Champoeg, Oregon
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Champoeg, pronounced sham-POO-ee (IPA ), is a former town in the U.S. state of Oregon. Now a ghost town, it was the primary settlement in the Willamette Valley in the early 1840s and was site of the first provisional government of the Oregon Country. The town site is on the south bank of the Willamette River in northern Marion County, approximately 5 mi (8 km) southeast of Newberg. The town is now part of Champoeg State Heritage Area, state park of Oregon.
History
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Champoeg is best known as the site of a series of meetings held in the town 1840s. On February 7, 1841 settlers in the Willamette Valley settlers convened there for the first time. They selected Oregon missionary Jason Lee as their chairman and considered measures to deal with problem of wolves menacing the settlements of the valley. It was to be the first in a series of "Wolf meetings" at the town site among area settlers that would establish the basis of civil codes.
By the middle 1840s, the question of the possession of the disputed Oregon Country between the United States and United Kingdom began to loom large. On May 2, 1843, a meeting was held at the town with the purpose of determining whether a provisional government should be established. The measure passed by a vote of 52 to 50. A group of nine representatives was named to create a provisional government with Champoeg as its capital. A petition to the United States Congress was drafted and sent to Washington, DC with William Gilpin, who had helped draft the petition and who had come to the Willamette Valley with the expedition of John C. Fremont. On his journey eastward to deliver the petition, Gilpin evangelized for the settlement of the Pacific Northwest, helping to spread "Oregon fever". He presented the petition to Congress in 1845. The question of possession of the Oregon Country was settled the following year in the 1846 Oregon Treaty. When the Oregon Territory was organized in 1848, however, Champoeg was not chosen as the capital.
The town continued to exist after Oregon statehood. On December 2, 1861, the nearby Willamette River rose 55 feet (17 m) above its summer flood stage, sending a flood seven feet (2 m) across the town. The flood destroyed everything in the town except two saloons. Champoeg was never rebuilt after the disaster. The town site is now preserved as Champoeg State Heritage Area. A 1901 monument records the names of the 52 settlers who voted to establish the provisional government at the 1843 meeting.
External links
- Champoeg State Heritage Area (http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_113.php)
- Ghost Towns: Champoeg, Oregon (http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/or/champoeg.html)