Historical sketches of the Catholic Church in Oregon

Father Blanchet was appointed vicar-general by Archbishop Signay for the Oregon mission, a vast region never before visited by a priest, and he set out on 3 May, 1838, accompanied by the Rev. Modeste Demers with the annual express of the Hudson's Bay Company. The journey from Lachine to Fort Vancouver, a distance of about 5,000 miles, was made in canoes, by portages, in barges, on horseback, and in light boats. It took them nine days to cross the Rocky Mountains, on the summit of which, at three o'clock in the morning of 16 October Father Blanchet celebrated Mass. They arrived at Fort Vancouver on 24 November.