Two Years in Oregon — Context and Discussion

Personal reasons for coming to Oregon--Plans of colonizing--Who came--Who have returned--Who remain--Bowie-knives and revolvers--A sheriff in danger--No tragedy--Our landing at Corvallis--Frail houses--Pleasant welcome--The barber's shop--Its customers--Given names--New acquaintances--Bright dresses--Religious denominations. 17

Where we live--Snow-peaks and distant prospects--Forest-fires--The Coast Mountains and Mary's Peak--Sunset in Oregon--Farmhouses: the log-cabin, the box-house, the frame-house--Dinner at the farm--Slay and eat--A rash chicken--Bread-making by amateurs--Thrift and unthrift--Butter and cheese--Products of the "range," farm, and garden--Wheat-growing. 26

The land-office; its object and functionaries--How to find your land--Section 33--The great conflagration--The survivors of the fire--The burnt timber and the brush--The clearing-party--Chopping by beginners--Cooking, amateur and professional--The wild-cat--Deer and hunting--Piling brush--Dear and cheap clearing--The skillful axeman--Clearing by Chinamen--Dragging out stumps--What profits the farmer may expect on a valley farm--On a foot-hills farm. 36

A spring ride in Oregon--The start--The equipment--Horses and saddlery--Packs--The roadside--Bird fellow-travelers--Snakes--The nearest farm--Bees--The great pasture--The poisonous larkspur-- Market-gardening--The Cardwell Hill--The hill-top--The water-shed --Mary River--Crain's--The Yaquina Valley--Brush, grass, and fern --The young Englishmen's new home--A rustic bridge--"Chuck-holes"-- The road supervisor--Trapp's--The mill-dam--Salmon-pass law--Minnows and crawfish--The Pacific at rest--Yaquina--Newport. 48

Hay-harvest--Timothy-grass--Permanent pasture--Hay-making by express--The mower and reaper--Hay-stacks as novelties-- Wheat-harvest--Thrashing--The "thrashing crowd"--"Headers" and "self-binders"--Twine-binders and home-grown flax--Green food for cows--Indian corn, vetches--Wild-oats in wheat--Tar-weed the new enemy--Cost of harvesting--By hired machines--By purchased machines--Cost of wheat-growing in the Willamette Valley. 62

The farmer's sports and pastimes--Deer-hunting tales--A roadside yarn--Still-hunting--Hunting with hounds--An early morning's sport--Elk--The pursuit--The kill--Camp on Beaver Creek-- Flounder-spearing by torchlight--Flounder-fishing by day--In the bay--Rock oysters--The evening view--The general store--Skins-- Sea-otters--Their habits--The sea-otter hunters--Common otter--The mink and his prey. 72

Birds in Oregon--Lark--Quail--Grouse--Ruffed grouse--Wild-geese-- Manoeuvres in the air--Wild-ducks--Mallard--Teal--Pintail-- Wheat-duck--Black-duck--Wood-duck--Snipe--Flight-shooting-- Stewart's Slough--Bitterns--Eagles--Hawks--Horned owls--Woodpeckers --Blue-jays--Canaries--The canary that had seen the world--Blue-birds --Bullfinches--Snow-bunting--Humming-birds at home. 91

Up to the Cascades--Farming by happy-go-lucky--The foot-hills--Sweet Home Valley--Its name, and how deserved and proved--The road by the Santiam--Eastward and upward--Timber--Lower Soda Springs--Different vegetation--Upper Soda Springs--Mr. Keith--Our reception--His home and surroundings--Emigrants on the road--The emigrant's dog--Off to the Spokane--Whence they came--Where they were bound--Still eastward-- Fish Lake--Clear Lake--Fly-fishing in still water--The down slope east--Lava-beds--Bunch-grass--The valleys in Eastern Oregon--Their products--Wheat-growing there--Cattle-ranchers--Their home--Their life--In the saddle and away--Branding-time--Hay for the winter--The Malheur reservation--The Indians' outbreak--The building of the road--When, how, and by whom built--The opening of the pass--The history of the road--Squatters--The special agent from Washington--A sham survey. 100

