The opening of a new century is a fitting time to cast a backward glance in our local history, reconstruct to the eye of the present the interesting and heroic events of the past, and by comparison between past and present forecast something of the future.

Old Oregon Territory, of which this county and this state were once parts, with its isolation, its pathos, its hospitality, has passed away. It had a strange history. It was the ignis fatuus of successive generations of explorers, luring them on with that indescribal)le fascination which seems always to have drawn men to the ever-receding circle of the "Westmost West," and yet for years and years veiling itself in the mists of uncertainty and misapprehension.

This is a scanned PDF version of a historically important text from the history of the Western United States. Because it is a reproduction, it may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. We have taken every effort to avoid these problems.

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Many of the books included in this library of historic western non-fiction literature also include a "MOBI" copy for direct (side-loading) to your electronic reader.