Oregon

The development of the State highway system begun in 1917 has been regularly carried forward : at the beginning of the year 1935 the total mileage was 4,625, of which 4,039m. were sur faced. The total mileage of roads other than State highways was 51,617, of which 13,931m. were surfaced. Expenditures for State highways in 1934 were $15,116,000; the added expenditures of counties, townships and districts brought the year's total to $17,101,000. In 1935 there were 297,525 motor vehicles in Ore gon, or 295 per i,000 population. Receipts for the registration of motor vehicles amounted to $2,762,000; from the five-cent gasolene tax, A deep water channel in the Columbia and Willamette rivers makes Portland accessible for ocean-going vessels, and about 82% of water-borne commerce of Oregon in 1934 was carried to or from that port. The total ocean commerce of Oregon in 1934 was short tons. Of this amount 4,980,00o tons entered or cleared the Columbia river; the water-borne commerce of Portland alone was 4,367,000 tons.

History.

The Spanish pilot, Bartolome Ferrelo, who in 1543 made the farthest northward voyage along the Pacific coast recorded in the first half of the 16th century, may have sighted the shores of Oregon. So also the famous English captain, Francis Drake, who in 1579 coasted these shores seeking a route home by a north-west passage. is supposed to have reached a point near lat. before giving up the search and turning westward across the Pacific. In 1603 the Spaniards Vizcaino and Aguilar also passed lat., Aguilar claiming to have reached a point of land near which he called Cape Blanco. The Spanish, however, were too interested in the profitable trade between their colonies and the Far East to give much attention to north-west exploration and it was not until i6o years later that the fear of Russian and English encroachment caused them to send out further expedi tions. In Juan Perez was sent out with orders to proceed to 6o° latitude. He turned back at 54° but was the first to sail along the entire coastline of the Oregon country. The following year Bruno Heceta commanded another expedition which near Point Grenville made the first landing in the region. They erected a cross and in formal ceremony took possession for Spain.

The Spaniards made no effort to colonize north-western America or to develop its trade with the Indians, but towards the end of the 18th century the traders of the great British fur companies of the north were gradually pushing overland to the Pacific. Upon the sea, too, the English were not idle. Capt. James Cook in March 1778 sighted the coast of Oregon in the lat. of 44°, and examined it between and 48° in of finding the Straits of Juan de Fuca described in Spanish accounts. Soon after the

close of the Revolutionary War American merchants began to buy furs along the north-west coast and to ship them to China to be exchanged for the products of the East. It was in the prosecution of this trade that Capt. Robert Gray (1755-1806), an American in the service of Boston merchants, discovered in 1792 the long sought river of the west, which he named the Columbia, after his ship. By the discovery of this river Gray gave to the United States a claim to the whole territory drained by its waters.

Land exploration soon followed these discoveries along the coast. Alexander Mackenzie, in the service of the North West Company, in 1793 had explored through Canada to the Pacific coast in lat. about 52° 20' N., and Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, American explorers acting under the orders of President Jefferson, in 1805-06 had passed west of the Rocky mountains and down the Columbia river to the Pacific ocean. Both British and American adventurers were attracted to the region by the profitable fur trade. In 1808 the North West Company had sev eral posts on the Fraser river, and in 1810 and 1811 they built others south of the 49th parallel. In 1811, also, the Pacific Fur Company, under the guidance of John Jacob Astor of New York, founded a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia which they called Astoria, and set up a number of minor posts on the Willa mette, Spokane and Okanogan rivers. On hearing of the war between England and the United States, Astor's associates, deem ing Astoria untenable, sold the property in 1813 to the North West Company. The British took formal possession and renamed the post Ft. George.

Soon after the restoration of peace between England and the United States there arose the so-called "north-western boundary dispute" or "Oregon question" which agitated both countries for a generation and almost led to another war. The United States was willing at the time to extend the north-western boundary along the 49th parallel from Lake of the Woods to the Pacific, but to this the British Government would not consent, so in 1818 both nations agreed to a "joint occupation" for ten years of the country "on the north-west coast of America, westward of the Stony (Rocky) mountains." By treaty the following year Spain waived her claim to the territory north of 42° in favour of the United States, and in 1824 Russia likewise agreed to make no settlements south of 40'. In 1827 the agreement of 1818 for joint occupancy by Great Britain and the United States was re newed for an indefinite term, with the proviso that it might be terminated by either party on i2 months' notice.