Lgricultural and Mineral Rcsoun NORTHERN PACIFIC RAIL ROAD Iv 1MI1I.I1* 1*1 Walla Walla, W TO THE HONOR A lill Senate and House of Representatives. ng been a resident of Washington Territory and of Oregon for seventeen rs, and having passed over the nd a climate so mild in winter that it has been considered for a number of years the safest place to winter large herds <; -t of the Cascade mountains. Niuety ibove the mouth of the Yakima are extensive forests of yellow pine, whirh can be rafted down during high water to points along the line of i At the crossing of the Columbia river the other line from Portland forms a junction with this. Portland is now the largest town in Oregon and is the terminus of the line of steamers from San Francisco and the point at which the business of the Wil- lamette valley centres and from whirh the Oregon Steam Navigation Company extend their line of steamers up the Columbia to Wallula, 840 miles from the Pacific. This would give a connection at once with the line east, by means of steamers, while the was being constructed, starting from tin- mouth of the IVluse, on Snake :.>\vhi< h steamers ascend from Portland nearly the whole year, to Fort Benton, on the Missouri, where large numbers of steamers ai and depart every season, it would bo but 585 miles. Or, to take the route via 1 d'Oreille lake and Clark's Fork ..I in. lumbia, w steamers and 200 miles of navigation, would reduce the actual travel by stage nt thi- time to 875 miles, on the line of the North Pacific road, between the Pacific and the A is steamboat navigation, reaching nearly across the continent on the northern route, will be found to be of very great ad- vantage in constructing the line, as toe work can be commenced at eight different points ut the same time, and as before shown, workman tial can be unl.ii ..u.l Missouri to within live him From the crositiug of the Columbia to the -ion, at the entrance of The route .lies of section lies over a rolling prairie, with good grass, but no timi.er. Tl. mainiug distance t the mountains lies through fine groves of pine timber, with the finest of grazing most of the way, rich alluvial bottoms, and streams of the purest water. This section crosses what is known as the great plains of the Columbia, extending from the southern boundary of Oregon, and lying between the Cascade range on the west and the Blue and Bitter Root moun- tains on the east, and stretching far into the British possessions in the noith. This country, until very recently, has been considered mere especially fitted for a pastoral country, but . instance where the cultivation of the soil has been : u pled, the results have proven quite satisfactory, not only in the raising of all kinds of grain and vegetables, but all kinds of fruits of the temperate zone in the great- est perfection. In ';i Walla valley, which is about equally divided by the 40th parallel, and has been settled scarcely seven years, were produced in 1866 over one million bushels of grain, six hundred thousand of which was wheat. I have teen in that valley large fields of wheat average fifty I'M-hels per acre; and in 1867 the best qual r, put up in fifty-pound cot- ton sacks, sold for $3 75 (gold) per barn I, and yet this valley was not taxed to one- fifth of its capacity of production. This valley alone would be able to supply the whole force employed in constructing the Western Division with flour, beef, anU bacon at cheap rates. i* not generally known in the East that we have a climate west of the Rocky mountains that will admit of raising peaches and grapes And sweet potatoes, as far north as the 47th parallel. ir yean ago last spring I planted in the WalU Walla valley an orchard of one thousand small yearling trees. Last sum mer I raised from that orchard over one thousand bushels of the finest quality of peaches, apples, pears, plums, cherries, and grapes; and in 1865 I raised over thirteen thousand pounds of sweet potatoes. [I ask pardon for making use of this personal no- tice, but as it may appear strange to some I prefer to assume the responsibility myself.] And still there are thousands of acres lying unclaimed, and near this railroad route, which will produce as well as the Walla Walla valley. All that this country needs to make it a desirable place for hundreds of thousands of homes is a railroad to render these places accessible, and to bring the timber and lumber down from the mountains on either side of these plains, where there are unlimited forests, which will remain use- less until some way is devised to get it out on the plains, thereby rendeiing both sec- tions valuable. Let a railroad but be built, and in a short time all these plains will be dotted over with cottages, with their little farms, and orchards, and herds. From the Cceur d'Alene Mission to the summit of the mountains is forty-eight miles, where a railroad can be built at an elevation of 3,990 feet. From .this point down the St. Regia Borgia to the crossing of the Bitter Root river is thirty-nine miles. This portion of the route passes over what is known as tho "Mullan road," and is the route over which three-fourths of all the travel and freight now passes from the Pacific to Montana, and over which about 100 wagons passed last season, including an emigrant train from Minnesota with persons from the age of three months to ninety-five years. This train passed over in November with the loss of but one animal, proving that the route cannot be very difficult, and yet this is considered the most difficult part of the entire route be- tween Lake Superior and Puget sound. All of this section is timbered