Tag Archives: Oregon Country

TERRITORIAL OREGON – IN THE THRALL OF THE SALEM CLIQUE

Posted on by
Reply
Shirt commemorates one of the election slogans of James K. Polk in 1844.

With the Cayuse War, the federal government finally acted in Washington, D.C., 18 August 1848, to develop an official form of government over the region of the Oregon Country transferred to American control by the Oregon Treaty of 1846 officially ending the awkward condominium shared with Great Britain since 1818.  The new territorial government ushered in new power brokers – aka the Salem Clique – to administer the political machine during the next decade. This setting the stage for a Statehood granted 14 February 1859 with war clouds gathering furiously back in the East.

Continue reading →

WHAT DID WILLIAM CLARK SEE FROM PILLAR ROCK?

Posted on by
1
Pillar Rock as it used to stand above the lower Columbia River.

When is an ocean not an ocean? When is a river, a bay? A bay the sea? William Clark on 7 November 1805 looked downstream from the camp of their expedition near Pillar Rock writing famously in his journal, “Ocian in view. Oh what joy!”

This is one of the most famous quotes from the annals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.  Clark wrote the note describing the party’s view from their camp on the north bank of the Columbia River opposite Pillar Rock.  Historically, the quote was not the first note Clark wrote down.  This note actually written some months later in a third edit by the explorer.  His first two journal entries were a little less emotional, though still maintaining the ocean they had sought finally found.

Continue reading →

COUNTERWEIGHT TO THE AMERICAN DELUGE – RED RIVER COLONISTS IN OREGON

Posted on by
Reply
Métis Family in Ontario – photo by Robert Bell, courtesy of Library and Archives Canada, e011156727_s1

Hudson’s Bay Company – HBC – ran things in the Pacific Northwest from 1813 until the mid-1840’s. Then American emigrant numbers began to overwhelm their control.  While political control in 1818 over the Oregon Country officially split between the governments of Great Britain and the United States, true economic control from a Eurocentric standpoint remained in the bailiwick of the HBC. The story of the Red River colonists featured an attempt by the HBC to help out on the political side.

Continue reading →

PROVISIONAL OREGON – GOVERNMENT ON THE HEELS OF WHEELS

Posted on by
Reply
Oregon Country 1818-1846.

As school children, we bused out on field trips to Champoeg State Park to see where Oregon was “born”.  Most of us kids had little idea of the events which transpired here.  We, like our parents, also lack a fundamental knowledge of a history of the times in which the meetings and subsequent events took place.  The Provisional Government of Oregon simply did not mean much then or later. 

But Champoeg gave the Northwest got its first version of a Eurocentric government.  The United States and England decided to agree to not agree in 1818 forming a condominium of political control over the vast region.  A major problem with the agreement, no mention made of internal government.  That was not much of a problem when the only Europeans in the region were busy searching for animal pelts.  However, events took a big turn as the 1830’s became the 1840’s and American settlers began coming onto the scene.

Continue reading →