170 T. C. ELLIOTT
Steam Navigation Company, and its history is that of the larger company. For a time it was the longest stretch of railroad between the entire Pacific Northwest and Missouri River points, when passengers made use of the River to con- nect with the daily stages from Umatilla or Walla Walla for Boise, Salt Lake City and Council Bluffs or Saint Joe. After 1868 these stages connected with the Central Pacific Railroad at Kelton, Utah. It played a part in the efforts of the mer- chants of Portland to distribute their goods in far away Mon- tana in competition with shipments from San Francisco by wagons over what was known as the "Chico Route." It fur- nished the rapid transit for bridal couples from Walla Walla and Lewiston, and it carried the families of the prosperous residents of the Inland Empire when they journeyed to the Seaside House or Grimes Hotel for a smell of the Pacific Ocean air in summer time. Much of keen interest incidental to travel and shipment over its rails might be gleaned from the written records of those years, did the limitations of this nar- rative permit.
Its legal identity was preserved; it was The Dalles and Celilo Railroad Company, and as such, was one of the corpora- tions taken over by its successor, The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company in 1879, when Mr. Henry Villard and associates purchased the stock of the Oregon Steam Naviga- tion Company at practically the price named by its owners. After that the Portage Road became the first link in railway construction to the Inland Empire. Grading on this construc- tion began at Celilo the first week in August, 1880, and con- nection was made at Wallula with the Walla Walla & Columbia River Railway Company (the famous D. S. Baker road from Walla Walla to the River) on April 16-17, 1881. Connection of The Dalles with Portland by rail was not completed until October 3rd, 1882, when the last spike was driven at a point three hundred yards above Multnomah Falls. With the com- pletion of the railroad steamboating upon the upper river was practically at an end, there being no independent portage between Celilo and The Dalles or at The Cascades.
