________________________
PART III.
________
HISTORY OF DOUGLAS COUNTY
________
CHAPTER I.
________
CURRENT HISTORY -- 1871 TO 1886.
The white man's history of Douglas county begins with the year 1871. It was at this period that the first white settler took up a residence in what is now Douglas county, but which, at that period, was still a portion of Stevens county. The fact that what is now Douglas county was inhabited by a white man so early is, we believe, not generally known throughout the county, it being generally believed that George Urquhart and Philip McEntee were entitled to the honor of being the first to make their homes in the county.
John Marlin, who had a family consisting of a wife and ten children, in 1871, came to the place where the town of Krupp now stands. Here he built a log house and engaged in raising stock, making his home on what was then the frontier until 1876. Although during these five years Marlin was the sole resident of Douglas county, he had a few neighbors who were engaged in stock raising along Crab Creek farther to the east. These were a man named Irby, the Walter Brothers and John Enos, colloquially known as "Portuguese Joe." In 1876 George Urquhart came to the country and purchased Mr. Marlin's interests, the latter going to South America. The town of Krupp now stands on the land upon which Marlin first located, and later occupied by Mr. Urquhart, the latter having resided here since 1876. Donald Urquhart came to his brother's place in 1877, where he has since made his home. The Urquhart Brothers are the oldest living settlers in Douglas county.
But among the earliest to come to this country were the Chinese. Placer mining was the fruition of their most sanguine hopes. Up and down the Columbia and its numerous tributaries they wandered, and panned and rocked out a satisfying, if not an enormous, volume of auriferous deposits from the various bars and creeks. A majority of these celestials came, originally from California, following the trails of Indians, fur dealers and miners. And thus it chanced that all along the banks of the big, roaring, treacherous stream, wherever wash soil could be found on which water could be obtained, or to which it could be carried, one finds today the abandoned prospect holes of the original Chinese placer miner. It developed a fruitful field; for many years it was worked industriously; frequently with wonderful profit.
Opposite the mouth of the Chelan river, where it debouches into the Columbia, from the west, are the ruins of a Chinese village within the limits of what is now Douglas county. The
________________________
p. 522
remains of this early settlement may be seen from Chelan Falls across the river, half a mile away. It was built mainly from cedar boards split from the log like shakes pegged against upright posts and roofed with logs and brush. At present nothing but the shells of these huts remain. In this early settlement there was a store. It was the first business enterprise in the country, and the proprietor was a Chinese merchant. To the Chinese workers along the river he supplied goods, and he made considerable money. A pack train of forty horses he owned with which he brought in his miscellaneous assortment of English, American and Chinese merchandise. It is stated that no stranger ever appeared at his store who was not made welcome by the old Chinese merchant.
A tragedy, tinged with romance, is connected with this Oriental settlement. On one side of the site there was a garden, now overgrown with mustard plants and weeds. It was enclosed by a low picket fence and a gate led inward. It was a token of advanced civilization. The proprietor of the little kitchen garden was a moon-eyed youth with a voice like a muffled bell. He was in love with a dusky maiden who lived across the Columbia on the banks of Lake Chelan. But this celestial had made a peculiar vow never to declare his love. And this vow had been registered before the great Joss of the little Chinese community. Hence he was moody and became "queer," unsocial, melancholy and distrait. While others flocked to the gaming house he remained solitary and alone in his garden. He would sit there and brood over his unspoken love, until
"Night hung her sable curtain out.the little kitchen garden. No one knew when or how death had come to him. Some of his comrades spoke of a broken heart, and then they buried him in the little patch he had so assiduously attended. When the village was deserted no vandal hand disturbed his garden.
And pinned it with a star."
Many years ago this settlement was abandoned. The finances of the old Chinese merchant were running low, for he had "grubstaked" too many of his countrymen in then" precarious search for gold. In a big mine up on the Okanogan river he had an interest, and there he moved taking his lares and penates, his goods, his horses and even the number of his store with him. One by one others followed him, and wandered away, up or down the trail. The "diggings" are deserted; the village is a ruin; the cabins the abode of snakes and rodents. With the progress of civilization in the Columbia valley these old placer marks will disappear; the cabins will be torn down and real prosperity will sweep grandly over the scene.
