![]() ![]() ![]() By the early 1910s, Umatilla was making a resurgence as an agricultural center and a new business district was forming along 3rd and 4th Streets, facing away from the river and towards the railroad tracks. The Umatilla Masonic Lodge Hall, one of the only surviving buildings from the original townsite, was relocated to Echo, Oregon, 14 miles to the southeast in 1901. The great flood of 1894 destroyed what was left of the original business district and many surviving buildings were moved away from the river. The following year the Oregon Steam Navigation Company began construction of a narrow gauge railroad that would connect Umatilla to the agricultural inland, passing from Pendleton to Weston. Umatilla remained a vital commercial center until the late 1870s, when the removal of the rapids in 1877 allowed boats traveling from The Dalles to continue directly to Wallula and beyond. For a brief time during the gold rush in the 1860s there was competition between Umatilla and Wallula, Washington to become the "Sacramento of the Upper Columbia" but the gold rush wouldn't last long enough to support either town's growth beyond frontier villages. That same year the first newspaper (A tri-weekly) was established. It won the county seat of Umatilla County by a small margin on MaBut would only remain so until 1868 when it was moved to the burgeoning village of Pendleton. A business district developed along Water Street at the river's edge and at the town's peak it had 3 hotels, 22 saloons, 6 mercantiles and 3 grocery stores, among others. Umatilla quickly became an important trade and distribution center not just for gold rush travelers but for the growing population of farmers and ranchers in the surrounding region. Its post office was established in 1863 with Z. The site was first known as Umatilla Landing, then Umatilla City, then Columbia, then Umatilla City once again over the next year or so. The site was chosen for its location just below the Umatilla Rapids, which formed a navigational headwater on the Columbia and prevented boats from traveling further upstream without needing to be portaged or needing their cargo transferred to a new boat above the rapids. Davenport surveyed for a town site at the mouth of the Umatilla River and filed a plat in 1863. Not long after, when gold was discovered in the Boise Basin of Idaho and in Montana in 1862, the Columbia River became an important passageway inland to the gold fields. The Umatilla Indian Reservation was created in 1855 after the Walla Walla Council treaty and many of the Umatilla, Cayuse and Walla Walla tribes relocated there, with the vast majority of their lands being given over to the US government. The first Umatilla post office was established in September 1851 at the Umatilla Indian Agency about 5 miles (8 km) east of Pendleton, but was discontinued in January 1852. On their return trip from the mouth of the Columbia River in 1806, the Lewis and Clark Expedition made note in their journals of a village on the site. ![]() Before European settlement, the peninsula formed by the convergence of the Umatilla and Columbia rivers had been occupied by the indigenous Umatilla people for at least 10,000 years, being the site of temporary and seasonal villages, fishing and later horse breeding. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |