Ewing Young Loop Hike

Overview

Ewing Young was one of Oregon’s earliest pioneers and, posthumously, an instigator in the creation of a provisional government for the Oregon Territory. In his lifetime, Young crossed paths with such luminaries of the American West as Kit Carson, Peter Skene Ogden, David Jackson, Hall Jackson Kelley, John McLoughlin, Jason Lee, Nathaniel Wyeth, and John Sutter. Born in Tennessee, in 1822 Young traveled to the State of Nuevo México in newly independent Mexico and set up a fur-trapping enterprise. In 1830, Young led the first expedition of American trappers from Santa Fe to the Pacific Coast. He trapped in the Sacramento valley for the rest of the year and returned to Santa Fe a wealthy man. Arriving in San Diego in 1834, Young met Hall J. Kelley (See the Kelley Point Loop Hike), a promoter of American settlement of the Oregon Country, who convinced him to go north on an expedition to the Willamette Valley. The outcome was that Ewing Young claimed for himself about 50 square miles on Chehalem Creek, where he built a sawmill and grist mill. He was the first European to settle on the west side of the Willamette. After an unsuccessful attempt to commercially distill whiskey, an effort which met with extreme disapproval from Dr. John McLoughlin of the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, Young traveled by ship to purchase cattle in California. He and several other pioneers returned along the Siskiyou Trail with 630 head, and settlers now had the seed for their own herds having previously had to “rent” cattle from the Hudson’s Bay Company. Young himself became the largest rancher in Oregon and its wealthiest inhabitant. However, he died intestate in 1841 at the age of 42. Avoiding the temptation to arbitrarily divide up his considerable estate, local settlers met at Champoeg (See the Champoeg Loop Hike) to create a court and judge with probate powers. This was the first official office in the Oregon Territory. A provisional government was subsequently formed in 1843. Ewing Young Park straddles Chehalem Creek in Ne

Trail Stats

Photos

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