Cousin Sam: November 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

LILLQUIST, Chapter IV, pt. 2

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Chapter IV, pt. 1 Table of Contents Chapter V, pt. 1

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Settlement at the Middle Crossing of the Coulee

After the Indian scare of 1878-1879 had subsided, settlement increased in the Big Bend. Philip McEntee came to Washington as a member of the international boundary surveying party in 1877. He saved his money and upon completion of the survey, he invested in cattle and located where Coulee City now stands. 19 In 1881 he built a cabin just east of the present high school, near the big artesian spring that for many years supplied most of the water for the town. Philip McEntee was described as an energetic Scotsman with an iron will. Steel has this to say about this man:

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 snow covered ground with only a blanket to protect him from the inclemency of the weather, and no companion within a hundred miles. 20

While there was no great farming area close by, McEntee's claim was ideally located at the middle crossing of the Coulee. The springs that bubbled to the surface made the spot "a veritable Oasis in the Scab Rock." The spring near the place where
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19 Steele, p. 523.

20 Ibid.

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McEntee built his cabin produced over 300 gallons per minute, and the overflow formed a small creek as it flowed westward from its source out into the bottom of the Coulee. 21 For two years Philip McEntee was the only white man living in this part of eastern Douglas County. His location at the break of the Coulee and abundant grass and water made it a stopping place for emigrant families on their way to the rich farm land around Waterville. In a short time the site was called McEntee's Crossing and this was the name Coulee City went by until 1890.

The Northern Pacific Railroad reached Spokane in 1891 and was completed in 1883. this transcontinental railroad encouraged a great migration to the Big Bend. 22 The period from 1881 to 1885 saw rapid growth of settlement west of Spokane Falls. McEntee was to have a neighbor in the fall of 1882 when Dan Paul drove a herd of cattle from Montana and let them range for themselves in the Coulee. 23 Paul located on a spring about one-half mile south of McEntee, where Ralph Webley has his home today. Paul was followed by others in the spring of 1883. Platt Corbaley and Alfred Pierpoint took up squatters' claims on land near Badger Mountain in western Douglas County. 24 More settlers came during the summer and by fall the Vorheese settlement was established north of Hartline and east of the Coulee.
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21 Interview, Alf and Tom Twining, June, 1968.

22 Sol H. Lewis, "A History of Railroads in Washington," Washington Historical Quarterly, III (July, 1912), 188-195.

23 Interview, Alf and Tom Twining, June, 1968.

24 Steele, p. 530. Also, Coulee City News-Standard, May 13, 1949, p. 8.

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52-53

Fig. 10. -- Homesteader's Cabins

Alfred Pierpoint built this cabin on a homestead claim south of Waterville in the spring of 1883. He moved to the Highland area about 10 miles west of Coulee City some time after 1884

This is the cabin that Phil McEntee built at Coulee City in 1881. It was located east of the present high school on property now owned by Everett Rice.

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The prospects of growth were evident when the Territorial Legislature created Lincoln and Douglas Counties in November of 1883. The estimated population of Douglas County at that time was 100 to 150 persons. 25

At the crossing of the Coulee, McEntee and Paul were joined by John Lewis and Dan Twining, Welsh immigrants, who located in the Coulee just north of the present town. Lewis sowed 10 acres of wheat on experimental basis, and after cutting the grain, he stacked it and built a corral. Using a band of Cayuses he tromped the grain from the straw and used the wind to fan it. 26 At this point it is interesting to note that the first four settlers at McEntee's Crossing came from a variety of national backgrounds. McEntee was a Scotchman, Paul an Irishman, and Lewis and Twinning were Welshmen. Lewis was very active in the next few years providing information about the area to newspapers in his native Wales to encourage other Welshmen to settle at McEntee's Crossing. The Welsh were to constitute the largest single nationality group in the early years of settlement.

In 1886, the northern half of the Columbia Indian Reservation was opened for mineral prospecting. 27 The evidence of mineral wealth became known in 1859, but the region had been closed to white settlement. The prospects of lode deposits resulted in a second rush of miners across the Big Bend from Ellensburg, Sprague, and Spokane in the spring of 1886.
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25 Steele, p. 531.

26 Ibid., p. 535

27 Louis, p. 4.

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Mining activity was started in the vicinity of Loomis, Conconully, and Ruby. The town of Ruby grew to 3,000 people in a short time. 28 These scattered mining communities were almost entirely dependent upon pack trains and freight wagons for their supplies, most of which were brought from the railhead at Sprague. By 1888, regular stage lines and freight lines were in operation and Condin had a ferry on the Columbia River. 29 Steamboats were in operation up the Columbia from Rock Island to the Okanogan by July of 1888, thus helping Ellensburg to participate in the trade. 30

The prospects of being on a supply route to the mines brought more settlers and businessmen into the Big Bend. The transportation facilities in use, stage and freight lines, needed a supply of horses and mules. This promoted more stock raising. The winter of 1880-81 had hurt the open range cattle business, but herds were building up again in spite of the prairie fire in June of 1883, which burned the grass off the land east of the Coulee to Almira. 31

The assessment rolls of Douglas County taken in 1885 showed a total of 239 residents, 8,250 acres of land, with a total valuation of $20,445.50 for the land and $920 for improvements. Personal property was valued at $117,332.80, most of which was livestock. McEntee and Paul paid taxes at this time totaling $111.02 and $$71.25, respectively. 32
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28 Ibid., p. 4-6.

