OREGON. 



635 



height reached was 28-3 feet, and in that of 1890 

 it was 28-7 feet. 



At the Dalles the Columbia reached a height 

 of 53 feet, and submerged the whole business 

 portion of the city. Below the mouth of the 

 Willamette the river was reported in some places 

 20 miles wide. Houses floated down the stream, 

 railroad property suffered great damage, 20 miles 

 of the Union Pacific track were under water, and 

 passengers were carried by boat, as they were 

 also by the Northern Pacific. The damage to 

 crops was very great, and the canning establish- 

 ments along the river suffered severely. 



The lighthouse on Tillamook rock, 18 miles 

 south of the mouth of Columbia river, and 1 

 mile off shore, was badly damaged by a hurri- 

 cane, the severest on record, that raged along 

 the coast Dec. 9. Following is a description, 

 from statements of the 

 keeper, of the storm 

 around the lighthouse : 



It was impossible to see 

 any great distance, as a 

 cloud of spray continually 

 covered the rock. Great 

 mountains of water rolled 

 in from the southwest, and, 

 breaking against the base 

 of the rock, would run up 

 its steep side and spend 

 their force on the building, 

 which trembled and rocked 

 as if ready to tumble into 

 the raging sea. By noon 

 the storm was on in all its 

 fury, and the seas rolled 

 1 1 ig'l i cr and li igher. A great 

 crash of glass soon after 

 noon told of the damage 

 caused by the waves and 

 fragments of rock that had 

 been torn loose from the 

 main rock and hurled 

 against the outer glass that 

 protects the costly lenses. 

 Examination showed -that 

 the panes were all broken, 

 the lenses ruined, and the 

 clock machinery that re- 

 volves the light so badly 

 damaged as to render it 



useless. The lights broken are 136 feet above high 

 water. A monster rock, weighing perhaps a ton, was 

 hurled upward by the waves nearly 100 feet, and com- 

 ing down crashed through the roof of the hall and 

 kitchen. The range was ruined, and every movable 

 article in the kitchen was washed away. The oil 

 house, which was on the lee side of the rock, was 

 almost entirely demolished, the roof having been car- 

 ried away, and the greater part of the walls gone. At 

 one time 6 feet of water was in the siren room and 

 4 in the living rooms. These rooms are 88 feet above 

 high water. 



(For a description of the lighthouse and the 

 difficulties encountered in its construction, see 

 "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1882, pages 283, 284.) 



The Moving Mountain. The sliding moun- 

 tain on Columbia river, one mile west of Cascade 

 locks, made the longest slide on record when 

 the summer floods subsided. The Oregon Rail- 

 way and Navigation Company's roadbed, which 

 is always being disarranged at this point by the 

 movement, was so upset as to require renewing. 

 The engineer sent to do the work made a study 

 of the moving mountain, and said : " The moun- 



tain has about a half mile frontage, extends 

 three quarters of a mile back, and is about 400 

 feet high. It is said to have moved 1 foot in 

 a day, but this is extraordinary, and the average 

 is not more than fa of an inch a day. The 

 mountain contains 75,680,000 cubic yards of 

 earth, and at the rate it is now moving fa of 

 an inch a day will require 4,160 years for its 

 entire disappearance. This mammoth pile of 

 dirt will not in the least affect navigation, for 

 the slide is so gradual and the current so strong 

 that the dirt will be carried down the river and 

 deposited upon the lowlands. As a consequence, 

 what is now unproductive land because of its 

 sandy soil will become productive, and the river 

 proper will be narrowed. The mountain is on a 

 soapstone foundation, which is not level. This 

 accounts for the movement." 



TILLAMOOK LIGHTHOUSE, OREGON. 



Political. The State election took place June 

 4. A Governor and other State officers were to 

 be chosen, 2 members of Congress, and a full 

 Legislature, with the exception of 15 Senators 

 holding over. The Legislature will elect a 

 United States Senator to succeed Senator Dolph, 

 whose term expires in 1895. 



The State convention of the People's party 

 was held at Oregon City, March 15. The reso- 

 lutions declared allegiance to the principles of 

 the national platform, and demanded the fol- 

 lowing : 



A new Constitution, including the establishment of 

 the initiative and referendum. 



That all property be assessed at its cash value ; that 

 there be no deduction for indebtedness without a cor- 

 responding taxable credit in the assessor's district ; 

 and that all mortgages be declared real estate for the 

 purpose of taxation and be assessed in the county 

 where the security exists. 



The enactment of a law forbidding the sale of prop- 

 erty on execution, unless the proceeds of such sale 

 shall equal at least 80 per cent, of the appraised value 

 of said property in addition to costs of collection. 



