In Oregon history, the settlers began coming to the Willamette Valley by the hundreds in the 1840s. By 1840s there had been a massive epidemic of malaria in the Willamette Valley with some 95% of the people dying. So when the settlers came in, they were relatively unopposed and they settled at the best village places along the Willamette river and tributaries, alongside native villages. French Prairie became a favorite settlement area in the early period. The whole valley filled up with land claims of about a mile square claimed by the settlers. The tribes, much reduced, became a population … Continue reading Beginning the Logging Traditions at Grand Ronde