Oregon

Many tribal oral histories describe their peoples as living in Oregon since “time immemorial.” Archaeological evidence shows human occupation at Rimrock Draw Rockshelter near Burns about 18,000 years ago, and in 2023 archaeologists found evidence there of the oldest known human-occupied site in North America; Paisley Caves in south-central Oregon holds evidence of occupation from about 14,400 to 12,000 years ago; and dozens of sagebrush-bark sandals from Fort Rock cave, worn by Indigenous residents about 9,000 years ago and rediscovered in 1938, are among the oldest known surviving shoes. Mount Mazama erupted about 7,700 years ago, creating Crater Lake; oral history and archaeological evidence suggest that ancestors of the Klamath Tribe witnessed the event.⁠[1][2]

Historians and anthropologists often describe three (occasionally four) culture areas in Oregon. Northern Paiute peoples of the Great Basin in the southeast followed seasonal rounds to harvest salmon, roots, deer and huckleberries; the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce), Umatilla, Cayuse and others of the Columbia Plateau in north-central and northeastern Oregon lived in longhouses of tule mats, and Wyam (Celilo Falls) was the region’s largest trading site; Northwest Coast groups including the Clatsop, Tillamook, Siletz, Siuslaw, Coos and Chetco lived in permanent, often large villages at river mouths and used cedar for clothing, canoes and houses; and the Kalapuya and Upper Umpqua of the Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue valleys harvested camas, hazelnuts and berries and regularly burned prairies to promote plant growth.⁠[3]

When Europeans arrived, about 125 Native American groups lived in and around the Oregon country, a region roughly comparable to the present Pacific Northwest; they practiced seasonal agriculture and relied on hunting, fishing and gathering, supporting a relatively small population.⁠[4]

In 1543 Bartolome Ferrelo sailed north to the southwest Oregon coast; in 1579 Francis Drake may have visited Whale Cove; in 1775 Bruno Heceta (Hezeta) sighted the mouth of the Columbia River and named it Rio San Roque; and in 1778 James Cook made landfall at Cape Foulweather and learned of the Northwest Coast’s wealth in furs. The first smallpox outbreak among Oregon’s Indigenous peoples occurred in 1775–1780.⁠[5]

In 1787 Boston merchants sent out two ships under Robert Gray and John Kendrick. In May 1792 Gray sailed over the Columbia River bar and named the river after his ship, giving the United States its first claim to the Pacific Northwest by right of discovery. That year Vancouver’s expedition charted the Columbia estuary, and William Broughton named Mount Hood after Alexander Arthur Hood.⁠[4][5]

The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 extended U.S. territory to the Rocky Mountains. In 1804 President Thomas Jefferson sent out the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which in 1805 explored the lower Snake and Columbia rivers, reached the mouth of the Columbia and built Fort Clatsop, strengthening the U.S. claim to the region; it returned to the United States in 1806.⁠[5][4]

In 1811 John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company established a trading post at Astoria, beginning European American settlement of the Oregon country. In 1813 the British North West Company bought the post and renamed it Fort George. In 1818 the United States and Great Britain agreed to joint occupation of Oregon, and the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819 ceded Spain’s discovery rights north of 42 degrees to the United States.⁠[4][5]

In 1821 the Hudson’s Bay Company absorbed the North West Company. In 1824 John McLoughlin began his long tenure as the company’s Chief Factor and went on to dominate the Pacific Northwest for 22 years; the company built Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River in 1824–1825, the first sawmill began cutting lumber nearby in 1827, and in 1833 the company made its first lumber exports to China.⁠[5][4]

In 1834 Methodists led by Jason Lee established the first permanent settlement in the Willamette Valley; in 1836 the Whitman-Spalding party arrived overland, and Protestant missions were established among the Cayuse, Umatilla and Nimiipuu, though they failed to win converts in great numbers.⁠[4][5][6]

