Lyman's History of Old Walla Walla County: Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin Counties (Complete‪)‬

A land of scenic charm, of physical interest, of fertile soil and ample resources, of climate in which living is a delight, of two great rivers and many impetuous tributaries, of mountain chains with rich and varied hues and contours of stately majesty,—such is the imperial domain included in that portion of the State of Washington lying east of the Columbia River and south of the Snake. While this region has distinctive physical features, it yet has a sufficient family resemblance to the other parts of Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington to indicate a common origin. We may therefore properly take first a general view of this larger area. The greater part of the vast Inland Empire of Northeastern Oregon and Eastern Washington consists of rolling prairies, sometimes fairly hilly, with extensive "flats" in various parts, and low-lying, level valleys bordering the numerous streams. These valleys are usually quite narrow, the three marked exceptions being the broad valleys of the Walla Walla, Umatilla, and Yakima, the two latter being outside of the scope of our story. The Inland Empire varies in elevation above sea-level from about three hundred and fifty feet on the Columbia River to about nine thousand at the highest summits of the Blue Mountains. The larger part of the cultivated portions ranges from eight hundred to two thousand feet. The variations in elevation have a remarkable effect on temperature and rainfall, the former decreasing and the latter increasing very rapidly from the lower to the higher levels. The atmosphere throughout this region is ordinarily very clear, and the majestic sweep of the Blue Mountains and the wide expanses of hills and dales and flats lie revealed in all their imposing grandeur with vivid distinctness.

As there is a general physical similarity in the different parts of this entire Columbia Basin, so has there been a common geological history. Broadly speaking, the upper Columbia Basin from near Spokane on the north to Wallowa on the south is volcanic in origin. The scope of this work does not permit any detailed discussion of the geology of the region, but it is of interest to refer to the fascinating little book of Prof. Thomas Condon, formerly of the Oregon State University, on the "Two Islands." Professor Condon was the first systematic student of the geology of the Northwest, and during his active career, extending from about 1855 to 1890, he accumulated a large and valuable collection of fossil remains as data from which to infer the stages in the geological history of the Northwest. One of his working hypotheses was that there were two islands as the first lands in what is now the Northwest. These were the Blue Mountain Island and the Siskiyou Mountain Island. Later geologists have not entirely accepted all the details of Professor Condon's hypothesis, though they regard his general reasoning as sound. It is generally believed now that there was a very early uplift, possibly a third island, in what is now the Okanogan, Methow, and Chelan highlands and mountains. At any rate, there is a general concurrence in the opinion that the oldest land in this part of the continent was those very regions where the two or perhaps three islands are supposed to have risen. The Chelan region and thence a vast sweep northeast and then southeast toward Spokane is of granite, andesite, and porphyry, the primeval crust of the earth. Again on the south, the core of the Blue Mountains, especially in the vicinity of Wallowa, is limestone and granite. All these formations are very ancient. On the other hand, the volcanic regions are comparatively recent, and those compose practically all the central parts. This area between those two ancient formations, the part covering the four counties of our present story being in the very heart of it, seems to have undergone almost every possible dynamic influence, fire, frost, and flood. Apparently it was a deep basin between the earlier elevations and was the scene of stupendous volcanic and seismic energy. Then it was covered with water and for ages a great lake extended over much of what is now the Walla Walla Valley and the valleys of its tributaries and the lower courses of the other streams, as the Touchet and Tucanon. When the water had drained off, there succeeded an age of ice and frost, with disintegration by cold and even some glaciation. Probably there were several alternating eras of fire and frost and flood. The Yakima Indians have a fantastic tale of the formation of these lakes and from them the Columbia River, which may have some basis of scientific fact. They say that in the times of the Watetash (animal people, before the Indians) a monstrous beaver, Wishpoosh, inhabited Lake Kachees, now one of the sources of the Yakima. Wishpoosh had the evil habit of chewing up and cutting to pieces all the trees as well as other animals in his reach. Speelyi, the chief God of the Mid-Columbia Indians, endeavored to make way with this destructive monster, but succeeded only in wounding him severely and making him so angry that he laid around him with furious energy and soon burst the rocky barriers of the lake. The water flowing out streamed over the country and formed the Upper Yakima. The deluge was checked by the mountain ramparts of the Kittitas Valley, as we know it, and thus was formed a great lake over all that valley. But the raging beaver finally tore out that barrier also and the flood passed on into the Yakima Valley, making another lake over the whole region where Yakima now is, but it was stayed for a time by the ridge just below the Atahnum of the present. In like manner that barrier was torn out and the accumulation of waters swept on to the vast level region where the Snake and Columbia, with the lesser streams of the Yakima and Walla Walla, unite. Thus, a large part of the region which we shall describe in this history was a lake. But the infuriated Wishpoosh was not yet content, and by successive burstings of barriers the Walla Walla lake was emptied through the Umatilla highlands, then the Cascade Mountains themselves were parted, and the chain of lakes was opened to the ocean, the Columbia River itself being the connecting stream. Wishpoosh having reached the ocean making havoc among the whales and all other objects of creation, when Speelyi at last pierced him to the heart and his monstrous carcass was cast up on Clatsop Beach. There Speelyi cut him into fragments and of him made the various Indian tribes.