NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE September, 1905 VOLUME XXXIII PUBLISHED MONTHLY NUMBER I N The Portland Exposition By WALDON FAWCETT EW ENGLAND'S interest in the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, now in progress at Portland, Oregon, should be intensified by the fact that the very first suggestion for an American exploration of the coast of the "Oregon country" came from a New Englander. Moreover, the name "Oregon" was first used in print by another New Englander. These men were John Ledyard and Jonathan Carver. Both were natives of Connecticut. Both were regarded as wild dreamers, and it can not be denied that Carver gave his imagination free rein in his writings concerning his alleged explorations. Nevertheless, the fact remains that these two men were the first Americans to anticipate the amazing development of the Pacific Northwest and to call the attention of the eastern section of the United States to the then unknown western regions lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. John Ledyard's brain first conceived the possibilities of development in the wild region west of the Rockies and north of the Spanish It was settlements in California. he who first suggested to Thomas Jefferson the idea of sending an expedition to explore that country. Ledyard also was the pioneer in urging the extension of the fur trade to the Pacific coast. Though many years passed before Jefferson finally sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark up the Missouri, across the mountains and down the Columbia, the young Connecticut Yankee, John Ledyard, first planted in the statesman's mind the germ of that process of peaceful expansion of territory, the flower and fruit of which is so fittingly commemorated in the unique world's fair now in progress on the western coast. Ledyard, who was a born wanderer, was a native of Groton, Connecticut, and a member of the distinguished family to which also belonged that Colonel William Ledyard who made so gallant a defence against the attack upon New London by the British under Benedict Arnold, which constituted almost the sole exploit of the traitor in the war for independence after he had betrayed his trust. Love of adventure |