The Oregon Country was a predominantly American ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language term referring to a region of the Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest is a region in western North America, bound by the Pacific Ocean to the west. Always included are the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Southeast Alaska, Idaho, western Montana and northern California are often included of North America North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean; South America lies to the southeast. The region was occupied by British British North America consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783 and French Canadian French , English (as a second language) and Joual (a mixed Canadian English-French jargon) fur traders Before the colonization of the Americas, Russia was a major supplier of fur-pelts to Western Europe and parts of Asia. Fur was a major Russian export as trade developed in the Early Middle Ages, first through the Baltic and Black Seas. With the development of railways, Russia traded through the German city of Leipzig. In 1950 it came to an abrupt from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from the Columbia River frequented by ships from all nations engaged in the fur trade, most of these from the 1790s through 1810s being Boston-based. The Oregon Treaty The Oregon Treaty, is a treaty between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States that was signed on June 15, 1846, in Washington, D.C. The treaty brought an end to the Oregon boundary dispute by settling competing American and British claims to the Oregon Country, which had been jointly occupied by both Britain and the of 1846 ended disputed joint occupancy pursuant to the Treaty of 1818 The Convention respecting fisheries, boundary, and the restoration of slaves between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, also known as the London Convention, Anglo-American Convention of 1818, Convention of 1818, or simply the Treaty of 1818, was a treaty signed in 1818 between the United States and and established the British-American boundary at the 49th parallel The 49th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 49 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.

Oregon was a distinctly American term for the region. The British used the term Columbia instead.^[1] The Oregon Country consisted of the land north of 42°N latitude The 42nd parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 42 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane, south of 54°40′N latitude, and west of the Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The North American Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles (4,830 km) from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. The range's highest peak is Mount Elbert located in Colorado at 14,440 feet (4,401 to the Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east. The area now forms part of the present day Canadian The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three province of British Columbia The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the fifteenth largest metropolitan region in Canada. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada and the second-largest in the Pacific Northwest. In 2009, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,419,974, all of the US ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language states of Oregon The valley of the Willamette River in western Oregon is the most densely populated and agriculturally productive region of the state, and is home to eight of the ten most populous cities. Oregon's 2000 population was about 3.5 million, a 20.3% increase over 1990; it is estimated to have reached 3.8 million by 2008. Oregon's largest for-profit, Washington Washington (pronounced /ˈwɒʃɪŋtən/ ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the forty-second state in 1889, and Idaho Idaho is a mostly mountainous state, with an area larger than all of New England. It is landlocked, surrounded by the states of Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and the Canadian Province of British Columbia. However, the network of dams and locks on the Columbia River and Snake River make the city of Lewiston the farthest inland, and parts of Montana Montana has several nicknames, none official, including: "The Treasure State" and "Big Sky Country," and slogans that include "Land of the Shining Mountains," and more recently, "The Last Best Place." The state ranks fourth in area, but 44th in population, and therefore has the third lowest population and Wyoming As specified in the designating legislation for the Territory of Wyoming, Wyoming's borders are lines of latitude, 41°N and 45°N, and longitude, 104°3'W and 111°3'W , making the shape of the state a latitude-longitude quadrangle. Wyoming is one of only three states (along with Colorado and Utah) to have borders along only straight latitudinal. The British presence in the region was generally administered by the Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. The company was incorporated by British royal charter in 1670 as The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay; it is now domiciled in Canada and has adopted the more common shorter, whose Columbia Department The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. It was explored by the North West Company between 1793 and 1811, and established as an operating fur district around 1810. The North West Company was absorbed into the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, under which the Columbia comprised most of the Oregon Country and extended considerably north into New Caledonia New Caledonia was the name given to a district of the Hudson's Bay Company that comprised the territory largely coterminous with the present-day Canadian province of British Columbia, Canada. Though not a British colony, New Caledonia was part of the British claim to North America. Its administrative centre was Fort St. James and beyond 54°40′N, with operations reaching to tributaries of the Yukon River The Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern North America. The source of the river is located in British Columbia, Canada. The next portion lies in, and gives its name to Canada's Yukon Territory. Then, more than the lower half of the river lies in the U.S. state of Alaska. The river is 3,185 km long and empties into the Bering Sea at.^[2]

