 Salem,
is Oregon's second largest city, with a population
of approximately 150,000. Salem is also the county
seat of Marion County. A small portion of Salem within
its incorporated limits of 44 square miles lies across
the Willamette River (Historical Note) in Polk County.
This is referred to as "West Salem". Salem
is located in the center of the Willamette Valley...one
of the most fertile and agriculturally productive
regions of the United States...47 miles south of Portland
and 64 miles north of Eugene, Salem serves as the
hub of both state government and the surrounding farming
communities.
In
approximately 1625 a Dutch map by mapmaker Hondius,
and held out to be his "Map of the World",
shows the City of Quivira upon a river far north of
Cape Blanco on the Oregon coast. It also marks the
cities of Conic and Tiguex near that point of land.
Some of
these names appeared on other maps, such as Sir Humphrey
Gilbert's map published in London in 1576, but on
most of them Quivira is shown in Northern California,
while the name Anian is applied to the region which
was supposed to lie further north.
 Numerous
fanciful stories of sailors and travelers in the 16th
and 17th centuries made this section of America mysterious.
The Oregon country began to be marked on maps as New
Albion or as Terra Incognita. Some of these stories
had a semblance of truth.
Mariners
reported in great detail the fabled straits of Anian,
a waterway that led through the continent. The straits
were reputed to be the veritable Northwest Passage
so much sought as a short route to the Orient.
After two
or three centuries of fable and myth, the name Oregon,
itself doubtful in its meaning, came into use with
an origin as baffling to modern research as the earlier
myths and fictions. It was first used to designate
a great river that supposed to flow into the Pacific
Ocean and sometimes referred to as the River of the
West.
As early
as 1603, the Spanish navigator, Marin d' Aguilar,
is reported to have noted the effluence of such a
river near the latitude at which the Columbia River
in now known to empty into the sea. Earlier geographers
had indicated a river in that general locality upon
maps of even earlier date.
So far
as known, the name Oregon did not appear in any book
or upon any map until after Major Robert Rogers made
use of it in a written document of 1765 bearing his
name and presented to King George the Third. That
document, or a Proposal as he called it, outlined
the use of 200 men and officers to make an overland
search for the Northwest passage.
 The
route to be followed was detailed by Major Rogers
and the expedition was led by Captain James Tute.
The expedition spent a winter in St. Anthony Falls,
now in Minnesota near Saint Paul. They went no further
because they expected to portage to the River Oregon
and instead learned they must ascend the Missouri,
which later became the route taken by Lewis and Clark.
To keep
this activity in context, on February 28, 1803, President
Thomas Jefferson dispatched Meriwether Lewis and William
Clark's Corps of Discovery. The expedition took four
years and traveled many thousands of miles in what
became one of America's greatest stories of adventure
and discovery.
In Rogers'
Proposal, he says, "...from the Great Lakes towards
the Head of the Mississippi, and from thence to the
River called by the Indians Ouragon, which flows...".
This may or may not be a derivation, but no Indian
word has been found that supports this. Attempts to
find an Indian origin of the name have not been successful.
Another
possibility is the derivation comes from Wau-re-gon,
Indian for "beautiful water". This too has
not been substantiated.
 The
first use of the word "Oregon" in print
occurred in Carver's Travels, London 1778: "...The
River Bourbon, which empties itself into Hudson's
Bay; the Waters of Saint Lawrence; the Mississippi,
and the River Oregon, or the River of the West, that
falls into the Pacific Ocean at the Straits of Annian."
Carver never saw the river or the west coast.
By now,
the Oregon Territory was referred by several names:
Oregon, Oregan or Origan. The word Willamette is a
true Indian name, but it was applied to the river
by white settlers because a tribe by that name lived
on its banks. There was general belief in the River
Oregon though no white person had seen it. President
Thomas Jefferson knew of it and referred to it by
name in 1793.
The young
poet William Cullen Bryant used the word "Oregon"
in 1811, although his poem did not get into print
until 1817. The word "Oregon" was embedded
in a much-quoted verse: "Where rolls the Oregon
and hears no sound, Save his own dashings -- yet the
dead are there!".
When the
poem was published, the river had already been christened
the Columbia upon its discovery in 1792. It was usually
designated as the Columbia River on maps after that
date.
On December
19, 1820, there was brought to Congress a motion by
Representative John Floyd of Virginia which allowed
for the appointment of a committee of inquiry into
the situation of the settlements upon the Pacific
Ocean, and "...the expediency of occupying the
Columbia River..."
This committee
discussed the law of nations, the charters under which
territorial titles were obtained from the British
crown, the large profits derived from the fur trade
and what fisheries, and the flattering reports of
Lewis and Clark concerning the resources of the interior.
 Floyd
noted in his report, that the land was "found
to be rich and well adapted to the culture of all
the useful vegetables found in any part of the United
States, such as turnips, potatoes, onions, rye, wheat,
melons of various kinds, cucumbers and every species
of pease."
He proposed
an establishment at the mouth of the Columbia River
which would be allowed to take their women and children
with them. The bill authorized the President to occupy
"that portion of the territory of the United
States on the headwaters of the Columbia River..."
The bill
sat idle for more than a year and it died. Congressman
Floyd authored another bill on January 18, 1822, which
passed the second reading and is noteworthy because
it proposed to designate the region as "Oregon,"
this being the first official use of the name in connection
with the territory as distinguished from the river.
State
government is this city's largest employer, with approximately
13,000 full-time employees, 38 of the largest state
agencies and more than 20 smaller ones located in
the immediate area. Salem is also a major agricultural
food processing center.
Salem is one of Oregon's oldest communities. The Indian
name for the locality was Chemeketa, said to mean
"meeting or resting place." It may also
have been the name of one of the bands of Calapooya
Indians. In 1840 - 1841, the Jason Lee Mission was
moved from the Willamette River upstream (south) to
a site on Mill Creek.
 The
missionaries in 1842 established the Oregon Institute.
When the mission was dissolved in 1844, it was decided
to lay out a townsite on the Institute lands. Either
David Leslie, one of the trustees who came to Oregon
from Salem, Mass., or W. H. Willson, who filed plats
in 1850-51 for what is now the main part of the city,
selected the name "Salem." Salem is the
anglicized form of the hebrew word Shalom, meaning
peace. *
The location
of the Oregon capital caused a spirited contest that
lasted nearly 15 years. By an act of 1851, the provisional
government moved the capital to Salem from Oregon
City; in 1855 it was moved to Corvallis, only to move
back to Salem the same year. Destruction of the Capitol
at Salem on December 31, 1855, was considered an incendiary
part of this controversy.
The
close proximity of government provides Salem citizens
with a distinct opportunity to be involved in the
decision-making processes of the state. The citizens
of Salem also have a long history of commitment to
community improvement and volunteerism...a commitment
recognized nationally through presentation of two
All-America City Awards, one for 1960 - 1961 and more
recently for 1982 - 1983.
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