14 Life of Upper Lake Region. 



of the horse in Oregon is based, a brief outline 

 of the first discovery of these fossils will not 

 be out of place. In the spring of 1866, a new 

 mining interest in Eastern Oregon, Wash- 

 ington and Idaho, resulted in an extensive 

 demand for miners' supplies along the line of 

 Pend d'Oreille lake. The merchants of Walla 

 Walla, in an effort to secure resulting trade, 

 opened a road from Walla Walla to Palouse 

 landing, on Snake river. The distance along 

 this road from the crossing of the Touchet, 

 at Palouse, was thirty miles without water. 

 To remedy this need the road company dug 

 for water fifteen miles beyond the crossing 

 of the Touchet. During the same spring, and 

 in the interest of the same trade, Mr. Moody 

 of The Dalles, afterward Governor Moody 

 of Oregon, was building a small steamer on 

 Pend d'Oreille lake, and on his way home 

 encountered these well diggers of the Touchet 

 wagon road. They had dug through gravel 

 to the depth of eighty-six feet without strik- 

 ing water, but Mr. Moody found them exam- 

 ining some fossil bones they had just found 



