THE DALLES-CELILO CANAL 155
of Washington that same winter established the county of Walla Walla with its western boundary at the summit of the Cascade Range and its eastern boundary at the summit of the Rocky Mountains, and in all that stretch of country Gov. Stevens in coming from Fort Benton to Olympia the previous Fall had found only straggling settlers in the Bitter Root, the Colville and the Walla Walla Valleys, engaged in stock raising or trade with the Indians. But when the formal an- nouncement that the country was open was made at army head- quarters on December 9th, 1858, it found many settlers already on the way or ready to start. The Dalles Journal of April 23rd, 1859 savs : "quite a town is growing up in the Walla Walla Valley; it is the county seat of that county and has been named Steptoeville by the county commissioners."
As has been suggested the early settlers in the interior were the original pioneers, or the sons of the pioneers of the Willamette Valley ; they first headed toward the famous Walla Walla Valley, glimpses of which they or their fathers had seen in passing, because of the existence there of Fort Walla Walla and the Indian agency. There were no railroads and even the steamboat facilities on both the middle and upper Columbia were very inadequate. These settlers were com- pelled to leave the river at The Dalles and proceeded over- land, with their household goods and stock; they had little money; and while establishing homes here and there they were subjected to the high prices incident to expensive trans- portation around the river obstructions at the Cascades and the Dalles and Celilo. Had it been possible to run boats even from the Cascades to river points on the upper Columbia and Snake rivers and unload freight and immigrants within reach of the Walla Walla and Palouse districts, for instance, the develop- ment of these states would have been much more rapid.
The last act of this transition period partakes of that at- tribute common to the whole human family, the thirst for gold. Who first discovered gold in the Inland Empire does not con- cern this narrative but the honor of starting the rush of gold
