had already exceeded the available funds of the Northern Pacific by $14,000,000 and a crash was soon to break over his head. He finished the Northern Pacific from Portland to Goble-within 58 miles of Astoria, but at this time no extension to Astoria was proposed.

Then ensued a piece of folly at Astoria. Citizens of that town were incensed by the long lethargy of Holladay and Villard; they bethought them to spur action or take reprisal by repeal of the unused land grant. This they believed would bring Villard up with a round turn, and force him to build quickly. They memorialized Congress for the repeal (Oregonian, December 6, 1883), and Oregon's Representative in Congress, M. C. George, introduced the repealing measure. The Legislature of Oregon memorialized Congress in 1882, urging the repeal. The bill passed a year later, in January, 1885. Loss of this bonus delayed the Astoria railroad by a decade. Unaided thereafter by the Government, Astoria citizens had to make up a bounty out of their own pockets. Accordingly, in 1887 they offered a bonus of $150,000. This marked the beginning of the new and finally successful period of the Astoria project.

II.

Now at last Astoria citizens resolved to do for themselves; they had leaned on Holladay and Villard and got unfulfilled promises. Portland was the meeting point of the transcontinental Northern Pacific and Union Pacific and the oceangoing ships of the Columbia River since 1883-4; now (1887) the Astoria men made up their minds they would bring that meeting point nearer the sea-to Astoria-in their view, the logical place.

They could not build the 100-mile railroad themselves; they had not the $2,000,000 for that. But they could put up onetenth that sum as a cash bounty, although such money meant to them big sacrifice; it was a large sum and Astoria was a small town. Furthermore, they would form their own company, give it a start and hand it over to capitalists who could carry it through.

So they formed the Astoria & South Coast Railway in August, 1888; incorporators, M. J. Kinney, W. W. Parker, J. W. Conn, E. A. Noyes, M. C. Crosby, H. B. Parker and James Taylor. Branches were to run to Tillamook, perhaps to Salem or Albeny; connections were proposed with an ambitious company known as Salem, Tillamook & Astoria Railroad, incorporated January 9, 1889, by John G. Wright, I. A. Manning, W. F. Boothby, B. S. Cook, J. W. Maxwell. Astoria pledged a bonus of $175,000. The route was to run southward along Clatsop Beach, up Lewis and Clark River, across the mountain divide to Nehalem River, thence to Forest Grove or Hillsboro. The Astoria & South Coast drove its "first spike" at Skipanon May 11, 1889.

The Astorians were delighted, at this juncture, to receive, as their builder and financier, the man who had constructed the "narrow gauge" for the Dundee capitalists, and who had almost brought Huntington in 1881 into the WinnemuccaAstoria scheme-William Reid. They made him president of their company, forthwith, in June, 1889. By this time ten miles of roadbed was graded south of Spikanon, under Henry B. Thielsen, engineer (Oregonian, May 26; June 7, 1889). The road was to be finished by September 15, 1891, to a junction with the Southern Pacific, in Washington or Yamhill County (Oregonian, June 15, 1889). Reid selected Hillsboro as the junction point (Oregonian, September 6, 1889; October 11, 1889). His engineers were E. E. Cooper and R. A. Habersham. Construction began at Hillsboro in November, 1889, and at Astoria in December, 1889. Reid was supposed to have the support of Huntington, and as Reid later wrote in The Oregonian (June 27, 1891). Reid supposed so, too. The project was stimulated by possibility of an alliance with the Oregon Pacific (Yaquina Railroad, then building in Cascade Mountains toward Eastern Oregon, through Santiam Pass) and some transcontinental line-either Union Pacific or Northern Pacific, which were in sharp rivalry. The Astorians hoped to connect with this parent railroad of the Yaquina line. They were encouraged also by incorporation of several companies

which seemed subsidiaries of the unseen railroad that was seeking an outlet by the Yaquina route-the Albany & Astoria Railway, J. L. Cowan, president, for which surveys were carried on in the summer of 1890 under W. B. Barr (Oregonian, November 17, 1889), and the Salem, Astoria & Eastern Railway, headed at Salem by H. W. Cottle, E. M. Waite, Squire Farrar, William England, H. J. Minthorn, J. H. Albert, J. A. Baker, J. O. Wilson. For a Tillamook connection, the Astoria Seashore & Eastern was incorporated March 15, 1890, by W. H. Smith, Oliver Stewart, E. C. Jeffers, D. N. Stewart and George Eckler. Each of these companies had flimsy backing; the Albany and the Salem schemes came to naught; the Yaquina road soon went into bankruptcy and Reid's Astoria Company shortly fell into financial difficulties and halted. Reid had failed to bring in the "outside capital;" he could not "float" the bonds in New York, and his Scotch friends of Dundee had had enough experience in the "narrow gauge."

