Dayton Blockhouse

The board credits Palmer's reservations with keeping the tribes safe from settler attacks; the blockhouse shows what that arrangement looked like on the ground. Lieutenant Philip Sheridan finished it in 1856 with men from the Grand Ronde Reservation as his builders. Unlike the blockhouses at the Cascades on the Columbia, it was never meant as a refuge for settlers under siege. It stood on the reservation line, beside the supply road, to control who crossed in either direction, and volunteers kept it garrisoned through the Civil War after the regulars went east.

What the plaque says

This Pioneer Park and Blockhouse honor General Joel Palmer, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Oregon Territory from 1853 to 1857, appointed by President Franklin Pierce. Frontiersman, author, legislator and friend of the Indian, his journal, "Travels Over the Rocky Mountains", published in 1847, was used as a guide by the immigrants to Oregon. This pioneer leader dedicated this publication to, "The pioneers of the West and their descendents, the bone and muscle of the community, who improve and enrich the country in peace and protect and defend it in war." In his words, this memorial is presented to the town of Dayton by Omar C. Palmer and dedicated by Thomas McCall, Governor of Oregon, this 25th day of July 1971. Oregon History This building was a military blockhouse built at the Grand Ronde Agency by Willamette Valley settlers in 1856. U. S. troops were sent to the station the same year and it was named "Fort Yamhill". Among the famous Army officers stationed at this fort were Sheridan, Wheeler, A. J. Smith, D. A. Russell and Hazen. Oregon History By permission of the U.S. Government Fort Yamhill was moved from Grand Ronde Agency to Dayton in 1911, thru efforts of John G. Lewis a patriotic citizen. The structure was rebuilt on this spot as a memorial to General Joel Palmer a pioneer of Oregon, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, founder of Dayton, and donor of this park.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Champoeg — 9.4 mi
  The river-bend meadow where settlers voted for a government in 1843, and where the Willamette took the entire town but one warehouse eighteen years later.
• Willamette Falls — 24 mi
  A horseshoe of basalt across the Willamette, ringed by a century of mills, that is still one of the last places in the Columbia basin where tribes gather lamprey by hand.
• Silver Falls State Park — 31 mi
  Ten waterfalls in a logged-over canyon whose owner once charged a dime admission and pushed junk cars off the edge for the crowd, until a photographer got it made a park.

More markers nearby

• Abigail Scott Duniway — 2.4 mi
• Joel Perkins — 2.5 mi
• Willamette Post — 7.1 mi
• Champoeg — 8.7 mi