Page 44 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Pacific Northwest

42  INTRODUCING THE P A CIFIC NOR THWEST

In 1811, the American John Jacob Astor Oregon gained statehood in 1859,
established a fur-trading post, Astoria, at Washington in 1889. British Columbia
the mouth of the Columbia River. Although and Vancouver Island joined to become
US president Jefferson had hoped that one colony in 1866, and joined the
Lewis and Clark’s expedition would displace Dominion of Canada in 1871.
the British, the British-owned Hudson’s Those who profited least from the
Bay Company effectively continued to division of spoils were the First Nations
rule the Pacific Northwest until the peoples. Already decimated by diseases
middle of the 19th century. The company introduced by settlers, such as smallpox,
controlled both the growing population measles, and influenza, they were forcibly
of settlers and much of the trade activity. removed from the lands they had inhabited
Company headquarters at Fort Vancouver, for millennia and resettled on reservations.
overlooking the confluence of the
Columbia and Willamette Rivers, and The Great Migrations
at Fort Victoria, on Vancouver Island in Between 1843 and 1860, more than
British Columbia, were the region’s major 60,000 settlers embarked on a 6-month,
settlements. Hudson’s Bay Company 2,000-mile (3,218-km) trek from
trading posts became such common Independence, Missouri, across the US
sights in the wilderness that it was along the Oregon Trail mapped by Lewis
quipped that the initials “HBC” stood and Clark in 1804–05. Many settlers left
for “Here Before Christ.” the trail in Idaho and headed south to
Territorial tensions between Britain California. Most of those who continued
and the US erupted in the War of 1812. west to Oregon followed the Snake River
Although neither side “won” this war, to the Columbia River, where they put
the dominance of the British was later their wagons on rafts. The downstream
undermined when thousands of American trip across dangerous rapids led to the
farmers migrated westward along the mouth of the Willamette River and, just
Oregon Trail. Britain and America divided upstream, the trail’s end at Oregon City.
the spoils of the Pacific Northwest in Rather than pay the exorbitant fee of $50
1846, using the 49th parallel as the new to float a wagon down the river, some
boundary, with the land to the north
(British Columbia) being claimed by Britain,
and that to the south (Oregon) by the US.
Oregon, which included the present-day
states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho,
became a US terri tory in 1848. The Oregon
Territory was itself divided in 1852,
with lands north of the Columbia River
forming the new Washington Territory. Astoria, founded by John Jacob Astor in 1811

1811 John Jacob Astor 1843 James Douglas, of the Hudson’s Bay
establishes Astoria, a 1829 Oregon City is the first Company, founds Fort Victoria, later
trading post at the mouth town west of the Rocky renamed Victoria, in British Columbia; a
of the Columbia River Mountains to be incorporated wagon train transporting 900 settlers blazes
the Oregon Trail to the Willamette Valley
1810 1820 1830 1840
1812–14 War of
1812 between 1824 Fort Vancouver
Britain and the US is established by
the Hudson’s Watercolor of
A French- Bay Company Mount Baker,
Canadian woodsman Washington, 1848

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