Isolation and Empire Early Explorers in the PNW

Isolation and Empire Early Explorers in the PNW

Early Exploration • Search for Northwest Passage – Waterway to the Pacific • 1579 Sir Francis Drake (England) sailed north as far as Oregon or British Columbia • Described the area as one of “most vile, thicke, and stinking fogges. ” • He claimed it for England left • The Spanish and Russians also claimed it

Captain James Cook • British Explorer • Left Britain on 3 rd voyage in 1776 • Never found Columbia River or Puget Sound • Spent one month in 1788 at Nootka Sound • Dismembered in Hawaii

Replica of Endeavour

Cook’s 3 Voyages

Two Major Results of Cook’s 3 rd Voyage • Established northwest Fur Trade – Picked up sea otter pelts in PNW, traded them in China for $$$$$$$$$$ • Training voyage for future mariners who would return to the Pacific Northwest – George Vancouver would return in 1790 s and put Puget Sound on map (and name it for his lieutenant, Peter Puget

One Problem Remained… • Europeans began to show up in greater numbers to profit from the resources in the PNW, but… • This newly “discovered” territory that they claimed as their own was already home to someone else

• Cook – 1788 Nootka (Vancouver Island) • Vancouver – 1792 explored Puget Sound • Robert Gray (US) – 1 st American Circumnavigation – 1792 – Sailed up Columbia

Lewis and Clark (1804 -1806) • Followed Alexander Mackenzie’s voyages (1793) to Bella Coola

Fort Astoria, Oregon (1811) • Founded by John Jacob Astor – German-American businessman – Pacific Fur Company • Near the mouth of Columbia River • First Permanent American settlement in the PNW • Failed, sold to British in 1813, U. S. got it back in 1818

Fort Vancouver (1824) • Hudson’s Bay Company (British) Trading Fort on North (WA) side of Columbia River • Would be in British territory if Columbia River became boundary

Treaties with British • Treaty of 1818 – Established “Joint-Occupancy” of Oregon Territory between British and U. S. • Treaty of 1846 (“Oregon Treaty”) – British ceded territory south of 49 th Parallel to U. S. – British moved from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria

Euro-Americans in the PNW • Explorers – Spanish, Russians, British, French, Americans • Fur Traders/Mountain Men – 1780 s-1840 s • “Mission Era” (Missionaries) – 1834 -1848 • Settlers (Oregon Trail) – 1840 -1860 saw 53, 000 move west – Willamette Valley – Railroad eventually replaced trail

The Oregon Trail • Over 2, 000 mile journey • Free land in Oregon Territory (up to a square mile per family) • Helped U. S. to implement goal of Manifest Destiny

“Prairie Schooner”

• The name "Walla" is translated several ways but most often as "many waters. "

Whitman Massacre • • Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa 1837 mission near Walla Spread measles to Cayuse 1847, they and 11 others killed

Takes notes on: • Missionaries – Who, why, when, where, what? • Early Settlers – Who, why, when, where, what?