Tumwater Pioneers-
Why did they choose to settle in Tumwater?

The Simmons-Bush party came West on the Oregon Trail. They left from Missouri, packing everything they would need for their new lives into covered wagons. As most pioneers did, they joined a wagon train of about 80 other families, for it was safer to travel in large numbers. They all wanted to go West to Oregon Country, which was occupied jointly by the British and the United States.

A painting by William Henry Jackson depicting a wagon train traveling west  on the Oregon Trail.
Courtesy of Scott's Bluff National Monument.
 

They had planned to settle farther south, in what is present-day Oregon, but when they arrived they discovered that the citizens of Oregon had passed exclusionary laws saying that Black people were not allowed to live there. The penalty for any Blacks who tried to settle there was periodic whippings until they left. Since one of the members of the party, George Bush, was of Black descent, they decided to go north of the Columbia River where the exclusionary laws weren’t enforced. Most of the settlers there were former Hudson’s Bay Company employees and not Americans.
 

This picture shows water-driven industries along Tumwater Falls.  Michael T. Simmons' saw mill is 
at the bottom of the photo.
Henderson House Museum photograph #600.

The waterfalls of the Deschutes River were a major factor in choosing the location of their new home. The power of the falls could be used for factories and mills. As the pioneers became more settled in their new home, they built flour mills and saw mills. Later they would use the waterfalls to build factories, and even an electric power company along the river!

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