with the finest quality of pine, cedar, and fir, with rock and all the material for building a road on the ground, and no portion of this will be as "difficult of construction as from Harper's Ferry to the Ohio river on the Baltimore and Ohio road. From the crossing of the Bitter Root to Hellgate valley, sixty-five miles, the country is much of the same character, excepting that the valley is wider and the grades some- what lighter. From Hellgate valley to Cadotte's Pass, the summit of the Rocky mountains, a distance of 114 miles, there are settlements all the way, with many good farms in Bitter Root valley, where the settlers raise good crops of wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, and in some instances corn and tomatoes. Near Hellgate are three flouring mills, and to such extent have the settlers raised wheat already that last summer good flour was sold at the mills for $10 (gold) per barrel. This will be found to be one very great item in building this road over any other route, that of having supplies of flour and provisions raised on the ground and furnished at low rates. From the summit level of the tunnel at Cadotte's Pass, which is estimated at 4,072 feet, more than 4,000 feet lower than where the Central road passes the same range, to Fort Benton is 105 miles. While this pass retains its height for less than tnrse miles at this place, on the central route, the road passes over an elevation of from 6,569 feet to 8,242 feet, for a distance of 150 miles,as taken from the report of the Sec- retary of the Interior. The greatest elevation being at the Black Hills, 8,242 feet; Rattle- snake Hills, 7,132; and at Dodge's Summit, of the water shed, 7,108; and the lowest point reached on this section is at the crossing of the Medicine Bow river, 6,569 feet; and yet this road will be finished and cars run- ning over it within a very few months. From Fort Benton (the point to which large numbers of steamers ascend the Mis- souri every year with large numbers of pas- sengers and heavy stocks of merchandise for the Rocky mountain district) to the western line of Minnesota, near Fort Aber- crombie, is 793 miles. This part of the route passes over a rolling prairie country, near the Missouri, crossing a number of small rivers, on which will be found a supply of timber for the road, and passing through a country susceptible of supporting a large population the entire distance. From the western boundary of Minnesota to Lake Superior, 232 miles, is a very rich agricul- tural country, already settled, with railroads running in different directions at all seasons of the year; and yet there is always more snow in winter in Minnesota and Eastern Dakota than on any other portion of the route, excepting about the summits of the ranges of the mountains crossed, and at plaees tin- route Hi**; through heavy timl.er, so that the snow will not drift. From Cadotte's Pass, which is in latitude 47 degrees, G minutes, to longitude 44 de- grees, 10 minutes, on the headwaters of the -<>u fork, there are no less than seven well-known passes through the Rocky mountains. In fact the whole range is so completely broken down for two hundred and fifty miles in length that the waters of the Columbia and Missouri, rising on the mountain spurs, and very often beyond each other, are in some instances brought down in ditches for mining purposes the waters of the Missouri over to the Pacific slope, and those of the Columbia to the Atlantic slope. In regard to the climate of this portion of the Rocky niouutains, I have crossed the summit ;it different places on this sec- tion in mid-winter, both last winter and the present one, on horseback and in the stage, and so free from snow are these passes from the effects of wind currents coming from the great plains of the Co- lumbia and the Pacific ocean, that I found no difficulty in crossing at any time, and I did not find the snow over six inches deep on the 80th day of December. The settlers and miners pass back and forth over the mountains almost every day during the winter, and large herds of cattle and horses are wintered on the Deer Lodge and Little Blackfoot rivers, within ten miles of the summit of the Rocky mountains without a morsel of food being provided for them. 1 know of one party who has two hun- d/ed head, and another has thirteen hundred head. Both have wintered tlu-ir eattleX here for two seasons, and have never put up any hay for them, but leave them to graze during the winter months. And at Fort Benton, for the last twenty-five years, there has not been snow enough for the fur company to take their goods to the diilrreiit posts on sleds in win- having to use carts for that purpose. I have learned that this is no unusual thing. In conversation with Victor, head Hiief of the Flathead nation, and who is now about seventy years of age, and re- members distinctly when Lewis and < came through this country, he stated Of tl,- In.ii ,11. ' passed through these mountains, year after year, through the winter months, often with their women ami children, with pack animals laden down with furs and meat. Other Indians and trappers have told me the same. It is evident that this route possesses greater natural advantages than any other route across the continent in soil and cli- mate, capable of sustaining animal life, from the rat -t that it was the route selected by Lewis and Clark sixty-three years ago to cross to the Pacific ocean. Their infor- mation of the country must, of course, have been obtained from mountaineers and Indians, who had been led into the coun- try by the large numbers of game known to rove through