In 1841 there were 150 Americans in the Willamette Valley; more than 100 more arrived in 1842, and in 1843 the first large migration brought more than 900 immigrants over the Oregon Trail. By 1845 the valley held about 6,000 Euro-Americans and just 500 Kalapuyans; that year about 3,000 overland immigrants arrived, and Francis Pettygrove and A. L. Lovejoy named Portland and began platting the city.⁠[6][5]

In 1847 Cayuse and Umatilla people attacked the Whitman Mission at Waiilatpu, killing about a dozen whites and taking 53 hostages, which began the Cayuse War; a settlers’ volunteer militia raided the Cayuse, and the federal government sent the U.S. Army. On May 24, 1850, a jury convicted five Cayuse men of murder, and they were hanged at Oregon City on June 3, the first capital punishment in the territory.⁠[6][5]

In 1843 settlers at the “Wolf Meetings” created a tax-funded bounty on predators and decided to found a Provisional Government; that year representatives met at Champoeg to organize it, and Oregonians petitioned the U.S. Senate for American jurisdiction. Nearly all Britons abandoned the meetings, and Americans then expanded the government’s role.⁠[6][4][5]

Laws passed in 1844 barred slavery and excluded Black and mulatto people, and the so-called “Lash Law” required Black residents to be whipped twice a year until they left the territory. In 1845 George Abernethy was elected the first Provisional governor, and the Provisional Legislature first met formally that year in Oregon City as a unicameral body with an uncertain schedule.⁠[5][7]

By 1844 Britain had concluded that the Columbia River boundary would have to be abandoned, and the Hudson’s Bay Company moved its main Northwest depot to Fort Victoria. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 settled the boundary between U.S. and British claims at the 49th parallel, affirming U.S. sovereignty over the Pacific Northwest. That year the Barlow Road opened as a toll route and the Applegate Trail as an alternative to the Oregon Trail, and the Oregon Spectator began publication in Oregon City as the first newspaper on the West Coast.⁠[4][6][5]

In 1848 Congress passed the Organic Act creating Oregon Territory; it prohibited slavery by acknowledging the anti-slavery section of the Ordinance of 1787. In 1849 Joseph Lane assumed office as the first territorial governor, and the first “Beaver” gold coins were minted in Oregon City.⁠[6][8][5]

In September 1850 Congress passed the Oregon Donation Land Law, which legitimized existing claims: a white male citizen arriving before December 1, 1850, could hold 320 acres and his wife could claim another 320 acres in her own right, for up to 640 acres per couple, while later arrivals received half as much. Claimants had to live on and improve the land for four years to gain title, and African Americans and Hawaiians were excluded.⁠[8][6]

Corvallis, Oregon City and Salem competed to be the seat of territorial government, and in 1852 Congress named Salem the territorial capital. In 1853 the area north of the Columbia became Washington Territory, which, unlike Oregon, allowed African Americans to migrate freely.⁠[4][9]

In 1851 the Willamette Valley Treaty Commission negotiated treaties and Anson Dart convened the Tansy Point Treaty Council at the mouth of the Columbia, and gold was discovered in the Rogue River Valley. In 1853 the Cow Creek and Rogue River tribes negotiated treaties with the United States, and the U.S. Army established Fort Lane in the Rogue River Valley. In 1855 the only ratified treaty with the Kalapuyan groups of the Willamette Valley took their aboriginal lands, and the Umatilla, Nez Perce, Warm Springs and Walla Walla tribes signed treaties reserving land and food-resource rights.⁠[9]

In 1855 the Rogue River Indian War began and the Territorial Capitol in Salem burned; in 1856 the U.S. Army established Forts Umpqua, Hoskins and Yamhill. The Siletz and Grand Ronde reservations were established by presidential executive order rather than by treaty.⁠[9][8]

A convention of 60 delegates chosen by the people met in Salem on the third Monday in August 1857 and adjourned on September 18, 1857. The draft constitution banned slavery, barred African Americans from residency and limited voting to white male citizens. On November 9, 1857, the people of Oregon Territory approved the constitution by 7,195 votes to 3,195, and in a separate vote the clause excluding African Americans passed by 8,640 to 1,081.⁠[10][9][8]

