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Nootka Indians-Enviroment
Captian James Cook's third expedition had its main encounter with native peoples of the North Pacific at Nootka Sound. The main source of Nootka sustenance was the sea. From it the Indians skimmed an abundance of fish and other marine life. The Nootkas lived in extended wooden buildings--longhouses some twenty to forty feet wide and fifty to one hundred feet long. Overlapping red-cedar planks attached to a permanet frame were easily removed and transpirted to another homesite. (Schwantes, p. 25) -
Columbia River-Environment
Captain Robert Gray discovered the harbor on the coast of Washington that bears his name and, in May 1792, the majestic river he maned for his ship: Columbia's River, a spelling soon modified to a more familiar form. (Schwantes, p. 50-1) -
The Lewis and Clark Expedition-Science
The overland expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Oregon coast in late 1805. (Schwantes, p 53) Their journals, which rank among the treasures of the nation's written history, contain drawings, maps, and artifacts that addes greatly to knowledge about terrain, native peoples, and the flora and fauna of the West. (Schwantes, p. 62) -
The Pacific Fur Company-Economics
John Jacob Astor created the Pacific Fur Company to tap the riches of the Oregon country, a move that was in difance of British cliams to the area. (Schwantes, p.65) -
Fort Vancouver-Architecture
Here was a small almost self-sufficient European community that included a hospital, thirty to fifty small houses where employees lived with their Indian wives; storehouse for furs, trading goods, and grain; and workshops where blacksmithing, carpentry, barrel making, and other activities were carried on, Approximatley twenty-two major buildings, including residence of the cheif factor and a jail, where located within the main stockade. (Schwantes, p. 72) -
The Beaver-Technology
Steamboats plying Pacific Northwest waters formed an integral part of the region's expanding transportation network. The Beaver, a diminutive paddle boat constructed in England for the Hudson's Bay Company and delivered to John McLoughlin at Fort Vancouver in 1836, was the first steamboat in the Northwest. (Schwantes, p. 181) -
Henry H. Spalding-Technology
In an attempt to Christianize the Nez Perce, Henry H. Spalding in 1839 imported a small printing press from Hawaii on which he was able to publish the gospel of John and other materials in the Nez Perce language. A water-powered saw mill and flour mill followed in 1840. (Schwantes, p. 95) -
The United States Exploring Expedition-Environment
From 1838-1842 the United States Exploring Expedition or Wilkes expedition, made a voyage of discovery around the world. The ships arrived off the coast of Oregon in 1841. Lieutenat Charles Wilkes and the expedition crew members named more than 250 landmarks in what is now Washington. From lower Puget Sound, survey groups and scientist explored and mapped the interior of the Oregon country. (Schwantes, p. 116) -
The Oregon Trail-Economics
More than a hundred persons and eighteen wagons rolled west in 1842 under the guidance of Dr. Elijah White, a former Methodist missionary assigned as an Indian subagent for Oregon. The White party was the first to form a typical wagon train in which families predominated. (Schwantes, p. 99) -
Oregon City-Government
Oregon City in 1844 became the first incorporated U.S. municipality west of the Rocky Mountains. (Schwantes, p 111-12) -
The Whitman Massacre-Religion
The Cayuses attack the mission station of Waiilatpu, killing Marcus and Narcissa Whitman along with eleven others. (Schwantes, p. 88) -
Governor Issac Stevens-Government
Stevens met with tribal spokesman of the Plateau peoples at a great council in May and June 1855 in the Walla Walla Valley and secured one of the earliest treaties negotiated between whites and Indians of the Pacific Northwest. (Schwantes, p. 126) -
Franklin, Idaho-Religion
On April 14th 1860, a band of thirteen (mormon) colonists founded Franklin, Idaho's first town. Not many years passed before Mormons constituted the largest single religious group in the Gem State. (Schwantes, p. 138) -
Clearwater Mining Rush-Economics
The mining excitment that would play so crucial role in the early history of both territories dated from August 1860 when Elias Davidson Peirce and twelve men left the village of Walla Walla and traveled quietly and illegally across the Nez Perce reservation. Not long after the illicit prospectors found some promising diggings in Oro Fino Creek, word of the discovery leaked out and the Clearwater rush was on. (Schwantes, p.128) -
Idaho City-Art/Architecture
Within three years of its founding in 1862, Idaho City boasted opera and theatre houses, music stores, tailor shops, breweries, bowling alleys, bakeries, and other urban amentities, not to mention the numerous saloons found in every mining camp. (Schwantes, p. 131) -
The Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad-Architecture
The Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad, a thirty-two-mile-long narrow- gauge line that Dr. Dorsey S. Baker completed in 1875, illustrates how a pioneer entrepreneur could marshal local resources to build a short, low-cost railway. To keep expenses low, Baker used regular T-shaped rails only on the curves; he substituted wooden rails topped with lengths of strap iron on the straight sections. (Schwantes, p. 187-8) -
Edmunds Act-Religion
Congress passed the Edmunds Act in 1882, which barred polygamists from voting, holding office, or serving as jurors in cases involvling plural marriage. (Schwantes, p. 161) -
Woman's Suffarge-Governemnt
A breakthrough came in 1896 when, after a quiet and inexpensive campaign managed by mostly local women, Idaho overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ammendment making it the first Pacific Northwest state to enfranchise womem. (Schwantes, p. 163-4)
