Conquest Of The Great Northwest 1st ED Oregon Territory Washington State History. First Edition, 1st Printing 1959. Book is in excellent condition with minor wear to cover. Tight binding. No markings. DJ is in very good shape with a few small tears along edge that have been repaired with acid free, archival tissue. DJ is protected in removable mylar cover.
Ships in a box and packaged with care.
CONQUEST OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST
by LAURAN PAINE
One of the most romantic themes in history and literature is man's discove ing, consolidating and developing new and uncharted lands. Such is the dramatic fare in Conquest of the Great Northwest by Lauran Paine, the story of the vast area of the Oregon Territory which in early days comprised a sprawling land mass of 300,000 square miles, the present states of Oregon, Washington and the western sections of Montana, Idaho and Utah.
This territory on the Pacific was pioneered by the Portuguese navigator Gaspar Cortereal in 1500; forty-three years later Bartolome Ferrelo sailed up the coast of California as far as Oregon's Rogue River. Captain Robert Gray of Boston discovered the Columbia River in 1792, and Lewis & Clarke reached and explored it in their overland expedition of 1804-5. However, the first house was not built on the Columbia until 1810. A year later John Jacob Astor erected his fur-trading post, and as late in history as 1842 there were less than two hundred and fifty white men settled in this entire region.
The British claimed sovereignty by virtue of Sir Francis Drake's discovery in 1569, but the United States contended that it had been included in the Louis- iana Purchase from France in 1803. Settlement of the ownership was suspended when both powers signed a "joint occupation" treaty in 1818. The healthy young nation continued to grow and the great northwest became vital in the struggle for continent-wide dimension. "54-40 or fight" was the American slogan for nationalization of the area from the Pacific coast up to the then Russian border of Alaska. Eventually a treaty was concluded with Great Britain in 1846, fixing the boundary line in its present position at 40° north latitude.
The epic story of the Oregon territory's evolution from a land of virgin forests, rivers, mountains, and chasms, inhabited by warring tribes of Indians and perpetually defended by them against the incursions of trappers and fur traders, to a commonwealth of productive farms and orchards, cities and towns of great wealth, which form democracy's western bastion, is full of romance.
Lauran Paine writes with vigor and facility in a narrative of color and drama. Illustrated.