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The Klickitat County Agriculturist, Goldendale, WA., May 2, 1903, page 1
"Klickitat Intelligence"

THE LAST SPIKE DRIVEN - Late Saturday night the editor of the Agri., telegraphed the following particulars of "driving of the last spike" on the main line of the new road to the Oregonian: At 10:30 this morning the last spike in the main line of the Columbia River & Northern Railway was driven. This honor did not fall to John J. Golden, whose turn will come later, but instead a swarthy son of Italy, with a few sharp blows put the spike in position. While the construction train had reached the city limits yesterday, the crew was not able to complete the work that day, owing to a lack of material. Today the last mile of track was laid, and laid quickly, as by the middle of the forenoon the track was finished. A vast crowd of sightseers was on hand early, and by 10 o'clock fully half the population of the city was present. It was a spectacle never to be forgotten by the residents of Goldendale, after years of patient waiting, during which time many railroad schemes had been industriously worked, only to end in dismal failures. A full-fledged railroad was now complete to the city and Goldendale placed in easy communication with the outside world. No regular train service can be established as yet, as for some weeks to come it will be in the hands of the construction department. There is a vast amount of labor yet in sight. The major portion of the track has yet to be ballasted, leveled and adjusted for fast and heavy traffic. There are no terminal buildings erected here as yet, nor at any other point on the line, except at Lyle. It will probably be two months before a regular passenger schedules can be put into operation. Official advises to Hon. N.B. Brooks, the local attorney of the company, are to the effect that on or about June 1 the management of the Columbia River & Northern Railroad will run an excursion train to this city, at which time the big jubilee celebration over the completion of the road will come. Local parties here are going to make it the greatest time in history of Klickitat County. There will be something doing on that occasion, sure. Immediately after the workmen had completed their labors they were royally entertained with a fine luncheon and plenty of refreshments. The city's hospitality was open-hand and nothing was considered too good for a hard-working construction gang. So on the 25th day of April, 1903, a new era opened up in the history of this county. The citizens of Goldendale are in joyous moods tonight and congratulations or the order of the hour. The greatest meed of praise is extended to the Portland capitalists who financed the enterprise, and above all are highly flattering encomiums showered upon a Manager H.C. Campbell, who promised a railroad here on his first entrance into Klickitat, and he has labored incessantly toward that purpose from that day forward. Nor was The Oregonian ignored, for to its valuable and timely cooperation is due a large measure of the success.

The Klickitat County Agriculturist, Goldendale, WA., April 25, 1903, page 1

ARRIVES AT CENTERVILLE APRIL 18, COLUMBIA RIVER & NORTHERN RY.

The Columbia River & Northern Railway Company completed its road to Centerville April 17. Before the end of the present week the line will have reached Goldendale and the company will be looking out toward Bickleton prairie, a rich territory that is to be made tributary to the system.
If no obstacle is met, the new line will be completed to Goldendale as trains may be run over it by Thursday morning. But a delay in the delivery of rails, unfavorable weather or a number of other circumstances, might defeat the plans of the management and making it impossible to finish the work as soon as contemplated.
The road will not be ballasted and ready for traffic for 30 days, but prior to this time passenger trains will run over the line and general merchandise will be delivered to the county seat of Klickitat County, Washington. Along the roadway wherever merchants order their goods delivered to them via the Columbia River & Northern, the officials of the system will make every effort, after next week, to ensure prompt delivery, and this assures to the people of Klickitat Valley a railroad that will be in almost immediate operation.
When the line is completed and freight trains are thundering over the culverts, booming up the canyon, whirling across Prairie or tooting victoriously into the prairie settlements, less than 12 months will have elapsed from the time the first shovelful of dirt was thrown from the right of way until trains actually began running over the line. In the meantime deep rock cuts have been completed, trestles have been built, turbulent mountain streams have been spanned, short culverts have been constructed and a line has been laid through a prairie country that is one of the richest producing agricultural districts in the Coast region.
