290429 [Wenatchee Valley; Apple Blossom Festival]

 

Turns out this episode didn't really have anything to do with the Apple Blossom Festivals, which came along later than the period covered by this story.

This tale of the Empire Builders was split into two parts. In the first, a story was told of one Captain Jonathan Thorn and the journeys of the barkentine Tonquin. This was tied to the establishment of Fort Astoria on the Oregon coast. The second tale related the efforts of two of Wenatchee’s earliest settlers and developers, W.T. Clark and Arthur Gunn, to enlist the aid of the GN’s James J. Hill to irrigate the Wenatchee Valley. This development occurred in about 1896-98.

The Tonquin was sent out from New York in 1810 to further the interests of John Jacob Astor and the Pacific Fur Company, and to build a fur-trading fort on the Pacific Coast of the United States. The journey took the ship around Cape Horn at the southern tip of the Americas.

Members of the ship’s complement included several Canadian voyageurs and four partners of the fur company: Alexander McKay, Duncan McDougall, David Stuart and his nephew, Robert Stuart.

Here’s how the Old Timer set the scene in the radio broadcast:

‘Twas long back in the early part of the last century when the Wenatchee Valley was first really settled, an’ the people who settled it came from Astoria, which was then a tradin’ post at the mouth of the Columbia River, where the city of Astoria is today. These Astorians, as they was called, was sent out there by Mr. Astor of New York, who was busy makin’ a fortune out of the fur trade in the northwest, and the first thing I want to tell you about tonight is the story of the voyage out these Astorians made, from there to Wenatchee, jest the way the Astorians did. Well, long in 1810 ‘twas that Mr. Astor made his ship, the Tonquin, ready fer the long voyage. He’d sent up to Canada fer some French voyageurs and some Scotsmen, who was expert in fur tradin’, and this Canadian outfit come whoopin’ down from the north, carryin’ their canoes with ‘em. Finally, they got to the Hudson River, an’ there they launched the canoes, an’ paddled down the river to New York, singin’ their voyageur songs on the way, an’ scandalizin’ all the Dutchmen that lived along the banks. They got to New York all right, an’ on September 6^th, 1810, they sailed fer northwest America. There was McKay, an’ McDougall, an’ David Stuart, an’ his nephew, Robert Stuart, besides the French voyageurs an’ the clerks they’d brought with ‘em. Now, Mr. Astor had put Captain Jonathan Thorn in command of the Tonquin, an’ Thorn, he was thorny! He was a naval lieutenant, on leave from his ship, an’ he was a good sailor, but he believed in havin’ everythin’ done ship-shape an’ nave style, which same appealed very little to these here gentlemen from Canada, who was used to rulin’ their own roosts, an’ doin’ things their own way.

As the Tonquin neared the southern tip of South America, Thorn chose to tie up at the Falkland Islands for repairs, fresh water and other provisions. In the Empire Builders story, however, the ship stops at the Cape Verde Islands – just off the west coast of Africa. In both the radio play and in real life, Thorn grew impatient with some of the shore party and commanded his crew to set sail without them. This did not sit well with some of the men still on the ship.

Here is the exchange as it played out on the radio:

THORN:               Make sail, and away there! There’s an off-shore wind, and I don’t want to lose it!

 

VOICES:               Aye, aye sir! Aye, aye!

R. STUART:          Captain Thorn! . . . Captain Thorn! You’re surely not going to sail without the shore party!

THORN:               I certainly am, Mr. Stuart! They had fair warning yesterday what my intentions were, and they’ve seen fit to disregard them. They can take consequences!

R. STUART:          But Captain, the main purpose of this voyage to get us out to the Columbia River to establish a trading post! If you leave my uncle and the others, your voyage will be useless!

THORN:               No, sir! It will not be useless! I shall at least have taught those fools on shore that an American sea captain is not to be trifled with!

R. STUART:          Look there! They’re following us in the ship’s boat! At least heave to and let them catch up, Captain!

