THE DALLES-CELILO CANAL 161
returned from there with "a long purse" to use his own expression full of gold he had dug with his own hands. This was the beginning of what came to be known among the steamboat men on the River as "the Thompson Luck." He then moved his family to The Dalles, where he settled, and (on August 15th, 1854) entered 640 acres of land under the Oregon Donation Act ; a part of this land later became Thomp- son's Addition to the City of The Dalles. In 1852 he visited "the states," and in 1853 returned across the plains with a band of sheep he had purchased (D. P. Thompson, another prominent pioneer of Oregon, assisted in driving the sheep) and when upon the upper Umatilla River was met with the request to hurry on to The Dalles because he had been ap- pointed Indian Agent there, which office he held during the Indian wars. In the triple capacity of land owner, grower of wool and mutton, and salaried officer of the government, the future seemed fairly well provided for, but paths to more rapidly acquired wealth were opened up. His acquaintance with the quartermaster at Fort Dalles was quite intimate and contracts for transporting government freight to the "Upper Country" had to be awarded to someone and he engaged in that business, becoming the controlling owner of the largest fleet of bateaux on the upper river, and of the first steamboat to be operated there ; and possibly interested also in the portage business with Mr. Humason. The statement appears in print that the price for carrying government freight from Des Chutes Landing to Wallula was $100.00 per ton by bateaux and $80.00 per ton by steamboat and that the boat paid her entire cost during the first month or two of operation.
In 1860 although only a two-thirds owner in this steamboat and another then in course of construction, Mr. Thompson was taken into the Oregon Steam Navigation Company upon his own terms, namely $18,000.00 cash bonus and 120 shares of stock, that being the largest amount of stock held by any one person, which preponderance he continued to hold during the life of the company. After this rather substantial start he