29 Virginia R. Beck, "Columbia River Ferries," Okanogan County Heritage, IV (September, 1966), 25-29.

30 Robert E. Long, "Steamboating on the Upper Columbia River 1888-1915" (unpublished Masters thesis, Washington State College, 1950), pp. 18-19.

31 Steele, p. 529

32 Ibid., pp. 536-537

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After the creation of Douglas County in 1886, there was a struggle for the county seat between the settlers east and west of the Coulee. The western part had the greater population and they won out in an election, but they could not decide between Waterville and Okanogan. Another election was required before Waterville was selected as the center of county government. 33

The years of 1886, 1887, and 1888 saw substantial growth in the population of the county. A number of new business concerns developed in the summer of 1888 at McEntee's Crossing. George R. Roberts opened a general merchandise store one-half mile north of the present main street where the city park is located today. Mail was going through from Ritzville to Waterville and Roberts became the first postmaster of McEntee. In the fall, a second store and blacksmith shop was started by Levi Salmon. Dan Twining opened a saloon. 34 The increased mining activity to the north and the prospects of a railroad were drawing more people to the area. In 1889, the population of Douglas County was 2,651, of which 276 were living in the Grand Coulee. 35
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33 Ibid., p. 541. Okanogan was a small settlement that existed near Waterville at this time.

34 Ibid., pp. 558-559.

35 Ibid., p. 547.

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57-58

Fig. 11. -- Early Home Sites

Philip McEntee built a cabin at this location in 1891. Before 1900 he had constructed the house in the middle picture at the same site. The spring that supplies much of the domestic water needs of the town is located in the grove of trees in the background.

This is the house that Philip McEntee built prior to his death in 1901. It was built on his original homestead, but since has been moved to the west side of town and is currently being used as a barn.

Dan Paul settled at this spring south of town in 1882. This location is at the head of one of the scabland coulees that eroded the floor of the Grand Coulee proper.

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Chapter IV, pt. 1 Table of Contents Chapter V, pt. 1

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(pages 52-3 are fig. 10, above)

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(pages 57-8 are fig. 11, above)

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LILLQUIST, Chapter IV, pt. 1

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Chapter III, pt. 3 Table of Contents Chapter IV, pt. 2

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43

SETTLEMENT OF THE BIG BEND

Early Stockmen

During the peak of mining activity in the Inland Empire a great deal of freight to the northern regions went over the Colville Road. This road may well have been the oldest of the pioneer trails in the area. It had been used by Indians, explorers, and fur traders traveling from the mouth of the Snake River to the Colville Valley. 1 When the military came into the region in the late 1850's, a survey was made of the road. Shortly afterwards a few people settled at strategic spots where there was grass and water. 2 Agricultural activities at Fort Colville had proven the soil and climate of the Inland Empire suitable for crop production. The mining advance was the movement to stimulate agricultural as well as transportation developments. The mining communities provided a market for all the products that could be delivered.

Disappointed miners and former packers and freighters were impressed by the luxurious bunch grass and adequate water supply that flowed from springs in the Big Bend country. 3 The
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1 Otis W. Freeman, "Early Wagon Roads in the Inland Empire," Pacific Northwest Quarterly, XLV (October, 1954), 125-126.

2 Lewis, p. 7.

3 Ibid., p. 9.

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region had the appearance of a stockman's paradise, though there was a scarcity of timber for building purposes. The first settlers did find enough timber of sorts along the water courses, and by using stone and sod, were able to construct rude dwellings. Raising cattle was relatively easy on this open range and they were a product that could be driven to market. These early stockmen laid claim to a suitable ranch site by "squatter's rights," and after starting a herd, many left the country for long periods of time, working at some other occupation to build a stake to help develop their spread. By the mid-1860's, a number of people had ranches on Cow Creek and Rock Creek in the vicinity of Sprague. As the best sites were taken, the late arrivals moved west of Sprague and located on Crab Creek and Wilson Creek in the Big Bend.

It should be noted here that the political organization of the Big Bend country was practically nonexistent until 1860. The Oregon Provisional Government of 1843 established Clackamas County, which included all of eastern Washington. In 1845, Clackamas was reduced to a small strip of land in northern Oregon, and eastern Washington was changed to Clark County. 4 After the creation of Washington Territory, the eastern part of Washington was organized into Walla Walla County in 1859. 5 In 1860 the Territorial Legislature passed a bill creating Spokane County from the northern part of Walla Walla County. Spokane
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4 Johansen and Gates, p. 233.

