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presents

An Investigation into the Interface – or Otherwise -- of the Oregon G.L.O. Cartography of Ambrose N. Armstrong

and the Military Service Mapping of Lt. William Babcock Hazen -- Together in the Grand Ronde Valley

and at Fort Yamhill in the Grande Ronde Indian Reservation 1856-57

A research project proposed for support through the Sterling Fellowship, 2013 Administered by the Oregon Historical Society

Submitted by Roch Steinbach for

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Ambrose N. Armstrong and the G.L.O.: The Lost Stone Citadel of the Yamhills By 1852 the Oregon General Land Office (G.L.O. ) was contracting for surveys of the Willamette and Tualatin valleys.

Contracts for surveying the Grand Ronde valley were entered beginning in 1854, and most of these contracts were awarded to one Ambrose N. Armstrong, an aggressive explorer of the most difficult terrain in northwestern Oregon. Armstrong was also – it would appear -- conversant and friendly with the Oregon Indians. As we shall see, Armstrong learned something of native lore in his surveying – and perhaps even a few traditional secrets. During the period of his surveying around in the coastal mountains of Yamhill County, Armstrong wrote a monograph – a short book – entitled

Oregon : Comprising a Brief History and Full Description of the Territory of Oregon and Washington.

(Chicago, 1857)

It is available at the Internet Archive.

At the end of his book, Armstrong provides a chapter of unflattering frontier ethnography on a number of the Indian tribes of Oregon – but does not mention a word of the Yamhills, or the tribes of the Willamette Valley – whom he must have encountered during his field work in the area of Yamhill and Tillamook Counties. He does not mention Grande Ronde or Fort Yamhill,

However ….

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It must have been to Armstrong that members of the Yamhill Indian tribe disclosed the location of their ancient and ruined stone citadel, high on the summit of Stony Mountain, in Yamhill county, which -- they believed -- had once perched near the shores of a prehistoric lake… Lake Willamina. Today, the site commands an ideal and expansive view south by south-east, of the Gopher valley – the traditional territory of the same Yamhill tribe – and the landscape beyond it, in the valley of the South Yamhill River. Armstrong wrote this down -- the history of the Yamhills -- to include as part of his book on Oregon, just mentioned.

Or so, at least, says Frank J. Smith, a little-known figure, who collected historical material on steamboating in the Willamette valley. Smith reports, that Armstrong gave a detailed account of this lost fortress, in the manuscript text of his book – written in 1855. However, the story did not appear in Armstrong’s published volume, which dates to 1857. The story survives only in Smith’s transcribed text of Armstong’s manuscript. Frank J. Smith papers, OHS MS. 1431.

Why was this important passage on Native American archeology removed from Armstrong’s manuscript, and all reference to the Yamhill Indians likewise omitted from his book?

We can only speculate: that it may have been, for instance, to guard the location of the ruins of the stone fortress, from youthful vandalism or mayhem. It also has to be wondered, whether silence was invoked, to protect the site from more actively malicious members of the White community who might wish to obliterate any and all remnants of the ancestral dignity of Native Americans.

Whatever may have been the reasons for this cover-up, it does raise the issue of deliberate though benevolent subterfuge on the part of Ambrose Armstrong, and potentially on the part of others -- pioneers working in association with him, to defend the ancient traditions of the Native Americans of Oregon.

This brings us closer to the core issue I would like to investigate with the possible support of a Sterling Fellowship ….

… because…

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Ambrose Armstrong was awarded most Oregon G.L.O. contracts for survey, for townships in the upper valley of the South Yamhill river - including at Grand Ronde Valley itself.

Indeed, under Contract No. 55, (1855) Armstrong surveyed T. 5 S. 8 W. , W.M T., a township which – acording to the U.S. G.L.O. itself, “… is embraced in the Indian Reserve as per instructions dated July 3rd, 1857”; as well as T. 6 S. R. 8 W. , W.M., another township which “is embraced in the Indian Reserve as per instructions dated July 3rd, 1857.” , Armstrong also surveyed neighboring townships 6 S. R. 7 W., W.M , and T. 5 S. R. 6 W. , W.M., under Contract No. 55; and T. 5 S. R. 8 W., W.M under Contract No. 46 (1854)).

In a nutshell …

Ambrose Armstrong was point man at the Oregon G.L.O. for survey of the Grande Ronde Indian Reservation.