Contents 1 Early exploration 2 Name origin 3 Territorial evolution 4 Early settlement 5 The Oregon Treaty 6 Descriptions of the land and settlers 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

Early exploration

George Vancouver Captain George Vancouver RN was an officer in the British Royal Navy, best known for his exploration of the North-West Coast of North America, including the shores of the modern day Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. He also explored the southwest coast of Australia explored Puget Sound in 1792. Vancouver claimed it for Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801. It was created by the merger of the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England, under the Acts of Union 1707, to create a single kingdom encompassing the whole of the island of Great on 4 June 1792, naming it for one of his officers, Lieutenant Peter Puget. Alexander Mackenzie Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1764 – March 12, 1820) was a Scottish explorer. Mackenzie was born in Stornoway on the isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. In 1774 his family moved to New York, and then to Montreal in 1776 during the American Revolution. In 1779 he obtained a job with the North West Company, on whose behalf he traveled to was the first European to cross North America by land north of Mexico In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory, which was administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain which would eventually become Mexico since Cabeza de Vaca of the Narváez expedition The Narváez expedition was a Spanish attempt to install Pánfilo de Narváez as adelantado of Spanish Florida during the years 1527 – 1528.^[3], arriving at Bella Coola Bella Coola is a community of approximately 600 at the western extremity of the Bella Coola Valley. Bella Coola usually refers to the entire valley, encompassing the settlements of Bella Coola proper , Lower Bella Coola, Hagensborg, Saloompt, Nusatsum, Firvale and Stuie. It is also the location of the head offices of the Central Coast Regional on the what is now the Central Coast of British Columbia The British Columbia Coast or BC Coast is Canada's western continental coastline on the Pacific Ocean. The usage is synonymous with the term West Coast of Canada in 1793. From 1805 to 1806 Meriwether Lewis Meriwether Lewis was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark, whose mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase and William Clark William Clark was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he would also grow up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what later became the state of Missouri. Along with Meriwether Lewis, Clark led the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803 to 1805 across the Louisiana Purchase to the scouted the territory for the United States on the Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition was the first overland expedition undertaken by the United States to the Pacific coast and back. The expedition team was headed by the United States Army soldiers; Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and assisted by Sacajawea and Toussaint Charbonneau. The expedition's goal was to gain an accurate sense of the. David Thompson David Thompson born Dafydd ap Thomas, was an English-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, known to some native peoples as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer". Over his career he mapped over 3.9 million square kilometres of North America and for this has been described as the "greatest land geographer who ever lived.&, working for the Montreal Montreal (French: Montréal; pronounced [mɔ̃ʁeˈal] in French, i / -based North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada. With great wealth at stake, tensions between the companies increased to the point where several minor armed skirmishes broke out, and the two, explored much of the region beginning in 1807, with his friend and colleague Simon Fraser Simon Fraser was a fur trader and an explorer who charted much of what is now the Canadian province of British Columbia. Fraser was employed by the Montreal-based North West Company. By 1805, he had been put in charge of all the company's operations west of the Rocky Mountains. He was responsible for building that area's first trading posts, and, following the Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for 1,375 km (870 mi), into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada. The river's volume at its mouth is 112 km³ (27 cu mi) each year (about 800,000 gal/s to its mouth in 1808, attempting to ascertain whether or not it was the Columbia, as had been theorized about it in its northern reaches through New Caledonia New Caledonia was the name given to a district of the Hudson's Bay Company that comprised the territory largely coterminous with the present-day Canadian province of British Columbia, Canada. Though not a British colony, New Caledonia was part of the British claim to North America. Its administrative centre was Fort St. James, where it was known by its Dakleh The Carrier language is a Northern Athabaskan language. It is named after the Dakelh people, a First Nations people of the central interior of British Columbia, Canada, for whom Carrier is the usual English name. People who are referred to as Carrier speak two related languages. One, Babine-Witsuwit'en is sometimes referred to as Northern Carrier name as the "Tacoutche Tesse". Thompson was the first European to voyage down the entire length of Columbia River The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state of Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, his party camped at the junction with the Snake River The Snake is a major river in the greater Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is the largest and longest tributary of the Columbia River, which is the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. Rising in western Wyoming, the river flows westwards through the Snake River Plain, and turns north to empty into the on July 9, 1811. He erected a pole and a notice claiming the country for Great Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a trading post at the site. Later in 1811, on the same expedition, he finished his survey of the entire Columbia, arriving at a partially constructed Fort Astoria just two months after the departure of John Jacob Astor John Jacob Astor , born Johann Jakob or Johann Jacob Astor, was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States. He was the creator of the first trust in America, from which he made his fortune in fur trading, real estate, and opium's ill-fated Tonquin.^[4]