5 Richard F. Steele, An Illustrated History of the Big Bend Country (Spokane: Western Historical Publishing Company, 1904), p. 65 [parts of this book have already been transcribed in this blog; and the entire book is linked for on line view or download in the home page. -- C. S.]

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County included all of eastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle north of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. The county seat of Spokane County was Pinckney City, a settlement near Fort Colville. 6 The creation of Stevens County in 1863 cut the size of Spokane County, as this new county included all the land north of the Columbia and Spokane rivers, from the Cascades to the Rockies. The northern part had the greater population and Spokane was re-attached to Stevens County and existed under its jurisdiction from 1864 until 1879. 7 At this time Spokane County was re-created and consisted of the present counties of Grant, Douglas, Lincoln, and Spokane.

      The Territorial Legislature of 1883 created Lincoln and Douglas counties from western Spokane County. 8 The Big Bend country at this time consisted primarily of these two counties -- Lincoln and Douglas. Douglas County contained the present county of Grant, and Lincoln contained the county of Adams. When the first stockmen settled in the region around Sprague and Davenport they were actually in Spokane County.

      The record shows that one of the first settlers to come into the Big Bend was Samuel Wilbur Condit (Condin). * Wild Goose Bill, as he was called, had been a miner in the California Gold Rush of 1849. He came to Washington from California around 1859 and worked as a packer freighting goods from Walla Walla to the mining camps. He was in the area for some time in 1865 but
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6 John P. Esvelt, "Upper Columbia Chinese Placering," The Pacific Northwesterner, III (Winter, 1959), 9.

7 Ibid.

8 Steele, p. 66.

* This blog has more about "Wild Goose Bill":
Pioneers to Power, post 25, p. 139; post 26, p. 144;
History of the Big Bend Country, pp. 68-70; p. 104;   pp. 145-146.

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did not not settle down until 1875 when he started a ranch where the town of Wilbur now stands. 9 Wild Goose Bill was a colorful individual and met his doom in a western gun fight at a ranch north of the Grand Coulee in the winter of 1895, thus closing out a successful career as a pioneer stockman and ferry owner on the Columbia River.

John Marlin, his wife and 10 children, came from Fort Colville to the eastern part of Douglas County in 1871. They established a ranch near the present community of Marlin and raised livestock until 1876, when Marlin sold out to George Urquhart. 10 Sprague and Colfax served as supply centers for these early ranchers. During the middle 1870's, more stockmen settled in the central part of Douglas County wherever suitable grass and water could be found. The region was scabland but water and grass were available in the draws and coulees. These early settlers did not realize the fertility of the rolling plains, nor were they interested in these lands except for pasturage.

The Nez Perce War of 1877 caused a great deal of unrest among the Indian people of eastern Washington. The Government had not yet reached favorable treaty agreements with the Columbias, who were closely related to the Palouse, Yakimas, and Nez Perce. These Indians still lived a nomadic life in the Big Bend country, ranging from White Bluffs northward. The murder
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9 Spokesman Review Inland Empire Magazine, July 5, 1959, p. 9.

10 Lewis, p. 10.

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of Lorenzo Perkins and his wife by a band of renegade Umatillas in July of 1878 near White Bluffs increased the fears of the white settlers and veiled hostility was evident on both sides. 11 Moses, chief of the Columbias, was an able politician who succeeded in obtaining a reservation for his tribe on April 19, 1879. 12 This reservation consisted of all the lands from the Methow River to the international boundary between the Cascades and the Okanogan River. The settlers of eastern Washington were not pleased that such a large tract of the public domain was granted to the Indians. 13 This, plus other minor incidents, increased the hostility towards the Indians and resulted in a decision by the Federal Government to establish a military fort near the reservation to preserve peace. 14 This fort was later named Camp Chelan.

On August 12, 1879, companies of the Second Infantry began the 190-mile march from Fort Colville to the mouth of Foster Creek near the site of Fort Okanogan. They brought their wagons across the northern end of the Grand Coulee and upon reaching the site, established a temporary post. By the next spring a permanent location had been selected at the end of Lake Chelan, and the soldiers set to work constructing a fort. Items for the new post had to be freighted infrom Ellensburg, Colville
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11 Steele, p. 70.

12 Ruby and Brown, pp. 86-87.

13 Ibid., p. 153, Map.

14 Ibid., p. 157.

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or Walla Walla. Lieutenant Thomas Symons was directed to lay out a practical wagon road from Walla Walla to serve Camp Chelan. 15

Lieutenant Symons conducted a survey through the western part of the Big Bend and wrote the following account regarding the middle pass crossing the Grand Coulee:

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. I called attention to this middle pass in 1979 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. 16

The route that Symons selected to serve Camp Chelan did not use the middle pass crossing the Grand Coulee. It began at White Bluffs on the Columbia and followed the old Cariboo Trail to Ephrata, then ran across the plateau to Beebe Hill and crossed the river to Lake Chelan. 17

Due to transportation problems and scarcity of supplies the camp at Chelan was abandoned before it was completed. It was officially discontinued in September of 1880 and the men and equipment were transferred to a site at the mouth of the Spokane River. 18 This was a more favorable location, with timber available, and Fort Spokane was erected and continued in operation
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15 Wenatchee Daily World Magazine Supplement, September, 1968, "By River, Trail and Rail," by Bruce Mitchell, pp. 16-17.

