Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/349



be the purpose of this article to mention in some detail the various steps that have been taken to describe officially and to mark on the ground the boundaries of the present state of Oregon. No attempt will be made to consider the situation that existed before the formation of Oregon Territory.

Oregon Territory was organized August 14, 1848, with boundaries described as follows:

"all that part of the Territory of the United States which lies west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains, north of the forty-second degree of north latitude, known as the Territory of Oregon, shall be organized into and constitute a temporary government by the name of the Territory of Oregon."

In 1853 the territory was reduced by the formation of Washington Territory, and on February 14, 1859, it was admitted as a state with its present limits. The boundaries were described in the state constitution of 1857 as follows:

"Beginning one marine league at sea, due west from the point where the forty-second parallel of north latitude intersects the same; thence northerly, at the same distance from the line of the coast lying west and opposite the State, including all islands within the jurisdiction of the United States, to a point due west and opposite the middle of the north ship channel of the Columbia River; thence easterly to and up the middle channel of said river, and, where it is divided by islands, up the middle of the widest channel thereof, and in like manner up the middle of the main channel of Snake River to the mouth of Owyhee River; thence due south to the parallel of latitude forty-two degrees north; thence west along said parallel to the place of beginning, including jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases upon the Columbia River and Snake River concurrently with States and Territories of which those rivers form a boundary in common with this state. But the Congress of the United States, in providing for the admission of this State into the Union, may make the said northern boundary conform to the act creating the Territory of Washington."

The congress did not adopt the boundary set forth in the Oregon constitution of 1857. A change was made which resulted in cutting off from the new state that part of Washington now embraced in Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, or, in other words, all that part of Washington south of Snake River. This was done by changing that part of