1805
PORTLAND OREGON
===== U. S. A. —
1905
V CENTENNIAL   X <
EXPOSITION
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MERIWETHER   LEWIS WM. CLARK
CHE icoth anniversary of the exploration of the Oregon Country (comprising the present states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming), will be commemorated at Portland, Oregon, in 1905, by an Exposition which will be representative of American, European and Oriental life and industry. A company with $500,000 capital has been organized to hold the Exposition. The fair grounds, comprising 385 acres of land and natural lake, are in the northwestern part of Portland, practically at the very point on the Willamette River reached by Captain Clark on April 3, 1806.
The Lewis and Clark Centennial will show the industrial progress not only of the Oregon Country, but of all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi River, and place it in its true relation to the new trade field in the Orient and the Islands of the Pacific.
Lewis and Clark in 1805-06 scanned the mouth of the Columbia River for the ship that never came. Puget Sound and the Columbia River, the great harbors of the "Oregon Country," have a foreign commerce amounting to $40,000,000 a year. In the ten years between 1892 and 1901 they shipped breadstuff's valued at n early $ 120,000,000.        ■     e v
The West has 35 per cent, of the nation's farms, 45 per cent, of its railroad mileage, 75 per cent, of its gross area, counting Alaska ; 27 per cent, of its population, 19 per cent, of its imports and exports, and produces 99 per cent.
of its gold, 16 per cent, of its manufactures, and 43 per cent, of its farm products.
Jim Bridger's trading post, built in Southwestern Wyoming in 1843, marked the beginning of the era of immigration into the Far West. The great trading posts of this region now are San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane, Butte, Boise, Los Angeles and Salt Lake.
Capt. Clark in 1806 found a few camps of Indians near where the city of Portland now stands. Portland is one of the great cities of the Union. It has over 115,000 people. Its jobbing trade is over $130,000,000 a year and the individual deposits of its banks approximate $25,000,000.
The arrival of the first direct overland mail by stage at St. Louis from San Francisco in 1858 was regarded by President Buchanan as "a glorious triumph for civilization and the Union." Railroads aggregating 87,000 miles have taken the place of the stage in the West.
In 1870, St Louis, New Orleans, and San Francisco were the only cities in the West with over 100,000 population. In 1900, ten cities exceeded this mark. Portland, the principal city in the Oregon Country, was the 106th city of the Union in 1880 and the 42nd in 1900.
Alaska, like the Louisiana region and the Oregon Country, was not considered by some American Congressmen to be worth a "pinch of snuff." Yet, since the United States bought it in 1867, it has yielded gold, furs and fish worth $150,000,000.
In Oregon only 16.6 per cent, of the total land area is in farms; Washington, 19.9; Idaho, 5.9; Montana, 12.7; Wyoming, 13. Practically the entire area of these states is susceptible of development in agricultural and other industrial pursuits.
Lewis and Clark faced starvation when they were camped at the mouth of the Columbia in the winter of 1805-06. The state of Oregon now has 4,500,000 domestic cattle and produces annually over 23,000,000 bushels of grain.
The healthfulness of Pacific Coast climate is known the world over. In 1850 Oregon's death rate was the lowest in the Union, and in 1900 Portland was the second healthiest city in the country.
In 1850 there were less than 2,000,000 people in the West. There are now over 21,000,000. The West now has more people than the entire United States had in 1850.
Part of Lewis and Clark's journey lay through virgin forests. The Oregon Country now cuts 2,500,000,000 feet of lumber a year. |
The  West   in   1850   produced 84,000,000 bushels of grain.   In 1900 the production was j 2,400,000,000 bushels.
Oregon, Washington and California contain one-third of the standing timber of the United States.
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound 1 Save his own dashings—
William Cullen Bryant. I -.___J