All Over Oregon and Washington/Chapter 9
CHAPTER IX.
WALLA WALLA VALLEY.
If one does find the great billows of gravelly sand rather disagreeable to travel over, the first half-dozen miles out of Wallula, there is compensation in beholding the singular profusion of bright-tinted flowers that grow broadcast over the whole expanse—an example of the way in which the beautiful may flourish where the useful can not get a foothold.
A ride of three or four hours brings us to the crossing of the Touchet (pronounced Too-shay), the principal branch of the Walla Walla River. The course of the Walla Walla is nearly due west, and we are traveling in a parallel course toward the east. The Touchet has its rise in the same mountain of the Blue Range where the Walla Walla heads, but from the opposite, or north side of the butte, which is called Round Mountain. Its course is north-west, west, and south-west, to its junction with the Walla Walla, describing a semicircle, of which the Walla Walla is the base. In the same manner all the important tributaries of this river rise in Round Mountain, describe a lesser semicircle inside of the Touchet, and fall into the Walla Walla at about equal distances from each other: an arrangement by which this valley is exceedingly well watered; these creeks having other smaller ones tributary to them, and all flowing so near the surface of the ground as to be easily turned aside for purposes of irrigation. The Touchet, at the crossing just mentioned, is a narrow stream flowing between banks of rich, black alluvium, with narrow bottoms of the same, covered with a tall, coarse rye-grass. A few farms have been commenced on the bottom-land, that look very lonely in so great a waste of uncultivated, perhaps uncultivable country; for we have left behind the sand and gravel, and come into a section where there are nothing but rolling hills of a light-colored earth, so fine and powdery that where the road has been used for a season, great canyons exist—the wheels of wagons and tread of animals having pulverized the soil, and the wind lifted and carried it away, leaving these deep cuts. This same ashen soil supports an abundant crop of the nutritious bunch-grass, and ought, therefore, under a system of irrigation, to be able to produce the cereals.
This ashen soil is certainly not pleasant to journey over in summer; and it is with real gratitude that the longed-for shower is welcomed, bringing an abatement of both dust and sunshine. A half-dozen miles from Walla Walla city, at the crossing of Dry Creek, the aspect of the country changes. Instead of rolling hills covered with bunch-grass, between the roots of which the gray earth is always visible, we come to a beautiful, level basin of land, bounded by the foot-hills of the Blue Mountains on the east, and stretching away off into undulating prairies on every other side. The first glimpse of this lovely valley is very cheering indeed.
Perhaps it is partly by contrast that the town of Walla Walla impresses itself so pleasantly upon the beholder on first entering it from the direction of Wallula. It does, at all events, surprise the traveler with its aspect of cheerfulness and thrift, with its neat residences and embowering trees, and the general air of comfort and stability which it presents. The population of Walla Walla city is in the neighborhood of fifteen hundred. Its trade is derived from a well-to-do farming community, and from outfitting for the mines of Idaho and Montana. Judging from the thronged appearance of the streets, the merchants are doing a profitable business.
Walla Walla enjoys the luxury of plenty of pure, bright, sparkling water. Mill Creek, one of the several semicircular streams before spoken of, passes through the town, and is diverted into a hundred tiny rivulets which course through its length and breadth, laughing, and glinting in and out every body's garden, carrying coolness, fertility, and music to each well-kept homestead. The flowers, vegetables, and fruits of Walla Walla gardens attest the use and the worth of these tiny canals.
In educational and religious institutions Walla Walla is very well represented. The Whitman Seminary was chartered in the winter of 1859–60, and built in 1867 by subscriptions from the people, to commemorate the services and sufferings of the Missionary martyr, Dr. Marcus Whitman, who, with his wife, and others, was murdered by the Cayuse Indians, in November, 1847. Out of this germ will probably grow the future University of the Walla Walla Valley. Aside from this institution, there are two high-schools in Walla Walla—one Protestant, and one Catholic; and a Teachers' Institute, organized in the summer of 1870, besides a number of public schools. Of churches there are several, well attended, and with flourishing memberships. There are two weekly newspapers, and a Real Estate Gazette, published here. The city has two Masonic Lodges, one of Odd-Fellows, and one of Good Templars. It has telegraphic connection with Portland and San Francisco, and only needs a railroad to make it a young metropolis. Walla Walla, by the way, is the residence of Mr. Philip Ritz, whose intelligent efforts to get the Northern Pacific Railroad through this valley entitle him to the gratitude of its people.