All this is a triumph of engineering skills, a very floundering compliment to the executives of the road who have insisted upon forcing construction as rapidly as it could be pushed, and a tribute to the faith of the Portland capitalists who opened up the vast agricultural region in the Klickitat Valley. All this country will have been made immediately tributary to Portland practically "between season." In other words a railroad will have been constructed into a country estimated to yield a million bushels of wheat annually, after one crop has headed out and before the next has reached that stage. Prior to the time one crop has been moved, the road will have entered not only to carry off what remains of the first, but to handle all of the second crop.
In warehouses in Daly, Centerville and Goldendale are stored over 100,000 bushels of wheat awaiting the completion of the railroad, when it will be sent to Portland. Back in the country is grain owned by farmers, warehousemen and exporters, that will swell of the total grain yield held, tributary to the new railroad, to between the 8000 and 10,000 tons.
The new warehouse at Daly, the first to be constructed along the line of the Columbia River & Northern to handle a crop over the road, has between the 6000 and 7000 sacks of wheat stored under its roof. This means a total of nearly 14,000 bushels. At Centerville an old warehouse contains another 40,000 bushels, and the Goldendale warehouse has 50,000 bushels, fully 5000 bushels having been sold off recently.
But for the fear of rain this total of heldings would have been increased remarkably. There were stored about Daly thousands of sacks of wheat which the farmers feared to leave exposed to the elements and finally carted to the ferry opposite The Dalles or at Grant's, at an enormous expense. This wheat had been stored within an area bounded by a wire fence and covered by tarpaulins. The owners of the Daly warehouse could not get lumber in time to erect a building and handle the grain.
But the fact that so much wheat is stored in the district, shows the implicit confidence of the people in the new railroad and the way in which the populace has awaited the coming of the steam engines with their long trains of box cars.
The people have long sought a railroad, and now that one is nearing completion, they are waiting to bestow a traffic that has heretofore passed through different hands.
The joyous condition of the people's feelings were shown at Centerville, 36 miles from Lyle, and seven miles from Goldendale, yesterday. The people had been waiting for more than a year since they had given the right-of-way for a new road, and for 11 months since the first shovelful of gravel was spaded from the right-of-way for the road over which an engine ran yesterday. For several days the 150 inhabitants of Centerville and the hundreds of farmers living in the vicinity have been prepared for the coming of the road.
A big ox had been killed and roasted in the style that usually graces a barbecue. A collection of good things to eat was made ready for the railroad officials and the railroad's employees. The people of the surrounding country were on hand to share in celebrating. There were speeches and other evidences of jollification and when it was all through both the railroad officials and the townspeople were satisfied a spirit of good-fellowship prevailed.
At Goldendale at the people are waiting anxiously for the coming of the road. They are preparing for an unusually significant showing and the railroad officials are planning to give the people evidence of their appreciation of the support that has been given them.
The Columbia River & Northern, running from Lyle to Goldendale, for the present, and owning a fleet of river steamers, will tap a country that has been, in a large measure, tributary to Portland, but it will also take to them cheap transportation rates and guarantee to the people of Portland, a foothold in this district, from which the wholesale men and the grain-buyers, the stockmen and wool-gathers cannot be dislodged. The completion of the road effectually meets the problems Klickitat County and Portland business men have been confronting.
It is for these reasons that it is planned the celebration of the entrance of the road into Goldendale shall take on the character of a joint celebration. Prominent Portland business men, so many of them that as can be accommodated, are to be invited to make a trip to Goldendale over the Goldendale line, and to join with the people of Klickitat River Valley in the celebration of the road's completion.
This celebration will, in all probability, be deferred a very short time. It would hardly be well for the train bearing the Portland men to follow the track crews into Goldendale, and so it is likely a short time will be given for the ballasting and completing the road in a first-class condition. But within a very short time the celebration is to be held, and this may mean not more than a week's wait.
