Sunday, November 11, 2007

History lesson.




Early Sauvie Island ...
Sauvie Island has had various names throughout its history, including "Multnomah Island", "Sauve Island", "Sauvies Island", "Sauvie Island", "Souvies Island", "Wapato Island", "Wappato Island", "Wapatoo Island", "Wappatoo Island", "Wappatto Island", and "Wyeth Island". In 1891 the U.S. Board of Geographic Names made "Sauvie Island" the official name.
In 1792,
Lieutenant William Broughton of the British Vancouver expedition visited the island and named the northern end (downstream tip) of the island "Warrior Point" and, according to some historians, he named an upstream point "Belle Vue Point." Other historians say Kelley Point, across from today's Belle Vue Point, is Broughton's Belle Vue Point.
In 1805 and 1806, the Lewis and Clark expedition called the island "Wappato Island" after the Indian word for arrowhead root which grew in the marshes of the island.
Between 1834 and 1835, Nathaniel Wyeth, an American entrepreneur, built Fort Williams in an attempt to establish a fur-trading enterprise in Hudson's Bay Company territory. The Fort was constructed on the island near the confluence of the
Willamette River with the Columbia, about five miles from Fort Vancouver, and named for one of Wyeth's fur trade partners. Wyeth was unable to get a foothold into the Hudson's Bay Company trade and he abandoned the project in 1836. Some early maps used the name "Wyeth Island". By 1838, the Hudson's Bay Company was utilizing the island to graze cattle and horse, and by 1841 four dairy farms had been established on the island to supply milk, butter, and cheese. Settler's began arriving on the island by the 1840s.
The lettering "Sauvies Island" appeared on Preston's 1856 Map of Oregon, and in Bancroft's History of the Northwest Coast (Vol.2) it states the island was named after Jean Baptiste Sauve. However, according to McArthur in Oregon Geographic Names (2003):
"... In the files of the Oregon Historical Society is a letter from George B. Roberts to Frances Fuller Victor, dated November 7, 1879, in which he says that Sauve Island bears the name of a Canadian, Laurent Sauve, also called LaPlante. ..." George B. Roberts arrived as a member of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1831, and Frances Fuller Victor was one of the authors of the Bancroft publication. To read more about this check out the McArthur publication.
A post office near the mouth of the
Willamette River named "Mouth of Willamette" was established in June 1851. In March 1852 the name was changed to "Souvies Island". This post office was discontinued in August 1860. A new post office named "Sauvies Island" was established in May 1866 about two miles south of Reeder Point.

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