Congress ratified Oregon’s constitution on February 12, 1859, and President James Buchanan signed the admission act two days later, when the constitution took effect. Oregon was the only state admitted to the Union with exclusion laws in its constitution. That year John Whiteaker was inaugurated as the first elected governor. Salem became the state capital in 1864.⁠[8][10][9]

During the Civil War, Southern sympathizers in the southwestern timber areas threatened secession; in 1862 the First Oregon Cavalry raised six companies. Laws passed that year banned interracial marriage and required Black, Chinese, Hawaiian (Kanaka) and mulatto residents to pay an annual $5 tax or, if unable to pay, perform road maintenance. In 1864 the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin Paiute tribes signed a treaty creating the Klamath Reservation, which removed the Modocs from their traditional land.⁠[4][9]

The Modoc War began in 1872, and the U.S. Army forcibly removed the Modoc people from their homeland; in 1873 Modoc tribesmen were tried and executed at Fort Klamath. In 1877 Chief Joseph’s band was involved in the Nez Perce Indian War, and in 1886 it settled on the Colville Reservation in Washington StateWashington (state)Washington is a state on the Pacific coast of the northwestern United States; its capital is Olympia and its largest city is Seattle. Washington was admitted to the Union on November 11, 1889, as the 42nd state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 7,705,281 residents.Open the full entry; in 1878 the Bannock-Paiute Indian War swept into southeastern Oregon. By 1883, after several conflicts with U.S. settlers, most of Oregon’s Native Americans had been moved to reservations.⁠[9][4]

In 1872 the Oregon & California Railroad completed its line to Roseburg; in 1883 the O.R.&N. Company railroad reached Umatilla, providing transcontinental links; and in 1884 the Oregon Short Line was extended from Granger, WyomingWyomingWyoming is a U.S. state, the ninth largest by area, with its capital at Cheyenne. Wyoming was admitted to the Union on July 10, 1890, as the 44th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 576,851 residents.Open the full entry, to Huntington, Oregon.⁠[9]

In 1887 locals robbed and massacred 34 Chinese gold miners at Deep Creek in Hells Canyon. The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association was founded in 1890.⁠[9]

In 1902 voters approved the initiative and referendum, allowing citizens to propose laws and constitutional amendments; the first Voters’ Pamphlet was published in 1903, a direct primary law passed in 1904, and the constitution was amended to add the recall in 1908. Reformers thereby secured a set of political tools that put more power directly in the hands of the electorate, including the direct election of senators.⁠[11][12]

In 1912 woman suffrage passed by initiative after five failures, eight years before it passed nationally; the movement relied on partnerships between white women and women of color, including the Colored Women’s Equal Suffrage Association. That year an eight-hour day on public works and the first U.S. minimum wage law were also approved. In 1914 voters abolished the death penalty (reinstated in 1920) and approved prohibition, and Marian B. Towne became the first woman elected to the Oregon House.⁠[12][11]

Crater Lake National Park opened in 1902; the Heppner Flood killed 225 people in 1903; Governor Oswald West declared the beaches open to the public in 1913; and in 1914 the legislature required publication of the Oregon Blue Book.⁠[11]

In 1919 Oregon authorized the first state gasoline tax in the United States to fund highways. Ku Klux Klan chapters organized in 1921. The Compulsory School Act of 1922 required children aged 8 to 18 to attend public school and was ruled unconstitutional in 1924, and the Alien Land Law of 1923 barred first-generation Japanese Americans from owning or leasing land.⁠[11]

In 1926 the clause excluding Black Americans was removed from the state constitution, and a 1927 amendment removed voting restrictions on Black and Chinese people. Additional racist language was removed from the constitution in 2001.⁠[11][8]