In time Goldendale is to be made a mere station on the line. It will long be the most important station and the extension of the road will make a Goldendale more than ever a wheat center. But the company proposes to extend the line to Bickleton Prairie, tapping the rich Horse Heaven country, in the Upper Klickitat and Lower Yakima counties and also reaching eastward into a district that is now shut off from outside communication.
From Lyle to Goldendale by the new line is a distance of 43 miles. When the construction train bumped over the newly laid rails into Centerville yesterday afternoon all but seven miles of this track had been laid. Between 15 and 20 miles had been ballasted, the total stretch of track so improved being but little more than 15 miles.
When Goldendale is passed and the road is extended out toward Bickleton Prairie, it is the intention of the officials to construct another 40 miles of railway. The road beyond Goldendale will not enter any of the towns now built, but will pass very close to Cleveland and Bickleton. It may be, it is quite probable, new towns will spring up along the line of the road, but the plan of reaching the heart of the grain belt with the least possible grading is the one that the railroad is seeking. Definite plans regarding this further extension have not yet been announced.
Lyle is the river terminus of the railroad. From this point communication is had with Portland over the Regulator line of steamers, owned by the railroad company. Lyle is a perfectly landlocked, or, rather, rock-locked harbor. Both shore and above, jutting points protect the harbor from all danger to shipping on account of high water for swift current. At no point on the river, above Portland, is there a more ideal location for a town.
The town itself, at present, consists of a few scattering dwellings, with two socalled hotels, a general store, what purports to be a temperance saloon and thereby attracts attention from stray visitors, and a magnificent opportunity for development. The railroad's general office, roundhouses and repair shops are located at Lyle and the approaches to the river, together with numerous side tracks are constructed at this point.
Originally the town site, which by the way, lies 9 miles below The Dalles, on the Washington side of the river, was owned by the Balfour brothers, two young Englishmen, who own one of the choicest bits of farming land, adjoining the town site that can be found in the Klickitat valley. The town site was not laid out as the railroad wished it, and so the company bought all the property lying between its line and the river, has planned to replat this district, and will make a thriving town of the place. Lyle, with its river and rail communication, is certain to become a very busy mart.
At Lyle the railroad has partially constructed a runway down to the river where freight trains will be either unloaded onto the ferries that are to be operated or the cargoes will be broken and shipped to and from Portland by water.
The river is too high at present for the completion of this approach; it is too low for other purposes of river investors, but its present stage shows too much water for the railroad builders. Just how the railroad company will construct its approach and operate its ferries is undetermined as yet. It will be hauling grain within 30 days, but the grain will be trans-shipped at Lyle to a fleet of river steamers and brought to Portland by water. When lumber and other traffic is handled a ferry to The Dalles will be required. Either a ferry-boat will be constructed or the loaded cars will be carried across on scows or barges.
Just at present there are seven box cars belonging to the railroad standing upon a side track directly opposite Lyle on the Oregon side of the river. The water in the Columbia is to high to enable the company to transport this equipment to its road, and the cars stand on a beach line that will not be used much longer. The approach to this spot is not favorable for a ferry, and it is not intended to use it.
The Columbia River & Northern runs out of Lyle through the Klickitat River's immediate valley, otherwise along the river's bed. At times the roadway is carried down close to the banks of a quiet peaceful stream, who sole ambition seems to be to pass through its existence with as little exertion as possible. It seems almost incredible at such times to believe the peaceful little stream is hurrying toward the Columbia.
Suddenly the scene will change and the roadbed is carried high up on a hill or far above a canyon through which thunders a raging torrent, dashing over rocks or hurling itself through rapids and down a falls with force enough to generate power for a metropolis. There is one point, designated by the railroad builders as "the first crossing," where the railroad first crosses the Klickitat, 2 ½ miles from Lyle, where 10,000-horsepower, recently measured by engineers, is going to waste during the seasons when low water prevails. Within a quarter of a mile -- even less than that distance -- a drop of over 100 feet is made by the Klickitat.