Name origin

Carver's map of The River of the West, 1778 Main article: Oregon (toponym)

The origin of the word Oregon is not known for certain. One theory is that French Canadian fur company employees called the Columbia River "hurricane river" le fleuve d'ouragan, because of the strong winds of the Columbia Gorge. George R. Stewart George Rippey Stewart was an American toponymist, a novelist, and a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. His 1959 book Pickett's Charge, a detailed history of the final attack at Gettysburg, was called "essential for an understanding of the Battle of Gettysburg" argued in a 1944 article in American Speech that the name came from an engraver's error in a French map published in the early 1700s, on which the Ouisiconsink (Wisconsin River The Wisconsin River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At approximately 430 miles long, it is the state's longest river. The river's name, first recorded in 1673 by Jacques Marquette as "Meskousing," is rooted in the Algonquian languages used by the area's American Indian tribes, but its original) was spelled "Ouaricon-sint", broken on two lines with the -sint below, so that there appeared to be a river flowing to the west named "Ouaricon".^[5][6] This theory was endorsed in Oregon Geographic Names Oregon Geographic Names is an authoritative compilation of the origin and meaning of place names in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of 2003[update], the book is in its seventh edition and is compiled and edited by Lewis L. McArthur, who took over from his father, Lewis A. McArthur, as of the fourth edition. It is published by the Oregon Historical as "the most plausible explanation".^[7]

Territorial evolution

Further information: Columbia District The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. It was explored by the North West Company between 1793 and 1811, and established as an operating fur district around 1810. The North West Company was absorbed into the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, under which the Columbia

The Oregon Country was originally claimed by Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801. It was created by the merger of the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England, under the Acts of Union 1707, to create a single kingdom encompassing the whole of the island of Great, France France (pronounced /ˈfrænts/ frantss or /ˈfrɑːnts/ frahnts; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a state in Western Europe with several of its overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian,, Russia, and Spain; the Spanish claim was later taken up by the United States. The extent of the region being claimed was vague at first, evolving over decades into the specific borders specified in the US-British treaty of 1818. The U.S. based its claim in part on Robert Gray's entry of the Columbia River in 1792 and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Great Britain based its claim in part on British overland explorations of the Columbia River by David Thompson and on prior discovery and exploration along the Coast. Spain's claim was based on the Inter caetera and Treaty of Tordesillas of 1493-94, as well as explorations the Pacific coast in the late 1700s.^[8] Russia based its claim off its explorations and trading activities in the region and asserted its ownership of the region north of the 51st parallel by the Ukase of 1821, which was quickly challenged by the other powers and withdrawn to 54°40′N by separate treaties with the US and Britain in 1824 and 1825 respectively.^[9] Spain gave up its claims of exclusivity via the Nootka Conventions of the 1790s. In the Nootka Conventions , which followed the Nootka Crisis Spain granted Britain rights to the Pacific Northwest, although it did not establish a northern boundary for Spanish California, nor did it extinguish Spanish rights to the Pacific Northwest.^[10] Spain later relinquished any remaining claims to territory north of the 42nd parallel to the United States as part of the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819. In the 1820s Russia gave up its claims south of 54°40′ and east of the 141st meridian in separate treaties with the United States and Britain. ^[11]

Meanwhile, the United States and Britain negotiated the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 that extended the boundary between their territories west along the 49th parallel to the Rocky Mountains. The two countries agreed to "joint occupancy" of the land west of the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1821, as part of the forced merger between the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company the British Parliament imposed the laws of Upper Canada on British subjects in Rupert's Land and Columbia District , and gave the authority to enforce those laws to the Hudson's Bay Company. John McLoughlin, as chief factor of Fort Vancouver, applied the law to British subjects and sought to maintain law and order over American settlers as well.

