HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY – HBC – DISAPPEARS IN THE OREGON MISTS

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Kristi Cameron, of Metis ancestry, presents George Simpson in his canoe - Gathering Hall Exhibit of the Ontario Legislative Hall, Toronto.
Kristi Cameron, of Metis ancestry, presents George Simpson in his canoe – Gathering Hall Exhibit of the Ontario Legislative Hall, Toronto.

One of the cool things a king – or queen – in an absolute monarchy can do is to give away land. So popular, democracies have tried similar editions of their own. One of the largest giveaways happened in British North America where King Charles II gave away lands within the drainage system of Hudson’s Bay. That included lands within the James Bay drainage since James is simply a bay off the main Hudson’s. He gave them to a group headed by his cousin Prince Rupert in 1670. The HBC many exclaimed as an “empire within an empire.” 

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CHAMPOEG – MYTHOLOGY LIVES STRONG WITH A SELF-GOVERNMENT PREMIERE

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The 1901 memorial stone with the 1918 Pioneer Memorial Building behind at Champoeg State Park.
The 1901 memorial stone with the 1918 Pioneer Memorial Building behind at Champoeg State Park.

Mythology – a popular belief or assumption that has grown up around someone or something; one of the definitions of the word.  Synonyms include “legend”, “tradition”, “lore”, “legend”, “knowledge”, “wisdom”, “folktale” and “anecdote” among other words. These words go a long way in describing the events at Champoeg, Oregon on 2 May 1843 and how those events lie remembered in our minds today.

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THE GREAT REINFORCEMENT – AMERICAN PUSH TO GAIN THE OREGON TERRITORY

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The Lausanne which carried members of the Great Reinforcement to the Oregon Country.
The Lausanne which carried members of the Great Reinforcement to the Oregon Country.

With a non-Native American population numbering in the low hundreds in the 1830s, the long-simmering struggle for control over the vast Oregon Country began its inexorable swing towards the United States.  Methodist missionaries doubled down on their numbers at their Willamette Mission sited a few miles north from today’s city of Salem along the Willamette River.  The Great Reinforcement brought fifty-one men, women and children from New York City all the way to the Hudson’s Bay Company fort at Vancouver. 

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SECRET AGENTS TO THE OREGON TERRITORY – TOO LATE IN THE GREAT GAME

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Canoe voyageurs passing a waterfall - painting by Frances Ann Hopkins 1869.
Canoe voyageurs passing a waterfall – painting by Frances Ann Hopkins 1869.

The United States and United Kingdom came to an agreement in 1818 in which they would share sovereign rule over the Oregon Country.  Oregon’s borders came into reasonable shape in the next couple of years with an agreement between Russia and the US followed by one between Russia and England demarcating the northern border to be at the point of 54°40’ latitude.

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DE MOFRAS AND SAINT-AMANT SEEK THE MAGIC OF FRANCE – FRENCH OREGON?

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Head of a Native American chief from the coast of the Oregon Territory - 1844 Duflot de Mofras - David Rumsey Map Collection.
Head of a Native American chief from the coast of the Oregon Territory – 1844 Duflot de Mofras – David Rumsey Map Collection.

It was France’s sale of its vast holdings of Louisiana to the United States in 1803 that eventually led to the European settlement of Oregon.  Maybe not surprisingly, in the decades after selling what amounts to almost a third of today’s lower 48 States, there might have been a little bit of seller’s remorse on the part of France.  While, by the 1830 – 1850s, the watershed of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers represented a net loss for France’s diminishing Overseas Empire, Frenchmen still found themselves coveting regions also coveted by the upstart North American republic. Here are two visits from Frenchmen, De Mofras and Saint-Amant to Oregon a decade apart giving intriguing perspectives on the Oregon that might have been French.

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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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VALLÉE DES MERVEILLES – MAGIC MARVELS IN THE MARITIME ALPS

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Along the shores of the Lac des Merveilles with the Baisse de Valmasque shrouded in clouds beyond.
Along the shores of the Lac des Merveilles with the Baisse de Valmasque shrouded in clouds beyond.

High in the southernmost reaches of the French Alps, lies the small slot-like canyon of the Vallée des Merveilles – the Valley of Marvels.  The name came about from the many thunderstorms ranging through this uppermost section of the Maritime Alps which contain the last of the alpine peaks in France reaching up to 3,000 meters in elevation heading south through the range towards the Mediterranean Sea.  Those same ‘marvels’ led men centuries ago to create marvels of a totally different sort, literally thousands of pictographs allowing us a small peek into life during the Bronze Age.

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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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SAINTE-AGNÈS – MAGIC ON THE RIVIERA

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Magnificent view to the north from the castle ruins atop Sainte-Agnes.
Magnificent view to the north from the castle ruins atop Sainte-Agnès.

Hilltop villages, while picturesque in the extreme, offer up a window into a very uncertain past.  One such village is Sainte-Agnès sitting high above the cities of Menton and Roquebrune-Cap Martin in the far southeastern corner of France. Proclaimed as the highest lying coastal village in France, the village also belongs to the unique group “Plus Beaux Villages de France” – the Most beautiful Villages of France. Set 760 meters above the Mediterranean, the view over the towns of Menton and Cap-Martin-Roquebrune are magnificent. Walking through the narrow medieval alleys is a treat onto itself.

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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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