Salem, in Oregon’s Willamette Valley on the Willamette River, was originally home to the Kalapuya Native American tribe. As European Americans arrived in the early 19th century via wagons, trains, and riverboats from the east, they began to establish businesses and farming interests in the region. Many of these early settlers were involved in fur trapping and trading.
In 1842, Methodist missionaries established the Oregon Institute, which grew into Willamette University. The community began to increase in size with the founding of churches, schools, and industry. In 1857, the city of Salem obtained its first charter. In 1864, five years after Oregon achieved statehood, residents reconfirmed Salem’s status as its capital.
The first capitol building, crafted of wood, had been razed by fire in the mid-1850s. By the early 1870s, construction on its successor building began. That new sandstone-and-brick statehouse also succumbed to a devastating fire in 1935. The city rebounded from the tragedy, rebuilt, and celebrated its centennial in 1940.