Then this stream becomes quiet again for a while, only to change a short distance above, where raging cascades of smaller but equal scenic beauty exists. Towering far above the lines of railroad on either side our vast hills or mountains. Palisades shoot up abruptly from the track of water's edge, and the slopes of the hills at all points seem to be almost sheer precipices. But that there is at least a foothold is shown by the fact that hundreds of head of stock can be seen always grazing on the hillside. How the stock is herded, for it must be driven to an elevation of 1000 feet or more is a question the railroad men have not concerned themselves with, but one which a traveler, over the system cannot dismiss from his mind.
On the broad plateaus above the railroad and extending far from the raging Klickitat are green and fertile fields, now devoted to grain, again to garden produce, or stock-raising, and frequently rich orchards may be found. All this country is tributary to the new road. Down those same steep hillsides, for instance, grain will be sent to ware houses erected along the railroad and stock cattle will find their way through the ravines to the road, which will carry them to market.
Now and then the Klickitat Canyon is broken, and farmers have developed what is one of the richest spots in Washington. Whites and Indians live together beneath the same hills in perfect peace. Both the Caucasian and the red man have developed their farms by use of the most improved machinery, and by irrigation, and raise bountiful crops. The road for instance shoots directly through the farm of an old Indian known as "Skookum," which is in an advanced state of cultivation. Skookum is a good farmer and a good Indian. His farm bespeaks handsome profits and his attitude shows deep friendship.
Skookum was one of those who welcomed the new railroad, though he asked and received compensation for the land taken by the railroad. In fact, Skookum was not entirely satisfied with the award made him, but he accepted it in good faith.
When the Klickitat Indians severed their tribal relations, Skookum was one of those allotted lands, and the government still exercises a fatherly supervision over his affairs. The new road had to pass through his ground, and a special agent was sent West to hear testimony and fix the damage. In appearing before this agent Skookum made one of the most eloquent and convincing talks white men have heard since the treaty days from a red man's lips. When he had been awarded his damages, Skookum directed his attention again to farming.
Now the only thing that worries Skookum is the absence of the "holes" he declares the railroad is to build at his line fences. These, in other words, are the cattle guards, which he is anxious to have completed and which will be built for the old Indian at once.
From Skookum's place to Sally Wakiacus' farm the scenery along the line is grand. It combines all the features of some of the most scenic routes in the world; the rugged mountains and the turbulent streams combining to keep interest in the scenery thoroughly awakened.
There is to be a town built at Sally Wakiacus' place. It is likely this town will be named after the old Indian woman who owns the land upon which it is to be built, or adjoining which the siding will be placed. At this point the railroad turns from the Klickitat and enters Swale Canyon. Following up the Klickitat by a well-established road, ranchers will be able to reach the rich Camas Prairie country, and still further on to penetrate even to Trout Lake, all of which territory is tributary to the new road.
Through Swale Canyon on the rugged type of scenery makes one imagine himself traveling through the Rockies on one of the transcontinental lines, or whirling along over the famous White Pass route. The road winds in and out along the canyon, constantly revealing to a passenger some new and more interesting type of scenery, magnificent and awful in its grandeur. Then the road suddenly sweeps out of the canyon and onto the broad prairies of the Klickitat country. Though as a rule this is a country where the prairie is of the character commonly designated as a "rolling," it is broken here and there by high hills, but the entire region about the railroad is under cultivation. As far as the eye can reach the prairie is dotted by farmhouses, and the hillsides are green with growing vegetation. Fat, sleek cattle or wonderfully strong and rich-blooded horses roam the grazing lands.
Daly is the first station and beyond Swale Canyon. Not much of the station now, perhaps, but Daly has the first new warehouse erected along the line of the new road. This warehouse is owned by Philips & Aldrich, and is nearly half filled with wheat, which is to be sent out over the road and which will come to Portland soon.
