Page 45 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Pacific Northwest

THE HIST OR Y OF THE P A CIFIC NOR THWEST  43

and Vancouver in 1886,
opening up British Columbia
to mass settlement.
In the US the arrival of
the railroad was especially
beneficial to the tiny
settlement of Alki-New York
in Washington, which soon
burgeoned into Seattle,
and eventually outstripped
Portland as the Pacific
Fort Vancouver, a strategically located trading post, in 1848 Northwest’s major port
and center of trade.
settlers opted for the treacherous climb
across Barlow Pass on the flanks of Gold Rushes
Mount Hood, one of the peaks of the Gold fever gripped the Pacific Northwest
Cascade Mountains. in 1848, when gold was discovered in
The reward for those who made the California’s Sierra Nevada mountains.
arduous trek to Oregon’s fertile Willamette Many of the new settlers who had staked
Valley was a land grant of 350 acres land claims in Oregon headed south,
(140 ha). Many settlers staked their claims lured by the hope of making their fortune.
in Oregon, while others made their way In fact, two-thirds of the male
farther north and settled in Washington. population of Oregon followed the lure
With its strategic location at of gold. Many returned soon afterward
the confluence of the Columbia with gold nuggets in their pockets.
and Willamette Rivers,
Portland became the
region’s major port and
most important city.
By the 1870s,
transcontinental railroads
were steaming across the
US and Canada, making
the Pacific Northwest
accessible to hundreds
of thousands more
settlers. Trains began
crossing Canada
between Montreal Romantic vision of the westward trek, painted c.1904

1851 Portland 1859 Oregon becomes 1873 The newly
1848 is incorporated the 33rd state created North West
Oregon Mounted Police is
Territory is 1852 Washington 1865 Seattle assigned to patrol the
established Territory is formed is incorporated US-Canada border
1840 1850 1860 1870
1846 1850 The First 1867 Dominion of
Washington and Nations Straits Salish Canada is created 1871 British Columbia joins
Oregon claimed peoples sell land under the British the Dominion of Canada
by the US, British on Vancouver Island North America Act
Columbia to the Hudson’s
by Canada Bay Company Wagons as used by pioneers on the Oregon Trail

US_PNW_038-045_History.indd 43 04/07/16 12:33 pm