Willamette Valley

Historical Marker - America's First Transcontinental Automobile Race

America's First Transcontinental Automobile Race

On June 23, 1909, a Ford automobile arrives in Seattle from New York City in 23 days flat, completing the first transcontinental automobile race across North America. This Model T Ford arrives first but is disqualified because the drivers changed the engine during the race. The winner (the second to arrive) is a Shawmut. The race is part of Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (A-Y-P).

Historical Marker - Aurora

Dr. Wilhelm Keil founded here a Christian co-operative colony patterned after his colony at Bethel, Missouri. Musicians of the settlement made it widely famous. After Dr. Keil's death in 1877 the communal enterprise was dissolved.

Historical Marker - Boone's Ferry

During the period of Oregon’s Provisional Government (1841-1849), residents traveled by Indian trails, water courses, or on primitive rough-hewn wagon roads etched by emigrant settlers. During the days of the Territorial Government (1849-1859), and long before the State Highway Commission was established in 1917, travel and commercial transportation was often the result of ambitious, enterprising Oregonians such as the Alphonso Boone family of Clackamas County.

Historical Marker - Boone's Landing

Many of Oregon's early transportation routes resulted from the efforts of enterprising pioneers like the Boone family of Clackamas County. In 1846 Alphonso Boone, grandson of Daniel Boone, emigrated to Oregon via the Applegate Trail with his large family. By 1847, using local Tuality Indians as oarsmen, they established Boone's Ferry near this marker. The thriving community of Boone's Landing, genesis of Wilsonville, quickly sprang up on the river's north shore. The same year, eldest son Jesse began clearing a path, called Boones Ferry Road, connecting Portland with Salem.

Historical Marker - Brownsville

A TOWN WITH ANCIENT BEGINNINGS AND MANY NAMES

Long before the first pioneer settlers arrived here in the 1840's, this area was occupied by the ancient Mound Builders and then the Kalapuya Indians. The relative ease of finding food in the valley made the Kalapuya vulnerable to intruders, including other tribes, because they did not need to fight or go very far for food. At the time of Lewis and Clark, about two thousand were distributed in forty villages in the valley.

Historical Marker - Camp Adair

SITE OF THE CANTONMENT WHERE THESE DIVISIONS TRAINED DURING WORLD WAR II.

70TH INFANTRY DIVISION TRAILBLAZER DIVISION 274th, 275th and 276th Inf. Regts; 882nd, 883rd, 884th (I) and 725th (M) FA Bns. Attached to Seventh Army. Action in Saar Region. Maj. Gen. John E. Dalquist and Allison J. Barnett, Commanding Generals.

Historical Marker - Canyon Creek

The narrow gorge of Canyon Creek has long served as a travel corridor. Native Americans likely trekked this canyon for thousands of years. Alexander McLeod of the Hudson's Bay Company provided the first written account of the route in 1829, while traveling from Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River to California's central valley. The U.S. Exploring Expedition, under Lt. George Emmons, followed the trail in 1841 making scientific observations.

Historical Marker - Champoeg State Park

Established as Provisional Government Park in 1913 to commemorate May 2, 1843 meeting of the "Inhabitants of the Willamette Settlements" to organize a civil government. The Organic Act, adopted July 5, 1843, was a Provisional Constitution for the Oregon Country, the first American Government on the Pacific Coast.

Historical Marker - Cow Creek

The story of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians is a tale of perseverance and strong recovery in the face of great loss. Epidemics and hostilities with miners let to large population declines. The tribe entered into a treaty with the United States in 1853, and ceded nearly 800 square miles for less than three cents an acre. This treaty left them without access to traditional hunting and gathering areas or a land base to build upon.

Historical Marker - Dayton Blockhouse

(Sign A) This building was a Military Blockhouse built at the Grand Ronde Agency by Willamette Valley settlers in 1856. U.S. troops were sent to the station the same year and it was named "Fort Yamhill." Among the famous Army officers stationed at this fort were Sheridan, Wheeler, A.J. Smith, D.A. Russell and Hazen.