Country, Territory, State

       Next in the history of quests that shaped Oregon was that of Captain Robert Gray. In 1787 he rounded the cape of Africa and sailed the “Columbia” up the coast and through into the mouth of a mighty river he named for his ship into the Pacific northwest to collect fur to be traded for the teas and silks of China.
      Then in 1805-06 the remarkable overland expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, whose friend and benefactor President Thomas Jefferson instructed them to be kind to the indigenous people and who were joined on much their trecherous journey by the fabled Shoshone maiden Sacajawea.

The music: Oregon's Jim Pepper long ago turned a Native American chant learned from his grandfather into the etheral "Witchi Tai To" (covered by 500 groups). Jim is no longer with us, but his unique story and compositions live on.

Word of the many discoveries of Lewis and Clark led to the coming of traders, trappers, missionaries. And in 1843 began one of the greatest migrations in the history of the world.

Westward Ho

After the June 15, 1846 treaty with Britain granted the U.S. rights to the Oregon Country — encompassing present-day Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming — thousands of one-way cross-country treks were undertaken.

Even before Oregon became a state, in 1859, the Donation Land Act lured pioneers with its promise of a free section of land--640 acres--and later the Homestead Act enticed more intrepid souls with the proposition that they work the land for five years in exchange for 160 acres free.

As homesteading families arrived they brought stability. And cheap or free land formed a population of land owners largely without class distinctions. Portland, however, from the very beginning drew the business-minded ...

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