All this was in 1875. It was, practically, an Indian war against the Chinese that drove them away, but at the time this was not generally known. Along the Methow river the Indians began attacking the Chinese of whom they killed several. The news rapidly circulated among their comrades. When the Siwashes came to the settlement intent upon its demolishment, they found nobody save a few stragglers. There were several sharp skirmishes in which some were killed on both sides. A correspondent of the Spokesman-Review says:
When the Indians reached a point on the Columbia a few miles below where Chelan Falls now stands they discovered a number of Chinamen at work on the benches three hundred feet above. The savages advanced cautiously and surrounded the celestials on three sides, leaving only the steep bluff unguarded. Then began an uneven fight. The Chinamen were unprotected and unable to escape; they proved an easy prey to their savage antagonists. How many were massacred was never known, but it is positive that not one was left to tell the tale. It was an awful fight that sent terror into
________________________
p. 523
the hearts of the other Chinamen along the river. After that there was little placer mining done for months; then one by one the celestials returned, but never could one of them be induced to go on the bench where the massacre occurred and open up the diggings' again. Today they are in exactly the same condition as that in which they were when the workers were slaughtered by the Indians.One of the very earliest settlers of Douglas county was Philip McEntee. He came to Washington first in 1877, being a member of a surveying party which was establishing the boundary line between the United States and British Columbia. He made considerable money while in the employment of the government and upon the completion of the survey invested his earnings in cattle and located where Coulee City now stands, building in the spring of 1881 the first house in that part of the county. During the winter of 1880-81 he lost heavily in cattle, but with indomitable energy started in to retrieve his lost fortune. From the time Mr. McEntee first came to Washington, he had been acquainted with the spot where he afterward built his home.
Mr. McEntee's life was a romantic one, full of lights and shadows; made up of adventure and hardships such as but few, if any, of the present generation will ever experience. He was one of those unflinching, energetic characters who made the history of the west — accepting no defeat and perservering where other weaker spirits relinquished hope and turned back to civilization. No privation was too great, no reverse of fortune sufficient to subdue the iron will of this man, who did more than is realized by most people toward converting a wilderness into one of the leading states in the union.
In the early days when this portion of the state (then a Territory) was uninhabited except by Indians and an occasional white man, Mr. McEntee would start from where Coulee City now stands with a band of cattle, drive them across several hundred miles of unbroken wilderness away up into British Columbia, where he would sell them, together with his pack horse, and make the return journey on foot, swimming rivers, sleeping on the snowcovered ground with only a blanket to protect him from the inclemency of the weather, and no companion within a hundred miles.
Among other early pioneers of this part of the county who shared in the hardships of the wilderness, were Dan Paul, John R. Lewis, Tony Richardson, Charles Sprague and others who, however, did not arrive until several years after Mr. McEntee. The latter died July 8, 1901, at Coulee City, where he had lived for over twenty years.
During the winter of 1879-80 some of the companies of the Second United States Infantry were stationed at the mouth of Foster Creek, and it is said they passed a very uncomfortable winter. In the spring of 1880 these troops removed to Lake Chelan, and Camp Chelan was established where is now the town of Chelan. Later the soldiers were taken to the mouth of the Spokane river, and Fort Spokane was established.
While it was not until 1883 that the first settlers, with the exception of the four cattlemen mentioned, arrived in what later became Douglas county, during the years 1879 and 1880 Lieutenant Thomas W. Symon's Corps of Engineers, Chief Engineer, Department of the Columbia, traversed the county from one end to the other, and laid out a wagon road from Ritzville, in Adams county, by way of White Bluffs in the southern part of Douglas county, through the county to the foot of Lake Chelan. Here was then established a United States military post. We here append Lieutenant Symon's report of his trip through the country locating a route made to the chief of engineers in 1880:
In August, 1879. I left Walla Walla and proceeded to Wallula, and thence up the Columbia to the White Bluffs. At the head of the long Island we left the river to look out for a practicable route for a wagon road to the military camp, then in the vicinity of the mouth
________________________
p. 524
of the Okanogan, on the supposition that it was to be permanently located there.
