The following is a brief history of our beloved county...
1579
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"On
December 13th, 1577 Francis Drake, under license from Queen Elizabeth
I, took his now-famous ship, the Pelican out of Plymouth, England and
sailed through the Straits of Magellan and become the first Englishman
out sail into the Pacific Ocean, at which time, he renamed his ship the
Golden Hinde. He then sailed up the coast of South America, where, with
license from the Queen, he took on supplies and goods by trading,
exchange or confiscation from Spanish ships. He then sailed to the
Pacific Northwest at 44deg and then to 48deg north latitude in the
summer of 1579, until he entered into a fair and fit harbor for his
five-week stay in Nehalem Bay to repair his leaking ship." (Gitzen, 2)
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1788
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"The
story of Tillamook County begins on August 14, 1788 when Captain
Robert Gray, an American sailing the American sloop "Lady Washington",
anchored in Tillamook Bay thinking he had found the "great river of the
West". This was the first landing on the Oregon coast and it was not
until four years later that Gray found the mouth of the Columbia.
Captain Gray's stay was short; one of his crew had some difficulty with
the natives and they were forced to leave." (Tillamook County Online)
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1805-1806
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"The
next visitor to our shores was Clark of the Lewis and Clark
expedition. Clark came to purchase whale blubber from the Indians at
Nehalem to replenish the meat supply at his winter quarters in Clatsop
County." (Tillamook County Online)
"When
Lewis and Clark visited our territories, in the winter of 1805-06, the
Clatsop and Nehalem people were inseparable and often
indistinguishable. The journals of Lewis and Clark make frequent
reference to the presence of Nehalem-Tillamooks in Clatsop villages and
Clatsops in Nehalem-Tillamook villages. On the southern Clatsop
Plains, Lewis and Clark’s journals describe a Clatsop-Nehalem community
that is thoroughly and seamlessly integrated." (Clatsop-Nehalem
Confederated Tribes)
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1849
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" The Indian population of the county was estimated at 2,200 in 1806 and by 1849 had dwindled to 200." (Tillamook County Online)
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1850
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"To encourage colonization and development of the West, the federal
government was giving away, or selling for a pittance, millions of acres
of Western land. The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 allowed a married
couple to claim as a homestead 640 acres of Oregon land--a whole
section, amounting to a square mile--in exchange for living on the land
and cultivating it for four years. The Donation Land Act brought in
about 30,000 settlers into Tillamook County by 1855 and conveyed about
two and a hale million acres into private hands. The Homestead Act of
1862 allowed 320-acree claims for a $16 filing fee and five years of
residence and cultivation... These laws and others were based on the
assumption that the WEst's new settlers would all be farmers." (Wells,
25). But the land was not all suited for farming.
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1851
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Joe
C. Champion: first white settler to Tillamook, lived in hollowed out
Cedar until finished building house. (Tillamook Lest We Forget)
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1853
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"Tillamook County was created December 15, 1853, by the Territorial Legislature." (Tillamook Lest We Forget)
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1861
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"In
1861 Thomas Stillwell, aged 70, arrived with his family from Yamhill
and purchased land. The following year he laid out the town of
Tillamook and opened the first store." (Tillamook Online)
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1864
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"The
Northern Pacific Railroad Company was chartered in 1864; President
Lincoln signed the bill that gave the new company a grant of sixty
million acres of public land-the largest grant ever offered to an
American railroad, a swath six times the size of New England. In
exchange, the railroad was to build a rail link from the Great lakes to
Pacific tidewater." (Wells, 26)
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1866
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In
1866, the Oregon and California Railroad Company received a grant of
3.7 million acres to build a railroad between Oregon and California."
(Wells, 27)
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1872
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"With the Mining Act of 1872, Congress finally provided for the sale of mineral lands in the West." (Wells, 26)
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1873
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"The first public building was the jail built in 1873; the courthouse and city hall in the early 1890's" (Tillamook online)
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1878
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"The
Timber and Stone Act of 1878 allowed settlers to claim up to 160 acres
for $2.50 an acre, but they could use the timber and stone on the land
only for their won fuel or building needs--they were not supposed to
sell it or the land... This law, like the Homestead Act, turned out to
be a guilt-edged invitation to fraud... Timber companies hired 'dummy
entrymen' to file claims--the practice was so widespread that some
companies recruited warm bodies with ads in the Seattle newspapers. "
(Wells, 26)
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1883
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"New
comers can do worse in this country than go to the Tillamook valley, "
said the Yamhill Reporter in 1883 (Tillamook Pioneer Association 1972,
185), with the surprising understatement, "The future development of the
country is as certain to make the owners of 160 acres of land
unincumbered a comparatively rich man. The government gives the land to
whoever will take it."
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1887
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"Joseph Smith's sawmill and planing mill employed forty men and produced 50,000 board fee in a ten-hour day."
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1894
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"The
rich grasslands and mild climate were ideal for dairy herds. The
pioneers produced the finest butter in the country and had a ready
market in Portland. However, with transportation so uncertain, it
became necessary to find a dairy product which could be stored long
periods of time without losing its quality. In 1894, Peter McIntosh
arrived from Canada, with knowledge of the art of cheesemaking. The
dairymen banded together and built small cheese factories around the
county." (Tillamook Online)
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1899
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"By
the end of the nineteenth century, timber had emerged as the dominant
enterprise in the coastal Northwest. The industry was at first mainly
represented by the cargo mills, such as Joseph Smith's, that had sprung
up in harbors large and small along the pacific Coast. They shipped
lumber in sailing schooners, serving Pacific Rim markets like China,
Japan, Australia, Chile, and southern California. Financed mostly by San
Francisco money, these mills pulled the first wave of investment
capital into the Pacific Northwest and encouraged the permanent
settlement of areas that farmers and miners had bypassed." (Wells, 31)
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1900
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"By
1900, virtually all of the good farmland and most of the prime timber
land in Oregon was in private hands. Large Eastern-based companies owned
most of Tillamook County's timberland..." (Wells, 27)
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1904
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"By
the dawn of the twentieth century, Tillamook was enjoying some of the
blessings of prosperity and civilization. In 1904 the town had graveled
streets, electricity, telephone service, and a population of 1,500.
...Along with lumbering, dairying was becoming an economic mainstay. The
first cheese plant had been started in 1894; it processed the milk from
2,400 cows within a radius of four miles of the town of Tillamook."
(Wells, 35)
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1911
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"The
pacific railway and Navigation Co. started a rail line from the east
side of the Coast range in 1905. The rail line was finally finished in
1911. The train was nicknamed "Punk, Rotten, and Nasty" because, it s
said, the combined effects of the steep grades, hairpin curves,
breathtaking trestles, and smoke from the firebox made passengers
queasy. With the coming of the railway, the town and the county were
finally linked by land to the outside world, and the new century
beckoned." (Wells, 36)
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1925
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"By 1925 Tillamook County had entered the modern commercial age, a county of the present and future." (Tillamook Online)
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