In my History of the Northwest Coast I have
brought down the annals of Washington, Idaho, and Montana to the end of the fur
company regime, in 1846, at which time the question of boundary between the
possessions of Great Britain and those of the United States was determined, the
subjects of the former power thereupon retiring from the banks of the Columbia
northward beyond the line of latitude 49°. In the History of Oregon I have
likewise given much of the early affairs of the territory treated of in this
volume, that territory for a time being a part of Oregon; just as in the history
of Washington much is given of the history of Idaho, and in the history of Idaho
much of Montana.
Under the term Northwest Coast I originally included all that vast region of
North America north of the 42d parallel and west of the Rocky Mountains, Alaska
alone excepted. When, in 1846, the southern line of British Columbia was
determined, all that remained was called Oregon. Later, from Oregon was set off
Washington; from Washington was set off Idaho; and from Idaho, for the most
part, was set off Montana. Thus for some part of the history of Montana we look
to the annals of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and the Northwest Coast; for part of
the history of Idaho we look to the annals of Washington and the rest; and for
the history of Washington we must have also the histories of Oregon and the
Northwest Coast. I have been thus ex Illicit on this point, in order that the
people of Washington, Idaho, and Montana might thoroughly understand how the
histories of their respective sections are distributed in this series histories
which if segregated from the series and issued separately would each fill a
space equal to two of my volumes.
There were those among the early pioneers who came to the Northwest Coast some
who deter-mined, while securing to themselves such homes as they might choose
out of a broad expanse, to serve their government by taking possession of the
territory north of the Columbia River, not as Vancouver had done fifty-seven
years before, by stepping on shore to eat luncheon and recite some ceremonies to
the winds, nor as Robert Gray had done, a few years later, by entering and
naming the great River of the West after his ship; but by actual settlement and
occupation. I need not repeat here the narrative of those bold measures by which
these men of destiny achieved what they aimed at. I wish only to declare that
they no more knew what was before them than did the first immigrants to the
Willamette Valley. Nevertheless, it fell out that they had found one of the
choicest portions of the great unknown north-west; with a value measured not
alone by its fertile soil, but also by its wonderful inland sea, with its
salt-water canals branching off in all directions, deep, safe from storms,
always open to navigation, abounding in fish, bordered many miles wide with the
most magnificent forests on earth. It did not require the imagination of a poet
to picture a glowing future for Puget Sound, albeit far away in the dim reaches
of time. To be in some measure connected with that future, to lay ever so humbly
the corner stone, was worth all the toil and privation, the danger and the
isolation, incident to its achievement.
Not only was there this inland sea, with its treasures inexhaustible of food for
the world, and its fifteen hundred miles of shore covered with pine forests to
the water's edge, but surrounding it were many small valleys of the richest
soils, watered by streams fed by the pure snows of the Cascade and Coast ranges,
half prairie and half forest, warm, sheltered from winds, enticing the weary
pilgrim from the eastern side of the continent to rest in their calm solitudes.
It was true that the native wild man still in-habited these valleys and roamed
the encircling mountains, to the number of thirty thousand; but in so vast a
country three times as many would have seemed few; and the incomers were the
sons of sires who had met and subdued the savage tribes of America as they
pushed their way westward from Plymouth Rock to the Missouri and beyond;
therefore they had no hesitation now in settling in their midst. They had been
bred to the belief that "the British and Indians" would melt before them.
The sources of material for writing this volume are similar to those which have
enabled me to write all my volumes; namely, all existing printed matter, books,
public documents, and newspapers, together with many valuable manuscripts, the
results of hundreds of dictations, containing the experiences of those first
upon the ground in the various localities, or who have in any manner achieved
distinction in organizing society and government in these domains.
NOTE: Bancroft provides an abundance of information in this book, but it is necessary for the reader to check the footnotes. In many cases we have provided pages for a footnote that contains names and research information.
Notes About the book:
Source: Bancroft Works, Volume 31, History Of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 1845-1889, Hubert H. Bancroft, 1890. The History Company, Publishers, San Francisco
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing has been done to the historical section, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual output. The Idaho Biographies are a second part of this book and you will find them on a separate biographies page, and indexed in our search or biographies section. The biographies have had editing done to them, but even then, may have some errors.