Oregon Country
 |
Landscape in Oregon Country, by Charles Marion Russell |
Oregon Country or "Oregon" (to be distinguished from the State of Oregon) was a term that referred to a region of western
North America consisting of the land north of 42°N latitude, south of 54°40'N latitude, and west of the
Rocky Mountains to the
Pacific Ocean. The area now forms part of the present day
Canadian province of
British Columbia, all of the
US states of
Oregon,
Washington, and
Idaho, and parts of
Montana and
Wyoming. The region is roughly equivalent to a broad definition of the
Pacific Northwest. Though the term was used to describe the area from the beginning of American claims to the region until the
Oregon Treaty of
1846, it is very rarely used in this sense today. The equivalent British name for most of this area was
Columbia District; north of the Thompson River was part of the
New Caledonia District which extended considerably north beyond 54°40'N.
Alexander Mackenzie was the first European to cross North America by land north of
Mexico, arriving at
Bella Coola on the Pacific coast in
1793.
Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark scouted the territory for the United States on the
Lewis and Clark Expedition, from
1804 to
1806.
French explorers called the
Columbia River "the river of storms,"
ouragan, which is a possible origin of the name "Oregon." Other possibilities have been suggested based on words from French and Spanish (since the region was explored by their nationals), but an official origin of the name is not known.
The Oregon Country was originally claimed by the
United States,
Great Britain,
France,
Russia, and
Spain. France and Spain had divided their western,
18th-century territorial claims along the
42nd parallel. France's loss at the end of the
Seven Years' War effectively ended its claim to the area. Spain gave up its claims piecemeal, at the convention in
1790 that followed the seizure of
Nootka Sound and relinquishing any remaining claims to territory north of the 42nd parallel to the United States as part of the
Adams-Onís Treaty of
1819. Russia gave up its claims in separate treaties with the United States in
1824 and with Britain in
1825.
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.
At this time, Oregon evolved into a
de facto republic, with a 3-person
executive branch and a chief executive. A certain faction of Oregonian politicians hoped to continue Oregon's political evolution into an independant nation, but pressure to join the
United States would prevail by 1848.
After the Lewis and Clark Expedition, fur traders, such as
Jedediah Smith and
Jim Beckwourth, now known as
mountain men, were searching the Rocky Mountains for
beaver pelts. These trappers adopted
Native American ways and many of them married native women. They used Native American trails in the Rockies which went to California and Oregon.
John Jacob Astor founded a fur-trading post at
Astoria, Oregon in
1811, beginning the organized trade in furs that had already been initiated by a few hardy trappers and traders. After the
War of 1812, the
Hudson's Bay Company took ownership of the post.
John McLoughlin, appointed head or Chief Factor of the region in
1824, moved its regional headquarters to
Fort Vancouver, which became the de facto political center of the Pacific Northwest until the Oregon Treaty in 1846. In the
1820s Americans began to migrate to this land beyond the Rocky Mountains, with large migrations beginning in the 1840s over the
Oregon Trail.
As Eastern United States churches started to hear news of the Oregon Country, some of them decided to send missionaries to convert the Indians.
Jason Lee, a methodist minister from
New York, was the first of these
Oregon missionaries. He built a mission school for Indians in the
Willamette Valley.
In
1843, settlers in the Willamette Valley established a provisional government at
Champoeg, which was 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.
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.
The two countries eventually came to a peaceful agreement in the 1846 Oregon Treaty that divided the territory 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.
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.
Alexander Ross, an early Scottish 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 widespreading 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."
*
Columbia District*
New Caledonia*
New Albion*
Oregon Trail*
Oregon Territory*
Washington Territory*
Cascadia*
Manifest Destiny*
Chronology of Oregon Events
