excitement in Boise and Owyhee a lively place, but its glory has departed with the boats of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company.
Morrow County, bordering Umatilla on the west, is drained by Willow Creek and branches. It has the reputation of being the banner county for stock, and a great wool-producing district. Even the sandy belt along the Columbia is said to furnish excellent range for cattle in the winter season, the grass growing- well among the sage brush. The county was named after J. L. Morrow, a member of the Legislature when it was organized in 1885.
Heppner is the county-seat of Morrow, and was named in honor of Henry Heppner, who served the county in its infancy by securing mail connections and postal service. A railroad connects it with the O. R. and N. line. It has four churches, a public-school building, a newspaper, a bank, a flouring-mill, and various business firms. The wool-clip of 1890 delivered at Heppner will, it is said, exceed three million pounds.
Gilliam County, next west of Morrow, is a small district, watered by several small affluents of John Hay River. It embraces a variety of surface, and has a greater variety of resources than some larger counties. The basaltic formation, so universal elsewhere, disappears in the southern portion of Gilliam County, and, instead of lava, sandstone conglomerates, shales, and other formations of the carboniferous era take its place. Beds of coal have been discovered which promise to be of great value; also eoal-oil and iron.
Arlington, on the Columbia River, was the county-seat, which has been removed to Condon. Fossil, situated on the head of a small stream south of the basalt, as mentioned above, is so named on account of the remarkable fossils found in the neighborhood by Professor Condon.
The other towns in the county are Contention, Fleits, Clem, Matney, Lone Rock, Olex, Idea, Rockville, Blalock, and Willows. This county was named in remembrance of the pioneer, Colonel Gilliam, who was killed near Willow Creek by the accidental discharge of a gun while going to the relief of the volunteers, in the Cay use Indian war of 1847.
Wasco County was organized in 1854, when it compri
