The Golden State – A History of the Region West

Of the Rocky Mountains ;

Embracing California , Oregon , Nevada , Utah , Arizona , Idaho ,

Washington Territory , British Columbia , and Alaska ,

From the Earliest Period to the Present Time

By Rolander Guy McClellan

Published in 1872  

Oregon                                          Page 535

being worked in this section and the yield of precious metals is steadily on the increase in Oregon : three million dollars of gold and silver being now produced annually.

                The vast area of Oregon lying east  of the Cascade mountains, embracing more than two-thirds of the area of the State, and known as Eastern Oregon, differs in its physical features and climate materially from the western portion of the State.  The winters are comparatively dry, and but a small amount of snow falls upon the mountains.  Much of the country is covered by high table-lands, alkaline plains, sandy and volcanic deserts: but there are innumerable rich valleys, well watered and of the best quality of agricultural lands and wide pasture-ranges, abundantly supplied with native grasses, which make this section of the State valuable as a grazing region.  Much of the mountains and rolling hills are covered with fir, pine, oak, and other timber, but generally of an inferior growth when compared with the same species west of the Cascade mountains .

                The southeastern part of Eastern Oregon has a great number of lakes, many of them considerable size.  Klamath lake, situated close to the Cascade mountains , and Lower Klamath lake form one continuous sheet of water of fifty miles in length.  The southern part of the Lower Klamath is in California , and the remainder, including Klamath lake, in Oregon .  The Klamath proper is thirty miles in length and fourteen miles in width.  There are several other lakes of almost as great proportions as this and great numbers of smaller ones, some of which are filled with fish, and some so impregnated with alkaline that no living thing is found.