THORN:               No, sir! If they can catch us, well and good! If they can’t let them stay there till they rot!

R. STUART:          Just one minute, Captain Thorn. Now! You will either bring the Tonquin to, and take those men aboard or I’ll shoot!

THORN:               A mutiny, by thunder!

R. STUART:          No, not a mutiny. I’m not one of your crew, and I’m not under your orders. Will you bring the ship to? Answer!

THORN:               My land, yes! I’d bring the whole Noah’s Ark to jest to get rid of your eternal arguing! Ho there! You lads! Heave to, and stand by to pick up the boat!

VOICES:               Aye, aye sir!

R. STUART:          Here they come! Another minute, and they’ll be along side! I was sorry to threaten you, Captain, but there wasn’t anything else to do.

THORN:               Oh, I didn’t care about that pistol of yours, but I’d do anything to stop your mouth! . . . All right! Come aboard there!

Whew! Certain bloodshed, narrowly averted. Now you’re probably wondering how the Old Timer managed to swing the story of the Tonquin and the founding of Fort Astoria into a story of the development of the Wenatchee Valley apple industry. You would not be alone. As awkward as it is, here you go:

PIONEER:            Well, the Tonquin got to the Columbia River all right, an’ a tradin’ post was established right where Astoria is today. They wasn’t content with that though! No, sir! Not that outfit. They hadn’t been there hardly any time at all when they started a pushin’ inland, up the Columbia River, over to the Okanogan, an’ to where Wenatchee is today. It was a wonderful country then, jest as it is now! Of course, what they was after was furs, an’ they got plenty of ‘em! Well, time came finally when people was settlin’ thicker, an’ thinkin’ of other things besides furs. Old Okanogan Smith, he’d been through all the Okanogan an’ Wenatchee country, droppin’ his apple seeds wherever he went, an’ the apple trees hed sprung up till, in the Spring of year, the place was a Paradise of apple blossoms!

Born in Maine, Hiram F. Smith – a.k.a., “Okanogan Smith” – once worked in New York for Horace Greeley and evidently took Greeley’s oft-quoted advice to “Go west, young man.” Seems there’s an asterisk on everything though –Greeley may not have ever said this phrase, or at least perhaps did not coin it. Anyhow, Smith was lured west by the California gold rush, tried gold prospecting in the Fraser River area near Vancouver, B.C., and eventually settled in the Okanogan Valley of Central Washington. He established a remote trading post near what is now the town of Oroville. Smith earned a high degree of respect among many of the Native Americans in the area, due to his fair play and consistency (as contrasted to the behavior of the federal and other government agencies). By the 1860’s, Smith was involved in the government of the Territory of Washington. In 1893, Smith contracted a very bad cold and developed pneumonia after riding his horse all the way from Oroville to Olympia, the state capital. Smith was taken to Seattle for medical treatment, but died there at the age of 64. Among his legacies is the attribution of having first planted (in about 1848 or 1850) the seeds for countless apple trees in the Okanogan Valley, which served as a precursor for the eventual blossoming of the Wenatchee Valley apple industry.

 

Hiram "Okanogan" Smith - Central Washington's answer to Johnny Appleseed

The Great Northern Railway reached Wenatchee in the latter part of 1892. Within months, the GN track workers laid the final rail of the transcontinental line in the Cascade Mountains, near Stevens Pass. So much construction work had made a temporary boom town of Wenatchee, but with the line completed, activity and commerce in the young community waned. Those who had settled there, determined to make a go of it, included a man named Arthur Gunn. He was in the newspaper business in Chicago before moving out to Washington. In Wenatchee, Gunn started a bank. He and another local businessman, William T. Clark, both envisioned an enormous opportunity for agricultural development of the Wenatchee Valley, if only an adequate irrigation system could be devised. The soil was rich but arid, and the climate was nearly perfect for growing fruit trees.



Arthur Gunn

William T. Clark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gunn and Clark had a conversation about their predicament, as dramatized on Empire Builders:

GUNN:                 Well, Clark, do you see any way out of it?

