The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., July 22, 1926, page 1

MONUMENT DEDICATED AT WISHRAM

     Fully 1,000 people attended the dedication ceremonies of the historical monument held at Wishram Tuesday forenoon by the Columbia River Historical expedition.  A broken column of basalt taken from the neighboring bluffs made the monument that was erected in memory of the discoverers of the Oregon country and pioneers.  A brass tablet, “To the pathfinders and pioneers who followed the Columbia at this point,” was fastened to the basalt stone.  The monument was erected on the railroad station grounds a short distance east of the depot.  People from Goldendale, The Dalles, Portland and other Columbia river points, as well as the eastern delegation, were present.
     Leaving Spokane at midnight over the S.P. & S., the expedition, running in two sections, arrived at Wishram at 8:15 and 8:30 a.m., respectively, Tuesday.  The expedition was met at Wishram by S. P. & S. railway officials, headed by President Turner, and a delegation of prominent citizens headed by Mayor Baker.
     The formal dedication ceremony was to have been under the chairmanship of Governor Hartley, who was unable to be present.  Receiving word to that effect, Ralph Budd, president of the Great Northern Railway Co., acted as chairman.  An invocation by Rev. Walter Henry Nugent of Portland, was followed by an address by Charles H. Carey of Portland, who paid an eloquent tribute to the pioneers under the title, “The Gateway to Oregon.”
     On behalf of the memory of the early Canadian fur traders, Lawrence J. Burpee of Ottawa, a noted historical writer of Canada and author of “Search for the Western Sea,” spoke on “The Columbia as a Continental Thoroughfare.”
     A feature of the occasion was the address in the Indian tongue of George Mennenick, chief of the federated Yakima tribes.  His speech was interpreted by Thomas K. Yallup, an educated Indian.  Yallup came over from Yakima county Monday night to be present, returning after the ceremonies to take Indians, horses, etc. to Spokane for the Indian congress which is being held there this week.
     Robert Ballou had charge of the Indian program.  Indians who assisted in this were Louis Sampson and wife; their daughter, Susie; son, Caleb; and Louie's sister, Lizzie Skamiah, and her husband, Jacob.  They were dressed in Indian garb.
     Among the Goldendale people there was W.C. Burgen to whom a special invitation had been extended to be present as one of Klickitat county's oldest pioneers, early-day cowboy and Indian fighter.
     The speech of Chief Mennenick at the dedication of the monument, which was appropriate and beyond the expectations of all, will be published in the next issue of The Sentinel.