During the early 1850s hundreds of miners and settlers poured into southwest Oregon and onto Indian lands staking claims and establishing farms. The clash of cultural attitudes toward the ownership and use of natural resources led to the Rogue River Indian Wars of 1853-56. War came to the coast in March of 1856, when the "Tu-tu-tuni" attacked Ellensburg, a settlement at the mouth of the Rogue River (present-day Gold Beach). A party of 34 armed civilians, led by vigilante George H.
The story of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians is a tale of perseverance and strong recovery in the face of great loss. Epidemics and hostilities with miners let to large population declines. The tribe entered into a treaty with the United States in 1853, and ceded nearly 800 square miles for less than three cents an acre. This treaty left them without access to traditional hunting and gathering areas or a land base to build upon.
(Sign A) This building was a Military Blockhouse built at the Grand Ronde Agency by Willamette Valley settlers in 1856. U.S. troops were sent to the station the same year and it was named "Fort Yamhill." Among the famous Army officers stationed at this fort were Sheridan, Wheeler, A.J. Smith, D.A. Russell and Hazen.
Long before the first Euro-American emigrants trekked westward, this road was a trail used by the Takelma and Shasta Peoples as a trade route. With the arrival of settlers and gold-seekers, the trail quickly became a wagon road called “Indian Market Road.”
Deer Island in the Columbia was named by the Lewis and Clark Expedition which stopped to dine here November 5, 1805 on its way down river. Homeward bound the explorers camped on the island on March 28,1806. Captain Clark recorded "This morning we set out very early and at 9 a.m. arrived at an old Indian village on NE side of Deer Island where we found our hunters had halted and left one man with the canoes at their camp. They arrived last evening and six of them turned out very early to hunt, at 10 a.m. They all returned to camp having killed seven deer.
Chief factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, philanthropist, and founder of Oregon City. The land on the east bank of the Willamette River at the falls was claimed by Dr. McLoughlin and the Hudson’s Bay Co. in 1828-29. First called Willamette Falls, the town was platted in 1842 and was named Oregon City by Dr. McLoughlin. Oregon City was the first incorporated U.S. city west of the Rocky Mountains, 1844. Provisional and Territorial Capital-1843-52, and the continuous Seat of Government for Clackamas County since 1843. Dr.
On January 8, 1806 William Clark and perhaps fourteen of the famous expedition reached a Tillamook village of five cabins on a creek which Captain Clark named Ecola or Whale Creek. Three days earlier, two men sent out from Fort Clatsop to locate a salt making site had brought back whale blubber given them by Beach Indians. Appreciating the welcome addition to the explorers' diet, Clark set out to find the whale or buy its blubber.
Native Americans occupied the banks of this river and its bay long before Euro-American settlements appeared. Empire City, a bustling port of call that occupied this portion of Coos Bay’s waterfront, was once the site of an ancient Coos Indian village called Hanisitch. In 1826, fur trappers for the Hudson Bay Company were the first to meet the local natives. Emigrant settlers arrived here in 1853 to found Empire City. The community quickly established itself as an economic and commercial center.
Alexander R. McLeod led the first overland expeditions to Oregon's central and southern coast between 1826-27. McLeod, a Chief Trader for the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, sought furs and trading opportunities with tribes such as the Tillamook, Umpqua, Coos, and Coquille. Local tribes also provided information, canoes, and other assistance.
Fort Clatsop, built by Lewis and Clark in December, 1805 for use as winter headquarters, was situated eight-tenths of a mile south of this point. The site was chosen because of the game in the surrounding country and because it was convenient to the coast where salt could be made for the journey of the exploration party back to the Missouri. Elk were found in abundance and salt was made at what is now Seaside. The local Indians were friendly but it was disappointing that no trading vessels entered the river during the stay.
