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Show I ' J-Land or the Pioneers L-.i- - ... .iJ By EDWARD EMEUINE I r VVASH I NGTON J L I Jo RN JlAPA "What can we do with the western coast?" asked Daniel Webster, and concluded: "I will never vote one cent from the public treasury to place the Pacific ocean one inch nearer Boston than it is now." Senator McDuffie of South Carolina said he wouldn't "give a pinch of snuff for the whole territory." Sen. Thomas H. Benton considered the Rocky mountains moun-tains had been "placed by Providence" Provi-dence" to mark the western limits of the United States and thus set a boundary to man's ambition. But other men thought differently. different-ly. They knew of the fur trade that had drawn men to the Oregon country. Lewis and Clark had brought back tales of a rich land. By 1830 some of the French Canadian Cana-dian employees of the Hudson's Bay company had located farms in Willamette Wil-lamette valley. Soon Americans drifted In to take up farms. Hunters, Hunt-ers, trappers, missionaries and adventurers ad-venturers drifted in and out of Oregon. Ore-gon. In 1836 Whitman and Spalding, Spald-ing, with their wives, established a mission near the present site of Walla Walla, a second at Lewiston and a third near the present site of Spokane. Even the massacre of the Whitmans by the Indians in 1847 did not deter the pioneers. A'merica Moves West. "Oregon or Bust!" America was moving west. The British had to be headed off, and the Great Northwest North-west settled by Americans. First there were a few wagons headed toward Oregon; then there were thousands. The Oregon Trail a torturous, dusty, dangerous road cut through the prairies of Kansas and Nebraska, climbed over the mountains of Wyoming, crossed the deserts of Idaho and traversed tra-versed more mountains and streams to reach the Columbia river and the Pacific coast. Even today, the deep ruts still may be found, and ox bows, wagon wheels and lonely graves are scattered scat-tered from the Missouri river to Astoria, bleached and silent reminders re-minders of Oregon, the Land of the Pioneers. As the fur trapping declined, agriculture agri-culture took its place. Industries were set up. First cannery on the Columbia was established in 1866. Gold was discovered in Jackson and Josephine counties in 1852. and mining flourished. The boundary dispute with Great Britain was settled set-tled without war, and regon became be-came American to the core. The pioneers pio-neers had won their fight! Establish Government. With a territorial government established, es-tablished, the capital was set up at Oregon City, but later moved to Salem. Sa-lem. Discovery of gold in California Califor-nia opened a market for lumber, flour and other Oregon products. Ocean-going vessels connected Portland Port-land with San Francisco and stage routes joined the principal cities and large catches of tuna, sardines, pilchards pil-chards and other commercial fish. Oregon's shipbuilding started from scratch during the war and developed into a giant industry almost al-most over night. In 1942, more than 11 million dollars dol-lars worth of gold, silver, copper, quicksilver and chromite was mined in Oregon. Oregon is still the land of the pioneer, pio-neer, and thousands of people from all over the United States each year follow the broad paved Oregon Trail to the Great Northwest. The trail is no longer the hazardous route of yesteryear, but it leads to the same glamorous country the pioneers found a century ago. Many of Oregon's Ore-gon's great resources are as yet undeveloped, un-developed, but completion of the Bonneville power project and others assures ample electric energy. A fantastic desert of sagebrush is changed to the richest of farm lands by an irrigation ditch. The wonders of Oregon make for good living and prosperity, but nature also made it beautiful beauti-ful and scenic. World-renowned Crater lake, Mt. Hood and her j sister peaks in the Cascade range, the Oregon Caves, Wallowa Wal-lowa lake and hundreds of other scenic attractions are a lure that tourists cannot escape. More than 400 miles of shoreline are spread along the great Pacific. Hundreds of lakes, winter sports areas, lodges, health and play resorts, re-sorts, and more than 23,000 miles of paved highways are offered by Oregon. Ore-gon. In 1943, Oregon's population was 1,197,457 and the number increased somewhat in the next two years. Oregon still is growing, still receiving receiv-ing new pioneers over the Oregon Trail. The trek to Oregon started a century cen-tury ago. It was America's first great migration, and it has never ceased. The modern pioneer the chemist, the ex-serviceman, the laborer, la-borer, the farmer, the industrialist is discovering a rich frontier in the Oregon country. f 7 - i ' " ' ;sss .fes' si?':: iMW&thmt :miiximim f 3 I ... N ! s N j 1 ' v " ' 1 I v- f :4 NATIVE GOVERNOR . . . Gov. Earl Snell, elected Oregon's chief executive in 1942, was born in Olex. towns. A part of Oregon Territory was cut away to make the state of Washington in 1853, but in 1859Ore-gon 1859Ore-gon became a state. The Oregon Ore-gon Short Line, opened in 1882, gave Portland railroad transportation across the continent. Thus Oregon emerged from a wilderness into a modern wonderland, won-derland, with agriculture, forestry, for-estry, fishing, manufacturing, mining and recreational facilities facili-ties that are world famous. Farm owners operate 85 per cent of all Oregon farms, andthe industry indus-try brought in 220 million dollars in 1942. Oregon's rangeland supports more than three million head of livestock. Rich Timberlands. Oregon has nearly 30 million acres of timber, including Douglas fir (the state tree), pine, hemlock, cedar and spruce. Wood products, paper, wood alcohol and other rich industries are based on Oregon's forests. The Columbia is a famous salmon stream, netting more than seven million mil-lion dollars a year, and there are 1 f v-V" ' 'i ' 1 i i , " V" ' " , ' , - - , u ; I M! 1 . - I i ' n - . ... , . r- ! LAND OF SCENIC GRANDEUR . . . Gems of beauty stud the Oregon landscape. (I) Two-level Multnomah Multno-mah Falls is world famous. (2) Renowned Mt. Hood rises majestically over peaceful farmlands of Willamette Wil-lamette valley. (3) Deep natural gorges of eastern Oregon beckon to hunters and campers. (41 Hcccda Head lighthouse stands guard over the rugged coastline along the Pacific. |