these passes for ages. The scientific engineer may find it policy to cut through some mountain spurs or tunnel some lofty summits, but the great practical, paying routes will be found to be those first marked out by the deer thousands of years ago in passing from one well-watered and good grazing ground to another. And on its track followed the Indian in the ohase; next the trapper with his pack horse; after him the pioneer with his wagon; and finally there follows over the very same general route, tne greatest and highest achievement of science and civilization the iron horse and the lightning messen- ger. Had it not have been for the acci- dental discovery of gold in California this would undoubtedly have been the route first selected for the Pacific railroad. I have been asked by persons here, "Will the Rocky mountain district ever be set- tled ? n In reply, I would say that on the first of last November (1867) I left Walla- Walla on horseback alone to go into the Rocky mountains on business, passing through the eastern part of Washington, the northern part of Idaho, and travelling more than 1,500 miles in Montana, and put up at a house every night with good accommodations, and had grain for my horse in almost every instance. Montana at this time has a population of 65,000 souls, and has towns of from 8,000 to 6,000 inhabitants, with fire-proof buildings, costing $15,000, and stocks of goods worth front $100,000 to $200,000; and valleys producing 100,000 bushels of wheat; and public schools and churches; and its daily and weekly newspapers, which would be a credit to any country, and yet all this improvement and settlement has been made within three or four years, and that, too, without the immediate prospect of a rail- road, and none of the aids and excitement which the starting and commencing of such an enterprise would furnish. Another reason why the northern road should be built is that it runs near to the British possessions for 1,500 miles, and would drain all that rich agricultural re- gion of the Bed river and Saskatchuan country, east of the mountains, and all the rich gold mines on the Kootenay, the Thompson's, and the Frazier rivers, on the west, and lying north of the 49th parallel. The revenue to our Government from this source alone would be very great in- deed, and a road would then not be at- tempted to be built by England, and the whole country would soon become so thoroughly Americanized (as already more than half the miners in thit country are Americans) that they would in a short time be asking for annexation to the United States, and by the time that our population would need more territory, the British Possessions would become ours without conquest, and almost without purchase. Here I would just add that a petition has already been circulated in British Columbia to the home Government, containing the fol- lowing significant language: "That we humbly submit to your Majesty's gracious consideration, as the only policy to bring back prosperity to our homes, to wit: Either that your Majesty's Government may be pleased to relieve us immediately of the expense of an excessive staff of officials; assist the establishment of a British line of steamers with Panama, so that emigrants from England may reach us, and also assume the debts of this colony, or that your Majesty will gra- ciously permit the colony to become a por- tion of the United States. That every feel- ing of loyalty and cherished sentiment of our hearts prompt us to cling to our pres- ent connection with our mother country, and to count as our best inheritance our birthright as Britons; but all our commer- cial and business relations are so intimate with the neighboring American population that we see no other feasible help out of our present difficulties than by being united with them, unless your Majesty's Govern- ment will help us as aforesaid." We think it has been proven that the northern route is not only capable of sus- taining a large population on the entire distance, but that the summits are about four thousand feet less than on the cen- tral line; that the distances, on an average, from San Francisco and Seattle to the dif- ferent ports on the Atlantic shore, are three hundred and sixteen miles less than on the central route, and that a degree of longi- tude being less on the 47th than on the 38th latitude, makes the distance by ocean from Canton to Liverpool, on the northern route, some eight hundred miles less, mak- ing in all over one thousand miles less on the northern route between Asia and Eu- rope than over any other route across the continent. The sum of ascents and descents from St. Paul to Seattle is 21,787 feet, and 29,387 feet on the central route. These figures give the best practical index of the effect of the gradients to increase the cost of transpor- tation. Engineers allow one mile for every 52.08 feet of rise and fall as denoting the addi- tional working expense over a level route. This difference would make one hundred and forty-four miles more in favor of the northern route. Then add to this the fact that Liverpool, and all the principal ports in Europe, He between the 46th and 53d degrees of latitude north, and we have again in favor of the northern line an ave- rage of 250 miles on the Atlantic, making in all a real distance of 1,116 miles, in ad- dition to a practical working distance of 144 and 2501,510, giving in reality 1,510 miles advantages to the Northern route over any other route across the continent be- tween Liverpool and Canton. These facts show that not only is Puget sound nearer Asia than San Francisco, but that the overland distance to the principal cities on the Atlantic coast, and especially the great lakes, (where freight can be shipped, without breaking bulk, to Europe direct,) is much less than the distance from San Francisco to the same points by either the central or the southern route, and that the grades are much easier on the northern route than on any other route, and the grade is one of the controlling elements in carrying freights. Add to this the fact that the northern route will be self-sustaining the entire distance, while on the central route there are hundreds of miles that will not produce even grass, and to which the company must actually transport fuel for the use of its road. 