Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/452

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386
Lewis A. McArthur

The site of the Champoeg meeting place and monument is on the south bank of the Willamette River about midway between Newberg and Butteville. The settlement of Champoeg is about a half mile to the south, on Mission Creek.

Events leading up to the Champoeg meeting of May 2, 1843, are clearly set forth in Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume II, page 3, where begins Harvey W. Scott's address on the occasion of the unveiling of the Champoeg Monument on May 2, 1901. On February 15, 1841, Ewing Young died at a point not far from the present site of Newberg, and as he left considerable property and no heirs, the necessity of a civil government was manifest. Some little headway toward securing a government was made, but it was not until two years later that the movement acquired enough momentum to amount to anything. Two preliminary meetings were held in the spring of 1843, at the second of which a committee was appointed, and this committee was to report at a meeting to be held at Champoeg May 2, 1843. At the appointed time about an equal number of American and British citizens met, and by a narrow margin, the Americans gained control of the situation and started the organization that developed into the provisional government of Oregon, the first government by Americans on the Pacific Coast.

The site of the Champoeg meeting is now owned by the state of Oregon, and is a public park. The state erected a memorial building which was dedicated May 2, 1918. For further details of Champoeg Memorial Building see Scott's History, volume II, page 221.

Chapman, Columbia County. Chapman took its name from a man who operated a logging enterprise in the eastern part of Columbia County.

Chaski Bay, Crater Lake National Park, Klamath County. This bay is on the south side of Crater Lake,