The visitor to Walla Walla is expected to visit the site of the Waiilatpa Mission; and to one acquainted with its history this is not an uninteresting excursion. The "place of rye-grass" is the meaning of Waiilatpa, and just describes the point of bottom-land between the Walla Walla River and Mill Creek, near their junction. It could never have been a very cheerful place, being shut in by higher rolling prairie from any extended view; but was chosen according to the rules of all pioneers: water, and a piece of bottom-land. Besides, as mentioned elsewhere, the first explorers of the country did not understand it, and believed they had secured the only fertile spot when they settled on a low bit of creek-bottom.
Waiilatpa is just that—a creek-bottom—the creeks on either side of it fringed with trees; higher land shutting out the view in front; isolation and solitude the most striking features of the place. Yet here came a man and a woman to live and to labor among savages, when all the old Oregon Territory was an Indian country. Here stood the station erected by them: adobe houses, a mill, a school-house for the Indians, shops, and all the necessary appurtenances of an isolated settlement. Nothing remains to-day but mounds of earth, into which the adobes were dissolved by weather, after burning. Among the ruins are fragments of burnt glass, iron, earthenware, and charcoal—sole evidences that these heaps of earth are not like any mounds of the prairie round about.
A few rods away, on the side of a hill, is a different mound: the common grave of fourteen victims of savage superstition, jealousy, and wrath. It is roughly inclosed by a board fence, and has not a shrub or a flower to disguise its terrible significance. The most affecting reminders of wasted effort which remain on the old mission-grounds are the two or three apple-trees which escaped the general destruction, and the scarlet poppies, which are scattered broadcast through the creek-bottom, near the houses. Sadly significant it is, that the flower whose evanescent bloom is the symbol of unenduring joys, should be the only tangible witness left of the womanly tastes and labors of the devoted Missionary who gave her life a sacrifice to ungrateful Indian savagery.
The place is occupied, at present, by one of Dr. Whitman's early friends and co-laborers, who claimed the mission-grounds under the Donation Act, and who was first and most active in founding the seminary to the memory of a Christian gentleman and martyr. On the identical spot where stood the Doctor's residence, now stands the more modern one of his friend; and he seems to take a melancholy pleasure in keeping in remembrance the events of that unhappy time, which threw a gloom over the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains.
The Walla Walla Valley covers an area of eight thousand square miles, or 5,120,000 acres, and is contained within the boundaries of the Columbia River on the west, the Snake River on the north and east, and the Blue Mountains on the east and south. It occupies a position nearly central with regard to the great plain of the Columbia, and also the lowest point in it, being only four hundred feet higher than the northern end of the Wallamet Valley, or very little more above the sea-level than the head of that valley, notwithstanding the general difference in elevation between the country east and west of the Cascade Range. The greater portion of the Walla Walla Valley belongs to Washington Territory; but a portion of it extends over into Oregon, and touches upon the Umatilla country, which it resembles.
The Government surveys have been extended over 820,000 acres. Of this, about 150,000 acres have been taken up, and about 20,000 acres more of unsurveyed lands settled upon. According to the census of 1870, the whole number of acres improved in the county of Walla Walla, in Washington Territory, is 63,377. Its population is seven thousand; and the valuation of property, real and personal, over three millions, with no county indebtedness. The stock statistics of 1870 show 5,787 horses, 1,727 mules, 14,114 neat cattle, 8,767 sheep, and 5,067 hogs. The cultivated land was divided, for that year, as follows: Wheat, 9,561 acres; oats, 5,317; barley, 1,314; timothy, 1,522; corn, 2,795; besides smaller crops of rye, buckwheat, etc. The number of fruit-trees in the county, 60,525; flouring-mills, eight; saw-mills, four. The grain crop, including wheat, Indian corn, barley, oats, and rye, for the year 1871, or the crop now in the ground, is estimated by the millers and others competent to judge, at one million bushels; and the fruit crop, for this year, much larger than ever before. These figures give a very flattering idea of an interior county only opened to settlement eleven years ago, when the military prohibition, consequent on the Indian wars, was removed.
