A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 / Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic Information

by W. H. Gray

Previous to the treaty of 1846, all that portion of country lying south of the Russian possessions, west of the Rocky Mountains, and north of California, was called Oregon. By that treaty the 49th parallel was constituted the boundary line between the United States and the British possessions.

In the act of Congress passed August 14, 1848, the boundaries were thus defined: “All that part of the territory of the United States which lies west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains, north of the 42d degree of north latitude, known as the Territory of Oregon, shall be organized into, and constitute a temporary government, by the name of The Territory of Oregon.” Unfortunately, though our national Congress contained many noble, intelligent, and talented men, none of them knew any thing about the country they were defining as Oregon Territory.

Thomas H. Benton, about this time, made his famous Oregon speech. In it he declared that all north of the 49th parallel of latitude was only fit for the poorest and most meager animal existence; that it was the “derelict of all nations,” not fit for the subsistence of civilized man.

This impression of Mr. Benton was received from high British—and no doubt he thought the most correct and reliable—authority. In fact, in the mind of this, and many other of our statesmen, the entire territory was of but little value. It is scarcely necessary to say whence this impression arose, and for what purpose it was so persistently kept before the minds of our most eminent statesmen. The immense fur trade of the country, carried on at a nominal expense, was too profitable to allow the truth to be told, or an experiment to be made, to show the value of the soil, or the amount or variety of its productions. The soil, like the furs and the natives, must be misrepresented, neglected, and slandered, that it may yield its silent income to avarice and idleness.

The American missionary arrives in the country, and is assured by the Hudson’s Bay Company that but a very small portion of the country is susceptible of cultivation; that no extensive settlements can ever be formed in it. These statements are made by men who have spent their lives in the country, and say they have tested the qualities of the soil faithfully, and found it to be unproductive. The missionaries partially believe these statements, and communicate to their friends in the east their doubts as to the extent and richness of the arable land in the country. In the mean time they must provide for their own subsistence. The Missionary Boards that sent them out are not able to pay the prices demanded for a continual supply of such food as can be raised in the country. This they knew and were prepared for it, and at once commenced to experiment upon the soil for themselves. Their first effort astonishes and delights them. Instead of a hard, barren, unproductive soil, as they had been told, it proves to be a light rich clay loam all through the Wallamet Valley, and in the interior, a dark, mellow, inexhaustible alkali soil, of the richest kind, and, when properly cultivated, very productive.

The missionary experiments are continued and extended. They soon begin to send glowing accounts to their friends of the richness of the valleys of Oregon—eight hundred bushels of potatoes, or from thirty to sixty bushels of wheat, to the acre. The American trappers and hunters gather into the Wallamet Valley, around the Methodist Mission. The Canadian-French, British subjects, who have become worn out and unprofitable to the company, are permitted to locate in the same valley, but, with the clumsy and imperfect farming implements furnished them, and their ignorance of farming, they were not able to accomplish much, and are still referred to, as proof of the worthlessness of the country.

The American settler comes in, and proves the truth of the missionaries’ large farming stories, and finds that he can do, with two yoke of oxen, what it required six to do in the Mississippi Valley—his labor producing double pay. He is more than satisfied—he is delighted—with the soil, the climate, and country, and reports his success to his friends.

By this time a few peaches and apples have been produced outside the inclosures and garden of Fort Vancouver, which convinces the American settler that fruit can be produced in Oregon; and soon we find every known variety to be profitably cultivated.

Timber.—The fir, spruce, and hemlock are superabundant, all along the coast range, from California to Puget Sound. The fir, pine, oak, ash, and maple are abundant in the valleys of the Wallamet and Cowlitz, and on the western slope of the Cascade range of mountains; there is also an abundance of pine, fir, oak, and maple on the eastern slope.

The Wallamet Valley is from forty to sixty miles wide, and one hundred and eighty long. It has less timber land than fine level prairie; through which winds with its tributaries the beautiful Wallamet, skirted all along its banks and level bottoms with cotton-wood, ash, alder, oak, fir, yellow pine, yew, and soft maple, with a small amount of cedar. This river has its source in the Umpqua Mountains; and its tributaries in the Coast and Cascade ranges,—the main river running north, or west of north, till it joins the majestic Columbia. Its meandering streams, and valleys composed mainly of prairie interspersed with groves of oak, pine, fir, and cotton-wood, make up a scenery which for beauty and loveliness can not be surpassed. The Cascade range on the east is dotted, at intervals of from a hundred to a hundred and fifty miles apart, with towering, snow-capped mountains from 15,000 to 18,600 feet high, and is cut at right angles, midway between the California Mountains on the south, and Mount Baker on the north, by the great river of Oregon, the noble Columbia, which forces its resistless current over its rocky bed, till it finds its way to the ocean.