APRIL 2008: AROUND THE STATE
USS Shark
Discovered cannons and the economy of 1846
OREGON COAST
In 1846, the USS Shark sank near the mouth of the Columbia
River, leaving behind cannons that wouldn’t be found
until they washed ashore at Arch Cape in February.
That was a remarkable year for Oregon and its nascent economy.
In 1846, the Americans and the English signed the treaty that
gave Oregon Country to the U.S. It was the year that the final
section of the Oregon Trail was built around Mount Hood,
opening the Willamette Valley to covered wagons for the first
time.
And it was the year that John McLoughlin, also known as the
“Father of Oregon,” resigned from the English
fur-trading Hudson’s Bay Company and began selling
farming tools to new settlers from his store in Oregon
City.
If not for its cannons, the sinking of the Shark would be a
footnote in history. The year 1846, as farming replaced fur
trading and the seeds of modern Oregon were planted, will
not.
ABRAHAM HYATT
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