In 1843 settlers established their own government, called the Provisional Government of Oregon. A legislative committee drafted a code of laws known as the Organic Law. It included the creation of an executive committee of three, a judiciary, militia, land laws, and four counties. There was vagueness and confusion over the nature of the 1843 Organic Law, in particular whether it was a constitutional or statutory. In 1844 a new legislative committee decided to consider it statutory. The 1845 Organic Law made additional changes, including allowing the participation of British subjects in the government. Although the Oregon Treaty of 1846 settled the boundaries of US jurisdiction, the Provisional Government continued to function until 1849, when the first governor of Oregon Territory arrived.^[12]

A faction of Oregon politicians hoped to continue Oregon's political evolution into an independent nation, but pressure to join the United States would prevail by 1848.^[13]

Early settlement

Fort Vancouver in 1845 David Thompson navigated the entire length of Columbia River in 1811. Map of Columbia and its tributaries showing modern political boundaries

Explorer David Thompson of the British-owned North West Company and later Hudson's Bay Company penetrated the Oregon Country from the north, via Athabasca Pass, arriving in 1807. In 1810, John Jacob Astor founded the Pacific Fur Company, which established a fur-trading post at Astoria, Oregon in 1811. Thompson traveling down the Columbia River reached the partially constructed Fort Astoria just two months after the departure of the ill-fated Tonquin. Along the way he had camped and claimed the land at the future Fort Nez Perces site at the confluence with the Snake River. This initiated a very brief era of competition between American and British fur traders. The Pacific Fur operation broke down during the War of 1812 and was sold to the North West Company. Under British control, Astoria was renamed Fort George.^[14]

In 1821 when the North West Company was merged with the Hudson's Bay Company, the British Parliament imposed the laws of Upper Canada on British subjects in Columbia District and Rupert's Land, and gave the Hudson's Bay Company authority to enforce those laws. John McLoughlin was appointed head or Chief Factor of the Columbia Department in 1824. He moved its regional headquarters to Fort Vancouver, which became the de facto political center of the Pacific Northwest. McLoughlin applied the laws to British subjects, kept peace with the natives and sought to maintain law and order over American settlers as well.

Astor continued to compete for Oregon Country furs through his American Fur Company operations in the Rockies.^[15] In the 1820s, a few American explorers and traders visited this land beyond the Rocky Mountains. Long after the Lewis & Clark Expedition and also after the consolidation of the fur trade in the region by the Canadian fur companies, American "Mountain Men" such as Jedediah Smith and Jim Beckwourth came roaming into and across the Rocky Mountains, following Indian trails through the Rockies to California and Oregon. They were looking for beaver pelts and other furs, which were had by trapping but difficult to obtain in the Oregon Country due to the policy of the Hudson's Bay Company of creating a "fur desert", via deliberate over-hunting in order to make the country's frontiers with the US unprofitable for American ventures.^[16] The Mountain Men, like the Metis employees of the Canadian fur companies, adopted Indian ways and many of them married Indian women.

Reports of Oregon Country eventually circulated in the eastern United States. Some churches decided to send missionaries to convert the Indians. Jason Lee, a Methodist minister from New York, was the first Oregon missionary. He built a mission school for Indians in the Willamette Valley in 1834. Others followed within a few years.

American settlers began to arrive from the east by the Oregon Trail starting in the late 1830s, and came in increasing numbers each subsequent year. Increased tension led to the Oregon boundary dispute. Both sides realized that settlers would ultimately decide who controlled the region. Belatedly, the Hudson's Bay Company, which had previously discouraged settlement as it conflicted with the lucrative fur trade, reversed their position. In 1841 James Sinclair guided more than 100 settlers from the Red River Colony to settle on HBC farms near Fort Vancouver, on orders from Sir George Simpson. The Sinclair expedition crossed the Rockies into the Columbia Valley, near present-day Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia, then traveled south-west down the Kootenai River and Columbia River following the southern portion of the well established York Factory Express trade route.

Map of the route of the York Factory Express, 1820s to 1840s. Modern political boundaries shown.

The Canadian effort proved to be too little, too late. For, in what was dubbed "The Great Migration of 1843" or the "Wagon Train of 1843",^[17][18] an estimated 700 to 1000 emigrants left for Oregon. Britain ceded Columbia District south of the 49 parallel to the United States by the Oregon Treaty in 1846.