From Daly the line takes a turn and runs in almost a straight line to Centerville. The track, from the top of a car, seems to stretch ahead in an unbroken line indefinitely, while far in the distance the red tops of Centerville buildings can be distinguished, and the thriving little hamlet nestling on the prairie seems to be a most important center, as, in fact, it is.
The railroad was completed to Centerville in yesterday; today the tracklayers are hurrying onward toward Goldendale. Tracklaying is proceeding at the rate of a mile and a quarter a day, a Holman tracklaying machine shooting rails and ties ahead as fast as men can handle them. From one side of the work train the ties come shooting out; men seize them, and on the run start ahead to drop them in their position; a boy marks the spot for the rails, and the train moves ahead a rail's length. From the other side, even while the ties are being hurried forward for the next move, rails are shoved ahead, track men force them into place, men drop spikes along side, and they are driven fast; then the train moves again. The tielaying and raillaying crews work in unison. Following the train comes another gang of workmen who spike the rails fast to ties data have remained loose; bolts that are hurriedly fastened to the rails and plates are tightened and new ones added; then the roadway is ready for the ballasting crews. And this work proceeds at the rate of a mile and a quarter per day - it has gone forward at the rate of two miles.
When the road enters Goldendale it will have ascended from Lyle, a point about 70 feet above tide-level, to Goldendale, 1600 feet elevation. To accomplish this, the railroaded has a maximum grade of 2.2 per cent attained in Swale Canyon. The curves even during the stretch are reduced, and up along the Klickitat River the maximum grade is about 1 per cent.
A party of investors went out over the new road yesterday and made an inspection of that portion already completed. They returned to Portland yesterday, thoroughly satisfied by the showing. They had ridden from Lyle to a point near Centerville on flat cars, fighting the cinders from the locomotive, but thoroughly enjoying the ride. On of the way back the party huddled together on a switch engine; President Mallory and an Oregonian staff photographer in the cab; Vice-President H.L. Pittock and Senator George T. Myers, a stockholder; sitting under the headlight, and Director C.A. Cogswell hanging to the footboard of the engine. It was an exciting ride while it lasted, but at Wahkiacus the party changed engines and rode back into Lyle on flatcars.
The officers of the company who are putting through the line include Rufus Mallory, president; H.L. Pittock, vice-president; E.E. Mallory, secretary; George E. Simon, auditor H.C. Campbell, general manager; and Emery Oliver, chief engineer. The directors of the company are H.L. Pittock, C.A. Caldwell, W.B. Ayer, C.F. Swigert, Milton Smith and Rufus Mallory.
Though the railroad is now burning coal in its locomotives, it is intended oil shall be the fuel used and the engines will be equipped accordingly. Aside from the fact that coal is a very expensive fuel, and wood equally as costly, the danger from fire in the wheatfields must be avoided by the use of oil. During the summer the fields are very dry, and a spark from a locomotive using coal as fuel might set the entire country afire.
Speaking of wood - the timber in the Klickitat valley is too valuable to burn. It is a variety of wood that takes a higher polish than any other pine or fir known, and it is sold readily for $3 per thousand higher than any other lumber in the northwest. Shipments of this lumber are now being made over a circuitous route, but will come to market over the Columbia River & Northern within a very short time.
It is the same route that the wheat raisers are using to market their grain. The growers of the entire country must haul their product to the Columbia river, over a high mountain range and country roads that are not adapted for the purpose. It costs the farmer an average of 17 cents per bushel to market his grain, a cost that will be materially reduced the season. On the grain that that is still held in the country there will be a remarkable saving, amounting to thousands of dollars.
This gives an idea of the reasons that are prompting the people along the line to welcome the new road with enthusiasm. It shows also why N.B. Brooks, of Goldendale, the pioneer advocate of a railroad into the Klickitat Valley and the man who secured most of the right of way for the company, was so glad at yesterday's meeting in Centerville, to bespeak a profitable experience for the railroad's investors.