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Art - Native Americans ans Totem Poles
For many years, the costal natives of the Pacific Northwest carved elaborate totem poles to record history, celebrate special occasions, and practice their religious beliefs. -
Government - The Lewis and Clark Expedition
In November1805 the Corps of Discovery arrived at the Pacific Coast. Led by Merriwether Lewis and William Clark, the expedition had been conceived by President Thomas Jefferson several years earlier as a means to extend American influence and commerce west. -
Economics - The Fur Trade
In 1810 John Jacob Astor created the Pacific Fur Company to exploit the abundance of wildlife in the Pacific Northwest. This led to competition with the ENglish Hudson's Bay Company and an increase in exploration in the PNW. -
Economics - Timber!
In 1827 the Hudson's Bay company built the first saw mill in the Pacific Northwest at Fort Vancouver. Logging developed into the one of the region's leading industries and also contributed to the creation of the national park system. -
Government - Hudson's Bay Company
The Hundson's Bay Company was first form of government that settlers lived under. The Hudson's Bay Company was a British Commercial Enterprise that had expanded from the Atlantic coast into the Pacific Northwest to exploit the fur trade. -
Technology - Wheels in the Pacific Northwest
Missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and their party are the first to bring a wheeled cart to the Pacific Northwest. This led to the saying "If the Whitmans can do it!" and the development of the Oregon Trail. -
Religion - The Whitmans arrive in Vancouver
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman were missionaries from New York who came west to minister to the natives. They worked in various parts of what is now Eastern Washington for more than a decade until their deaths in the Whitman massacred of 1847. -
Religion - Black Robes Arrive in the Pacific Northwest
Father Pierre Jean De Smet arrived in Idaho in 1842. Several years earlier, a delegation of Couer d'Alene Indians had travelled to St. Louis, MO, to ask for missionairies to come and provide powerful medicine. De Smet was the first of these missionaries. Today, one can still visit the Church of the Sacred Heart, which was built in 1848. -
Government - Creation of the Oregon Territory
The Oregon Territory was incorproated bythe United States in 1848. It contained the modern states of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and parts of Wyoming and Montana. Oregon became a State in 1859, Washington and Montana in 1889, and Idaho and Wyoming in 1890 -
Economy - Gold
Gold was discovered in Oregon in 1852. A number of other dsicoveries were made in the Pacific Northwest in following years, leading to an increase in emmigration from other parts of the United States. -
Environment - Pollution along the Oregon Trail
Many of the deaths of travelers on the Oregon trail can be blamed on sickness, much of which was the result of pollution along the trail itself. Travellers discarded trash along the trail, and it's been estimated that one person died for every eighty yards of the trail - less than a football field. -
Religion - Mormons in the Pacific Northwest
Mormon pioneers from Utah founded Franklin Idaho in 1860. It was the first of many Mormon settlements in the Pacific Northwest. -
Technology - The Stamp Mill
By 1862 Stamp Mills were being used extensively in the mining camps of the Pacific Northwest. Powered by streams, they were used to pulverize rock, allowing miners to look for gold. -
Technology - Trains and the Pacific Northwest
In 1883 Henry Villard, head of Northern Pacific Railways, pounded in the last spike and opened a rail line that ran from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington. Trains in the Pacific North West allowed more emigration and opened eastern markets to PNW goods. -
Environment - Tourism and game conservation
In the late 1880s the railways that serviced the Pacific Northwest realized that they could take advantage of people who wished to enjoy the natural beauty of the outdoors. This desire to earn a profit led to early game conservation efforts. -
Architecture - Rebuilding Seattle
Following the destruction of Seattle in a fire in 1889, the previously ramshackle wooden city was rebuilt out of brick and stone. -
Environment - Creation of the National Park System
In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt created the National Forest Service to act as a steward of Americas vast forests. This was in part a response to the unreguated logging that had marred many parts of the nation. -
Architecture - The Temple to Timber
The Temple to Timber was a centerpiece of the 1909 Alaska Yukon and Pacific exposition, and a nod to the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest.