We reached the top of the bluffs', which are here about 540 feet high, by going up through a long gulch greatly beaten by cattle. The soil is dry and is ground to powder by the feet of the cattle wherever they make a path, and is not well suited for a road. We, however, found a short distance down the river, a gulch up which to ascend to the top of the bluffs, easy and gradual. From the summit the country spreads out gently rolling, as far as' the eye could reach to the northeast and east. To the north and northwest a small mountain chain, devoid of timber stretched itself from east to west across our way. It is called Saddle Mountain. The country was covered with a luxuriant growth of bunch grass, with here and there a tract of sage brush. The soil is of firm and excellent quality. Quite a large number of cattle were seen, all of which had to descend to the river for water. Proceeding somewhat to the northeast to skirt Saddle Mountain, we soon found ourselves getting into a country more sandy and more rolling, and our mules and horses had greater difficulty in getting along. In the afternoon, being on the lookout for water, we made for a green looking spot off to the east, hoping it was a spring. In this we were disappointed, and we continued on our way until nine o'clock at night, when, not finding any water, we unloaded and made ourselves as comfortable as possible without it. The next morning before daylight we took up our laborsome march through the sands of the desert and traveled until about two in the afternoon, when, as our animals were suffering intensely, from thirst, and as we were uncertain about what lay before us, we concluded to strike to the westward, as from all the indications it was more likely to give a supply of water. About three o'clock we came to the old road, which gave indications of having at one time been well traveled, and we turned and followed it to the northward, trusting that it would take us to water.
At five o'clock our animals seemed utterly unable to carry their packs any further, and so we unloaded them and piled up our baggage, and kept on without it. About nine o'clock that night we came to a small alkali pond which, vile as it was, seemed like nectar to us and to our poor horses and mules. The country we had traveled was covered partly with sage brush, bunch grass and weeds, and was utterly waterless and lifeless. Not even the cheerful coyote lived there, for not one lulled us to sleep, or molested our abandoned provisions and camp equippage. The next day we found the fine spring which feeds the alkali pond above mentioned. I afterwards learned that it goes by the name of Black Rock Spring. Here the face of the country changes to a certain extent and becomes more broken up. Black Rock Spring is at the head of a coulee which extends off to the southwest, and, probably, as far as Moses Lake. From Black Rock Spring we kept to the north, and in about nine miles came to Crab Creek, which is here quite a stream, flowing through a rich bottom half a mile wide: Up the stream the bottom narrows and becomes a chasm, formed by the perpendicular and overhanging walls of basaltic rock. Lower down the bottom becomes a marsh, entirely filling the space between the basaltic walls in which the creek sinks to collect again further below. Where we crossed it the bottom was good and the descent and ascent from the great table land were comparatively easy. A goodly number of fine, fat cattle inhabited this valley and the adjoining high grounds, and no doubt fine gardens could be made and nearly every garden vegetable raised.
Leaving Crab Creek we went nearly northward, taking as a guide Pilot Rock, a mass of rock about thirty feet high, but which, on account of the general features of the country can be seen for a great distance in every direction. Soon we crossed Kinewaw Run, the dry bed of a winter stream, now containing a scanty supply of water in lakes and springs. Leaving this we crossed shortly afterwards Wilson Creek, a fine little stream flowing through a rich bottom. It and Kenewaw Run are deeply embedded below the general surface of the Great Plain of the Columbia, have fine soil and abundant grazing in the bottom and the adjacent hills and upper plains for great numbers of cattle or horses. The scarcity of timber of any kind for fuel and building purposes is, and must always be, a great drawback to the settlement of this section. Keeping on over the part of the great plain lying between Wilson Creek and the Grand Coulee, a rich, rolling country covered with a luxuriant growth of bunch grass, we descended by mistake into the Cold Spring Coulee, down which runs the great trail of the Indians from the Spokane country to the Wenatchee and Moses Lake countries. We climbed out of this coulee and passing over the broken and rocky summit between the two coulees, we descended by a long, gradual slope of about three miles into the Grand Coulee. The Pilot Rock was right above us, on the western bank to the north. Here in this vicinity is the best place to cross the coulee for a road going east and west. The bottom of the coulee is uneven and more than a thousand feet above the present level of the river. The sides show no water marks. We went north through the coulee, its perpendicular walls forming a vista like some grand old ruined, roofless hall, down which we traveled hour after hour. The walls are about 300 to 400 feet high. At about seven miles from the river a trail crosses the coulee and we turned her and went to the west until we struck Foster Creek, down which we kept, following the wagon road made by the troops which preceded us, to the winter camp, and which crosses the coulee at its juncture with the Columbia river.