IN ADDITION to Armstrong’s standard G.L.O. contracts Nos. 46 and 55, blanketing the South Yamhill River valley and the Grand Ronde, Armstrong received – under Contract No. 55 a unique “pink-ribbonned” set of so-called Special Instructions for the conduct of the survey.

These G.L.O. Special Instructions to Ambrose Armstrong are dated February 25, 1855… although the last digit of the year seems to be overwritten.

They are, well -- let’s say – anything but special: they simply recite, basically chapter and verse, the boilerplate standards of the Secretary of the Interior’s Manual of Instructions to Surveyors General – and would appear to add nothing to what Armstrong already would have undertaken in fulfilling the contract.

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The same file includes Armstrong’s field notes for the survey of T 4 S. R. 6, W.M., BUT! While those fancy pink-ribboned Special Instructions are dated 1855, Armstrong’s surveying field notes are dated 1852…

T 4 S. R. 6, W.M. October 14th, 1852

And – meanwhile -- under the official records, and on the cadastral survey maps maintained by the B.L.M., -- successor to the G.L.O. -- Armstrong appears to have actually run the survey of T 4 S. R. 6 W.M. not in 1852, when his field notes are dated, nor in 1855 when the Special Instructions issued, but in 1854, under Contract No. 46.

Are these merely simple clerical and administrative errors – compounded in the drafting of Armstrong’s contracts? Could Armstrong have surveyed this township … two years before the G.L.O. got around to issuing contracts on the South Yamhill river? Perhaps! If he had real “Special Instructions.” Or are we justified in suggesting there has been some concerted operation by Armstrong and his associates at the G.L.O., to completely OBFUSCATE something – namely the location of the stone fortress -- for the sake of preserving a priceless artifact of the Native American archeological heritage?

It’s all confusing enough to make one want to do the actual fieldwork … if only just to try to recover your sanity …

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The images on these pages were taken during the month of May, 2013, by the author and this applicant for the Sterling Fellowship. They show an area of scattered Doug fir, spruce and vine maple forest, near the summit of Stony Mountain -- a high peak in the Coast Range, overlooking the canyon of Deer Creek which drains Gopher Valley – the ancestral territory of the Yamhill Indians in Yamhill County – all precisely in T. 4 S. R. 6 W., W.M. – the township represented by Armstrong’s field survey notes, in OHS MS 367. Massive blocky boulders are oddly deposited on the mountaintop. This is indeed something unusual in the geology of the Coast Mountains …

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Are these blocky boulders the remains of the Lost Stone Citadel of the Yamhills – as Armstrong described it, in 1855?

The question in unanswerable without professional archeological work: some 160 years’ of deadwood, leaves and forest duff have been deposited on Stony Mountain, since Armstrong trudged through. But it’s clear that the raw materials for just such an ancient Native American construction are here, to justify the name of the mountain, and to validate – potentially -- Armstrong’s stories …

But one thing that the stones on Stony Mountain do establish, I submit, is that surveyor Ambrose Armstrong and Charles King Gardiner -- and others associated with the Oregon G.L.O. -- were prepared to undertake and enter into a fairly involved level of benevolent documentary subterfuge, in order to protect the location of these stones – believing them to be actual archeological remains, AS DESCRIBED by Armstrong, in the MS text of his book (as referenced by Frank Smith, OHS MS. 1431) but omitted from the finished publication. So, these pioneers created, in effect, a documentary puzzle that would not yield to any simple solutions

Now, let’s look at some of Ambrose Armstrong’s work in the area of the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation ….

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Ambrose N. Armstrong and the Cartography of the Grande Ronde Reservation When we think of Army field maps executed by on-duty officers and regulars during the course of their assignments, we expect, effectively, a quick sketch by way of reference – of the type of drawing that might fit onto the page of a staff sergeant’s diary or journal, or perhaps some loose-leaf sheet, that that could be folded once or twice and tucked into a notebook.

One such sketch map of the pertinent region that corresponds to our general expectations, is the Sketch of Indian Reservation on the Western Coast of Oregon as drawn by Lt. John Charles Bonnycastle, dated to 1855. An image appears at right. It is, let’s say, about as precise as we could expect under the circumstances of its execution – Lt. Bonnycastle not being a member of the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, and not having been provided with any equipment, nor assigned to conduct a scientific survey. The map is informative -- and informed -- on the generalities of the location of the 1855 Coastal Indian Reservation - for instance in showing a southern boundary along the Fourth Standard Parallel of the surveys being run by Oregon G.L.O. but it remains clearly a sketch, and not a document of measured distances – nothing approaching a survey map.