CLARK:                 Not so far. If we can irrigate and develop this country we’ve got the richest apple territory in the world. If we can’t – we’re through.

GUNN:                 It looks that way to me. It’s too late for me to go back to newspaper work in Chicago, but I’ll have to do something. I’m down to rock bottom.

CLARK:                 I know it. So am I. It just doesn’t seem reasonable that there isn’t a solution, but I’ll be hanged if I know what it is.

GUNN:                 There’s one thing, Clark. There is one man that might help us.

CLARK:                 Who do you mean?

GUNN:                 Jim Hill, president of the Great Northern.

CLARK:                 Why should he back us?

GUNN:                 For very obvious reasons. The Great Northern runs through here, and all this territory. If we can found a big apple industry here, it means freight for the road.

After various attempts to get things rolling, Gunn was virtually penniless when he determined the only hope for salvation of the struggling community at Wenatchee was to appeal to James J. Hill of the Great Northern Railway. Hill had already made it clear that his intention for building a long-lasting and viable railroad was to construct the line through land rich in resources, and to boost the efforts of those hardy pioneers who had the persistence and gumption to stick things out and build commerce in the newly settled areas of the Pacific Northwest. Gunn finagled a free pass to ride Jim Hill’s train out to St. Paul to talk to him about the plans to irrigate the Wenatchee fruit orchards. Hill was not a man inclined to throw money at the work of fools, but he was sufficiently impressed by Gunn’s entreaty that he elected to support the project.

James J. Hill on the steps of the first locomotive of the GN, the William Crooks

Gunn made it out to St. Paul, and managed to have a meeting with the Great Man.

GUNN:               You know what a wonderful apple country we’ve got out there?

HILL:                  Yes. Why don’t you build it up?

GUNN:               That’s just it! We’ve gone as far as we can. We’ve sunk every penny we’ve got – and it’s not enough. Mr. Hill, if we can put twenty thousand acres of land under cultivation in the next few years we can produce more apples than any other like area in the world. If we can’t – we’re done for. It’s Pike’s Peak or Bust!

HILL:                  Well? What do you want me to do about it?

GUNN:               Back us up! We can put those twenty thousand acres under cultivation providing we can irrigate on a large scale. We’re practically starving. Will you take a chance on us?

HILL:                  Yes, I will! I don’t expect you thought I’d decide as quickly as that, did you? Well, there’s not much that goes on in the Great Northern territory that I don’t know about. The people along my right of way are my people. For their sakes and for mine, I want this to be a productive country. I believe in the northwest. I always have believed in it. That’s why I’ve been watching the fight you people have been making out in Wenatchee, and that’s why my decision was made before you got here. I knew you’d come to me, when you needed me.

Kinda starts sounding a bit like Santa Claus, if you ask me, what with all the “there’s not much that goes on… that I don’t know about” business. [He sees you when you're sleeping - He knows when you're awake - He knows if you've been bad or good - So be good for goodness sake!]

Circa 1910 GN booklet used to entice farmers to settle near Wenatchee

In the broadcast story, Hill told Gunn to send a telegram to Wenatchee and tell them their troubles were over. Hill declared (in the radio story, at least) that in ten years Wenatchee would become the Apple Capital of the World. Twenty-twenty hindsight works well in telling a story. Perhaps in real life Jim Hill really did envision great things for Wenatchee. In any event, that’s how the Old Timer wrapped things up that evening, eighty-five years ago.

PIONEER:            Well, in ten years, or even less than that, they did have the Apple Capital of the World out there in Wenatchee, and by Gum it’s there today. Last year they shipped 22,000 car-loads of apples that brought the growers in about $23,000,000! That’s what Clark, an’ Gunn, an’ Jim Hill did fer that country. Well, folks, I’ve got to be getting’ along now, but I’m a comin’ back next week to take you over into Seattle. That’s a city, that is! I’ve got some real good stories about it too. Got to be a goin’ now though! Good night, folks . . . Good night!

 

King Street Station in Seattle, Washington