Some good ranching land lies along Foster Creek, and all over the southern portion of the Great Plain bunch grass grows in the greatest luxuriance. There are numerous little ponds which, fed by springs, keep a supply of water all the year, and also numerous springs
_______________________
p. 525
of excellent water. Pursuant to instructions from General Howard, Lieutenant Merriam and I began a search for the most suitable location for the new post. We examined both sides of the river from the mouth of the Okanogan to Lake Chelan, and decided that the most advantageous site, taking everything into consideration, was at the outlet of Lake Chelan, the plateau on the north side of the lake and river.In a later report, made in 1881, Lieutenant Symons, who during these years had become quite well acquainted with the western Big Bend country, tells of its condition before the advent of the settlers. In regard to the Crab Creek and Grande Coulee sections he said:
This is a portion of the country which is and has been very little known. Its remoteness has deterred settlers from going to it. Before I went into the section, in 1879, I could obtain but little information in regard to it. Then all the inhabitants were three or four cattle raisers living along Crab Creek — "Portugese Joe," living on Kenawaw Run, and "Wild Goose Bill," on the headwaters of the Wilson Creek. The establishment in 1879, and abandonment in 1880, of the military post at Camp Chelan, caused many people in the capacity of teamsters and other government employes, as well as the military, to go over the country, and a knowledge of it has been thus acquired and disseminated, and now there are quite a number of settlers who have gone into the country to make themselves homes. Of course it cannot become much of an agricultural country until a market for its products is afforded by the construction of a railroad into it. This section has never seemed to enter into the minds of people except as a broken and almost desert land, but I speak from a knowledge acquired by traveling over nearly the whole of it, and I shall not hesitate to characterize it as a very fine agricultural and grazing section. The country between Crab Creek and the Columbia is well watered by streams heading along the divide already mentioned, which lies quite near the Columbia ; these streams flow with more or less water, according to the season of the year through valleys of varying width, in a southwesterly direction, to Crab Creek. The land about the heads of the creeks and that lying between the creeks along their lower course is of the finest quality, growing the most luxuriant bunch grass and giving every evidence of being a magnificent grain country.
In 1880 I laid out a wagon road from Ritzville, on the Northern Pacific railroad, to Camp Chelan, a distance of one hundred and seven miles. Over nearly the whole of this' distance I found the bunch grass growing strongly and well, and the soil of undoubted fertility. The rolling hills to the south of Crab Creek for a distance of from five to twenty miles are of the same excellent quality as those to the north. Of course there is some poor land in the area east of the Grand Coulee, but as a whole it is scarcely to be surpassed.
The Grand Coulee is the most singular, prominent, and noted feature of this portion of the country. It commences on the Columbia between the mouths of the Sans Poil and Nespelim rivers and extends in a southwesterly direction for fifty-five miles, when it merges into the boulder-covered, prehistoric Columbia Lake. Except at one point it is a deep chasm, with vertical, impassable walls', averaging about 350 feet in height. About midway between its extremities these walls are broken down, entirely so on the east, and so much so on the west that a wagon has no difficulty in ascending. The coulee here is partially filled up by the broken down hills. The cause of this break seems to have been a flood of water or ice coming in from the northeast and flowing off down through the Coulee chasm. Many rounded boulders are here found in the soil, and great rocks of large size, which could only have been transported by the agency of ice. To the north of this middle pass the bottom is quite level ; it has some springs and small ponds and can be traveled without difficulty. It is in some places nearly four miles wide. The southern portion is very narrow, and the bottom is filled with a succession of lakes, the northern ones being of clear, white, sweet water filled with fish; toward the south the lakes become more and more strongly impregnated with alkali, until the one at the end of the coulee is of the most detestable, unpalatable nature. At its juncture with the Columbia the Coulee is crossed by a very bad wagon road, and a trail crosses it about seven miles from the Columbia. The only other place where it can be crossed is at the middle pass mentioned above.
