In 1890 Congress appropriated funds for the surveying and improvement of the Columbia River in Washington state, including $10,000 for surveying the river from the international boundary line southward to Rock Island Rapids. In 1891 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made this survey as far south as the Okanogan River. William Cuthbert led the team that made the survey. His superior was Capt. Thomas W. Symons of the U.S. Engineer office at Portland, Oregon. Their reports upon the 1891 survey were published as part of the annual report in 1893 of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army, which is in the Report of the Secretary of War... (Washington, 1893), Vol. II, Pt. 4, pp. 3381-3399. Copies of the reports by Symons and Cuthbert are filed in the Information Folder of this collection.