On the drive there we saw lots of adult arcades and then we walked around and saw lots of historic homes. We read a lot of about John McLoughlin, the "father of Oregon."
He looks pretty intense.
Apparently in the late 1840s his general store was famous for being the last stop on the Oregon Trail. Also, I read this story on wikipedia and thought it was funny: When three Japanese fishermen, among them Otokichi, were shipwrecked on the Olympic Peninsula in 1834, McLoughlin, envisioning an opportunity to use them to open trade with Japan, sent the trio to London on the Eagle to try to convince the Crown of his plan. They reached London in 1835, probably the first Japanese to do so since the 16th century Christopher and Cosmas. The British Government finally did not show interest, and the castaways were sent to Macau so that they could be returned to Japan.
And he gave aid to American settlers. Probably more for his sake then theirs, but who knows.
When we were driving away from Oregon City I felt funny looking around at Michaels and Safeway and Starbucks and stuff, considering less than 200 years ago it was supposed to be the final frontier or something. Either way it was a fun day!
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