1792: Exploring the Pacific Coast

Although the Spanish have settlements to the south and the Russians to the north, the Pacific Coast between what is today northern California and Southeast Alaska is little explored in 1792.

The possibility of finding a Northwest Passage is still alive, and explorers come periodically in the hopes of finding a large inlet or river that will lead deep into the interior. In June, Robert Gray, a Bostonian in a ship named for the tercentenary of Christopher Columbus – Columbia Rediviva – finds his way past a treacherous sand bar and into the mouth of a large, unknown river.

He names this river for his ship, thus initiating a long history of features named Columbia in the area. A few months later, British naval commander George Vancouver sends one of his officers, William Broughton, in HMS Chatham to explore the same river.

1793-1806: Inroads into the Oregon Country

Europeans now make considerable inroads into what will soon be known as the Oregon Country. Alexander Mackenzie, working for an upstart fur trading enterprise called the North West Company (from Montreal), becomes the first European to journey by land across North America to the Pacific Ocean.

Lewis and Clark, sent by the American government to assess land routes to the Pacific from the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase, accomplish the same feat a few years later, wintering at the mouth of the Columbia. Simon Fraser, also of the North West Company, goes up the Peace River from Lake Athabasca and sets up a few initial fur trading posts just across the continental divide. He calls this northern country New Caledonia.

1807-1812: Competing Fur Trade Companies

The North West Company's David Thompson and Simon Fraser separately explore two large rivers they have discovered in the interior.

Fraser's river now bears his name; Thompson's turns out to be the Columbia, and it is this river that is widely regarded as the key to getting furs out of the interior. John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, from New York, sends both a ship (the Tonquin) and an overland expedition (under Hunt) to establish a fur trading post at the mouth of the Columbia.

It is now becoming crucial to determine which lands in the Oregon Country are American, and which British. When word of the outbreak of war between the two countries reaches Fort Astoria in late 1812, the entire Pacific Fur Company operation (including several inland trading posts) is sold to the North West Company to avoid seizure of its assets by the British navy.

1819: De Facto Southern Limits

In the aftermath of the War of 1812, the American and the British agree that their mutual border will be the 49th parallel as far west as “The Stony Mountains” -- today's Rocky Mountains.

West of here, the Oregon Country is to be freely travelled and exploited by citizens of either country for the next ten years. In the fur trade business, the Pacific Fur Company is gone and only the North West Company remains.

The U.S. and Spain have signed the
Adams-Onís Treaty, under which the northern limit of Spanish possessions is set at 42° north. This line now becomes the de facto southern limit of Oregon Country.

1825: Joint Use Extended Indefinitely

In 1824 the Americans and the Russians make an agreement to separate their establishments on the Pacific coast. They draw the line at 54° 40' north, the latitude of the southernmost tip of the Alaska islands.

The following year, the British and the Russians go a step further and establish a boundary between their possessions: beginning at 54° 40', it turns north and parallels the coast ten miles inland.

The Spanish colony of Mexico has become an independent country (1821), and the British and Americans both covet her port at Yerba Buena (San Francisco), safer than the treacherous Columbia River mouth.

Although they discuss dividing the Oregon Country in various ways, the American and British are unable to come to a compromise and agree to extend the joint use of the area indefinitely.

The North West Company has now been taken over by the larger Hudson's Bay Company.

1841: Puget Sound is Mapped

A few Americans are beginning to settle just south of the Columbia, in the Willamette Valley. The area north of the Columbia, including the Hudson's Bay Company regional headquarters at Fort Vancouver, is widely regarded as British.

The HBC is exporting timber, grain and fish from the Oregon Country to the Far East and Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). The U.S. Exploring Expedition or “U.S. Ex. Ex.” travels around the Pacific to build national prestige; in the summer of 1841 it explores Puget Sound and names a number of its features.

This remarkable port will be a desirable prize once the Oregon Country gets divided up, and with settlers arriving there is increasing pressure to draw the line somewhere. Texas, a new country formed by the rebellion of a Mexican province, reaches, at least nominally, up to 42° North and onto our map.

1846: Britain and U.S. Sign Oregon Treaty

Despite populist pressure to get “The Whole of Oregon or None!” the U.S. signs the Oregon Treaty with Britain.

Oregon Country is divided at 49° North, although all of Vancouver Island, the site of the Hudson's Bay Company's new headquarters at Fort Victoria, goes to Britain.

One treaty detail will cause trouble later: the border, after reaching salt water, is specified to go down the middle of the “channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island... to the Pacific Ocean.” Unfortunately the channel is strewn with islands, and it is unclear to whom these belong.

The U.S. half of the Oregon Country remains unorganized at this time, but American settlers in the Willamette Valley already have a capital in the works at Oregon City.

Texas is about to be admitted to the U.S. as a state, and in fact the U.S. is about to go to war with Mexico so that it can also acquire California.

1862: Settlement and Gold Rush

The U.S. is in the midst of its Civil War. Oregon has been made a state, and the remainder of the Oregon Country on the U.S. side, where a few Hudson's Bay Company posts continue to operate, is organized as the Washington Territory.

North of 49°, gold has been discovered in the Lower Fraser River region and the Cariboo, prompting the British government to formalize the mainland Colony of British Columbia. Its northern boundary is formed by the Nass and Finlay rivers.

Farther north, gold discoveries in the Stikine River area have likewise resulted in the creation of the Stickeen Territory. In the wake of the Mexican-American War, California (already a state), and the territories of Nevada and Utah, now belong to the U.S. San Juan Island remains in the joint military possession of the U.S. and Britain while an international arbitration commission examines the boundary problem.

1872: British Columbia is Formed

The Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia have been combined, together with the Stickeen Territory, to form the Province of British Columbia within the newly designated Dominion of Canada.

On the U.S. side, the territories of Washington and Idaho have been made out of the old Washington Territory, with a piece being contributed to the Montana Territory. The U.S. has purchased Russian America (1867) and this area is provisionally designated the Department of Alaska.

Through international arbitration the border through the San Juan Islands has been determined to go down Haro Strait, leaving San Juan Island itself in the United States. Hudson's Bay Company operations within the U.S. have ceased.

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