150 Years 1872-1886 The Dalles THE DECADES OF HISTORY PART TWO OF THE DALLES CHRONICLE'S TEN-PART SERIES. March 30, 2007 page 2 ICE HOLDS TRADE IN DEATH GRIP (Text Only) Photo: Pictured is Second Street in the mid-1880s. On December 18, 1884, in blizzard conditions, a Union Pacific Train left The Dalles with 148 passengers. It was to arrive in Portland later that same day. Just west of Hood River it was trapped between two avalanches. The train finally arrived in Portland on January 7, 1884 - three weeks late. THE DALLES AND SANDY WAGON ROAD - Another ice blockade of the Columbia river, suspending all business between the population residing in the Upper Columbia, and that of the Lower and sea board; brings us face to face with the question of a more reliable medium of communication between the two sections of our country. The solution of this problem has from time to time engaged the serious consideration of the best minds of the North Pacific slope, evolving in its theoretical treatment numerous schemes and suggestions, many of which if put into material form and practical operation, would, if not wholly obliterate the climatic and physical impediments that naturally obstruct free and uninterrupted communication and exchange of commodities between the two regions, greatly modify such hinderances. [sic] Taking the problem with the conditions it presents, under the present state of affairs, climatic, social and commercial, we deem it best, for the immediate wants of the upper Columbia that we concentrate our energies upon the plan which is most compatible with our present ability to put into successful and early operation. Were the waters of the Columbia never frozen so as to present a surface as impervious to water crafts of all kinds as a lava bed, then but one class of improvements would be thought of and required, that is cheap and efficient portage either by locking the Cascades and the Dalles or railroads. But, however ample and costly the works may be to evade these points of obstruction in the navigation of the river, the most formidable impediment remains unmitigated. [sic] The seal of winter will as effectually close navigation when millions have been expended upon locks and portage rail roads, free to all, as it did in the past poetic ago. "When rolled the Oregon And heard no sound save its own splashing." The climatic condition of the problem must not be overlooked, and it is worse than idle to ignore it, and predicate business as vast and increasing as that of this region, upon the hope of exceptional mild winter. We are dwellers in a high northern latitude, a fact we must recognize in preparing for the actual business of life. The history of this river admonishes us that at sometime between November and March, the river will be closed by ice. This interruption may be of only a few weeks duration but it is liable to continue for months. It has and may again extend to a period of near one quarter of a year, and that at the very part of the year when transportation and communication is the most required by our stock interest which for some years to come will continue to be the grant productive interest of this region about which we write. [to be continued] Incoming and Outgoing messages protected by Trend Micro PC-cillin program