From a practical farmer and fruit-grower in the suburbs of Walla Walla city, we obtained the following estimate of the productiveness of the valley, and the season for harvesting grains and fruits:
AVERAGE YIELD PER ACRE.
| 25 | bushels | wheat. |
| 30 | bushels„ | oats. |
| 30 | bushels„ | barley. |
| 40 | bushels„ | corn. |
| 20 | bushels„ | rye. |
| 40 | bushels„ | peas. |
| 36 | bushels„ | beans. |
| 500 | bushels„ | potatoes. |
| 200 | bushels„ | sweet do. |
| 300 | bushels„ | turnips. |
| 1,000 | bushels„ | carrots. |
| 800 | bushels„ | parsnips. |
| 20,000 pounds | cabbage. | |
| 2½ tons | hay. | |
Fruit from seven-year-old trees and vines.
| 40,000 | pounds | apples. |
| 30,000 | pounds„ | peaches. |
| 40,000 | pounds„ | pears. |
| 50,000 | pounds„ | plums. |
| 20,000 | pounds„ | cherries. |
| 40,000 | pounds„ | grapes. |
| 15,000 | pounds„ | blackberries. |
| 15,000 | pounds„ | raspberries. |
| 5,000 | pounds„ | gooseberries. |
| 10,000 | pounds„ | currants. |
YIELD OF EACH TREE, VINE, PLANT, AND SHRUB.
Bear from graft in three years.
| 1st year. | 2d year. | 3d year. | 4th year. | |||||||||||
|
20 | lbs. | . . | 50 | lbs. | . . | 125 | lbs. | . . | 250 | lbs. | |||
|
15 | lbs.„ | . . | 35 | lbs.„ | . . | 100 | lbs.„ | . . | 200 | lbs.„ | |||
|
20 | lbs.„ | . . | 50 | lbs.„ | . . | 125 | lbs.„ | . . | 250 | lbs.„ | |||
|
20 | lbs.„ | . . | 50 | lbs.„ | . . | 125 | lbs.„ | . . | 250 | lbs.„ | |||
|
5 | lbs.„ | . . | 15 | lbs.„ | . . | 50 | lbs.„ | . . | 100 | lbs.„ | |||
| From off-shoot. | ||||||||||||||
| 1st year. | 2d year. | 3d year. | 4th year. | |||||||||||
|
3 | lbs. | . . | 8 | lbs. | . . | 15 | lbs. | . . | 35 | lbs. | |||
|
3 | lbs.„ | . . | 10 | lbs.„ | . . | 20 | lbs.„ | . . | 40 | lbs.„ | |||
|
. . | . . | 1½ „ | . . | 2 | lbs.„ | . . | 2 | lbs.„ | |||||
|
3 | lbs.„ | . . | 10 | lbs.„ | . . | 25 | lbs.„ | . . | 75 | lbs.„ | |||
|
2 | lbs.„ | . . | 5 | lbs.„ | . . | 10 | lbs.„ | . . | 20 | lbs.„ | |||
|
2 | lbs.„ | . . | 5 | lbs.„ | . . | 10 | lbs.„ | . . | 20 | lbs.„ | |||
|
8 | lbs.„ | . . | 20 | lbs.„ | . . | 20 | lbs.„ | . . | 10 | lbs.„ | |||
- Wheat, from the 24th of June to 10th of July.
- Oats, from 1st of July to 20th of July.
- Barley, from 20th of June to 1st of July.
- Rye, from 1st of July to 10th of July.
- Corn, from 20th of August to 10th of September.
- Strawberries, from 1st of May to 10th of June.
- Raspberries, from 10th of June to 20th of July.
- Blackberries, from 25th of June to 1st of August.
- Gooseberries, from 20th of June to 1st of July.
- Cherries, from 20th of May to 1st of July.
The prices of labor range as follows:
Wages for farm laborers, per month |
$35 00 |
Average wages of day laborers (without board) |
2 50 |
Average wages of day laborers (with board) |
1 50 |
Carpenters, per day |
4 00 |
Female domestics, per week |
7 00 |
Number of farms in the county |
654 |
Number of schools in the county |
41 |
The climate of the Walla Walla Yalley is, on the whole, a pleasant one. The average temperature is mild—about like that of Washington city; but less liable to sudden and disagreeable changes. The winters are occasionally severe; but, generally, snow does not remain on the ground longer than from four to ten days. Stock live and thrive, without care, on the natural pastures, both in summer and winter; yet, doubtless, some provision ought to be made against the possibility of a period of cold and snow. The spring and autumn weather is delightful, with light rains and occasional thunder-showers. The summer is warm and dry, with some windy days, when the dust is inconveniently omnipresent.
