All Over Oregon and Washington/Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV.
SALEM AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.
While we are overcoming the last twelve miles of quiet voyaging between the "Old Mission" and Salem, we may as well consider their relationship. In the autumn of 1840, the Methodist Mission built a mill on a stream twelve miles south of their first establishment, at a place called by the Indians Chemeketa, and finding the situation every way a better one than that, removed the mission to it in the following year. The first dwelling was erected at some distance back from the river, on the bank of a stream known as Mill Creek, in a very pleasant and convenient location, with an extensive plain on one hand, and a charmingly wooded, rolling landscape on the other. In 1843, the large frame-building, for many years known as "The Institute," was erected, as a school for Indian children; but the savages not taking very kindly to study, the mission was dissolved in 1844, after which time the Oregon Institute became a seminary of learning for whoever chose to patronize it, although it still remained under the control of the Methodist denomination, and was converged ultimately into a university.
Upon the sale of the mission property, the town-site of Salem was laid out by Mr. W. H. Wilson, and received its present name. It is very handsomely located upon a gravelly prairie, rising gradually back from the river, which is skirted with groves of tall trees. Other groves of firs and oaks relieve the level monotony of the landscape for a couple of miles away to the north and east; while the hills across Mill Creek are wooded like parks, with a variety of trees. Across the Wallamet, and fronting the town, is a range of high land called the "Polk County Hills," which makes the greatest charm of the whole view of Salem. In outline and coloring, these hills are poetically beautiful. Should we chance to drive in the direction of the Penitentiary grounds (east), a lovely landscape lies stretched on either side, melting and blending into one complete picture. The town is backed by the Polk County Hills, to the west; the "Waldo Hills" (another arable range), to the south-east; the blue Cascade Range with its overtopping snow-peaks, to the north-east; groves of fine, large oaks and firs breaking the middle distance; while immediately about us are level farms and fields of waving grain, with a substantial farm-house, here and there, in their midst.
Salem is a comfortably built town, with an air of stability and propriety about it. The streets are wide, the lots large, and the dwellings neat, with well-kept gardens attached. Shade-trees—locust and maple—line the broad avenues; and the public square is of liberal proportions, promising "lungs" to the city, should it grow large enough to need this breathing-space in its midst. Although the capital of Oregon, it has as yet no State buildings upon its spacious square. During Territorial days, there was in Oregon the usual struggle between rival towns to secure the capital. Salem, having triumphantly carried off the honor and the Government appropriations, had bitter enemies, as might be expected; and when the handsome State House was near its completion, it was unfortunately and mysteriously destroyed by fire. Since then, the State has rented apartments in a brick block on the principal business street, where the public archives are kept, together with the State Library, and where the Legislature holds its biennial sessions.
Notwithstanding this lack, the town is not without some of the handsomest buildings in the State. Reed's Opera House, the Chemeketa Hotel, the Bank building, the new Wallamet University building, and some of the stores, are quite worthy of an older and wealthier city. The private residences, too, are many of them spacious, and even elegant. Taking it altogether, Salem is probably the pleasantest town in Oregon; and from its central location, together with its importance as the capital, can never be less than the second city of the State. It has now connection with Portland by the Oregon Central Railroad; and very soon will be, by the West Side Railroad, connected with the country bordering on the Columbia River.
The Agricultural Society of Oregon have their Fair Grounds at Salem, where annually are congregated the rural population from every part of the State. Those who come from a distance are provided with tents, beds, and cooking utensils; the fields adjoining the inclosed grounds swarming with these families, their tents, wagons, and animals. The occasion is employed to renew old acquaintances, and talk over the politics and agricultural interests of the country. Each year witnesses some improvement in stock or machinery; and the articles on exhibition are very creditable, for a State with so limited a population. The prizes offered are liberal, when the resources of the Society are considered.
The manufactures of Salem are: one woolen-mill, valued at $300,000, turning out yearly $200,000 worth of blankets, flannels, tweeds, cassimeres, yarn, and knit goods; two flouring-mills, both making an excellent brand of flour; one oil-mill; two tanneries; three lumber-mills; four sash and door factories; one foundry and machine-shop; four wagon and carriage-shops; two cabinet-shops; one bag-factory; three printing-offices; one book-bindery; two gun-shops; three breweries; three saddle and harness manufactories; and four millinery establishments. There is one banking-house, numerous dry-goods and grocery stores, three bookstores, three drug-stores, and two hardware stores. Not that every branch of business in Salem is comprised in this list; but this is a general summing up of the industries of a population of about four thousand people, outside the professions and the agricultural classes. Probably the assessable property of Salem amounts to two millions or more.
Salem has one daily and weekly newspaper, the Unionist, and Statesman; and one other political weekly, the Salem Mercury. The Wallamet Farmer, an agricultural journal, is also a weekly, having its publishing office in Salem; and the Oregon Medical and Surgical Reporter, a monthly, is also published here. The educational facilities of Salem are good. The Wallamet University, with a Medical Department, takes the first rank. The old Institute building having become somewhat dilapidated, the present structure was erected in 1864. It is built of brick, in the form of a Greek cross; is eighty-four feet in length by forty in width, and is five stories high, including the basement and attic. The plan of the interior is convenient and elegant. There are three entrances, and three separate staircases leading to the attic. From the cupola a splendid view of the country is obtained, with four snowy peaks in the distance. The university is in a good condition financially, and ranks among the ablest institutions of learning on the Northern Coast.
