"I think it quite fitting that we students of history in the Northwest commemorate the hundredth anniversary of this occasion with a rehearsal today of this great and fascinating chapter in American history… I must attempt to answer the pertinent question: what lured the pioneers to the Pacific Coast; what were the impulses that stirred thousands of families and drove them over unexplored regions, over desert and snow-covered mountains; exposing themselves to flood and storm, thirst and starvation, to savage and beast."