First of Reid's efforts was enlistment of Huntington in the enterprise. Nearly three years had elapsed since Huntington acquired the Oregon & California lines in Oregon and the Southern Pacific chief was interested in Reid's proposals and took a six months' option after May 6, 1890, to buy the Astoria & South Coast. His terms were: The Astorians to

pay off the $175,000 claims against their company and turn it over to him, together with a $200,000 bonus, terminal facilities at Astoria and the Seaside branch line (finished by Reid in July, 1890, between Young's Bay and Seaside); Huntington was to put up a preliminary $60,000 to complete the Seaside line. The six months were to enable him to make survey of the route and verify the Astoria estimates of cost. Huntington attended the negotiations at Astoria in May, 1890. The agreement dated May 6 (text in Oregonian, May 24, 1901, page 5), was signed by Huntington and by Reid, as president of the Astoria & South Coast, but was not confirmed by the directors of Reid's Company, and the deal fell through. It looked as if, before this juncture, a builder had appeared, Huntington, who would bring to Astoria what that town had

long wished; Huntington was willing to build; the $200,000 subsidy was raised by Astoria citizens in twenty-four hours (Oregonian, May 8, 1890); Huntington supposed the deal consummated and put surveyors on the route in June, 1890, and promised by letter soon to begin construction. The Astorians approved the terms of Huntington, but wished to get rid of Reid, and in their pulling and hauling, lost Huntington. In commenting, eleven years later, on this fiasco, Reid wrote in The Oregonian (May 24, 1901): "Astoria never got its railway into the Nehalem Valley, via Hillsboro to Portland, I lost the $155,000 I had invested in that railway and Mr. Huntington lost his pet scheme via Nehalem to Portland."

Astoria thus lost a rich opportunity in the Nehalem country. This route undoubtedly would have brought larger advantages to that city than the Columbia River route did later; besides, the river route probably would have been built soon afterward, thus affording two railroads and the opening of much tributary country. This loss will always be a source of regret; it was unnecessary; the railroad was Astoria's, but for the approval of a contract which Huntington had signed and to the terms of which Astoria had agreed. And there was no man so able to build the road as he.

Much criticism and abuse were heaped upon Reid for what was called in Astoria his "grasping" nature, or stubborn resistance to Astoria wishes. But it is fair to say in his behalf, that it was his money, and only his, that carried forward the Hillsboro-Clatsop division, up to the Huntington negotiations, the amount as he later stated it being $170,000, some $15,000 of which was afterward regained (Oregonian, June 27, 1891; May 24, 1901). Besides, Reid advanced to the Seaside division $8,000 which was returned to him on his separation from the project in 1891. Reid's operations made a big real estate boom in Astoria, from which some of his critics "realized" handsomely, but others suffered losses in the resultant "slump." It seems at this historical distance that Reid was entitled to better treatment in exchange for his service in enlisting Huntington and in investing heavily his own funds. "Not a soul,"

he wrote (Oregonian, June 27, 1891), "has ever put one dollar between these points (Hillsboro and Clatsop City) excepting myself." The loss to Reid was heavy and he never fully recovered.

After Huntington withdrew, Reid went to work to get other financial backing (Oregonian, May 31, 1890, VI). He turned to English capitalists. It was announced October 9, 1890, at Astoria, that an English syndicate had agreed to take $3,000,000 bonds for a subsidy of between $275,000 and $300,000 for payment of the first two years' interest (Oregonian, October 11, 1890). Their engineer, James McNaught, reported that the route presented no serious engineering difficulties (report in Oregonian, May 19, 1891). The plan was to build into the Willamette Valley; also to connect with the Northern Pacific. To finance the Astoria and the Willamette Valley divisions, Reid incorporated August 18, 1890, the Portland, Salem & Astoria Railway, Edward T. Johnson and J. H. Smith being the other incorporators.

The Englishmen failed to perfect the deal, however, and in January, 1891, Reid could go no farther, and dropped out. He had graded eight miles out of Hillsboro and seven and one-half miles up Lewis and Clark River (work described in Oregonian, January 1, 1891). Reid tried to keep the project alive by organizing a new company of his own, the Portland, Nehalem & Astoria Railroad, to which the Astoria & South Coast conveyed its right of way between Hillsboro and Clatsop City, upon which division Reid had expended his own money. (Oregonian, June 27, 1891). It was Reid's plan to build the road independently of the Astoria interests, but he did not succeed. The Seaside division, with some $55,000 debts, reverted to the Astorians, and was kept alive by D. K. Warren and other creditors, until early in 1892, when it was taken over by the Schofield-Goss Syndicate, to be mentioned hereafter.

Astoria now turned temporarily to the Goble route, for which was organized in July, 1891, the Columbia River & Astoria Railway, by B. Van Dusen, D. K. Warren, Walter C.