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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