Category Archives: General Pacific Northwest History

CHARLES WILKES – AMERICA TAKES AN INTEREST IN THE OREGON COUNTRY

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Tomb of Clatsop Chief Concomoly known to Lewis & Clark - drawn by Alfred T. Agate.
Tomb of Clatsop Chief Concomoly known to Lewis & Clark – drawn by Alfred T. Agate.

A long time in planning, preparing and recruiting, the United States Exploratory Expedition finally sailed out from Hampton Roads, Virginia, 18 August 1838, under the command of Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes en route for Madeira.  The six-ship squadron would spend the next four years at sea moving around the world, exploring, charting and discovering.  During their voyages which took them to six of the seven continents – they only missed Europe.  In 1841, the ships visited the Oregon Country.  An adjunct to their scientific missions was to visit Oregon to report on specific conditions there as American interest in those lands were on the upswing. Only one official American probe ventured into the Oregon Country previously.

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MAGIC OF CHRISTIANITY – THE METHODIST MISSION TO OREGON

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Scene from Henry Eld Jr.'s Encampment on the banks of the Willamette with the Methodist Mission on the opposite side of the River - 1841 Oregon Territory - Yale Collection.
Scene from Henry Eld Jr.’s Encampment on the banks of the Willamette with the Methodist Mission on the opposite side of the River – 1841 Oregon Territory – Yale Collection.

Most stories – articles or books – discussing the Methodist Mission of Jason Lee to Oregon which lasted from 1834 until 1843, start with the same story.  The story of four Native Americans who came to St. Louis to ask Missouri governor William Clark – yes, the same “Clark” of the Lewis & Clark fame – for teachers to provide them with the power of white man’s religion. Of the Native Americans, three were of the Nez Percé tribe and one was a Flathead elder.  The two tribes were both neighbors and friends.  They reached St. Louis early in October 1831, soon after meeting with Governor Clark, also the superintendent of Indian Affairs.

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WILLIAM SLACUM – AN AMERICAN “SPY” CHECKS OUT THE OREGON COUNTRY

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USS Potomac at anchor in Valparaiso harbor, Chile.

William Slacum joined the US Navy in the summer of 1829 at the age of 30. Two years later, he served as the purser aboard the USS Potomac. A naval purser served as a supply and financial officer aboard ships. He acted both as the maintainer of ship’s pay and muster roles but also ran a ship’s store from which a sailor’s pay would be deducted for articles of clothing or luxury items like tobacco, sugar, tea or coffee. Purser positions were highly sought after. The title of purser in the American navy would change in 1860 to paymaster. Today, they men and women officers belong to the Pay Corps of the navy.

Aboard the Potomac, he spent four years circumnavigating the world. In December 1833, Slacum found himself posted as Special Agent of the Pacific Squadron in Valapraiso, Chile. This gave him time to recover from a bout of trigeminal neuralgia – tic douloureux. His posting was subject to confirmation from Washington, which he failed to obtain when the Navy appointed someone else to fill the post.

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FRENCH PRAIRIE – CATHOLICISM COUNTER TO THE METHODISTS

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Graves of Etienne and Maurgerite Gregoire in the St. Louis Cemetery.
Graves of Etienne and Maurgerite Gregoire in the St. Louis Cemetery.

Canadian trappers were among the first non-Native Americans to spend extended periods of time in the nascent Oregon Country during the early years of the 19th century. Most were French speakers from rural Lower Quebec. Many took on Native American women as their wives. Common law marriages and the resultant children failed to receive recognition from either British law. Catholic priests ventured out slowly behind the trappers to bring a modicum of religious stability to those living beyond the pale of society. Most of the retired trappers settled on what is today the French Prairie.

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FISH HATCHERY – TRYING TO MAKE UP FOR LOST GROUND

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Chinook salmon circling about in a lower holding pond at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery.
Chinook salmon circling about in a lower holding pond at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery.