16 Steele, p. 525.

17 Wenatchee Daily World Magazine Supplement, September, 1968, "By River, Trail and Rail," by Bruce Mitchell, p. 17.

18 Ibid.

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until 1898. The presence of the army in the Inland Empire increased agricultural activities, as well as provided employment for more people. A local source of supply was needed for grain, hay, and food.

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Chapter III, pt. 3 Table of Contents Chapter IV, pt. 2

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(page 47 is fig. 9, above)

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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

LILLQUIST, Chapter III, pt 3

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Chapter III, pt. 2 Table of Contents Chapter IV, pt. 1

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38

THE GOLD MINING ADVANCE

The discovery of gold at Fort Colville brought a rush of miners across the Big Bend before the end of 1856. The Yakima Indians resented the trespassing of prospectors on their land and murdered a party of miners traveling to the Colville mines. Thus began a series of events that led to the Yakima War, bringing the military into eastern Washington. Colonel George Wright commanded the forces that defeated the Indians and brought the region under control in 1858.

In the two years following the discovery of gold at Colville, prospectors found new deposits of the precious metal in southern British Columbia. The bonanza occurred in 1857 on the Frazer River, bringing a greater rush of miners into the Inland Empire in 1858. 38 Miners came from California along with new prospectors from all walks of life and all areas of the globe. Soldiers working on the United States-Canadian boundary
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38 Trimble, p. 25

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discovered gold in the fall of 1859 on the Similkameen River in northern Okanogan County. 39 This find was made on Indian reservation lands and the miners had to move out. The backwash of miners from Colville and Similkameen moved into the Clearwater area of Idaho in 1860. Here a group led by Captain E. D. Pierce made a rich strike and the rush was on in Idaho. 40 This move extended to the Boise Basin in southern Idaho and into Montana in the next few years.

The mining rush back and forth across the Inland Empire was a great stimulus to the development of transportation because of the need to furnish supplies to the gold field settlements. River transportation from Portland became a chief means of supplying the Idaho and Montana gold fields. An army of packers and freighters attempted to supply the needs from river ports to the interior. The supplies to the Cariboo and Fraser region came in by one of two routes. The first was from Bellingham up the Fraser River and then overland to the gold fields. The second was from Wallula over the old Fur Brigade Trail across the Big Bend and up the Okanogan Valley to the Cariboo country. This route was called the Cariboo Trail. The middle crossing of the Grand Coulee served as an important pass for this trail, which had two main approaches to the Big Bend country. The first and most important approach was along the Columbia north
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39 Loretta Louis, "Ruby City: The Life and Death of a Mining Town," Okanogan County Heritage, I (June, 1963), 3.

40 Trimble, pp. 64-65.

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from Wallula to the present site of Pasco, then overland to Warden and east of Moses Lake to Soap Lake, then up the Grand Coulee to Coulee City, and then north across the plateau to Bridgeport. 41

The second overland approach was outlined by Alexander Anderson in his Hand-Book and Map to the Gold Region of Frazer's and Thompson's Rivers published in 1858:

From the Priest's Rapids the Indian trail is followed up some twenty-five miles, when it strikes off the river, and enters the Grande Coulee, an extraordinary ravine, the origin of which has been much speculation. The bottom of this ravine is very smooth, and affords excellent traveling; good encampments are found at regular intervals. After following it for about sixty miles, the trail strikes off for the Columbia, at a point of a few miles beyond a small lake, called by the voyageurs, La Lac a l' Eau Bleue. Striking off from the point mentioned, in a direction about N.N.W., the trail reaches the Columbia a few miles above Fort Okinagan, which post is called twenty-five miles from the Grande Coulee. 42

Anderson listed the distance from Priest Rapids to Fort Okanogan as 110 miles. The total distance to the Thompson River is listed as 380 miles and took 19 days to travel. 43 Anderson's estimate of distance from Priest Rapids to Fort Okanogan appears to be fairly accurate as the highway mileage between those two points is listed at 125 miles.

Ben Snipes was one of the first cattlemen to use the Cariboo Trail as he drove cattle northward to provide beef for
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41 This information was obtained from a map entitled Washington Highways and presented by the Washington State Highway Commission, Public Information Director, Department of Highways, Olympia, Washington, 1968.

42 Alexander C. Anderson, Hand-Book and Map to the Gold Region of Frazer's and Thompson's Rivers (San Francisco: J. J. Le Count, 1858), pp. 13-14.

43 Ibid.

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the miners in the period from 1856 to 1868. 44 Joel Palmer was the first to take wagons over the Cariboo Trail when he took an ox train of nine wagons from Wallula to the Cariboo in the summer of 1858. 45 As the good mining camps faded out and business declined for the packers and freighters, it was not unusual for men like these to become stockmen and farmers along the main roads to the mining camps. Agricultural products found a market with the bigger freight lines that operated following the improvement of roads, bridges, and ferries.
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44 Bruce A. Wilson, "Cow Country," Okanogan County Heritage, I (June, 1963), 27.

