca. 1882. 11 Figure 3. Upper Cascades Rapids. Photograph by Carleton E. Watkins, 1882. 12 Figure 4. In his 1844 map of the Pacific Northwest, Charles Wilkes shows the Columbia River and the approximate range of Indigenous people over the area, categorized by language grouping. The Chinookan people occupied the banks of the lower Columbia River, while the Walla Walla, or Sahaptin-speaking people, lived along the mid-Columbia. 13 Figure 5. Benjamin A. Gifford, “Middle Cascades, Columbia River,” ca. 1906. 38 Figure 6. Charles Wilkes included an insert in his 1844 map of the Pacific Northwest that detailed landscape features, hydrological hazards, and Indigenous villages along the Columbia River. This section shows the Columbia River from the Snake River Confluence to the Deschutes River Confluence. 41 Figure 7. The section of river just downstream from the John Day River confluence had sand dunes on its southern bank. Photograph by Albert Henry Barnes, ca. 1913. 43 COLUMBIA RIVER NARRATIVE HISTORY iii Figure 8. William Clark drew sketches of the Columbia River at (listed clockwise, starting with the upper left): the mouth of the Umatilla River, between the Umatilla and John Day Rivers, the mouth of the John Day River, and the mouth of the Deschutes River. On all four maps, Clark indicated where Indigenous people lived with the notation “Lodges” (often with an accompanying number) or “Indian lodges,” and he also used triangles to represent lodges. These drawings indicate that the banks of this stretch of river were heavily populated by Indigenous people. 1805. 44 Figure 9. Remnant wagon ruts from the Oregon Trail, descending from a hill at present-day Biggs Junction. 53 Figure 10. A steamship travels through Wallula Gap. Photograph by Asahel Curtis, 1915. 60 Figure 11. Segment of Charles Wilkes’s 1844 drawing of the Columbia River on his map of the Pacific Northwest. Here, the drawing is zoomed in to the stretch of river from Celilo Falls through the Columbia River Narrows (also known as the Dalles Rapids). 63 Figure 12. The USACE drew this sketch of the Columbia River between Celilo Falls and The Dalles in 1913. While it includes some things that were nonexistent in the early 1800s (a railroad and a canal), it provides a detailed and useful drawing of the hydrological features in this stretch of river. 65 Figure 13. Celilo Falls was the second-greatest obstruction to waterborne travel on the Columbia River. The banks around it were important fishing and trading sites for Indigenous people across the region, ca. 1910. 66 Figure 14. This painting, completed in 1884 by John E. Stuart, depicts a Sahaptin summer fishing village near Celilo Falls. The image depicts post-contact life through the eyes of Stuart, a White artist, but it gives some indication of what nineteenth-century Sahaptin fishing camps might have been like. 67 Figure 15. William Clark drew the Short and Long Narrows after passing through the area in 1805. Note Celilo Falls at the upper left-hand corner, followed by a pool ahead of the Short Narrows, another pool ahead of the Long Narrows, and then Big Eddy on the north side of the river. The present-day town of The Dalles is located near the mouth of the creek that runs into the Columbia River at the bottom righthand corner of this image. 69 Figure 16. The Narrows, or the Dalles Rapids, looking downstream with Mount Hood in the background. Carleton E. Watkins, ca. 1882. 70 Figure 17. The Dalles Rapids, looking upstream. Stereoview by Carleton E. Watkins, 1867. 71 Figure 18. Seasonal Indigenous fishing village at the head of the Narrows (upper middle of image). Cropped from photograph by Carleton E. Watkins, ca. 1882. 72 Figure 19. William Clark drew Celilo Falls after passing it in 1805. He notes “Portage 120 yards” around the falls on the north side of the river, and a large village of the “E-nee-sher Nation” (likely Tenino people, who were Sahaptin-speaking) on the north side of the river, before the falls. 74 Figure 20. The Dalles and Celilo Railroad, constructed by the OSNC in 1863, ran between the town of The Dalles and Celilo Falls along approximately the same route as Indigenous portage trails. Carleton E. Watkins, 1867. 83 Figure 21. Segment of Charles Wilkes’s 1844 drawing of the Columbia River from his map of the Pacific Northwest. This section shows the stretch of river from the bottom of the Narrows (or Dalles Rapids) to the upper end of the Cascades Rapids. 87 Figure 22. John Mix Stanley, “Mountain Landscape with Indians,” oil on canvas, between 1870 and 1875.