Oregon

Early History of Waste Disposal

While Oregon's population density was low and people followed a seasonal circuit of resource acquisition, most of their trash decayed rapidly. This generally left only stone, shell, and charcoal materials to mark the places they used. George Vancouver and other visitors brought durable goods with them, including tools, containers, decorations, clothing, and weapons made of durable metal, glass, and ceramics. These new classes of artifacts were gifted or traded to the indigenous population.

When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark visited Oregon in 1805 and 1806, they brought metal items in great diversity. They noted that some of the estimated population of 39,000 Native Americans they met had guns, pistols, powder flasks, lead balls, brass teapots, knives, and brass and copper sheets. Since metal, when dropped or discarded, joins stone and shell in durability, a new class of trash began to accumulate. Lewis and Clark contributed gifts and trade goods, such as beads, bells, thimbles, axes, and looking glasses, which eventually added to the debris accumulating in the landscape.

Oregon Trail and Early Settlers

The westward migration of emigrants from the United States to the Oregon Territory began in 1843 over the Oregon Trail. The arduous journey to find new agricultural land left not only wagon wheel ruts but also household goods strewn along its length. So much was discarded between the Rocky Mountains and the Snake River that people [Page 634]collected, transported the abandoned goods east to Salt Lake City and sold them to the next party going west. Tens of thousands settled in the lands ceded by the indigenous peoples.

By the mid-19th century, overland settlers had left wagon parts, household goods, and graves to mark their passage across the dry Great Basin to the east side of the Cascade Mountains. Settlers and traders who came by ship or raft left wrecks on the shores and along the rivers. By 1859, when Oregon became a U.S. state, the settlers had founded villages and towns. Native Americans were restricted to the lands they had reserved for their use in a series of treaties with the United States.

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