The Oregon trail started in St. Louis, Missouri

The Oregon Treaty

Main article: Oregon Treaty

In 1843, settlers in the Willamette Valley established a provisional government at Champoeg, which was personally (but not officially) recognized by John McLoughlin of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1845.

Political pressure in the United States urged the occupation of all the Oregon Country. Expansionists in the American South wanted to annex Texas, while their counterparts in the Northeast wanted to annex the Oregon Country whole. It was seen as significant that the expansions be parallel, as the relative proximity to other states and territories made it appear likely that Texas would be pro-slavery and Oregon against slavery.

Mural on walls of Oregon Capitol Building depicting the provisional government seal

In the 1844 U.S. Presidential election, the Democrats called for expansion into both areas. After being elected, however, President James K. Polk supported the 49th parallel as a northern limit for U.S. annexation in Oregon Country. It was Polk's uncompromising support for the expansion into Texas and relative silence on the Oregon boundary dispute that led to the phrase "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!", referring to the northern border of the region and often erroneously attributed to Polk's campaign. The goal of the slogan was to rally Southern expansionists (some of whom wanted to annex only Texas in an effort to tip the balance of slave/free states and territories in favor of slavery) to support the effort to annex Oregon Country, appealing to the popular belief in Manifest Destiny. The British government, meanwhile, sought control of all territory north of the Columbia River.

Despite the posturing, neither country really wanted to fight what would have been the third war in 70 years against the other. The two countries eventually came to a peaceful agreement in the 1846 Oregon Treaty that divided the territory west of the Continental Divide along the 49th parallel to Georgia Strait; with all of Vancouver Island remaining under British control. This border still divides British Columbia from neighboring Washington, Idaho, and Montana.

During the 1840s the HBC shifted its Columbia Department headquarters from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island. The plan to move to a more northerly location dated back to the 1820s. George Simpson was the main force behind the move north; John McLoughlin became the main hindrance. McLoughlin had devoted his life's work to the Columbia business and his personal interests were increasingly linked to the growing settlements in the Willamette Valley. He fought Simpson's proposals to move north, but in vain. By the time Simpson made the final decision, in 1842, to move the headquarters to Vancouver Island, he had many reasons for doing so. There was a dramatic decline in the fur trade across North America. In contrast the HBC was seeing increasing profits with coastal exports of salmon and lumber to Pacific markets such as Hawaii. Coal deposits on Vancouver Island had been discovered and steamships such as the Beaver had shown the growing value of coal, economically and strategically. A general HBC shift toward Pacific shipping and away from the interior of the continent made Victoria Harbour much more suitable than Fort Vancouver's location on the Columbia River. The Columbia Bar at the river's mouth was dangerous and routinely meant weeks or months of waiting for ships to cross. The largest ships could not enter the river at all. Finally, the growing numbers of American settlers along the lower Columbia gave Simpson reason to question the long term security of Fort Vancouver. He worried, rightfully so, that the final border resolution would not follow the Columbia River. By 1842 he thought it more likely that the US would at least demand Puget Sound, and the British government would accept a border as far north as the 49th parallel, excluding Vancouver Island. Despite McLoughlin's stalling, the HBC had begun the process of shifting away from Fort Vancouver and toward Vancouver Island and the northern coast in the 1830s. The increasing number of American settlers arriving in the Willamette Valley after 1840 served to make the need more pressing.^[19]

In 1848, the U.S. portion of the Oregon Country was formally organized as the Oregon Territory. In 1849, Vancouver Island became a British Crown colony, with the mainland being organized into the colony of British Columbia in 1858. Shortly after the establishment of Oregon Territory there was an effort to split off the region north of the Columbia River, which resulted in the creation of Washington Territory in 1853.

Descriptions of the land and settlers

Alexander Ross, an early Scottish Canadian fur trader, describes the lower Columbia River area of the Oregon Country (known to him as the Columbia District):

"The banks of the river throughout are low and skirted in the distance by a chain of moderately high lands on each side, interspersed here and there with clumps of wide spreading oaks, groves of pine, and a variety of other kinds of woods. Between these high lands lie what is called the valley of the Wallamitte [sic], the frequented haunts of innumerable herds of elk and deer.... . In ascending the river the surrounding country is most delightful, and the first barrier to be meet with is about forty miles up from its mouth. Here the navigation is interrupted by a ledge of rocks, running across the river from side to side in the form of an irregular horseshoe, over which the whole body of water falls at one leap down a precipice of about forty feet, called the Falls."

