Wilbur Condit (or Condon) at an early age maneuvered his way out from New Jersey to California to look for gold. He found quite a bit of the stuff. After spending most of it Condit strayed up to Washington territory where he got a job hauling provisions on pack horses out of Walla Walla and into mining camps, which finally brought him close to where Wilbur now sits.
When the year of 1875 rolled around, Wilbur Condit got tired of being a nursemaid to a bunch of pack horses. He junked his job, and a saddle horse brought him to a spot where he started the Town of Wilbur. He then shot and destroyed a lot of tame geese on the ground, rather than aiming his gun up in the air, where there were lots of wild geese traveling to their summer homes in Canada. After that, old-timers branded Condit “Wild Goose Bill” for identification.
Wild Goose was no slough. He decided it was the time in his life to get down to business and start up a few projects. He made a large double-deck log cabin, complete with an extra door and an advanced privey. He was fit to fulfill his desire to have lots of horses and cattle.
Later, Bill went up to the Columbia River and hammered together a store for the Indians and a trading post.Then he put a ferry into the Columbia River so the Colvilles and other kinds of Indians could get across to swap stuff and things for supplies. Soon Wild Goose had a horse-powered freight line in operation between his trading post and Wilbur.
"My Version Of Wild Goose Bill" Kik-Backs, page 25, part 2 (continued) (previous) (home)
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