45 Brown, p. 30.

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Chapter III, pt. 2 Table of Contents Chapter IV, pt. 1

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LILLQUIST, Chapter III, pt 2

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Chapter III, pt. 1 Table of Contents Chapter III, pt. 3

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27 (continued)

The Fur Trader

The earliest white men to appear in the Big Bend country were the people associated with the fur trade. While they may have been impressed with the geological wonders of the area, their main interest was in finding a route through the region. The Grand Coulee country was simply a part of the wasteland that they had to traverse to reach more profitable pursuits at trading sites. 12 Let us briefly review the series of events that brought fur trading expeditions to the Pacific Northwest.
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12 Herman J. Deutsch, "Geographical Setting for the Recent History of the Inland Empire," Pacific Northwest Quarterly, IL (October, 1958), 150-151.

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      Up until 1800 various explorers of Spain, Britain, and the United States searched for the legendary Northwest Passage by land and sea. Captain Cook's third voyage to the Northwest coast in 1776-80 and the publishing of his findings in 1785 closed out this phase of maritime exploration. Cook's crew had traded for a few furs and realized a fantastic profit, thus starting the maritime fur trade. 13 For the next 30 years American and British sea captains competed for this trade along the Northwest coast. Americans had ventured into the maritime trade when a group of Boston merchants sent out two trading ships in the fall of 1787 under the command of Captain John Kendrick and Captain Robert Gray. This first expedition proved financially successful and Gray was sent out on a second voyage in June of 1791. 14 He wintered along the coast and started trading operations in the spring of 1792. While seeking trade with the Indians he discovered the Columbia River on May 11, 1792.

     In 1803 the United States purchased Louisiana from France, thus gaining a foothold in the trans-Mississippi West. After the purchase, President Jefferson commissioned Lewis and Clark to explore and look for trading sites. The expedition was completed in 1806 and within a year fur traders were among the Indians of the Missouri country. 15

      The British trading companies were equally interested in pushing the trade westward. the main idea was to be the first
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13 Dorothy O. Johansen and Charles N. Gates, Empire of the Columbia: A History of the Pacific Northwest (2nd ed., New York: Harper and Row, 1967), p. 31.

14 Ibid., p. 56

15 Ibid., p. 81

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to trade in a virgin area and to reap a harvest of furs before the arrival of competition. Since 1790 men of the North West Company had been promoting expansion of activities to the Pacific Ocean. Alexander McKenzie had crossed western Canada in 1793, but not with economic success. Simon Fraser made his way to the Pacific Ocean in 1808 but failed to open up any feasible trade route.

In 1811 John Jacob Astor chartered the Pacific Fur Company hoping to enter the fur trade on the Pacific slope by the way of the Columbia River route. Astor sent out two expeditions to accomplish his objective, one by sea and one by land. The sea expedition arrived at the mouth of the Columbia on the Tonquin in March, 1811. There they proceeded to establish a headquarters, later called Astoria. 16 The overland party did not arrive until February of 1812 after suffering great hardships on their journey. 17 Both the British and American concerns were aware of each other's plans to capture the trade of the Columbia drainage. The British wanted to establish posts on the Columbia before the Americans and thus, secure the region by right of possession for their commercial interests and for Great Britain.

David Thompson, a North West Company field commander and explorer, was directed to cross the Rockies and go down the Columbia to its mouth. Thompson reached the upper Columbia in the winter of 1810-11. The next spring he travelled to Spokane House and then to Kettle Falls. After building a cedar canoe
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16 Ibid., p. 95

17 Ibid., p. 96

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suitable to take the eight-man party down the Columbia, he departed on his voyage July 3, 1811. 18 He passed the mouth of the Grand Coulee in the afternoon of July 4, but made no entry in his journal regarding the Coulee. The members of the expedition reached Astoria on July 15, where they found the Astorians already established and preparing to send a trading expedition up river into the interior. On July 22 the two parties started up-river, with Thompson traveling overland from the mouth of the Snake and returning to Spokane House. 19

The up-river party of Astorians under the charge of David Stuart established Fort Okanogan in the fall of 1811. 20 This was the first American settlement in the State of Washington. Alexander Ross was left in charge of the trade at this post. There is no doubt that the men of these two rival trading concerns started the activities that brought this area into the consciousness of American and British authorities. They also initiated commerce with the Indians of the Big Bend country.

In the spring of 1812, the United States and Great Britain entered war. Because the British, with superior sea power, controlled the sea lanes, Astor did not send out a supply ship to his new-found colony at the mouth of the Columbia. In November of 1813, a British naval sloop, "The Raccoon," arrived at Astoria and the captain took possession of the post. Astor's
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18 Ibid., pp. 97-102

19 David Thompson, Narrative of His Explorations in Western America, 1784-1812, ed. J. B. Tyrrell (Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1916), p. 511.

