and the place had no name; there was nothing to show that the place had ever been visited except a small log hut near the river, and a broken mast of a ship leaning against the high bank. There were chips hewn from timber, showing that probably a new mast had been made there. We were at this place a day or two and were visited by two men from the prairie country up the river, then known as the ‘plains.’”
“Where we should locate was the all-absorbing topic of conversation at this camp in the woods. It seemed to be difficult to decide where to settle down in such a vast unappropriated wilderness. We were then actually encamped on the site of the city of Portland, but there was no prophet with us to tell of the beautiful city that was to take the place of that gloomy forest.”
Every townsite founder on the lower Willamette believed
he had indisputable reasons why his chosen location would
become the great city of Oregon. First, the lower river was
the natural gateway to the expansive upper country. Along
the Willamette must pass much of the valley trade and from
its mouth must go the deep-sea commerce of the entire
region. Where then would the future great city stand?
Surely at the head of navigation. And where was the feasible
head of navigation? At the foot of Willamette Falls? Just
below the rock-strewn mouth of the Clackamas River? Was
Swan Island an obstacle in the channel? Was there any
reason why ships should sail farther inland than the head of
Sauvie Island where the Willamette divided its channel?
Each town founder of the ’forties and early ’fifties, claimed
the advantages of his location and invited public settlement.
“The situation of Portland,” reported the British officers Henry J. Warre, and M. Vavasour, visiting the country in 1845, “is superior to that of Linnton, and the back country easier of access.” That the site faced deep water added to its promise as a port. Conscious of these factors, A. L. Lovejoy and Francis W. Pettygrove surveyed the Portland townsite in 1844–45. The property had been obtained by them from William Overton, a destitute Tennessean, who late in 1843 landed there from an Indian canoe. Lacking the filing fee required by enactment of the provisional govern-
