In all this period Mr. Tilton was interested in many other enterprises on the Pacific coast and frontier. Among these may be mentioned the navigation of the Columbia and Willamette rivers. He was one of five who controlled what has developed into the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, with a capital of $24,000,000. He had an interest in the banking firm of Ladd & Bush, Salem, in the First National Bank of Portland, and First National Bank of Walla Walla, W. T. At the same time he was largely engaged in transportation across the plains. He fully understood the requirements for merchandise in Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. He furnished and dispatched large trains from San Bernardino, Cal., to Utah, and from St. Joseph, Mo., to Colorado, and from there to Montana, giving his personal attention to them all. This was no pastime twenty years ago. A country largely held by hostile Indians had to be traversed, and few trains reached their destination unmolested. Desperate encounters frequently occurred, resulting in more or less loss to life and property, and once ending in the capture of an entire train by the "Red Devils." Other obstacles had to be met, incident to such undertakings, like storms, swollen rivers, and break-downs, which would have seemed insuperable to any one of less force of character. Realizing what the great West might be, he purchased land in all the territories, which investments have proved advantageous. He engaged in many other transactions which his keen perceptions led him to believe would be remunerative, so that, in fact, there were but few enterprises of importance connected with the growth and development of the Pacific slope, whether pertaining to its finance, internal improvements, or its foreign and domestic commerce, in which the cool and sagacious subject of this sketch was not a participator. [Illustration: C. W. Tilton.] To organize and direct successfully such varied and extended operations, outlined here only in part, required a mind strong in perception and purpose. A union of these qualities, with that adventurous spirit which led the youth of eighteen to the sources of the Orinoco and the pampas of the Amazon in pursuit of wealth, constituted a mental alliance which could well measure the possibilities of a new country and avail himself of their fulfillment. In all this time Mr. Tilton enjoyed excellent health and immunity from serious accident. After living amidst the steaming malaria of tropical lagoons, sleeping by the side of his mustang on the plains, blockaded by the storms of the Sierras, assailed by the hostile Apaches, he returns to his native hills unscathed, with a sound constitution and the early purpose of his will fully accomplished.