Another map closer to the core of this proposed investigation is the more precisely drawn map of the perimeter of Fort Yamhill

in the Grand Ronde Valley. Shown at left, this sketch map has been dated to 1858, and attributed to Col James W. Nesmith, who was Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon and Washington, from 1853 to 1859.

The Nesmith map accurately locates Fort Yamhill, showing its perimeter layout in Secs. 7, 8, 17 & 18 in T. 6 S. R. 7 W., W.M. The map gives us an idea, that in fact the landscape of the Grand Ronde Valley was scientifically surveyed – at least during the tenure of Col. Nesmith…

But in fact, T. 6 S. R. 7 W., W.M., is a township that – as was carefully noted above -- was surveyed under Contract No. 55, by Ambrose N. Armstrong.

Ambrose Armstrong was the one man who knew …. more thing than the ordinary man, about the affairs of the Oregon Indians, and of the Indians of the South Yamhill valley in particular. Armstrong -- who wouldn’t directly state those things, but wanted to indicate them, indirectly, by stratagem constructed in collaboration with officials at the Oregon G.L.O. And, unlike Lt. Bonnycastle and Col. Nesmith, Armstrong was no amateur surveyor ….

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Area of Nesmith map

Above, is the G.L.O. cadastral survey map for Township 6 South Range 7 West, Willamette Meridian, prepared according to Armstrong’s surveys.

By way of comparison, I have marked the area of Col. Nesmith’s map – which is dated to 1858 – with a red square over sections 7, 8, 17 & 18, at the upper left of this G.L.O. cadastral. A fainter pink line running North-South just at the edge of the square marking the area of the Nesmith map, represents the eastern perimeter of the Grande Ronde Reservation lands… “the lands embraced in townships 5 and 6 south, of range 8 west, and parts of townships 5 and 6 south, of range 7 west, Willamette district, Oregon, as indicated in the accompanying plat, be withdrawn from sale and entry, and established as an Indian reservation for the colonization of Indian tribes in Oregon, and particularly for the Williamette tribes, parties to treaty of January, 1855.” Or, as the cadastral reads….

One can see, Armstrong must have known more about Grand Ronde, than even the Superintendent of Indian Affairs. And this is only one of many sections he surveyed. Ambrose Armstrong was all over those Reservation lands … for years….

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Lt. William B. Hazen’s A Map of Grand Ronde – A Portion of the G.R.I.R. O.T. .

Both Lt . J. C. Bonnycastle, who drew the Sketch of [the Coastal] Indian Reservation on the preceding pages, and Col. Nesmith who is credited with the smaller map of the Reservation set into the survey grid, drew reference sketches or diagrams of the areas to which they were posted.

Lt. William Babcock Hazen was also an officer – Second Lieutenant, initially in the Fourth infantry, then the Eighth – who, like Lt. Bonnycastle, was assigned to Fort Yamhill during the period of the establishment of the Grand Ronde Reservation. Hazen was acting assistant quartermaster at the Fort during most of this period. His map shows important military features of the fort, including the block house, the laborers camp, agency quarters, mission buildings, and so forth. It also shows the many separated encampments of the Native Americans, each according to tribe.

But unlike the others, Lt. Hazen’s Map of Grand Ronde is a cartographical singularity. It is an absolute airborne birdseye view, looking straight down on the Grand Ronde Valley and documenting the scene – in natural, social and political context -- in the most minute detail: and – especially -- rendering every feature of the topography in a multiplicity of super-fine hachures – full hachures mingled with hairline hachures – and stipples, dashes and fancy pen-and-ink work. And blades of grass jotted down at perfectly regular intervals. And when Hazen made his map, he had the effective charge of Fort Yamhill on his shoulder --and yet, his Map of Grand Ronde is completely unlike any ordinary officer’s sketch of his command post during a war, in a fort charged with guarding hundreds of Native Americans? Because in fact …

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All that detail serves no professional military purpose whatsoever. It’s a complete waste of time. In fact, it seems virtually impossible that Lt. Hazen’s map could actually be an official Army or other military document.

Did Lt. Hazen literally lose the forest …. in the trees?

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Upper lefthand corner of Lt. Hazen’s map ….

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Did Lt. Hazen have official use for this degree of detail – every line perfectly executed, as if by a trained engraver?

Lower righthand corner of Lt. Hazen’s map …

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Conclusions Between, on the one hand, the highly precise professional and scientific surveying of Ambrose N. Armstrong, and, on the other hand, the almost obsessively detailed work of professional soldier, Lt. William Babcock Hazen, there is a remarkable, contemporaneous, two-man coverage of the entire Grande Ronde Valley, and the area of the Reservation.