20 Caywood, p. 3.

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partners were disheartened by this time and sold out to the North West Company before all was lost. The employees of the Pacific Fur Company had the opportunity to stay with their new employer, the North West Company. Alexander Ross was one of those who elected to stay and work for the North West Company when Fort Okanogan changed hands on December 15, 1813. 21

Ross was appointed chief factor at Fort Okanogan and retained that position until 1816. He travelled overland from Okanogan to Fort Spokane in the fall of 1812. In his account of his journey of 160 miles southeast of Fort Okanogan to Spokane, he made mention of the Grand Coulee. On another trip along a similar route in 1814, he mentioned camping in the Grand Coulee. He was impressed by the geological wonders that he saw and called the Coulee one of the most romantic picturesque marvellously formed chasms west of the Rocky Mountains. He estimated the Coulee to be 80 to 100 miles long and lying in a north-south direction. The cold springs in the coulee are mentioned along with the superstitions of the Indians. 22

From 1814 to 1821, the North West Company was in control of the inland fur trade and the only white men to view the Grand Coulee or the site of Coulee City were people associated with the trade. In 1821, the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company merged and the business of the inland trade was administered by the Hudson's Bay Company, with headquarters at Fort
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21 Caywood, p. 3

22 Ross, pp. 31-31

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Vancouver under the direction of Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor. This gigantic commercial concern held a virtual monopoly on the trade and control of the interior for the next 20 years. In 1825 John Work, a clerk of the Hudson's Bay Company, referred to the Grand Coolley in his journals. David Douglas, the Scottish botanist, mentions the Grand Coulee in his journals of travel down the Columbia in 1826. 23

The fur trade had a potent influence on the history of the West. It was the trader and trapper who first explored and established routes of travel. One of these routes pioneered by the fur trade became what is known as the Okanogan Trail. The Northwest Company had started trading operations north of Fort Okanogan into the interior of British Columbia. After the merger, the Hudson's Bay Company placed greater emphasis on developing the trade in that area. This resulted in the abandonment of Fort Spokane, and construction of Fort Colville by 1826. Now a two-pronged advance could be made on British Columbia -- one from Okanogan and one from Colville via the Kettle River and westward.

After the furs were gathered in the interior they were sent by brigade to the headquarters at Vancouver. The inland brigade traveling overland from Fort Okanogan to Kamloops in New Caledonia (British Columbia) depended on pack horses to bring the bales of furs down to meet the down-river brigade from Colville. Many of these horses were secured from the Nez
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23 Edmond S. Meany, "The Grand Coulee in History," Washington Historical Quarterly, XV (April, 1924), 86-92.

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Perce and driven overland to Fort Okanogan. 24 This overland trail from Fort Okanogan to Fort Walla Walla is the southern part of what was called the Okanogan Trail. In later years, after the gold rush started, the name was changed to the Cariboo Trail. It is probable that this trail crossed the Grand Coulee within a few miles of Coulee City, as the middle crossing was the only place feasible without great hardship and difficulty.

      From 1822 to 1832 the supremacy of the Hudson's Bay Company in the Oregon country want unchallenged. The following two decades found American interest aroused and eventually the region was obtained by the United States by treaty in 1846. During the transitional period when the region changed hands, the active promoters of American settlement were missionaries who were part of the surge of religious awakening that was evident in the United States between 1820 and 1840.

      The missionary interest began in the Northwest in 1832, after a delegation of four Indians made a journey to St. Louis seeking the "white man's Book of Heaven." The American press printed some emotion-charged stories relating to this event which helped to inspire religious groups and individuals to answer this "Macedonian cry." Jason Lee, a Methodist, was the first to respond, and with a small party of Christian workers he journeyed to the West in 1834. 25
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24 William C. Brown, "Old Fort Okanogan and the Okanogan Trail," Oregon Historical Quarterly, XV (March, 1914), 1-38.
Also, Bruce A Wilson, "Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail," Okanogan County Heritage, IV (Sept., 1966), 6-8.

25  Johansen and Gates, p. 161.

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Lee canvassed the region and conferred with Dr. McLoughlin, who advised him to locate in the Willamette Valley south of Fort Vancouver. In 1836 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and Henry and Eliza Spalding to carry on the work of spreading Christianity among the Indians. McLoughlin, hoping to retain the region north of Fort Vancouver for the fur trade, shrewdly advised the Whitmans not to locate at Waiilatpu, near Fort Walla Walla, their choice for a missionary center. Whitman did not respond to this advice and located among the Cayuse Indians at Waiilatpu. Spalding picked a more favorable location among the Nez Perce east of Walla Walla, near Lapwai, which eventually was to be part of Idaho. 26 The American Board sent out a second group of workers in 1838 which included the Reverend Elkanah Walker and Reverend Cushing Eells. These two men and their wives found a suitable site for a mission at Tshimakain on the old Colville Trail about 25 miles west of the present city of Spokane. 27

Due to conflicting personalities, unsuitable backgrounds, and commercial interests, the missionaries were not very successful in their assigned task. their greatest contribution lay in the fact that they brought their families, they farmed, taught school, and advertised the country to attract settlers. Thus, they succeeded better as colonizers than as missionaries. In 1838 the Catholic missionaries entered the field and by 1850 had seven missions operating in the Northwest. On the whole,
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26 Ibid., p. 165

27 Ibid., p. 171

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they were more successful in working with the Indians than were the Protestants. 28 They did not encourage settlement that was to bring trouble with the Indians at a later date.