The Catholics have a seminary in a flourishing condition, and there are fine public-school buildings for the accommodation of the public generally; but the free-school system is not yet put in operation in any part of Oregon. Salem has nine churches, comprising all the usual denominations; a musical society; three lodges of Odd Fellows, and one of Masons, and a Good Templars organization.
The State Penitentiary is located east of town on a tract of seventy-five acres, belonging to Government, where also the Insane Asylum is ultimately to be built. None of the State buildings yet erected are of a permanent character. The contracts for these structures will be a "bone to pick" between rival contractors at some future day, and will give Salem a chance to make something out of them.
The value of property has considerably increased since the opening of the Oregon and California Railroad, and must continue to increase for an indefinite period, as the growth of Salem is assured. The gradual settlement of the choice farming lands by which it is surrounded, and the opening up of the mineral deposits known to exist in the Cascade Mountains to the east, would alone give a sure, if gradual, rise to property in Salem. Its population is order-loving, social, and industrious; and its climate healthful. Intermittents prevail to some extent on the margin of the river, as in all countries, especially new ones; but they are of a light character, and easily broken up, or what is better, prevented.
It is a fact, more or less well established by experience, that the sunflower is anti-miasmatic. It is asserted, on very good authority, that if a hedge of this plant be interposed between the dwelling and the prevailing direction of the wind, or if the dwelling be surrounded by them, that intermittent fevers will not attack the occupants. As the seeds are useful for some purposes, it could be no loss to any one residing in fever-breeding localities to try the effect of cultivating them.
South Salem, a pleasant suburban neighborhood, separated from the city proper only by Mill Creek, is rapidly becoming an important addition to it. Many of the pleasantest homes are located in this neighborhood, which, from being rather more elevated than Salem, is in demand for the beauty of its building sites, and the extent of its river views.
Driving anywhere about Salem is delightful. The roads are naturally good, except in the rainy season. In summer the town-people enjoy excursions to the mountains, for trout-fishing, strawberrying, and the like amusements. It is by no means uncommon for parties to camp out for one or two weeks, either in the mountains or over on the sea-coast. The summer climate being generally rainless, there is no risk in this nomadic sort of life; and people find themselves the better for this intimacy with Nature. Another summer custom is the holding of "basket-meetings," for a week or more, by several of the churches, who have grounds set apart, and the necessary buildings thereon, for these annual gatherings.
The Salem people have two of these camp-grounds, adjoining each other, over the river in Polk County, on the banks of the Rickreal, near its junction with the Wallamet. Here, in a fine grove of firs, we have seen the order and devotion, the sociality and recreation, of a basket-meeting. Between the hours of service the people disperse themselves in all directions, to lunch, and to talk over church affairs—perhaps the prospect of a crop; for this is the season of rest for the agricultural population—between "seed-time and harvest."
The scene is very picturesque. White tents, and rough board cabins, are thickly placed among the trees. In the centre of the grove is the spreading roof, supported on rustic pillars, under which the congregation gathers at stated hours for religious services, and where the speaker's desk is placed, with it great bouquets of roses and sweet-scented garden flowers—contributions from the ladies to the adornment of the rude pulpit. Here and there a covered wagon serves as a temporary home; for many of these people crossed the plains years ago, and know to how many uses a covered wagon may be put. Young people are flitting about from tent to tent—older ones are receiving company at their own doors; tables are spread in the shade, at which hungry people do justice to hasty cookery; a hum of subdued voices fills the air with a pleasant murmur, which accords well with the soft sighing of the trees, the stir of insects in the air, and the flow of the pebbly stream close by.
That "the groves were God's first temples" strikes us forcibly under circumstances like these. The devotional spirit comes more easily and quickly, and with more power, in immediate contact with Nature, than when coaxed and stimulated into exercise by the appliances of art. In the age when architecture was really and truly an art, this truth was seized upon; and those grand cathedrals which still remain the glory of Europe, in their pointed roofs, fretted arches, and long colonnades; their deep shadows, and windows of colored glass, staining the light they transmitted to the colors of Nature's choicest hues, were intended to express that solemn and subtile sense of beauty, which, in the presence of great Nature, lifts the heart above and away from mean or trivial considerations.
The Salemites have some other resorts than those already mentioned, in different soda-springs, in their own, and the adjoining county of Linn. In short, if the tourist has not remained in the heart of the Wallamet Valley long enough to find out for himself its resources for pleasure, as well as profit, he has done himself and the country an injustice. Of course all the resorts mentioned are frequented by residents of the adjoining counties on either side, and belong equally to all this portion of the State. It is, indeed, quite the custom for Oregonians, of every section, to make their summer excursions, quite as much as those city-bred pleasure-seekers who people Eastern watering-places every season.
About twenty miles above Salem the Wallamet receives the waters of the Santiam, a considerable stream, having its rise in the snows of Mount Jefferson. Lebanon, on the south fork of the Santiam, is a delightful spot, in the midst of a fine farming country. A few miles above Lebanon, at the falls of the Santiam, is another small town, with flouring and lumber-mills. Both of these places are the centres of a healthy business, dependent on agriculture and manufactures.