The Tillamook Burn of 1933 destroyed 350,000 acres of old-growth timber, and further fires in 1939 and 1945 destroyed 310,000 and 125,000 forest acres; the State Department of Forestry began replanting the burn in 1949. In the same period the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Projects Administration started projects in the state.⁠[11]

Congress authorized Bonneville Dam in 1935; in 1937 President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated Timberline Lodge and Bonneville Dam, Congress created the Bonneville Power Administration, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival formed in Ashland; the dam was completed in 1938.⁠[11]

A fire destroyed the State Capitol in 1935, and a new State Capitol was completed in Salem in 1939.⁠[11]

In 1942 Executive Order 9066 authorized the removal of Japanese Americans to internment camps; that year a Japanese submarine shelled Fort Stevens, Japan firebombed the Siskiyou National Forest, and Vanport was founded to house wartime workers. In 1945 six Oregonians died when a Japanese incendiary balloon exploded near Bly.⁠[11]

In 1948 the Columbia River flood destroyed Vanport, and Vollum and Murdock founded Tektronix. In 1949 the Oregon Supreme Court invalidated the Alien Land acts of 1923 and 1945.⁠[11]

In 1954 Congress terminated the western Oregon tribes, and in 1956 it terminated the Klamath Tribe. The Columbus Day Storm of 1962 caused major damage in western Oregon.⁠[2]

The Beach Bill of 1967 guaranteed public access to Oregon’s coastal beaches. The Bottle Bill was approved in 1971, the same year Congress confirmed the Burns Paiute Reservation. Major statewide land-use planning legislation (SB 100) was approved in 1973.⁠[2]

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens disrupted ship traffic on the Columbia River. Ballot Measure 5 in 1990 capped the property taxes that fund schools and government. In 1993 Oregon held the first statewide vote-by-mail election in the United States, and in 1996 its first vote-by-mail election for federal office. The first Death With Dignity Act, permitting doctor-assisted suicide, was approved in 1994.⁠[2]

On February 28, 2020, a Washington County man became Oregon’s first diagnosed COVID-19 case, and on March 14 a Multnomah County man became the first recorded death; vaccines were first given in four hospitals later that year. Also in 2020, Governor Kate Brown invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act as fires threatened structures in nine counties.⁠[2][2]

In the apportionment following the 2020 census, Oregon’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives rose from five to six, with an average of 706,917 people per seat; in 2021 the state gained its sixth congressional district and completed redistricting. Oregon has eight electoral votes in the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections.⁠[13][2][14]

In 2021 Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples’ Day became state holidays, and three days of record heat that June tied the statewide high of 119°F (about 48°C) set in Jefferson County. The World Athletics Championships were held in Eugene in 2022.⁠[2]

In 2024 dam removal on the Klamath River allowed salmon to move freely for the first time in generations, and wildfires burned more than 1.9 million acres, mostly rangeland.⁠[2]

Oregon still operates under its constitution of 1857, updated through amendments and revisions, with source notes following each amended, revised or new section.⁠[10]

The state legislature, the Legislative Assembly, has been bicameral since statehood: the Senate has 30 members serving four-year terms, half elected every two years, and the House of Representatives has 60 members serving two-year terms, all elected from single-member districts in even-numbered years. Under a legislative referral approved by voters in 2010, the Legislature has convened each February since 2011 at the State Capitol in Salem; sessions may not exceed 160 days in odd-numbered years and 35 days in even-numbered years. As of November 2026 Rob Wagner is President of the Senate and Julie Fahey is Speaker of the House.⁠[15][7]

As of November 2026 the governor is Tina KotekTina KotekTina Kotek is an American Democratic politician who has been governor of Oregon since January 2023. She previously served in the Oregon House of Representatives from 2007 to 2022, including as speaker from 2013 to 2022, and was re-elected governor in November 2026.Open the full entry, sworn in on January 9, 2023, as Oregon’s 39th governor, with a term expiring in January 2027; she previously served as Speaker of the Oregon House, the longest-serving Speaker in the state’s history. The Secretary of State is Tobias Read, Oregon’s 30th.⁠[16][17]