After living in Oregon from 1843 to 1848, Peter H. Burnett wrote:

[Oregonians] were all honest, because there was nothing to steal; they were all sober, because there was no liquor to drink; there were no misers, because there was no money to hoard; and they were all industrious, because it was work or starve.^[20][21]

See also

• Washington Territory
• Gray Sails the Columbia River
• New Albion
• Russo-American Treaty (1824)
• Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1825)

References

1. ^ Meinig, D.W. (1995) [1968]. The Great Columbia Plain (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classic ed.). University of Washington Press. pp. 104. ISBN 0-295-97485-0.
2. ^ Mackie, Richard Somerset (1997). Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843. Vancouver: University of British Columbia (UBC) Press. pp. 284. ISBN 0-7748-0613-3.
3. ^ DeVoto, Bernard (1953). The Journals of Lewis and Clark. Houghton Mifflin Company. p. xxix. ISBN 0-395-08380-X.
4. ^ Nisbet, Jack (1994). Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America. Sasquatch Books. pp. 4–5. ISBN 1-57061-522-5.
5. ^ Stewart, George R. (1944). "The Source of the Name 'Oregon'". American Speech (Duke University Press) 19 (2): 115–117. doi:10.2307/487012. http://www.jstor.org/pss/487012. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
6. ^ Stewart, George R. (1967) [1945]. Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States (Sentry edition (3rd) ed.). Houghton Mifflin. pp. 153, 463.
7. ^ McArthur, Lewis A.; Lewis L. McArthur (2003) [1928]. Oregon Geographic Names (Seventh ed.). Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. ISBN 0-87595-277-1.
8. ^ Elliott, John Huxtable (2007). Empires of the Atlantic World. Yale University Press. pp. 11–12. ISBN 9780300123999. online at Google Books
9. ^ Haycox, Stephen W. (2002). Alaska: An American Colony. University of Washington Press. pp. 1118–1122. ISBN 9780295982496. http://books.google.com/books?id=8yu3pYpzLdUC.
10. ^ Weber, David J. (1994). The Spanish Frontier in North America. Yale University Press. p. 287. ISBN 9780300059175. online at Google Books
11. ^ Chiorazzi, Michael G.; Marguerite Most (2005). Prestatehood Legal Materials. Haworth Press. pp. 959. ISBN 9780789020567. online at Google Books
12. ^ Chiorazzi, Michael G.; Marguerite Most (2005). Prestatehood Legal Materials. Haworth Press. pp. 959–962. ISBN 9780789020567. online at Google Books
13. ^ Clarke, S.A. (1905). Pioneer Days of Oregon History. J.K. Gill Company.
14. ^ Meinig, D.W. (1995) [1968]. The Great Columbia Plain (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classic ed.). University of Washington Press. pp. 52. ISBN 0-295-97485-0.
15. ^ Mackie, Richard Somerset (1997). Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843. Vancouver: University of British Columbia (UBC) Press. pp. 65, 108, 110–111. ISBN 0-7748-0613-3. online at Google Books
16. ^ Mackie, Richard Somerset (1997). Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843. Vancouver: University of British Columbia (UBC) Press. pp. 64–65, 259. ISBN 0-7748-0613-3. online at Google Books
17. ^ The Wagon Train of 1843: The Great Migration. Oregon Pioneers. Retrieved December 22, 2007.
18. ^ Events in The West: 1840-1850. PBS. Retrieved December 22, 2007.
19. ^ Mackie, Richard Somerset (1997). Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843. Vancouver: University of British Columbia (UBC) Press. pp. 240–245, 256–262, 264–273, 276. ISBN 0-7748-0613-3. online at Google Books
20. ^ MacColl, E. Kimbark (1979). The Growth of a City: Power and Politics in Portland, Oregon 1915-1950. Portland, Oregon: The Georgian Press. ISBN 0960340815.
21. ^ MacColl cites Peter H. Burnett, Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer, New York 1880, pg 181.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Oregon Country

