His road was a railroad built entirely of wood, and the car was drawn by one lone mule. The road was on the north side of the Columbia, and at that time was in Oregon. ...

Then there were no settlers east of the Cascade Mountains, and no immediate prospect of any, so he sold his road to D.F. and P.F. Bradford, who were either more hopeful of the future, or had better foresight than Judge Cheneweth. The rebuilt the road in 1856, making many improvements on it. ...

This road was rebuilt again in 1861, with iron rails, and had steam locomotives. It was the first railroad of the kind built in Oregon, and though small was the beginning of railroading in the Northwest. ...

Some time later in the '50's Colonel Ruckel and H. Olmstead buit and operated a portage road on the south bank of the Columbia. ..."


Source:    P.W. Gillette, 1906, History of Oregon Steam Navigation Co., IN: Oregon Historical Quarterly, vol.5, 1906.

"[In 1854] the portage of six miles was a rather complicated process. Frieght for transportation was first loaded in schooners, which, when the wind blew sufficiently strong, were driven to the landing then known as the middle blockhouse, but now called Sheridan's Point, where they were unloaded onto a tram car that came around Sheridan's Point, and was hauled up by a windlass run by a very patient and intelligent mule. When the car reached the summit of the incline the mule was unhitched from the windlass, attached to the car and started for the upper Cascades alone over a wooden tramway, with a couple of boards in the middle of the track for the "engine" to walk on. Arriving at his destination, the mule was unhitched, turned around and coupled onto an empty flat car and started on his return trip. A pole was lashed to his side and then to the car. This acted as a kind of automatic brake to keep the car from running over the "engine". This arrangement worked well for a while, and saved the services of a conductor, but the mule onto his job, and when well out of sight would stop to get up more steam and incidentally to take good long naps, thereby seriously interfering with the transportation business. Eventually a fieman had to be added to the list of train hands."


Source:    H.C. Coe, 1903, Hood River 50 Years Ago, "Hood River Glacier", April 2, 1903, courtesy Historic Oregon Newspaper Archives, University of Oregon Libraries website, 2015.

When Lieutenant Derby was delayed during the summer of 1855 with the Oregon roads, Washington residents pressed for some progress there before the winter. Finally in September, Derby dispatched his civilian engineering assistant, George Gibbs, to survey a trail along the Columbia and Cowlitz rivers and on to Steilacoom. Another civilian, Robert Whiting, was to assist on the road to The Dalles. Not until October was the lieutenant personally able to examine the 95-mile route from Fort Vancouver to The Dalles. The road along the north bank of the Columbia was found good for the first 15 or 20 miles until the Cape Horn Mountains, a part of the Cascade Range, were reached. Here all prospect for a wagon road terminated. The range could not be avoided and its descent was impossible for wagons. Then came the Columbia bottoms, often flooded by the river rise of 12 to 15 feet in the spring, and a road could not be raised above the flood level because the mountains came down to the river. Halfway to The Dalles, the traveler encounted the Cascades, a 30-foot fall in the river within five miles. Around these rapids the Portage Road had been built, but for more than a mile it was impassable, and speculators had built a wooden trainway three feet wide to transport freight. The United States Army paid twenty cents for each pound handled here. Above the portage the trail ascended the mountains, crossing the Columbia at Wind Mountain and continuing to The Dalles by a circuitous and rugged route along the south bank. Lieutenant Derby suggested that it would cost about a million dollars to make a good wagon road from Vancouver to The Dalles. He proposed to concentrate on improving the Portage Road and eliminate the necessity of using the trainway. The United States would save the amount of the appropriation in a single year. Derby insisted: "Good steamboat navigation from Vancouver to the Cascades, a good road across 'The Portage' and a continuation of steamboat navigation thence to the Dalles, certainly fulfills all the conditions of a 'Military Road' from the Dalles to Columbia Barracks and is moreover the only practicable route." Colonel Abert agreed with the proposal and secured the approval of Secretary Davis.

Because the soil at the Cascades became tenacious mud during the rainy season, Derby suggested the construction of a plank road along the entire distance of the portage. He reasoned that an ordinary dirt road would require repairs after each rainy season and without constant federal appropriations would become useless. A plank road could be expected to last ten years. The present appropriation would suffice to construct a road only 16 feet wide, graded and prepared so that one half of its width could later be planked. The lieutenant proposed to purchase supplies and hire labor to work on the project under his direct supervision. During the season of 1856, he also planned to improve the trail from Vancouver to The Dalles by widening, straightening, and reducing grades so that it could be used by dragoons, for a pack trail, and for driving stock.

