Page 170 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

170
Oregon
Salem, the capital city of Oregon
Founded Incorporated Elevation Population
Metro
1842
1857
154 ft (46.7 m) 154,637
400,408 (US: 133rd)
Salem 1876.
Salem, the third largest city in Oregon, is in the center of the Willamette Valley. The Willamette River runs through the city. The Coast Range and the Cascades including Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson, Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams, can be seen from the city.
For thousands of years Native Americans had lived in the Willamette Valley where Salem was to be built.
The Kalapuya peoples used this land seasonally. In winter they would build camps here. They would fish and cultivate small market gardens for their vegetable needs. They used ‘slash and burn’ methods to fertilize the land, moving to new plots every few years.
The first people of European descent arrived in the area about 1812; they were mountain men, whose job was to gather pelts for the fur trading companies in Astoria, Oregon.
When the Europeans arrived, they discovered the Kalapuyan people called the area Chemeketa, which means “meeting
or resting place”. The first permanent American settlement in the area was a Methodist mission. It was built in 1840. The missionaries called it after the Native American name, Chemeketa. The the trustees decided to lay out a town site on the land.
It is not clear how the name Salem