Oregon and California Railroad
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The Oregon and California Railroad was formed from the
Land grants and growth
As part of the U.S. government's desire to foster settlement and economic development in the western states, in July 1866, Congress passed the Oregon and California Railroad Act, which made 3,700,000 acres (1,500,000 ha) of land available for a company that built a railroad from
In 1869, Congress changed how the grants were to be distributed, requiring the railroads to sell land along the line to settlers in 160-acre (65 ha) parcels at $2.50 per acre.[3] The purpose of these restrictions was to encourage settlement and economic development, while compensating the O&C Railroad for its costs of construction. Construction efforts were sporadic, finally reaching completion in 1887 after the financially troubled O&C Railroad was acquired by the Southern Pacific.[4] The land was distributed in a checkerboard pattern, with sections laid out for 20 miles (32 km) on either side of the rail corridor with the government retaining the alternate sections for future growth.[5]
By 1872, the railroad had extended from Portland to Roseburg.[3] Along the way, it created growth in Willamette Valley towns such as Canby, Aurora, and Harrisburg, which emerged as freight and passenger stations, and provided a commercial lifeline to the part of the river valley above Harrisburg where steamships were rarely able to travel.[3] As the railroad made its way into the Umpqua Valley, new townsites such as Drain, Oakland, and Yoncalla were laid out.[3]
From about 1870 to 1888, ferry service connected Downtown Portland to the East Portland terminal. The original ferry service, established by Ben Holladay, was near the present-day location of the Steel Bridge; in 1879, Henry Villard put the O&CRR Ferry #2 into service, near the present-day location of the Burnside Bridge. The O&CRR Ferry #2 was rendered obsolete by the construction of the Morrison and Steel bridges, and ultimately relocated to San Francisco, where it was converted to an oil-fueled ferry the "Vallejo" and, later, a famous houseboat, still in use as of 2013.[6]
Mismanagement and fraud
While construction was still ongoing, multiple charges of land fraud arose. The company was accused of rounding up individuals from saloons in Portland's waterfront district, and paying them to sign applications to purchase 160-acre (0.6 km2) parcels of O&C lands as "settlers," then selling these fraudulent instruments in large blocks to corporate interests through corrupt middlemen.[4]
That elaborate money laundering and land fraud scheme was only the beginning: Southern Pacific Railroad eventually abandoned the pretense of nonexistent settlers, and sold lands in large parcels directly to developers for as much as US$40 per acre. By 1902, with land prices soaring, the company declared it was terminating land sales altogether. When the scandal broke in 1904 through an investigation by The Oregonian it had grown to such a magnitude that the paper reported that more than 75% of the land sales had violated federal law.[4]
Newly elected President Theodore Roosevelt, as part of his plan of progressive reforms, vowed in 1903 to "clean up the O&C land fraud mess, once and for all!" Over the following two years, Roosevelt's investigators collected evidence, and over 1,000 politicians, businessmen, railroad executives, and others were indicted. Many were eventually tried and convicted on charges including fraud, bribery, and other corruption. The federal government sought return of the grant lands from the railroad not actually part of the right of way for the railroad line itself.[4]
Revestiture of lands
In 1915, the
See also
- Chamberlain-Ferris Act
- Land use in Oregon
- Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad
References
- ^ The Oregon and California railway. Faxon D.Atherton, a well known capitalist from San Francisco. London Daily News , January 18. 1871.
- , enacted July 25, 1866
- ^ a b c d e f "O&C Sustained Yield Act: the Law, the Land, the Legacy (1937-1987)" (PDF). Bureau of Land Management. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g "History of the O&C or Saving Oregon's Future (transcript of video)" (PDF). Jackson County, Oregon. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ "History of Oregon BLM" (PDF). OregonWild.org. Retrieved March 6, 2012.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Lawrence Barber (August 22, 1954). "Last stop for Ferry No. 2". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on November 14, 2002.
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Sustaining Forest and Communities: Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act 2000–2007" (PDF). United States Forest Service. October 2008. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- ^ Mortenson, Eric (March 4, 2012). "Rural Oregon counties scramble as timber payments dry up, while critics say it's time they paid for services". The Oregonian. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
- "The History of the Oregon and California Railroad", Oregon Historical Quarterly, Volume 25, retrieved 2023-11-12 The full text of The History of the Oregon and California Railroad at Wikisource