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| Oregon Facts for School Reports - State Seal |
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| State seal |
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Facts About the Oregon State Seal
The state seal consists of an escutcheon, or shield, supported by 33 stars and divided by an ordinary, or ribbon, with the inscription "The Union."
Above the ordinary are the mountains and forests of Oregon, an elk with branching antlers, a covered wagon and ox team, the Pacific Ocean with setting sun, a departing British man-of-war signifying the departure of British influence in the region and an arriving American merchant ship signifying the rise of American power. Below the ordinary is a quartering with a sheaf of wheat, plow and pickax, which represent Oregon's mining and agricultural resources. The crest is the American Eagle. Around the perimeter of the seal is the legend "State of Oregon, 1859."
A resolution adopted by the Constitutional Convention in session on September 17, 1857, authorized the president to appoint a committee of three, Benjamin F. Burch, L. F. Grover and James K. Kelly to report on a proper device for the seal of the state of Oregon. Copy was submitted to the committee by Harvey Gordon, to which the committee recommended certain additions that are all incorporated in the state seal.
The Name "Oregon"
The first written record of the name "Oregon" comes to us from a 1765 proposal for a journey written by Major Robert Rogers, and English army officer. It reads, "The rout...is from the Great Lakes towards the Head of the Mississippi, and from thence to the River called by the Indians Ouragon..." His proposal rejected, Rogers reapplied in 1772, using the spelling "Ourigan." The first printed use of the current spelling appeared in Captain Jonathan Carver's 1778 book, "Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America 1766, 1767 and 1768." He listed the four great rivers of the continent, including "the River Oregon, or the River of the West, that falls into the pacific Ocean at the Straits of Annian."
Excerpt from: The Oregon Blue Book, 1993-1994; p. 2.
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