In the western United States, when something good gets discovered, it seems nothing better to do than to rush to deplete the good – gold, trees, … salmon. Gold is mined many times at the cost of whatever lived in the area before. Trees, centuries of age, swept away, sometimes replanted, sometimes not, always with ecological cost. In the case of salmon, former runs of billions of salmon first suffered from overfishing, taken to extremes. To finish off the magnificent earlier runs, primeval rivers dammed ending the prehistoric runs. Fish hatchery to the rescue

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ARTISTIC ESPIONAGE IN THE NORTHWEST – HENRY JAMES WARRE

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Falls of the Peloos River Henry J. Warre - note the Natives dressed in Plains Indian garb.
Falls of the Peloos River Henry J. Warre – note the Natives dressed in Plains Indian garb.

The Royal Army in 1845 sent out Lieutenants Henry James Ware and Mervin Vavasour to evaluate American presence in the Pacific Northwest and British ability to militarily respond. The political crisis brewing since the late 1830s responsible for Warre’s mission across the North American continent, however, dissipated by the time Warre returned to Britain. 

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BORDERS TO THE BATTLE LINE – FEDERAL REGULAR ARMY AND THE CIVIL WAR

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Popular view of the men making up the US Regular Army.
Mick Moloney’s version of “The Regular Army O!“. The song provided a popular view of the men making up the US Regular Army.

For neophytes to the study of the American Civil War, the function played by the pre-war Federal Regular Army before, during and after continues to reside a bit in obscurity. Officers from the antebellum army played large roles on both sides during the war, though they rarely achieved greatness remaining a part of the Federal Regular Army, even if staying true to their oath as army officers. Those officers usually took up new commissions in the many militia units raised by the different States – again on both sides. Rapid promotion and the chance to play much larger roles than they played before the war represented key factors in the exodus. Which comes back to the question, what role did the Regular Army play during the war?

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SOMETHING’S FISHY – FISH LADDERS ELEVATE TO THE NEXT LEVEL

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Waters fall over Bonnie Falls with the graffitied fish ladder offering an easier way up on the right.
Waters fall over Bonnie Falls with graffitied fish ladders offering an easier way up on the right.

If you have lived in Portland long enough, you will end up making a visit to visit the fish hatchery at Bonneville Dam, home to Herman the Sturgeon. The dams along the Columbia River system have hugely curtailed the once humongous runs of salmonids up and down the river and its tributaries. Overfishing definitely has a role to play in the depletion of the huge runs, but the hydroelectric – flood control dams have even more hugely impacted the once vast movements of fish. A recent visit to a small local waterfall brought to light part of the plight of the fish encountering physical obstructions to their journeys. One answer to the problem, fish ladders.

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DIFFERENCE A CENTURY MAKES – THROUGH THE LARCH MOUNTAIN CRATER

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Aerial shot of fire damage in the upper Multnomah Creek basin - Franklin Ridge is on the right. Rock slide traversed by the trail in the middle. The dead trees are much more open today.
Aerial shot of fire damage in the upper Multnomah Creek basin – Franklin Ridge is on the right. Rockslide traversed by the trail in the middle. The dead trees are much more open today. The view looks north from the open part of the Larch Mountain crater. State of Oregon photo.

Larch Mountain stands as one of the three big shield volcanoes of the extended Boring Lava Fields. Rising to 4055 feet high, the mountain presents an array of contrasts. Once the site of intense logging industry, the mountain shows an amazing natural renewal a century after most of the timber production came to a halt. Pockets of old growth, wonderful views from the top and remnants of past industry all make Larch Mountain and its crater, a fascinating walk in the woods.

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DEFT OF HAND AND A KEG OF WHISKEY: MAGIC AT CUMBERLAND GAP – JOHN DE COURCY IN AMERICA

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Drawing by a Union soldier of Federal camps at Cumberland Gap after its capture in 1864.
1864 Drawing by a Union soldier of Federal camps at Cumberland Gap after its capture by John De Courcy.

I knew before that a certain Captain George Pickett, a thirty-four-year-old veteran of the Mexican War and graduate of West Point – albeit, last in his class – served on San Juan Island in the Puget Sound just before the American Civil War. What I did not know, was one of his opposites in the whole Pig War ordeal in 1859 was an Anglo-Irish peer by the name of John De Courcy. Like Pickett, De Courcy would figure in the next war, as well. Pickett’s role would be bigger and better known, but De Courcy’s role was big enough for someone involved in command. And not even as a citizen of either side.

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