Indian fair at Brownsville--Ponies--The lasso--Breaking-in--The purchase--"Bucking" extraordinary--Sheep-farming in Eastern Oregon-- Merinos--The sheep-herder--Muttons for company--A good offer refused--Exports of wool from Oregon-Price and value of Oregon wool--Grading wool--Price of sheep--Their food--Coyotes--The wolf-hunt--Shearing--Increase of flocks--"Corraling" the sheep-- Sheep as brush-clearers. 118

The trail to the Siletz Reserve--Rock Creek--Isolation--Getting a road--The surveying-party--Entrance at last--Road-making--Hut-building in the wilds--What will he do with it?--Choice of homestead--Fencing wild land--Its method and cost--Splitting cedar boards and shingles-- House-building--The China boy and the mules--Picnicking in earnest--Log-burning--Berrying-parties--Salting cattle--An active cow--A year's work--Mesquit-grass on the hills. 127

The Indians at home--The reservation--The Upper Farm--Log-cabins-- Women must work while men will play--The agency--The boarding-house --Sunday on the reservation--Indian Sun day-school--Galeese Creek Jem--The store-Indian farmers--As to the settlement of the Indians --Suggestions--A crime--Its origin--Its history--The criminals-- What became of them--Indian teamsters--Numbers on the reservation --The powers and duties of the agent--Special application. 136

The Legislative Assembly--The Governor--His duties--Payment of the members--Aspect of the city; the Legislature in session--The lobbyist--How bills pass--How bills do not pass--Questions of the day--Common carriers--Woman's suffrage--Some of the acts of 1878--Judicial system of the State--Taxes--Assessments--County officers--The justice of the peace--Quick work. 145

Land laws--Homesteads and preemption--How to choose and obtain Government land--University land--School land--Swamp land--Railroad and wagon-road grants--Lieu lands--Acreages owned by the various companies. 157

The "Web-foot State"--Average rainfall in various parts--The rainy days in 1879 and 1880--Temperature--Seasons--Accounts and figures from three points--Afternoon sea-breezes--A "cold snap"--Winter-- Floods--Damage to the river-side country--Rare thunder--Rarer wind-storms--The storm of January, 1880. 164

The State Fair of 1880--Salem--The ladies' pavilion--Knock-em-downs _a l'Americaine_--Self-binders--Thrashing-machines--Rates of speed--Cost--Workmanship--Prize sheep--Fleeces--Pure _versus_ graded sheep--California short-horns--Horses--American breed or Percheron--Comparative measurements--The races--Runners--Trotters-- Cricket in public--Unruly spectators. 174

History of Oregon--First discoverers--Changes of government-- Recognition as a Territory--Entrance as a State--Individual histories--"Jottings"--"Sitting around"--A pioneer in Benton County--How to serve Indian thieves--The white squaw and the chief--Immigration in company--Rafting on the Columbia--The first winter--Early settlement--Indian friends--Indian houses and customs--The Presbyterian colony--The start--Across the plains-- Arrival in Oregon--The "whaler" settler--A rough journey--"Ho for the Umpqua!"--A backwoodsman--Compliments--School-teacher provided for--Uncle Lazarus--Rogue River Canyon--Valley of Death--Pleasant homes--Changed circumstances. 183

State and county elections--The Chinese question--Chinese house-servants--Washermen--Laborers--A large camp--Supper--Chinese trading--The scissors--Cost of Chinese labor--Its results--Chinese treaties--Household servants--Chee and his mistress--"Heap debble-y in there"--The photo album--Temptation--A sin and its reward--Good advice on whipping--Chung and the crockery--Chinese New Year--Gifts-- "Hoodlums"--Town police--Opium. 201

Life in the town--Sociables--Religious sects--Sabbath-schools-- Christmas festivities--Education, how far compulsory--Colleges-- Student-life and education--Common schools--Teachers' institutes-- Newspapers--Patent outsides-"The Oregonian"--Other journals--Charities --Paupers--Secret societies. 209