      From a few mountain men and a small group of missionaries that may have numbered 26 in 1935, the American settlement of Oregon grew to 1,200 by 1843. In 1850 more than 13,000 settlers called themselves Oregonians. 29 The presence of free land, patriotic duty, the slavery issue, and the possibility of improving their fortunes drew Americans westward.

      The Oregon country was considered by some Americans to be part of the natural domain of the United States, but in the early 1840's this region was held in joint occupancy by both the United States and Great Britain. The Oregon emigrants were frustrated by the slow process of diplomacy which delayed settlement of the boundary, thus hindering the organization of a government to handle pressing local problems. To meet local needs the settlers organized the region from the 42nd parallel to the 54th parallel, lying west of the Rockies, into counties. Eastern Washington was placed in Clackamas County. 30 Settlement of the Oregon boundary question would not be attained until the national and diplomatic interests of the United States and Great Britain made the settlement desirable.

     The interest of the United States Government was apparent in 1841 when an official exploring expedition under the
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28 Ibid., p. 175

29 Ibid., p. 151

30 Ibid., p. 233

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command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes completed some survey and appraisal work in the region. 31 Wilkes urged that the government hold out for the 49th parallel as a northern boundary in order to save Puget Sound, which he believed had great military and commercial value. Wilkes also sent an expedition into the Inland Empire.

This group was under the command of Lieutenant Robert Johnson and it travelled from Wenatchee along the Columbia River and overland to Fort Okanogan. Then the party proceeded from Fort Okanogan to Fort Collville by way of the Grand Coulee. it is a little unclear as to where they entered the Coulee, but the author believes that it was via Barker Canyon on the north rim near Steamboat Rock. The party travelled down the Coulee south and crossed over the east rim at a place that appeared to be stained with sulfur. The author believes that this is where the east rim monocline begins, about five miles northeast of Coulee City. There are two places where Johnson could have climbed the wall in this area and the rocks are covered with a yellow lichen growth that makes them appear to be stained. In his report, Johnson states that "the Coulee was too impregnated with Saline matter to permit crops of grain to be raised on it, but with an abundance of water and good grass could be suitable for livestock." 32
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31 Ibid., p. 185

32 Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition during the Years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, and 1842 (Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1845), pp. 430-450.

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      From 1818 to 1846 the territory under diplomatic discussion was that part of present-day Washington lying north and west of the Columbia River. After a number of diplomatic exchanges, settlement was reached and the Oregon Treaty was signed June 15, 1846, establishing the boundary on the 49th parallel. By this time there were approximately 7,000 Americans in the Oregon country. 33 The resulting pressure of settlement was instrumental in creating a series of events that led to the Whitman Massacre in 1847 and the Cayuse War that followed.

     The California Gold Rush of 1849 and subsequent rushes in the Southwest provided a ready market for Oregon lumber and agricultural products. These exports kept the economy prosperous and encouraged over 30,000 Americans to come to the Pacific Northwest between 1850 and 1855. 34 By 1853, the settlers in the northern part wanted separation from the domination of the Willamette Valley. They organized and sent a memorial to Congress requesting the creation of the "Territory of Columbia." 35 Their request was granted on march 2, 1853, when a bill was signed creating, not Columbia, but Washington Territory.

      Isaac Stevens, who was appointed the first Territorial Governor, arrived at Olympia in the fall of 1853, holding also the office of Superintendent of Territorial Indian Affairs and leader of a Northern Pacific Railroad survey party. Governor Stevens sent a survey party from Fort Colville across the Big Bend to the Columbia River. This party was under the command of
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33 Johansen and Gates, pp. 207-212.

34 Ibid., p. 236.

35 Ibid., p. 247.

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Lieutenant Richard Arnold. Arnold and his men camped at the present site of Coulee City on November 20, 1853. 36 While carrying out his various duties during 1854, Stevens traversed most of eastern Washington, which he called the "Great Plains of the Columbia." After making treaties and assigning reservations, Stevens saw his work undone by the discovery of gold at Fort Colville in the late summer of 1855. 37
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36 Coulee City News, May 20, 1949, p. 8.

37 William J. Trimble, The Mining Advance into the Inland Empire (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1914), p. 16.