'MU all these things into considera- tion, ami that we have tin- finest harbor in the world on Puget Sound, surrounded with all the great and permanent resources of wraith, capable of accommodating the shipping of the whole world in safety. and ih.it tin? distance is so much shorter from Liverpool to Canton, over the north- ern route than any other across the conti- nent, it is evident it will be for the interests of the Government to avail itself of this route in tin- transportation of its troops, munitions of war, and the mails, not only for our own country, but for the British possessions, and for Europe and Asia, to- gether with the express freight, and all costly articles, such as teas and silks, which will be an immense item within a few years, not only to Europe, but to our own Mississippi valley, when it comes to contain a population of 50,000,000 souls, which it soon will. In this connection, I may state that it has been estimated that a ton of freight can be delivered at Chicago by the north- ern route for less than it can IK- delivered at Rock Island, on the Mississippi, by the central. Indeed, a comparison of the distances and the cheapness of down-river freights show that a ton of freight can be taken from Seattle, over the Northern route, to St Paul, and placed on a steamer and de- livered, not only at Rock Island or St. Louis at less cost than it can be delivered at either of these points by the central route, but it can descend the Mississippi and be delivered at any point thence to New Or- leans at less cost tli m from San Francisco, either by the central or the southern route. In giving these statistics and in making these comparisons, I do it with no invidious feeling whatever toward the central or any other eompetn as we of the North are glad to see our friends of the ecu road pushing their work through with such energy and vigor as to astonish the whole civilized world. The sooner there is a con- tinuous rail from New York to San Fran- cisco the people of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, in mon with those of C . ida, , and Colorado, and I think (hat Government will find that the aid extended to the central route will prove to be the best loans ever made, as the increase in taxes and revenue must prove very r indeed. Bat I give these statements simply to show that in all the essential character- * of travel and of commerce, in respect to distances, and oilier natural ad vaniages, the northern route has the advantage. And if tin: iriends of the route and of the Gov- ernment in general will prove true to their own int : will build up and estab- lish on our own soil a great national high- way between Lake Superior and Puget Sound, over which will flow, through the beautiful valleys and over the nioun- -hington il 'ana, the great golden current of wealth from the Orient, whi.-h has ever : .11 its pathway. To build this road, which no company is able to do without assistance from the Gov- ernment, I understand the company do not ask for capital ; all that they ask for is the endorsement of the Government, sub- stantially as furnished to other and similar roads as a basis of credit. The provisions of the bill arc ueh as to preclude tin- possibility of the loss of a single dollar by the Government. And I feel sure that the bu>ine of the road will be BO great e\vn from the >nnn n< , mrnt, that not only t. ti but the bonds will be paid otF promptly at nuitu: There is no reason why the northern road should not pay as well or even better than the central. And from the report of the Secretary of the Interior "the Union Pacific Railway Company furnished a table showing that the amount retained by the United States ] r from that due the company on the Government business, for the mouth of August last, is nearly eight [-I- cent, per annum of the principal of the bonds issued to the company on account of the construction of the road." This would repay the principal at no distant period by me Government business alone, shotil be continued to the same extent. The pay- ment of the bonds at maturity is, therefore, considered by the company to be fully assured, and the road as being built, so far as the Government is concerned, simply by the loan of its credit for a term of years :i ample si' . without the actual expenditure of a single dollar Irom the public treasury. With the aid of the credit statistics have been taken from the excel- thus asked for, I have no doubt that lent report of our lamented Governor the company can not only construct the Stevens, whose hallowed memory every road, but save the Government from any citizen of Washington Territory loves to possible loss, and add largely to the popu- cherish, lation, power, and wealth of the nation. Very Respectfully, In this communication the distances on PHILIP RITZ. a portion of the route and many important Washington City, D. C., March 9th, 1868. CHRONICLE MINT., WASHINGTON, D. C= /2T