At 06:18 PM 3/14/02 -0800, you wrote: > When did the trains come to Oregon and people quit using covered wagons? >Doneva Oregon Jim already got in with an answer while I was offline composing my answer, but mine overlaps and complements the info he provided, so I am adding it to the list, as well: First, the trains: Oregon was connected to the rest of the country by train on September 8, 1883, when the last spike was driven on the Northern Pacific Route at Gold Creek, Montana. The route became the Great Northern and is now part of the UP, and is the route taken by the Empire Builder (I think that's the name) between Portland and Chicago. The first train from the east arrived at Portland on September 8, 1883. Source: Merchants, Money, & Power, E. Kimbark MacColl, The Georgian Press, 1988; page 225 The last spike on the UP RR to Portland, Oregon, was driven in 1884 at Huntington, Oregon, near Farewell Bend on the Snake River and train service began December 1884. That route continues as a freight route only paralleling Interstate 84, more or less, into and across Idaho. Service had been in place somewhat longer, but this line was not transcontinental until December 1884. Sources: Plaque at UP RR yard, Huntington, Oregon MM&P, page 249 Southern Pacific completed its line from California and the first train from San Francisco arrived at Portland on December 19, 1887. Source: MM&P, page 250. And then the covered wagons: People continued to come to Oregon (obviously I am writing from an Oregon vantage) by wagon until the 1920s for reasons related to costs and the fact that the west was bigger than the trains could cover. The building of paved roads began the end of the wagon era. Rick Steber's book LAST OF THE PIONEERS relates stories of people who came to Oregon into the 1920s by wagon. They were solitary families by then, no big wagon trains. You can find the book at Powell's City of Books which has a very good section on Oregon and the Oregon Trail <<http://www.powells.com/>> Stafford Hazelett

>The route became the Great Northern and is now part of the UP, and >is the route taken by the Empire Builder (I think that's the name) >between Portland and Chicago. The first train from the east arrived >at Portland on September 8, 1883. I believe the Empire Builder (Jim Hill's nickname) linked Seattle and St Paul, but close enough with the SP&S link between Portland and Seattle. I know the Burlington Northern bought out the NP (terminus at Tacoma, WA) and the Great Northern (terminus at Everett), but I think the UP merger fell through. The Northern Pacific (Jay Cooke, Henry Villard, et al on the government dime) main route goes from Duluth to Billings to Spokane to Yakima to Tacoma then Seattle. It was stalled in Montana by the same Panic of 1873 that stalled the O&C at Roseburg. The construction reached Billings, MT, Sept 1, 1883, and crossed the Rockies on Sept 8th (the date cited above). When the NP reached Pasco, a train was sent down a local line (Rawhide RR from Wallula toWalla Walla) to the ORNC (building the south bank line to meet the UP Oregon Short Line) then to Portland, arriving Sept 11, 1883. The GN main line from Pasco to Tacoma over an Oregon Trail bypass called the Naches Pass Trail was not completed until 1888. The Spokane, Portland, and Seattle RR (north bank of the Columbia railroad) was completed in 1905 and technically never reached Seattle. Trains out of Portland were called the Pioneer, Oregon Pioneer and Portland Rose. To kep things straight in my student's minds I suggest the following. 1) If it ends in Pacific (UP, CP, SP, NP) it was a government subsidized transcontinental. 2) Almost all others were private ventures that connected with the big boys. 3) JJ Hill's The Great Northern was the only privately financed transcontinental. (This can be argued by ATSF fans , but up here in the Great Pacific Northwet the ATSF is not a player.) 4) Henry Villard tried to buy out everybody starting with the NP and the SP. 5) Jim Hill was the uncle and Sam the nephew. Sometimes Sam didn't even know where the Sam Hill he was. His wife was Mary Hill and her dry side palace was Maryhill. 6) The modern UP mergers are complicating everything as well as slowing down traffic. jim