The Skamania County Pioneer, Stevenson, WA., December 17, 1943, page 1
HOW SKAMANIA COUNTY
LOOKED 60 YEARS AGO
Henry Metzger Recalls Scenes Along Columbia River in 1863
By Henry Metzger
On December 5th, 1883, 60 years ago on December 5th I came down from The Dalles
on a scow to work in Wind River Valley and with the exception of the years 1885
and 1886 I have lived here ever since. Let me at this time give the readers of
The Pioneer a brief sketch of the points of interest on the middle Columbia at
that time and the general conditions then prevailing in this neck of the woods.
The railroad on the Oregon side was then already in
operation but no wagon road on either side of the river and in Skamania County
not even a trail anywhere along the river that was fit to travel on horseback.
Leaving The Dalles in the morning with an East wind the
old flat bottom, square bow tub, called a scow, sailed along at top speed which
was about seven mph for that kind of boats. Lyle, near the mouth of the
Klickitat river was then the most important shipping point on the Washington
side because from there a wagon road led up into the then already much settled
Goldendale and Yakima Counties, much grain and livestock was shipped from their
by boat to Portland. Next we passed Wamoloose (Indian word for death) Island.
I saw a tombstone up there and asked who was buried of
that rock was the grave yard for the Klickitat Indians and under that tombstone
rests a white man who lived with the Indians a long time, and who wanted to be
buried among honest people. When I visited that Island about six months later I
thought that “boneyard” would have been a more suitable name than graveyard for
I saw piles of beached bones lying all over and only a few grave mounds could be
seen and not much space where there was a ground enough to dig a grave. Next I
saw a white painted church building and a number of houses clustering around it
on a side hill over on the Washington side. That was White Salmon which was
then already an important settlement. Hood River could not be seen from the
river because of trees obstructing the view. Near the mouth of Little White
Salmon river I saw a flume coming down over a long bare and very steep hill and
at the bottom of that hill scows were taking on wood with which to keep her
boilers hot. That place was then known as Weidlers flume.
At Collins, next to Wind mountain I saw the remnants of
a flume which was in use in earlier days and on the Oregon side you could see a
portion of the old emigrant road where it wound around Shellrock mountain. That
very interesting landmark can be seen yet from the Washington side of the
river. Crates mill near Wyeth was the only sawmill close to the Columbia.
Sprague (Carson) landing was the terminus of two flumes from two different camps
and made lumber and cordwood was shipped from their by scows to The Dalles. At
Nelson Creek another flume brought down cordwood, bound for The Dalles. At
Sheppards Point (Stevenson) you could see two houses from the river, one the
residence of the Sheppards family and the other that of “Judge” (justice of the
peace) Ed Nimville, a bachelor, and close to the river was a bearing apple
orchard which in the fall of the year had a great attraction on the fruit hungry
people passing their in homeboats. At Rock Creek falls, Felix Inman, one of the
very early settlers operated a water power sawmill. Over at Cascade Locks you
could see derricks rigged up and when work on that that ship canal was in
progress you could hear rocks blasting and the noise of hoisting engines for a
long ways off. The town of Cascade Locks had at that time three stores, one
meat market, one hotel and two saloons. Cascade Locks also was then and for
about 10 years more, the nearest trading point and post office for the people
then living at or near what is now Stevenson, Carson, Home Valley and Collins;
and last but not least, the most interesting landmark on the middle Columbia was
then that the big, tall block house which stood at the brink of the falls on the
Washington side, dotted with pigeon holes through which, according to history,
in 1856, the soldiers shot at the Yakima Indians, who had “dug up the hatchet”
and came over into the Columbia Gorge to kill the white people.
(Continued next week)
The Skamania County Pioneer, Stevenson, WA., December 24, 1943, page 1
HOW SKAMANIA COUNTY LOOKED 60 YEARS AGO
Henry Metzger Recalls Scenes Along Columbia River in 1863
By Henry Metzger
As compared with the Bonneville dam, Cascade Locks was only a small job but it
took the government 20 years to do it, from 1877 to 1897. The Oregon Railway &
Navigation Company had then a monopoly on the very heavy traffic up and down the
Columbia Gorge and held it until Cascade Locks was finally finished and
opposition boats came on the middle Columbia.
Sixty years ago and Skamania County had the very little
deeded land to tax and the taxes collected from personal property was little
more than to pay meager salaries of the county officials and very little could
be spent on schools and roads and the settlers had to do much public work
without pay. In order to give the youngsters three to four months of school
each year some districts boarded the teachers free of charge, one week with one
family, the next week with another family; $25.00 and board as aforesaid or $35
to $40 without board and then the wages paid teachers in the backwoods districts
and this deplorable condition improved only little for the next 10 years. Also
the roads from the river to the settlers homes had to be built and maintained
almost without help from the county and there was at that time a poll tax of
$4.00 which every man over 21 and under 45 years of age had to pay, either in
cash or two days work on the roads. In the summer of 1884 myself and a few
others worked out our poll tax on the public highways of Skamania County. Our
job was to repair and make fit for travel on horseback the badly worn trail
between what is now Stevenson and Carson. Not until 1898 was a wagon road
opened all through between Stevenson and Carson and even then the county could
not pay us for that job.
Work was easy to find the wages were small; $2.00 for
common labor and $2.50 for skilled labor per 9 to 10 hour day was the top price
paid and many worked for less. Foodstuffs, such as were raised out there here
were cheap, five to six cents for dressed beef, pork or veal, 75¢ to $1.00 for
50 pounds of flour, 15¢ to 20¢ a pound for butter, 15¢ to 25¢ per dozen for eggs
and other things in proportion and groceries and dry goods were about the same
price as they were here about three years ago.
In September 1883 the Northern Pacific railway was
finished as far as Pasco in Washington Territory and from there they ran their
trains over the tracks of the O.R. & N. line into Portland. Congress had
promised to give the N.P. Ry. odd numbered (such as number 3, 5, 7 and so on)
sections of land for 20 miles on each side of the track, from Pasco to Vancouver
if they would build a railroad on the North bank of the Columbia river within a
specified time; a preliminary survey for a railroad down the North bank had
already been made, so everything looked very favorable for the building of the
North bank railroad at that time -- but we were most unpleasantly surprised when
the railroad company forfeited that the valuable land grant and did not build
the road, after waiting twenty or so years it was finally built in 1907.
Comparing the conditions as they were in this neck of
the woods around 60 years ago with what they are at present we have a picture
about like this:
Then: the children walked or rode on horseback to
school often long ways, in all kinds of weather, if they went through the 5th
or 6th grade they were considered “well schooled.”
Now: they ride to school in buses and are instructed by
trained teachers until they are up to and through the 12th grade.
Then: we farmers, or most of us, worked our farms with
the slow-moving ox teams.
Now: we do that work with tractors and trucks.
Then: we rode the always more or less _____ Indian
cayuses for pleasure or business and had no telephones.
Now: we ride in comfortable automobiles for pleasure as
well as business and talk to people a long ways off over the telephone.
And besides this we have many, many, labor saving
devices and machinery to give us well deserved ease and comforts. Yes, indeed,
we can be proud of the wonderful progress we have made in the last half-century.
HENRY METZGER.