The Oregon Supreme Court, created by Article VII of the state constitution as amended, has seven justices elected on a nonpartisan statewide ballot for six-year terms; the justices elect one of their number to serve a six-year term as chief justice. The Supreme Court Building in Salem stands one block east of the State Capitol. The state courts also include the Court of Appeals, the Oregon Tax Court and the circuit courts; in 2023, 1,053 cases were filed in the Supreme Court, 2,768 in the Court of Appeals and 528,080 in the circuit courts.⁠[18][19]

The state has 36 counties and 241 incorporated cities. Nine federally recognized tribes are in Oregon: the Burns Paiute Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw, the Coquille Indian Tribe, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, the Klamath Tribes, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation; tribal governments are separate sovereigns with authority to protect the health, safety and welfare of their members and to govern their lands.⁠[20][21]

Oregon is bounded on the north by Washington State, from which it receives the waters of the Columbia River; on the east by IdahoIdahoIdaho is a state in the northwestern United States, often classed as a Mountain state and also considered part of the Pacific Northwest; its capital and largest city is Boise. It was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,839,106.Open the full entry, with more than half of that border formed by the Snake River and Hells Canyon; on the south by NevadaNevadaNevada is a state in the western United States bordered by Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and California; its capital is Carson City. It was admitted to the Union on October 31, 1864, as the 36th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 3,104,614.Open the full entry and California; and on the west by the Pacific Ocean, which gives the western lands their moderate climate.⁠[22]

By U.S. Census Bureau measurements based on state boundaries as of January 1, 2010, Oregon has a total area of 98,379 square miles (254,799 km²), of which 95,988 square miles (248,608 km²) is land and 2,391 square miles (6,191 km²) is water. Its highest point is Mount Hood, on the Clackamas–Hood River county line, at 11,239 feet (about 3,426 m); its lowest point is sea level on the Pacific Ocean. The geographic center of the state lies in Crook County, 25 miles south-southeast of Prineville.⁠[23][24][25]

Major mountain ranges include the Coast Range (highest point Mt. Bolivar in Coos and Curry counties, 4,319 feet), the Cascade Range, the Klamath Mountains (highest point Mt. Ashland, 7,532 feet), the Blue Mountains (highest point Rock Creek Butte, 9,105 feet) and Steens Mountain in Harney County in the southeast (9,773 feet).⁠[26]

Crater Lake, at 1,943 feet, is the deepest lake in the United States; the largest lakes are Upper Klamath Lake (61,543 surface acres) and Malheur Lake (49,700 surface acres). Among rivers partly in Oregon, the Columbia is 1,249 miles long and the Snake 1,040 miles; the John Day River (284 miles) and the Deschutes River (252 miles) lie entirely within the state.⁠[27][28]

National park units in the state include Crater Lake National Park, the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park (1958, shared with Washington State) and the Nez Perce National Historical Park (1965); national monuments include Oregon Caves (1909), John Day Fossil Beds (1975), Newberry National Volcanic Monument (1990) and Cascade-Siskiyou (2000).⁠[26]

U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates put Oregon’s population at 4,273,586 on July 1, 2025, up 0.9% from the April 1, 2020, estimates base of 4,237,282; population density in 2020 was 44.1 people per square mile. In 2020–2024, 9.8% of residents were foreign-born.⁠[29]

In 2024 the most populous cities were Portland (639,448), Salem (177,567) and Eugene (177,155), and the most populous counties were Multnomah (800,227), Washington (611,389) and Clackamas (426,567).⁠[20]

At the turn of the 20th century two-thirds of Oregonians lived in rural areas; by the early 21st century more than three-fourths lived in urban areas. Newcomers often cited clean air and water, small cities and scenic surroundings as reasons for moving.⁠[4]

Bureau of Economic Analysis data put Oregon’s nominal GDP at $343.24 billion ($343,240.2 million) in 2025 and $329.60 billion ($329,599.7 million) in 2024.⁠[30]

