In the 1830s and 1840s many Americans looking for good farmland set their sights on the Oregon Country. This region – referred to today as the Pacific Northwest – included roughly the future states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Every year several hundred souls would make the 2,000-mile trip up the Oregon Trail hoping to have better lives there than the ones they left behind. These folks were said to be stricken with Oregon Fever.

They were lured to the Oregon Country because it had a mild climate enhanced by gentle breezes blowing off the Pacific Ocean. The richness of the soil and the adeq...