• Chronology of Oregon Events
• Convention Between Great Britain and Russia, 1825 (Treaty of St. Petersburg, 1825)

Pioneer History of Oregon (1806–1890) Topics American Fur Company · Columbian Exchange · Executive Committee · Ferries · Hudson's Bay Company · Oregon & California Railroad · Oregon boundary dispute · Oregon Country · Oregon Lyceum · Oregon missionaries · Oregon Spectator · Oregon Territory · Oregon Trail · Oregon Treaty · Organic Laws · Pacific Fur Company · Provisional Government Events Astor Expedition · Treaty of 1818 · Russo-American Treaty · Willamette Cattle Company · Champoeg Meetings · Star of Oregon · Whitman massacre · Cayuse War · Donation Land Claim Act · Holmes v. Ford · Rogue River Wars · Constitutional Convention · Modoc War · Great Gale of 1880 Places Applegate Trail · Albina · Barlow Road · Canemah · Champoeg · Fort Astoria · Fort Dalles · Fort Vancouver · Fort William · French Prairie · Linn City · Meek Cutoff · Methodist Mission · Oregon City · Oregon Institute · Philip Foster Farm · Thomas and Ruckle Road · Tualatin Academy · Whitman Mission · Willamette Trading Post People George Abernethy · Jesse Applegate · Ira Babcock · Sam Barlow · François Blanchet · Tabitha Brown · Matthew Deady · Abigail Scott Duniway · Thomas Lamb Eliot · Philip Foster · Peter French · Joseph Gale · Cornelius Gilliam · David Hill · Chief Joseph · Joseph Kellogg · H.A.G. Lee · Jason Lee · David Thomas Lenox · Asa Lovejoy · John McLoughlin · Joseph Meek · Ezra Meeker · James D. Miller · John Minto · Robert Newell · Joel Palmer · Osborne Russell · Sager orphans · Levi Scott · Henry Spalding · Elijah White · Marcus Whitman · Narcissa Whitman · Geo. H. Williams · Ewing Young Transportation Columbia · Lot Whitcomb · Canemah · Colonel Wright · Gazelle · Oregon Steam Navigation Company Oregon History Native Peoples History · History to 1806 · Pioneer History · Modern History

History of Oregon Nez Perce • Kalapuya • Takelma • Chinookan • Klamath • Molala • Shasta • Bannock • Umpqua • Reservations Pacific Northwest • Columbia River • Celilo Falls • Willamette Valley • Missoula Floods • Fort Rock Cave • Cascadia Megathrust Pioneer Oregon Country • Lewis and Clark Expedition • Fort Clatsop • Pacific Fur Company • Fort Astoria • Hudson's Bay Company • Oregon Question • Methodist Mission • Champoeg Meetings • Oregon Trail • Executive Committee • Portland • Oregon Treaty • Oregon Territory • Donation Land Claim Act • Statehood • Oregon Constitutional Convention • Modoc War Lewis & Clark Expo • Bonneville Dam • Vanport • Bottle Bill • Rajneeshee Bioattack • Tax Revolt • New Carissa Oregon History • Pioneer •

Former colonies and territories in Canada Norse L'Anse aux Meadows • Vinland • Markland • Helluland French New France • Acadia • Isle St-Jean • Île Royale • Canada • Port Royal • Terre Neuve Spanish Nootka Sound • Pacific Northwest Scottish Nova Scotia (1621) • Port Royal Colony Russian Russian America American Oregon Country Norway Sverdrup Islands English & British Newfoundland • Rupert's Land • Nova Scotia (1710) • Quebec • Lower and Upper Canada • New Brunswick • Prince Edward Island • Cape Breton • United Canada • New Caledonia • Columbia District • Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands • Colony of Vancouver Island • Colony of British Columbia • Stickeen Territories • North-Western Territory • Red River Colony • United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Related Territorial evolution of Canada after 1867 • List of areas disputed by Canada and the United States • Proposals for new Canadian provinces and territories The History of Canada portal

Categories: History of British Columbia | History of Oregon | History of Washington (U.S. state) | History of Idaho | History of Montana | History of Wyoming | Fur trade | Former regions and territories of the United States | Lewis and Clark Expedition | Oregon Country | Pacific Northwest | Divided regions

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