This is the climate not only of Walla Walla, but of nearly the whole eastern portion of Oregon and Washington—ranging from a mean winter temperature of thirty-five degrees to a mean summer temperature of seventy degrees at Dalles, and from forty-one degrees to seventy degrees at Walla Walla; the winters being warmest at the latter place, and the summers about equal. Owing to the dryness and purity of the air, the atmosphere is never sultry, as in the Atlantic States, however warm it may be, and sun-strokes are almost unknown; while both men and animals can endure to labor in the sun at a much higher temperature than in moister climates. Neither do violent wind-storms visit this country, such as are experienced in the Mississippi Valley; nor earthquakes give people tremors, as in California. There have been one or two instances of the sudden rise of streams at the foot of the mountains, from a cloud-burst above, and the crops have been washed out of the soil by the sudden deluge. But these things are unusual, and are also a warning against building houses in narrow valleys, beside streams which head in the mountains. A higher location is at once more healthful and more safe, in any country.
We were invited out into the foot-hills, to visit a farm opened only the year before, where this accident by cloud-burst had destroyed the promising young orchard, garden, and a portion of the grain crop of the first year; but owing to the fertility of the soil, and length of the growing season, the injury was, in a measure, repaired the same year. When we were there, during the first week in June, the rye in a field on the hill-side stood seven feet high, with occasional bunches several inches higher. The farmer—a young man from Iowa—was entirely satisfied with his new home, and was about to build a homestead on one of the sloping hill-sides of his farm, above high-water mark, from the sudden flood of the previous summer. We were also shown, at one of the farms, the fleece of a Cotswold sheep, with a staple thirteen inches in length, and glossy as silk.
There is no timber in the Walla Walla Valley except the cottonwood, birch, alder, and willow, which grow along the streams. The farmers are compelled to go to the Blue Mountains—generally a distance of fifteen miles—for timber for fencing, and lumber for building. Yet every farm is well fenced, and the farm-houses are better and neater-looking than those first erected in timbered countries, and for obvious reasons. The ugly, but substantial log-house, once erected, lasts a generation, and is tolerated from use. But where it is impossible to build such a dwelling, and where sawed lumber must be used, it is generally thought worth a little extra effort to put up something that the farmer will not want to tear down in his life-time.
A ride through the Walla Walla Valley, along the line of the stage-road, shows us the most cultivated portions, and a great deal of delightful country that is in its natural state. The face of the country is undulating—covered with grass and flowers. Fat, sleek-hided cattle feed in herds on a hundred hills. As we jog easily along over smooth roads, we enjoy the clear, bracing air, the cloudless sky, the glimpses of cultivation in wayside nooks, the flowers, the birds—the whole breezy, peaceful, harmonious landscape.
The only game which we notice is of the bird kind—prairie-hens and curlews. The latter amuse us much with their noisy, silly ways, and awkward style of running or flying. Thinking to learn something of natural history, we inquire of the driver of the mail (who, by the way, is from Maine) the use of the curlew's four or five inches of bill. The Yankee response is, "I don't know, unless it is to eat out of a bottle!" That reminds us to tell him about the man who became excessively fat eating mush and milk out of a jug with a knitting-needle.
Coming to the valley of Dry Creek we behold a new phase of this country. Dry Creek has bottom-land just wide enough, by intersecting it with transverse parallel lines, to make a row of farms extending its whole length. The views we catch of this winding belt of cultivation are perfectly charming—like the effects in a picture. Tints of green, yellow, and brown, in the fields; russets and grays; white houses in the midst of orchards and gardens; the beautiful forms of native and cultivated trees grouped about the houses, or fringing the creek; cattle, sheep, and fowls, giving life to the picture; or, better still, the farmer, with his children, coming in from the hay-field on the loaded wagon. While we gaze delighted, from every side the meadow-lark trills its liquid melody, in notes of exultation peculiarly infectious; and we find ourselves wondering why we have not always preferred the country to the town.
A ride of eighteen miles brings us to the Touchet; not the Touchet as we saw it at the first crossing on the road from Wallula, but a beautiful stream, with a gravel bottom, wooded banks, picturesque bluffs, and an open, handsome valley. And here, at the crossing, is the promising new town of Waitsburg. As the history of this place may serve as a hint to future pioneers in this country, we give it as it was told to us.
