Homestead, "riding on a lineback buckskin pony all over Oregon. " He was part owner of the East Oregonian at Pendleton. He then came to Portland to be associated with an ambitious magazine publishing enterprise, the Pacific Monthly, serving later as general manager. He has been a member of the editorial staff of the Oregon Journal since 1910. Among his pamphlets are Across the Plains by Prairie Schooner; Captain Sol Tethero, Wagon Train Master; To Oregon by Ox-Team in 1847, and Talks with Edwin Markham. He is the author of four books: Oregon Folks, 1927, History of the Columbia River from The Dalles to the Sea, 3 volumes, 1928; Oregon's Yesterdays, 1928; Oregon Trail Blazers, 1929.
Ghost Cities of the West
From Oregon Trail Blazers, 1929
The road to Oregon's yesteryears lies not along the main travelled highways—to go back to the era of the pack train and stage coach, you must follow the dirt roads to the back of the beyond country. At the far end of some deeply-rutted, water-washed, overgrown roadway, you will occasionally happen on what once was a ghost city of the west. Many of these ghost cities today are but memories, while in others a few grey-bearded pioneers still linger to dream of the glory that once was theirs. For more than 40 years I have rambled over the west on horseback or afoot, by stage and river steamer, by train and by auto, visiting the sites of the cities that once were, and interviewing the men and women who helped make history in the long-gone days. Where to day is Mountsylvania, which of old time was a few miles to the westward of Milwaukie? It waxed and waned and passed away. Eldorado and Malheur City, once thriving mining camps, today are pasture land. Sailors' Diggings has lapsed back to nature. Pacific City, located near the mouth of the Columbia, once aspired to be the metropolis of the Oregon country. It is no more. Monticello, on the Cowlitz, is but a memory. Santiam City on the Santiam River, a few miles above its mouth, has passed from the memory of man. What of Cincinnati, which once aspired to be the state capital? It too, has passed. Zena and Bloomington, Jennyopolis and