By May 1 [1856], he had a working party of fifty men whom he intended to employ for four months at the portage site. Two hospital tents were used to accommodate these laborers; a cook was hired to prepare meals. Difficulties immediately arose. Torrential rains fell three or four days out of each week making it impossible for the men to work. The expense of their board and the delay in construction perturbed Derby; the loss of wages on rainy days annoyed the laborers. ...    The Portage Road was half completed by August 1. A month later three and one-half miles were in excellent condition and all anticipated its completion within six weeks. The initial appropriation had served to cut out timber, grade the roadbed, and provide drainage but, as had been expected, no funds were left for planking. In the difficult places, mountain sides had been cut back and cribwork with rock foundations placed to prohibit slides. Derby reported the existence of a wagon road good in dry summer weather, but muddy and impassable for seven months out of the year during the rains. A sum of $18,800 was needed for planking and he proposed that the work be done by the quartermaster's department at Vancouver. ...

Lieutenant George H. Mendell assumed the responsibilities as superintendent of military roads in Oregon and Washington in October, 1856. Operations on the Portage Road, virtually completed by Lieutenant Derby, were suspended the following month and laborers discharged. However, as a result of winter rains, slides from the embankments crashed down on the cribwork protecting the roads, and in places where the soil was soft these timbers gave way, falling into the roadway and blocking travel. In the spring of 1857 the funds remaining in the federal appropriation were used to rebuild the cribwork, drain the surface of the road, and to gravel, corduroy with logs, or plank those segments most difficult for wagon travel. Mendell, like Derby, considered it an excellent summer road. The quartermaster's department of the Army used it continuously. ..."


Source:    William Turrentine Jackson, 1952, Wagon Roads West; a Study of Federal Road Surveys and Construction in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1846-1869, University of California Press.

In 1860 the Oregon Steam Navigation Company consolidated portage interests in the Gorge. The clever manipulations of Capt. John Ainsworth and his partners led to a takeover of the Bardford & Company operations on the north bank of the Columbia and, at the same time, purchase of the Ruckel and Olmstead line along the Oregon shore. Ainsworth then traveled to California, purchased a small locomotive, the "Oregon Pony", obtained track, shipped materials to the Gorge, and constructed in 1862 a portage railroad along the base of the cliffs from Tanner Creek east to present Cascade Locks, Oregon. With its steamboats and Gorge railroad, the O.S.N. Company emerged during the Civil War as the region's transportation monopoly. The discovery of gold in Idaho and Montana in 1862 and the rushes to that region fueled the flow of goods and passengers and confirmed the value of the company's investments. The Barlow Road thus by the Civil War became the "poor man's" route or trace, perhaps more useful for livestock drovers. It was an arduous, time-consuming, but cheaper alternative to the Columbia Gorge."


Source:    Stephen Dow Beckham and Richard C. Hanes, 1992, The Barlow Road, Clackamas County, Oregon, Inventory Project, Historic Context, 1845-1919, prepared for the Clackamas County Department of Transportation and Development, August 1992.

DOING THE WEST FOR THE PICTURESQUE.

A Photographer's Ramble on the Oregon Short Line. -- Oregon Railway and navigation Co. -- Northern Pacific. -- Oregon and California Railway. -- And Home by the Central.

"... Night closes in upon us as we cross the stretch of country between Pendleton and the lower part of the Columbia River. We first reach this western wonder at Umatilla, and skirt it down to Portland. But many objects of surpassing beauty are passed while you are sleeping. If the object of the tourist is to see the true grandeur of the mightly Columbia, I would earnestly advise stopping off at Dalles and taking a ride down to Portland on the steamboat. You can go direct to the boat from the track. Having travelled both routes I give mypreference to the river route, and will endeavor to detail the objects of interest on the down trip.

The steamer leaves at the tick of the clock in the morning.

THE "HARVEST QUEEN" is a beautiful boat with superb appointments, roomy, clean and commodious. As we leave the wharf we seem to glide without effort at a high rate of speed, passing in rapid succession the lava bluffs on each side of the river, (it is high water in June). The whole volume of drainage from the plains of western Washington Territory and British Columbia pass down and form the boundary line of Oregon, and Washington Territory. Oregon is on our left and Washington on our right. ...

At Hood River on a clear day a grand view of Mount Hood can be obtained. Mount Adams is also seen from this point; the former is in Oregon, the latter in Washington.

At different points the line of the railroad can be seen. Miles upon miles of trestle work has been constructed to get a road through by the Oregon Railway and navigation Company. The trains of the Northern Pacific and the Union Pacific all pass over this line. ...

At Cascade Locks we leave our harvest queen. A little narrow guage railroad makes the portage of the cascades of the Columbia. An old block house still stands with port holes that was once the defensive fort of the volunteers -- and here our General Sheridan gained laurels as an energetic fighter in his youth. ...

The steamer for Portland is taken at the end of the little road. Here we got on the Multnomah, not so fine a vessel as the Harvest Queen, but a snug boat all the same. ..."