The state describes its economy as historically based on natural resources and now a mix of high-tech manufacturing and services together with agriculture and forestry. Oregon has led the nation in softwood lumber production since 1938, and hydroelectricity supplies more than two-thirds of its power. High-technology firms are concentrated in Portland and the Willamette Valley, NikeNikeNIKE, Inc. is an American athletic brand company made up of the Nike, Jordan and Converse brands, with its world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.Open the full entry is headquartered in Beaverton, and tourism is a major industry.⁠[31][32]

In agriculture, livestock products account for about one-third of commodity value, led by cattle and calves; wheat is the leading crop, followed by potatoes, barley, pears, apples and wine grapes, and Oregon is a leading producer of hazelnuts, peppermint, raspberries, blackberries and loganberries. Portland is the most important port and is open to oceangoing vessels, and Portland International Airport is the state’s largest airport.⁠[32]

Median household income for 2020–2024 was $83,011 (in 2024 dollars), and the state had 122,451 employer establishments in 2023.⁠[29]

Methodist missionaries founded the Oregon Institute in Salem in 1842, and it became Willamette University in 1853; Oregon State Agricultural College (later Oregon State University) opened in 1868, the University of Oregon opened in 1876, and Portland State University was founded in 1946.⁠[5][9][11]

Oregon has seven public universities and 17 community colleges, with higher education coordinated by the Higher Education Coordinating Commission. SB 13, the “Tribal History/Shared History” law enacted in 2017, directed the Oregon Department of Education to create a K–12 Native American curriculum for public schools. In 2020–2024, 36.8% of residents aged 25 and over held a bachelor’s degree or higher.⁠[33][2][29]

The first written record of the name comes from Maj. Robert Rogers’s 1765 petition to explore the American West, which used “Ouragon”; the present spelling first appeared in print in Capt. Jonathan Carver’s 1778 book, which referred to “the River Oregon, or the River of the West.” William Cullen Bryant used “Oregon” in his 1817 poem Thanatopsis. Long-time Oregonians most commonly pronounce the name “OR-ih-gun.” Oregon is known as the “Beaver State.”⁠[26][5][20]

The state motto, “She Flies With Her Own Wings,” was an unofficial territorial-era motto in Latin that Jesse Quinn Thornton added to the territorial seal; the legislature adopted it in 1987, replacing “The Union,” chosen during the state centennial in 1959.⁠[34]

On September 17, 1857, the Constitutional Convention adopted a resolution appointing a committee to report on a seal. The state seal is a shield supported by 33 stars and divided by a ribbon inscribed “The Union,” showing mountains, forests, an elk, a covered wagon and ships, with wheat, a plow and a pickax below the ribbon; its perimeter reads “State of Oregon 1859.”⁠[28]

The state flag, adopted in 1925, is blue with gold lettering and symbols: its face shows the legend “STATE OF OREGON” above a shield surrounded by 33 stars, with the date 1859 below, and its reverse shows a beaver, making it the only double-sided state flag. The first flag, made by Meier & Frank Company, was unfurled on April 11, 1925.⁠[25][34][22]

The state bird, the western meadowlark, was proclaimed in 1927 by Governor Isaac L. Patterson after a schoolchildren’s vote and is the only state symbol not chosen by the legislature; the state flower, the Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium), was designated by legislative resolution in 1899; the state tree is the Douglas-fir (1939); the state animal is the American beaver (1969); the state fish is the Chinook salmon (1961); and the state song is “Oregon, My Oregon” (1927), whose lyrics the legislature modified by resolution in 2021. The potato became the state vegetable in 2023. Most state symbols are listed in Oregon Revised Statutes chapter 186.⁠[34][25][20][35]

State of Oregon: Official website: https://www.oregon.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[36]

Office of Oregon Governor: Official website: https://www.oregon.gov/gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[37]

Oregon Secretary of State: Official website: https://sos.oregon.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[17]