Editing Oregon Territory (section)

==Formation==
[[File:Wpdms oregon territory 1848.png|thumb|The Oregon Territory, as originally organized, in 1848]]
[[File:Wpdms oregon washington territories 1853.png|thumb|The Oregon Territory (blue) with the Washington Territory (green) in 1853]]
[[File:Wpdms oregon washington territory 1859.png|thumb|The State of Oregon (blue) with the Washington Territory (green) in 1859]]
During the period of joint occupation, most activity in the region outside of the activities of the indigenous people came from the [[fur trade]], which was dominated by the British [[Hudson's Bay Company]].<ref name=settle>Horner, pp. 60–64.</ref> Over time, some trappers began to settle down in the area and began farming, and missionaries started to arrive in the 1830s.<ref name=settle/> Some settlers also began arriving in the late 1830s, and covered wagons crossed the [[Oregon Trail]] beginning in 1841.<ref>Corning, p. 186.</ref> At that time, the only governments that existed in the Oregon Country were the individual local Native Americans communities, as no one nation held dominion over the territory.

A group of settlers in the [[Willamette Valley]] began meeting in 1841 to discuss organizing a government for the area.<ref name=prov>Corning, p. 206.</ref> These earliest documented discussions, mostly concerning forming a government, were held in an early pioneer and Native American encampment and later town known as [[Champoeg, Oregon]].<ref name=prov/> These first [[Champoeg Meetings]] eventually led to further discussions, and in 1843 the creation of the [[Provisional Government of Oregon]].<ref name=prov/> In 1846, the [[Oregon boundary dispute]] between the U.S. and Britain was settled with the signing of the [[Oregon Treaty]].<ref name=joint/>

The United States federal government left their part of the region unorganized for two years until news of the [[Whitman massacre]] reached the [[United States Congress]] and helped to facilitate the organization of the region into a U.S. territory.<ref name="Territory of Oregon">Corning, p. 240.</ref> On August 14, 1848, Congress passed the [[Oregon Bill of 1848|Act to Establish the Territorial Government of Oregon]], which created what was officially the Territory of Oregon.<ref name="Territory of Oregon"/> The Territory of Oregon originally encompassed all of the present-day states of [[Idaho]], [[Oregon]] and [[Washington (state)|Washington]], as well as those parts of present-day [[Montana]] and [[Wyoming]] west of the [[Continental Divide]].<ref name="Territory of Oregon"/> Its southern border was the [[42nd parallel north]] (the boundary of the [[Adams-Onis Treaty]] of 1819), and it extended north to the 49th parallel. [[Oregon City, Oregon]], was designated as the first capital.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://archive.org/details/oregonendoftrail00writrich |title= Oregon: End of the Trail |author= [[Federal Writers' Project|Writers' Program]] of the [[Work Projects Administration]] in the [[Government of Oregon|State of Oregon]] |series= [[American Guide Series]] |year= 1940 |publisher= [[Binfords & Mort]] |location= [[Portland, Oregon]] |page= [https://archive.org/details/oregonendoftrail00writrich/page/191 191]|oclc= 4874569}}</ref>