The Columbia America’s Great Highway
through the Cascade Mountains to the Sea

by Samuel Christopher Lancaster

With twenty-six color plates and
other illustrations; twenty-one of them, by
the new process of color photography, first photographed
on glass direct from nature, and afterward
reproduced by the four color process

Front Cover/Spine:

This is a very beautiful old book. There are a total of 35 illustrations. It would appear to be one of the earliest containing color photographs. The book contains a wide variety of interesting information as well. I never really realized that there were so many waterfalls in the state of Oregon.

This is a second edition copy which was published in 1916 by Samuel Christopher Lancaster, Portland, Oregon. The book measures approximately 7 1/8 inches by 10 3/8 inches and contains 144 pages plus a lovely fold out map in color. The gray cloth pictorial cover shows signs of soiling. Some spotting is apparent to the bottom of the spine and the back cover along the spine and the bottom edge of the board. The cover shows signs of wear to the edges, corners and to the top and bottom of the spine. The spine is tight and the hinges are strong. The paper at the hinges is cracked, however it does not affect the strength of the hinges. The paper covering the front hinge is split but the hinge holds strong. The pages are printed on good quality, glossy paper and show no signs of foxing. There is a gift inscription on the front free end page. The pages show no signs of rips. Some of the pages show signs of wear to the fore edges. Exceptions noted, the overall condition of this old book is between good plus to near very good.


Title Page


Title Page – Verso

Contents:

  1. Formation of the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada Ranges
  2. Formation of the Columbia River and the Gorge
  3. Early Life in the Columbia Basin
  4. The Fur Traders
  5. Early Missionaries
  6. Life at Fort Vancouver
  7. The Struggle to Possess the Land
  8. Transportation on the Columbia
  9. The Columbia River Highway
  10. Addenda
  11. Appendix “A,” The Bees-Wax Ship
  12. Appendix “B,” Whitman Massacre
  13. Appendix “C,” Flatheads
  14. Appendix “D,” Indians and River Called Multnomah
  15. Appendix “E,” Indian Beads and Mediums of Exchange
  16. Appendix “F,” Coinage of Gold into Beaver Money
  17. Appendix “G,” Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

List of Illustrations:
Columbia River Gorge from Chanticleer
Illumined Page, to Samuel Hill, Roadbuilder
The Falls of Multnomah
Mount Hood from Larch Mountain
Sunset on Mount St. Helens from “Silver Star”
Latourell Falls
Hoo-Sis-Mox-Mox
Falls of Shepperd’s Dell
Dr. John McLoughlin
Bridal Veil Falls
The Birth of a New Day
Between Crown Point and Latourell Falls
Concrete Bridge at Latourell Falls
Sheppherd’s Dell, Looking East
Sheppherd’s Dell, Looking West
The Falls of Multnomah when Autumn Tints the Foliage
The Falls of Multnomah at the Close of a Midsummer’s Day
The Warm Glow of Sunset at the Close of an Autumn Day
Beacon Rock and Columbia River Fish Wheel
Early Morning at Eagle Creek
The South Pier at the Fabled Bridge of the Gods
Table Mountain, North Pier of Fabled “Bridge of the Gods”
Autumn in the Cascades
The State Fish Hatchery at Bonneville
Mount Hood and the Valley of Hood River
Cannon Beach
Sunset from King’s Heights, Portland
Roses are Everywhere in Portland
God’s Goodnight Kiss when the Day is Done
Tomahawk Pipe and Tobacco Pouch
Indian Beads and other Ornaments
Flathead Woman and Child
Beaded Purse of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce
Panorama of the Columbia, America’s Great Highway, through the Cascade Mountains to the Sea


Frontispiece – Columbia River Gorge from Chanticleer – Crown Point on the Right. (Color photograph made September, 1914, just after grading had been completed around the top of the rock.) The broad highway encircles the top of this great rock, which stands sheer seven hundred twenty-five feet above the River. Table Mountain on the left is three thousand four hundred twenty feet in elevation. From Crown Point the eye looks through the Cascade Mountain Range, a distance of thirty-five miles to the eastward, and almost as far in the direction of the setting sun, across the gleaming waters of the ever broadening stream. The Columbia River is peerless. Its grandeur speaks to men, and tells of Him who gathered the waters together in one place and lifted up the mountains.


Inscription – Front free end page


Large fold out diorama of the region. The fold out measures 18 inches by 10 inches.


Sunset on Mount St. Helens--from “Silver Star” in the Cascade Range North of the Columbia.
The most active volcanoes built up mighty domes, reaching into the skies, one mile, two miles, almost three miles high, until the icy-cold of the atmosphere where they now reared their heads, exceeded the cold of ocean depths whence the uplift came.


Falls of Multnomah, Columbia River Highway
When God made this world He utilized the forces of nature, and produced many beautiful things for the enjoyment of His children. No imaginable “Dream Garden” could equal the splendor of this wonderful place, which is often declared to be “too beautiful to be real.


The Columbia River Highway in the heart of the Cascade Range.
Here the broad thoroughfare, twenty-four feet in width, was blasted out of solid rock. It is hung on the face of the cliff two hundred feet above the river. This photograph of the finished roadway was made only twelve months after the one in color, (page 87), which was made when the brush was being burned at this point.


“The Whitman Massacre.”


Samuel Hill Road Builder
Who loves this country and brought me to it.
Who showed me the German Rhine and continental Europe.
Whose kindness made it possible for me to have a part in planning and construction this great highway.

There is a time, and place for every man to act his part in life’s drama and to build according to his ideals.

God shaped these great mountains round about us and lifted up those mighty domes into a region of perpetual snow.

He fashioned the Gorge of the Columbia, fixed the course of the broad river, and caused the crystal streams both small and grate to leap down from the crags and sing their never ending songs of joy.

Then He planted a garden, men came and built a beautiful city close by his wonderland. To some He gave great wealth - to every man his talent, - and when the time had came for men to break down the mountain barriers, construct a great highway of commerce and utilize the beautiful, which is as useful as the useful, He set them to the task and gave to each his place.

I am thankful to God for His goodness in permitting me to have a part in building this broad thoroughfare as a frame to the beautiful picture which He created.

Samuel Christopher Lancaster
Highway Engineer
1915


Hoo-Sis-Mox-Mox. A Chief of the Palouse tribe who lived in Southeastern Washington on the Palouse River just above its junction with the Snake. He was borin in 1812 and attended both the Whitman and the Spalding Mission Schools. He was a warrior of considerable fighting ability, until he came to the Dalles and informed the white people that “he would fight no more.” He was drowned in the Umatilla River in 1909, aged 97.


Concrete Bridge at Latourell Falls. There are three arches eighty feet in length; the bridge is one hundred feet in height. The Falls of Latourell can be seen from the bridge, pouring their shining waters over the vertical wall of a basalt cliff, where the rock is formed into pentagonal shapes which hang down like icicles. The Giant’s Causeway of the Irish Coast is well known, but it offers no better example for rock crystallization.


Back cover

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