of the

Oregon Historical Society

VOLUME XV

DECEMBER, 1914

NUMBER 4

The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages

HISTORY OF ASTORIA RAILROAD

By LESLIE M. SCOTT

A railroad, speeding ahead of the drifting Columbia River to the sea, or gliding back up its toilsome currents, was a dream of nearly half a century ere it came true. The canoe of Indians, explorers and fur traders, the row-boat of pioneer settlers, were relegated in 1850 by the river steamboat. Right afterward came the railroad idea—but not the railroad for yet many a waiting year.

It seems natural enough now that the steam locomotive should follow the river to the ocean; one may wonder at the long delay. But railroads, like each other pioneer improvement in Oregon, grew slowly-from their beginnings in 1868-9; the down-Columbia line reached Goble not until 1883; and halted there fifteen years before going on to Astoria, fifty-eight miles further.

These latter years were restive ones for that city by the sea. Its efforts were persistent; its offerings to railroad builders continuous. It wished to be the seaport and railroad terminus of the Columbia River Basin-to win that place from Portland. It finally got the railroad, but has not realized the other ambition. Its success in winning this much was the result of organized self-help. As an example of self-dependence and public achievement the completion of this railroad deserves to go down in the annals of things highly praiseworthy in Oregon. The people of Astoria, knowing from repeated failures that they must help themselves, offered a land prize, and enlarged

the prize as one would-be builder succeeded another, until finally A. B. Hammond appeared, for whom the land bounty was swelled to a value-though problematical and speculative— moderately estimated at between $500,000 and $1,000,000. The only other sacrifice that has ever equaled this in our commonwealth was probably the $100,000 gift from Portland citizens to Ben Holladay in 1870, for the "West Side" railroad-a tremendous public achievement for the time. Like the Portland citizens of 1870, the Astoria citizens were determined and put forth tremendous effort.

The Astoria project took many forms and suffered many vicissitudes; only brief outline can be given here; probably such outline is better because of wearisome detail otherwise. Oregon's biggest railroad men considered the project-Joseph Gaston, Ben Holladay, Henry Villard, C. P. Huntington, Wm. Reid. It may aid the memory to divide the promotion period into two parts-the one leading up to 1887, when Astoria adopted the self-help or bonus plan; the other continuing the project until the "last spike" (April 3, 1898), or the first "through train" (May 16, 1898.)

I.

Talk of the "Astoria railroad" started in 1853, at the time of the surveys then made by Governor I. I. Stevens, of Washington Territory, for the Northern Pacific. Although Governor Stevens' survey crossed the Cascade Mountains to Puget Sound, it was considered likely that the proposed road would follow the Columbia River. For many years afterward, this choice was undetermined. If the Columbia route, what more natural than a terminus at Astoria, next door to the sea, the oldest American settlement on the Pacific Coast? Why not there the great mart of the Columbia Basin? This, at least, in the thoughts of Clatsop citizens.

That Governor Stevens' survey stimulated railroad schemes in Oregon is seen in the railroad acts of the Territorial Legislature of Oregon in 1853-4. These were the beginnings of the subject in this commonwealth. Evidently the Oregon pro

jects then initiated aimed to connect directly or indirectly with the Northern Pacific transcontinental line. The Oregon Legislature in 1853-4 incorporated four railroad companies: (1) The Willamette Valley Railroad, Portland to Corvallis, $1,000,000 capital (special laws 1854, p. 87; (2) The Oregon & California Railroad-not that of 1870 of the same name— Eugene to a point below Oregon City, $4,000,000 capital (ibid p. 81); (3) Cincinnati Railroad, Polk County, $250,000 capital (ibid p. 27); (4) Clackamas Railroad, Canemah to point below Oregon City, $400,000 capital (ibid p. 58.)

None of the companies materialized, nor for yet four years (1858) did Astoria and Clatsop County residents initiate a railroad project. They were thinking the matter over, however, as actively as their brethren in Portland, Oregon City, Salem and Eugene. Meanwhile they were trying to carry out wagon road plans between Clatsop County and Tualatin. The Legislatures of 1847, 1850, 1851, 1852 and 1853 appointed commissions to locate such a road. The Legislature of 1866 awarded to the Astoria and Tillamook Road Company, any grant of land that Congress would offer for a military wagon road to Astoria, but Congress never made the grant. The Legislature of 1872 appropriated $20,000 for the wagon road, and the Legislature of 1889 appropriated $15,000 for the same purpose. In 1855-58 Congress took up the project for a military wagon road from Salem to Astoria through the Coast Range, and appropriated $70,000 therefor, but the highway was never finished and was not traversed its entire length, between Forest Grove and Astoria, until 1895, by Rev. William Travis (Oregonian, July 31, 1900). These wagon road plans suggested a route for a railroad and many projects for a line were attempted, until in 1894 Mr. Hammond adopted the other route--along the Columbia, via Goble. It is to be expected that in the future a railroad will follow the older surveys, via upper Nehalem, through the most prolific timber in America.

Various localities in Oregon obtained from the Legislature in the 50s incorporation of railroad companies; so in 1858

it came the turn of Clatsop County to urge, for a charter, the Astoria & Willamette Valley Railroad, $5,000,000 capital, between Eugene and Astoria (special laws 1858, p. 24). The incorporators numbered 70 persons, representing Clatsop and Willamette Valley counties. It need not be added that this enterprise was premature; the Territory could not build such a road; the capitalization, however necessary, was excessive amid pioneer conditions; nothing came of the company. Next appearance of the idea occurred in 1864, when the Legislature pledged a loan of $200,000 for 100 miles of railroad in Willamette Valley (Session Laws, p. 77). At this time a subsidy bill was in Congress to aid a railroad from a connection with the Central Pacific, then building, through California and Oregon to the Columbia River. Such a bill passed Congress in 1866 (Act of July 25, 1866); out of this act grew the Oregon Central and the Oregon & California Railroad, and, four years later, a second similar act (May 4, 1870), providing a land bounty for a railroad from Portland to McMinnville and Astoria.

In the continuity of this early railroad development of Oregon, we see the Astoria project ever present. Owing to the lethargy of the Northern Pacific (construction not begun until 1870; opened to Portland not until 1883). Oregon directed its hopes for first transcontinental connections toward the Union Pacific and Central Pacific (opened to California in 1869). In 1863 the people of Oregon were delighted to hear that surveys toward Oregon were progressing up Sacramento Valley under Simon G. Elliott, of Marysville, Cal.; George H. Belden and Charles Barry. Next year the surveys continued to Portland under Barry. In that same year the Oregon Legislature offered a $200,000 loan for a railroad in Willamette Valley, as already noted; also a bill appeared in Congress, as a forerunner to the Act of 1866-providing a land bonus for a railroad between Marysville and Portland. This act also led to the land grant act of 1870, allowing a land subsidy, this time for a railroad from Portland to McMinnville and Astoria. We need not narrate the long controversy between the rival