Oregon City

The bronze remembers Peter Burnett as the first civil governor and stops there. In his annual message of January 1851 he told the legislature to expect a war of extermination until the Indian race was extinct, and he resigned days later. In Oregon he had written the exclusion law that threatened Black settlers who stayed with the lash. The Oregonians he led here in 1848 dug for gold, and the camp outlived their rush as a supply town, renamed Hengy and then Bloomingdale by the post office. Its schoolhouse of 1872 and a covered bridge remain.

What the plaque says

Oregon City Entering California over the Applegate and Lassen trails, a party of Oregonians, captained by Peter H. Burnett, arrived here in autumn of 1848 to establish the town of Oregon City. Burnett, little more than a year later, became the first civil governor of California. Oregon City, for a time, continued to prosper as a gold mining and supply center and then declined into virtual oblivion. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 807 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the California Heritage Council, Butte County Historical Society, Schoolmates Club, and Mr. James Lenhoff, May 8, 1966.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Old Suspension Bridge — 5.5 mi
• Bidwell's Bar — 5.5 mi
• Discovery Site of the Last Yahi Indian — 5.6 mi
• Chinese Temple — 5.7 mi