38 Ibid., p. 25.

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Chapter III, pt. 1 Table of Contents Chapter III, pt. 3

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Monday, November 28, 2011

LILLQUIST, Chapter III, pt 1

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Chapter II, pt. 2 Table of Contents Chapter III, pt. 2

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CHAPTER III

PEOPLE IN THE BIG BEND COUNTRY

Native People

Evidence has been found that man lived in the Columbia Basin from 6,000 to 11,000 years ago. A site near Lind, Washington, was tested in the summer of 1950 and excavated in 1951-1952 by archaeologists from Washington State University. Their findings confirmed the belief that human occupation of a camp was in existence as early as 10,000 years ago at Lind Coulee. 1

The Columbia River, during its torrential run through the region, eroded caves in the basalt cliffs that formed the Coulee walls. Washington State University archaeologists have conducted a number of digs in these caves and found evidence showing that primitive man lived in the area around Coulee City as long as 8,000 years ago. 2 Primitive peoples, and more recently Indian groups had used these rock shelters as transitory home sites, storehouses, and burial places. Most of the caves were near springs or lakes. Near Coulee City are a number of artesian springs that were important camping grounds for Indian
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1 Daugherty, p. 51.

2 Roald Frysell and Richard D. Daugherty, "Late Glacial and Post Glacial Geological and Archaeological Chronology of the Columbia Plateau, Washington," An Interim Report to the National Science Foundation (n. p., 1963), p. 13.

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peoples traveling through the region in their constant quest for food or on their way to fishing and trading fairs along the Columbia. The author and some of his friends have found Indian artifacts in large quantity within one mile of the city limits of Coulee City.

The Indian peoples who populated the region in more recent times were of the Interior Salishan stock and probably of the Columbia, Nespelem, or San Poil tribal communities. The San Poil and Nespelem had their permanent villages located at the mouth of the rivers that bear their names. 3 They may have come down the Coulee as far as Coulee City on their way to Soap Lake (the Great healing Water) or to trading and gambling fairs near Wenatchee. Alex Covington, a San Poil, told the author in the late 1950's that his wife's people had come to Coulee City to dig douse in the spring for as long as they could remember. 4 Ruby and Brown, in the book Half-Sun on the Columbia, state that Chief Moses' ansestors met with Spokane Indians to fire the plateaus towards the Grand Coulee to stampede and kill antelope. The Columbias had a well-used campground that they called Squaquint near Dry Falls. 5 The author believes that this is the campground that lies about one-half mile northwest of Coulee City. Big springs bubbled out of the ground and overflow
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3 Verne F. Ray, The San Poil and Nespelem: Salishan Peoples of Northeastern Washington (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1933), pp. 6-13.

4 Interview with Alex Covington, April, 1957.

5 Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown, Half-Sun on the Columbia (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965), pp. 9-10.

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wound out through the low swales creating a stream and marsh area. With some wood for fuel, plus water and grass for horses, this was a pleasant camp for the natives.

      The Columbias were more nomadic than their neighbors, the Nespelems and the San Poils. The horse had a greater impact on them, and they moved around in the Big Bend country ranging from White Bluffs northward. 6 Their permanent villages were located at the mouth of Moses Coulee near the Rock Island fisheries. The passed through the Grand Coulee on annual trips to kettle Falls for fishing or to the mountains for berries and deer. Time was spent at Moses Lake and long treks were made across the Rockies on buffalo hunts. 7

      The area around Coulee City could not support a permanent population of natives for any great length of time. Most of the people passing through were probably family groups completing some part of their yearly cycle in quest of food. This cycle of life began anew each spring in April. The Indian peoples then moved to root grounds in the Big Bend to dig douse and bitterroot. 8 The heavier ground lying east and west of the Coulee produced a good camas crop. On account of the shortage of water at the camas grounds, camps were made near the springs in the Coulee and foraging expeditions were sent out from these base camps.

      The Columbias appeared to be excellent workers in stone and bone, and did a good job at weaving and twining cords and
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6 Daugherty, p. 15.

7 Ruby and Brown, pp. 10-12.

8 Ray, p. 14.

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25-26

This is a view of Coulee City taken from the monocline

on the west wall of the Grand Coulee.

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fabric of sagebrush bark and other plants. 9 Artifacts found near Coulee City are made of chalcedony, chert, and petrified wood. There are also bone, basaltic, and quartzite scrapers. The quartzite scrapers are reported by Ray to be a tool used by the San Poils. 10

Life was not easy for these native peoples and as a result, their social structure was simple and, in most cases, they managed to stay out of conflicts with the white man as he came into the region in the 1800's. Like other native peoples across the land they picked up the white man's vices and diseases. Ray mentions a smallpox epidemic decimating the San Poil and Nespelem peoples in 1846 and 1852-53. Measles took a toll among these same tribes in 1847. 11
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9 Douglas Osborne, "Archaeological Tests in the Lower Grand Coulee, Washington." Unpublished Xerox report of excavations conducted by Washington State College and the State Department of Conservation and Development (n.p., 1960), pp. 14-16.

10 Ray, P. 234.

11 Ibid., pp. 21-22.

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Chapter II, pt. 2 Table of Contents Chapter III, pt. 2

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(page 24 is fig. 6, above)

(pages 25-6 are fig. 7, above)

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