But there also some kind of failure of interface..

Armstrong and Lt. Hazen were in the Grande Ronde Valley and within the Reservation district, during the same period – most particularly, from 1856-57 -- yet there is no sign of Fort Yamhill anywhere on Armstrong’s works for the G.L.O., and no suggestion on Lt. Hazen’s map, that he knew of external G.l.O. surveys. How can this be? Would not Armstrong’s measurements have been utterly relevant to everything related to Lt. Hazen’s duties? Would Armstrong avoid the chance to learn the plans of officials at Fort Yamhill?

Furthermore, Lt. Hazen obviously had a deep interest in topography, and in its precise rendering in cartographical form. That fascination would have made conversation and an exchange of ideas with Armstrong irresistible: the two men would have become close companions —at least for a time. But there seems to be no interface.

Meanwhile, on Lt. Hazen’s map, there are a number of blunders or omissions, which stand out against the highly detailed penmanship. For instance, in the legend at the right of the map, there are references to two “Military Sites” which are said to be “mentioned in the reports” of two other officers at Fort Yamhill: in particular Lt. S, and Lt. B. – for Lt. Phil Sheridan, and Lt. John C. Bonnycastle – the same who made the Sketch of the [Coast] Indians Reservation, shown above. It is not acceptable military practice, to identify active duty officers at the fort, with a single initial -- not on any official Army document. Lt. Hazen, who seemingly had endless hours to scratch thousands upon thousands of tiny hachures on his map, didn’t have the room or the time to spell out the full name of fellow officers whose reports he was referencing, in a military context, on a military map ….. Or to finish the legend, by indicating where “H” and “I” were …

Legend of Lt. Hazen’s map …

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QUESTIONS and PROPOSALS for RESEARCH This application only begins to broach the questions which are raised by the strange failure of interface, between the unusual military cartography of Lt. W.B. Hazen, and his Map of Grand Rond – A Portion of the G.R.I.R.O.T., on the one hand, and the professional G.L.O. survey work of Ambrose N. Armstrong at Grand Ronde, on the other.

One or two things seem evident: that Armstrong knew the Native Americans intimately, and had learned closely guarded details of their oral history; that he, in collaboration with sympathetic officials at the Oregon G.L.O., was successful in protecting that secret, by scrambling the documentary components of the story – until such time as those components could be identified and unscrambled -- and the Lost Stone Citadel relocated.

Armstrong thoroughly surveyed the South Yamhill river valley – the area where the G.R.I.R.O.T. would soon be located – and after it, the emigrant cities of Sheridan and Willamina. But Armstrong’s professional work in the valley does not directly speak of what else he might have learned about the history of pre-history of this reach of the South Yamhill River Valley.

Nevertheless, the failure of Armstrong’s work, to interface with Lt. Hazen’s is …. trying to tell another story.

If only these stones could speak ….

Until they do, we’ll just have to apply very careful methods of textual and cartographic analysis. We can help.

Roch Steinbach WRITING FOR September 30, 2013

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Partial Bibliography John T. Apperson Papers, Mss 18

Benjamin Burden Branson Papers, Mss 964

William H.C. Bowen Papers, Mss 1514

Issac Ball Papers, MS 498

Matthew Deady Papers, Mss 48

James Dunn letter to Preston, Mss 1512

Robert J. Hendricks, Innnng Haaaaa! (Book)

Anson G. Henry letters, Mss 638

Lafferty letter to Preston, Mss 914

Leonard C. Hosford Papers, Mss 2195

History of Grand Ronde (Pamphlet) 979.131 H673

Galloway Family Papers, Mss 730

John Gordon Lewis, History of the Grand Ronde Military Blockhouse (book)

James D. Miller Papers, Mss 2074

John F. Miller papers, Mss 2297

B. J. Pengra letters, MSs 1500

John B. Preston Letters, Mss 914

The Sheridan Sun [microform].

Vertical File : Oregon Cities - Sheridan.

Phillip H. Sheridan Papers -- letter , MS 1500

Frank J. Smith Papers, Mss 1431

Spencer Family papers, Mss 524

D. P. Thompson Company Records, Mss 1681,

Fort Yamhill Blockhouse Plans – 1931, Ms 3100

Yamhill County, Oregon Collection, Mss 1285

Confederated Tribes of Siletz records -- Mss 442

Joel Palmer Papers, Mss 114.