What Happened in Oregon City in 1850-52? Researching My Work-in-Progress

My current work-in-progress takes place mostly in the Oregon City area, beginning in October 1850. I think the novel’s timeline will take me into 1852, but I don’t know for sure yet.

When I did the research for Now I’m Found, which was set in Oregon and California between 1848 and 1850, I was careful not to expand beyond the timeline of that novel—I didn’t want to waste my time on research I couldn’t use for that book. Therefore, I know very little at the moment about what happened in Oregon after 1850. I’m starting almost from scratch with my research now.

I do know a lot of the sources I can use—primary sources such as newspapers of the times and diaries of emigrants written in those years, and secondary sources such as Hubert Howe Bancroft’s History of Oregon. But I am just starting to think about how the historical events will fit in with my characters’ personal histories. I know what these characters will do, but I need to enrich the context for their actions by bringing in historical facts. They react not only to each other, but to the society around them.

What do I think will influence my characters?

• The changing land laws. Congress passed the Donation Land Act in September 1850, and it was publicized in Oregon beginning in December 1850. The Oregon Spectator issues that month printed the text of the new law and many commentaries by local residents, both for and against the changes from the prior land laws.
• The discovery of gold in the Rogue River area. We all know about the discovery of gold in California in 1848 that led to the famous gold rush of 1849. Additional gold finds were made throughout the West over the next few decades. In 1850 prospecting began in the Rogue River valley (now in southern Oregon), and in 1851 gold was discovered. This led to many miners rushing north from California, as well as northern Oregonians deciding to try their luck in the goldfields.
• The Indian wars. Along with the discovery of gold and growing numbers of emigrants to Oregon, conflicts between whites and Native Americans increased. The so-called “Indian Wars of Oregon” didn’t really erupt until later in the 1850s, but skirmishes began after the discovery of gold and the passage of the Donation Land Act. The underlying issue was land rights—whites wanted lands long held by Native Americans, both for farming and for rights to the gold and other minerals underground. Whites also brought diseases to which the tribes had no resistance.
• Railroads and other transportation developments. Both the overland and the sea routes to the West Coast were fraught with dangers. Through the 1850s and ’60s, steamships, stagecoaches, and railroads vied to move people and their possessions more easily from place to place within the West and between the West and the settled United States.

Which of my characters will be influenced by which of these issues? I don’t know yet. But as I find out, I’ll post more details about the historical developments I’m researching.

I suspect that all of these issues will play some role in my next novel. Even though my protagonist in this book is a farmer, land rights aren’t the only topic of concern to him. His prosperity is as dependent on improving transportation to get his produce to markets and the absence of Indian skirmishes as it is on the amount of land he can claim for cultivation and timber rights.

What historical issues concerning the development of the West do you most like to read about?