Hello to all seeking Oregon settlers' descendants/buffs seeking information.
My name is Gregory Kurahashi. I am the owner of these maps and the operator of this website. I am a Civil Engineer Licensed in the State of Oregon. Twenty-five years ago a neighbor, Phil H., gave me some maps that he found in the basement of a home on Montgomery Street, in Portland, Oregon. This house was an old house built around 1880 to 1890 in the West Hills of Portland.
The maps were on the dirt basement floor of the building for a long time. There was a blue line print with them, so we know that they were put there later, possibly in the 1920 to 1950 time-frame, when this style of blue line prints was being used. These maps were extremely interesting, as they were on silk and on parchment.
The maps included thirteen sections. Of these sections three were in good condition These three were surveyed by two brothers who surveyed the townships and sections of Oregon in the period 1850 to 1855. The survey contracts for Township 1 North Range 1 East and Townships 1 to 5 South Range 1 East were given to Butler Ives in 1951 (Lake Oswego and West Linn are included in this area). Survey Contract 12, Townships 1 to 5 South and Ranges 1 and 2 West was given to William Ives in 1852 (Beaverton). These maps were used by other surveyors to lay out Donation Land Claims of Oregon settlers, possibly including your ancestors. The mapping for the donation land claims was done by other surveyors and added to the maps. The actual drafting was done in Oregon City, where the Surveyor General James B. Preston set up the surveyor's office.
I have been to the Oregon Historical Society to check what kinds of maps may be available in its archives, and they have photo copies of what they have. The quality of the maps we have available here greatly surpasses that of the maps in the Oregon Historical Society archives.
I am trying to compare these maps with mapping that the End of the Oregon Trail Center in Oregon City has available in their archives.
Also, we will soon be adding two long maps on silk to this website. The originals of these maps were about ten feet long, and depict lands and rivers near the Columbia River along the Oregon Trail. These maps show areas that became Hermiston, the Dalles and Hood River. The Umatilla River is one of the rivers on the map that you can use for reference. Stay tuned—we'll be adding these maps soon!
It should be noted that some of the settlers who settled in the areas covered by our maps may have come north from the Southern route to look for better land than could be found in what is now Utah, Idaho and California.
The information for the following section comes from "Chaining Oregon", written by Kay Atwood in 2008.
The Donation Land Claim Act: September 27, 1850
This act was passed by Congress to give land to settlers. Settlers could get 320 acres if they were white males over 18 and had resided in the territory on or before December 1 1850 and were citizens or were applying for citizenship. They also needed to show that the were cultivating the land. A settler's wife could get 320 acres under her own name. Settlers who settled the area between December 1, 1850 and December 1, 1853 could get 160 acres and the same amount for their wives. The act also allowed wives widowed on the trip to Oregon to claim land. There were many quick marriages to meet this requirement. This might be why you will find in your heritage search a big difference between the ages of a particular husband and wife.
The maps we are selling are copies of these historical Donation Land Maps on canvas, paper, and silk. The archival-quality printing process used on the silk and canvas reproductions will allow these maps to last and hold their color for hundreds of years. The paper reproductions we produce, while long-lived, are not archival quality like our canvas and silk reproductions.
We can also graphically clean the water marks and other blemishes on these maps, or, if you prefer, we can leave them as is to show them as the maps were found.
Should you have any questions about our maps, this website, or any of our policies and procedures, feel free to contact us by clicking this button, which will open your email program with our email address in the 'To' field:
