PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. a7 
In 1884 B. A. Seaborg, a Columbia River canner, established a 
plant on Shoalwater Bay, as the whole of Willapa Harbor was then 
known. ; 
About 1900 F. C. Barnes established a cannery at Sunshine, on the 
Nasel River, but the run of salmon on this river soon became so small 
that the plant was abandoned and the machinery moved to Mr. 
Barnes’s cannery at South Bend. 
In 1904 P. J. McGowan, the Columbia River canner, opened a 
cannery on the North River. Mr. McGowan, who was over 80 years 
of age at the time, had turned the control of his important Columbia 
River canning interests over to his sons, but finding idleness not to 
his liking, started this cannery in order to have something to occupy 
his time. He operated it for several years and then abandoned the 
project. 
In 1912 the Chetlo Harbor Packing Co. established a cannery at 
Chetlo Harbor, but operated it only that year and in 1914. 
In 1915 only two canneries, both of them at South Bend, operated 
on Willapa Harbor. 
COLUMBIA RIVER. 
The Columbia, which is the largest river of the Pacific coast, rises 
in British Columbia, flows through Washington, reaching the north- 
ern border of Oregon about 75 miles west-of the State’s eastern 
boundary; from this point the river forms the dividing line between 
Oregon and Washington, its general course being westerly. It 
empties into the Pacific at Cape Disappomtment. Its principal 
tributaries are the Snake, John Day, Deschutes, and Willamette 
Rivers, and through these the main river drains an enormous extent 
of territory. 
This river, which has produced more salmon than any other river 
in the world, has had a most interesting history. Many years before 
the white man saw its waters the Indians visited its banks during 
the annual salmon runs and caught and cured their winter’s supply 
of food. Along the shores of the river at The Dalles for 15 miles 
were notable fisheries where various bands, who lived south and 
north, had their respective fishing locations, and to which all others 
were forbidden access. They used spears and dip nets in catching 
the salmon, the majority of which were dried and smoked for winter 
use. 
A favorite preparation of the Indians who resorted to the river 
was pemmican. This was the meat of the salmon cleaned of the 
bones, pounded up fine, and then packed in hempen sacks of home 
manufacture. A sack of pemmican weighed from 80 to 90 pounds 
and was worth in barter as much as an ordinary horse. 
