The Oregon Country

What is the Oregon Country?

From Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia:

The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from the Columbia River frequented by ships from all nations engaged in the maritime fur trade, most of these from the 1790s through 1810s being Boston-based. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 ended disputed joint occupancy pursuant to the Treaty of 1818 and established the British-American boundary at the 49th parallel (except Vancouver Island).

Oregon was a distinctly American term for the region. The British used the term Columbia District instead.  The Oregon Country consisted of the land north of 42°N latitude, south of 54°40’N latitude, and west of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The area now forms part of the present day Canadian province of British Columbia, all of the US states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming. The British presence in the region was generally administered by the Hudson’s Bay Company, whose Columbia Department comprised most of the Oregon Country and extended considerably north into New Caledonia and beyond 54°40’N, with operations reaching tributaries of the Yukon River.

 

Full membership is open to all those who can trace their lineage directly back to someone who came or was in the Oregon Country before Oregon Statehood on February 14, 1859.  A Friends of SDOP category is open to all others who are interested in Oregon and Pacific Northwest history.