Six years ago a gentleman named Wait came here, in the winter season, and by dint of indefatigable exertion succeeded in erecting a flouring-mill before the next harvest. At that time there was no mill within a long distance, and the need of one was felt by the whole farming community of the Touchet. In less than two months after it was running, Mr. Wait's mill paid him five thousand dollars. Soon tradesmen of different kinds settled near the mill; stores and a hotel followed, and in a short time a village had sprung up, which to-day has an appearance the most enterprising and thrifty of any town except Walla Walla in the whole valley. Judging by the farm-wagons, the sleek horses, the well-dressed farmers' families, and brisk trade at the stores, we should say that the Touchet was the farmer's land of Canaan.
Waitsburg has a school-house, which is its just pride, and that serves at present both as church and school building. There are sixty pupils in attendance, and a teacher of ability employed, at good wages, who also employs an assistant. Good morals and good order seem fashionable in Waitsburg—a great recommendation to a new place in a new country. There is considerable outfitting for the mines done at this place, which is on the direct road to Idaho.
A ride which we took out among the hills of the rolling prairie, convinced us that the bottom-lands were not the only grain-fields of Walla Walla Valley. Water is found by sinking wells to a reasonable depth; and springs occur frequently in the ravines, from which water can be conducted, if needed, to irrigate lands on a lower level. We noticed several new farms, one or two years old, where there was the promise of future abundance and comfort; and here, as everywhere that the bunch-grass grows, we observe the fine looks of the stock subsisting entirely upon it.
Beyond Waitsburg the road follows along the Touchet Valley for twenty miles, past a constant succession of farms, with neat, commodious dwellings, and a neat, commodious, white-painted school-house, every few miles of the way. With such beginnings, the people of the Walla Walla Valley are on the high road to wealth and eminent social position, in the future of the State of Washington.
After leaving the Touchet, the road takes a course at right angles to all the streams, keeping up on the high ground except at the crossings. From the greatest elevations there are splendid views—wonderful for extent, and rather awful; inasmuch as we are able to realize that we are traveling like the fly on the orange, and can look down its slopes to dizzy descents of curvature. The crossings of the Tucanon and Alpowah rivers are any thing but agreeable coupons of travel. The hill of the Tucanon is frightful. Seeing the preparations made for the descent, prepares us for something of a hill; but when once started down the narrow, winding grade, with the coach seemingly minded to tumble over the backs of the horses, it is the most natural thing in the world to wish we had not undertaken the ride down. Walking, we reflect, if not an easy mode of locomotion, has the advantage of being eminently safe, compared to this. A mile and a quarter of such reflection prepares us to be thoroughly glad when the lowest level is reached, and we are in the little valley of the Tucanon, where again we find farms and pretty groves of glossy-leaved cottonwood. At the Alpowah we repeat the dizzying descent, with this difference, that once down we do not have to climb up again on the other side, but keep along its little valley to its junction with the Snake, when we have reached the extreme limits of the Walla Walla Valley on the north-east.
The Alpowah is a shallow, but unfailing stream, with a small, fertile border of bottom-land, cultivated chiefly by the Nez Perce Indians. The corn and melon-vines look unusually thrifty, and occasionally quite a comfortable house is to be seen; but, generally, a wigwam of matting, or a tent of skins, suffices for the requirements of these restless people. So near the Snake River the characteristics of Idaho begin to appear; excessive heat, and splendid flowering cacti, making gorgeous the hot sands of the river-side.
To sum up, before leaving it, the advantages of the Walla Walla Valley: we find that it is lovely in aspect, fertile, of a mild temperature, and well situated with regard to river and railroad transportation and markets, both east and west. The area of country upon the north-west coast, which will produce peaches, Indian corn, sugar-cane, sweet-potatoes, melons, and grapes, as well as the cereals, is limited, and confined almost exclusively to the territory east of the Cascades. Therefore, this valley has a double value, inasmuch as it will produce all these fruits, in addition to grains. It has, besides, innumerable facilities for manufacture, especially for woolen goods—the water-power and the wool being abundant. Nothing is lacking except railroad communications with the Columbia River and the East, to establish its importance; and that is what its citizens are now struggling to obtain.