I first called attention to this middle pass in 1879, and located a wagon road across it in 1880. It is the only place where, by any means, the Coulee can be crossed by a railroad from the Columbia to its end near Moses Lake. The southern portion of the Coulee from this point cannot be crossed or traversed owing to the lakes and steep walls. To the west of the Grand Coulee there is another running nearly parallel with it, known as Moses, or Little Coulee. This has a number of springs and much good land in it. The land between the two coulees is mostly rich and covered with bunch grass. This Moses Coulee comes to an abrupt end, enclosing a little lake. Foster Creek, with its many branches and fertile soil lies to the north. Many springs and little lakes exist throughout this portion of the section under discussion. There is every inducement in the way of natural advantages for thousands of settlers in this portion of the country. West of Moses Coulee there is a considerable area of timber land, and the vegetation indicates a rich soil, but water is not plentiful. It may be obtained by digging, but this has not been tried. In the southwestern portion of this section lies Badger Mountain. This could only be called a mountain in a country as flat as the Great Plain, and does not deserve the name. It is a long, rolling divide, whose
________________________
p. 526
sides are cut by gullies, in many of which springs are to be found. The soil of this mountain appears to be exceedingly rich and, indeed, if I were asked to name the richest, most fertile area in the whole Columbia basin, I know of none that I would name before Badger Mountain. The vegetation is indicative of its fertility, being, besides bunch grass, rose bushes, choke-cherry bushes, willows, etc., all growing thick and strong. The country is well watered and will in time have an easy outlet by the Columbia river, and deserves the attention of everybody having the great transportation and other interests of the country in hand.Speaking of the Moses Lake, or as he describes it, the "desert" section. Lieutenant Symons said:
The following clipping taken from the Columbia Daily Chronicle, published at Dayton, Washington, of April 2, 1884, voices the poor opinion held by some people concerning the value of the Big Bend soil in the
earlier days of settlement:
"Thomas Smith, of this place, returned from the Badger Mountain country yesterday, bringing with him a sample of the soil. It is of very poor quality and of a yellowish cast, full of dry lumps and alkali. Mr. Smith thinks he does not want any of it for farming purposes. He reports that the section of the country which goes by the name of Badger Mountain is a level plateau, or elevated table land, covered with a low growth of sage brush with some bunch grass. It might do for a summer range for stock, but for farms will likely prove a disappointment. It is situated in the 'Big Bend' of the Columbia, and is, no doubt, greatly overrated, though it is settling up quite fast."
Throughout this section of the Great Plain lies about 2,000 to 2,500 feet above the river level, and it is extremely difficult to get from one to the other. West of the Grand Coulee, the only practicable railroad route to the Columbia, that I am sure of, is by way of Foster Creek. By this route an excellent grade can be made to the river. It is possible that by way of Moses Coulee, or the southern side of Badger Mountain, an easy way to the river may be discovered. The commercial center of this section will probably be somewhere in the vicinity of the middle pass of Grand Coulee. Another, and greater center will be located near the mouth of the Okinakane.
This last one of the four sections which I have been considering, can be dismissed with a few words, and those almost entirely of condemnation. It is a desert, pure and simple, an almost waterless, lifeless, desert. A few cattle exist along the Columbia, where they can reach the river for water, and some more along the lower Crab Creek below Moses Lake. This section is much lower than the remainder of the Great Plain and evidently was a lake for hundreds of years, forming deposits several hundred feet in thickness, and which are plainly shown at the White Bluffs and Crab Creek Coulee. A large portion is covered with boulders embedded in a loose, light, ashy soil ; other portions are covered with drifting sands, and, taken all in all, it is a desolation where even the most hopeful can find nothing in its future prospects to cheer.The first survey of western Spokane, now Douglas county, was made in 1880. Anticipating the intention of the government to obtain a survey of the country, a party of surveyors in 1880 made a private survey, but contrary to expectation of the surveyors their survey was not accepted. During the years 1880-81 and 1882 Mr. J. M. Snow was engaged as surveyor in surveying the modern Douglas county. There was no settlement in this part of the country at that time, but during his work here Mr. Snow decided that this was the best agricultural region in the territory open to settlement. .With a view to the probable rapid development of this region Mr. Snow, in the summer of 1885, made settlement on a homestead near the present town of Waterville, and became an honored citizen of the county, being elected Territorial councilman in 1888. The survey made by Snow and others resulted in some changes from the former one. This survey was accepted by the government, but it was not until 1888 that settlers could obtain title owing to delays of the Department at Washington. Prior to this date settlers held land simply by "squatter's rights." Although they were squatters the land had been surveyed and the survey awaited only the approval of the government, and the settlers had no difficulty when the official survey was accepted.
Crab creek sinks soon after receiving the waters of Wilson creek and rises just above Moses Lake, of which it is the only feeder. At this point the water is passably good to drink. Moses Lake is stagnant, alkaline and unfit for any use. At its lower end are great sand dunes and sandy wastes. The water seeps through the sand and rises again a few miles to the south and flows southwesterly to Saddle Mountain," where it is turned to the west, sinking and rising several times'. I do not thing that now it ever reaches the Columbia. Below Moses Lake the creek water is alkaline, filled with organic matter and unpalatable.
________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment