The Military Road That Opened the Northwest
A $100,000 federal appropriation sends Lieut. John Mullan back to the Pacific to push a wagon road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton—and with it, a tide of settlers into Oregon and Washington.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Intelligence from Washington contains the gratifying announcement that Lieut. Mullan is ordered to the Pacific to superintend the construction of a military road from Fort Walla-Walla to Fort Benton. The last Congress appropriated the sum of $100,000 to enable Lieut. John Mullan, 2d Artillery, U.S.A., to continue the establishment of a military road in Oregon. It will be remembered that this road was commenced last summer, but operations upon it were suspended on account of the Indian disturbance in the Northwest. The road will extend from Fort Walla-Walla, on the Columbia, to Fort Benton, on the Missouri river, passing through a wild and hitherto unexplored region of country, traversed only by menacing and wild tribes of the red men of the West. When completed, it must prove of incalculable advantage to the tide of immigration pouring into the State of Oregon and the Territory of Washington. Lieut. Mullan, with his corps of assistants, etc., will leave Washington City about the 10th of March via St. Louis, where will be procured animals and all material appurtenances for the expedition. From that point he will proceed to Oregon, where Lieut. Mullan will equip an efficient party, ready to commence operations at as early a day as practicable.
“When completed, it must prove of incalculable advantage to the tide of immigration pouring into the State of Oregon and the Territory of Washington.”
The Mullan Road became one of the first engineered routes across the northern Rockies, and its story is a reminder that infrastructure is never neutral: roads brought settlers, trade and federal power into lands held by Native nations. Modern debates over transportation corridors and rural growth still turn on who gets connected and who bears the cost.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.