Oregon
Oregon was organized as a Territory in 1818, and
admitted into the Union with the present prescribed
limits on the twelfth of February, 1859. Bounded north
by Washington, east by Idaho, south by Nevada and
California, and west by the Pacific Ocean. The broad and
romantic Columbia runs along the northern border, and
Snake River, Lewis Fork of the Columbia, runs for nearly
two hundred miles along its eastern border.
Historically, Oregon is the most important division of
the Pacific Coast. The early French, Spanish, and
English navigators, prior to the independence of
America, had sailed along the coast, but it fortunately
remained for Captain Robert Gray, an American, in the
ship Columbia, from the Boston, who on the 11th of May,
1792, crossed the bar and entered what proved to be a
large river, making a chart of the channel and
surroundings, and naming it after his ship, the
Columbia.
The etymology of the name of Oregon is shrouded in
mystery. By some writers it is attributed as coming from
origanum, the scientific name of the wild marjoram which
grows profusely on the coast. By others the name is
supposed to have come from the Spanish Origin. The most
probable solution is that it is an Indian word, first
recorded by Mr. Jonathan Carver, an adventurous traveler
of the Mississippi Valley, in 1766.
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Pacific Coast Business Directory
Source: Pacific Coast Business
Directory for 1876-78, Compiled by Henry G. Langley, San
Francisco, 1875.
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