Clackamas County Historical Society 
Oregon City Floods 

Native American legends from times long ago tell of great floods that covered the earth in the Pacific Northwest. Early fur trappers describe the Willamette River as a sheet of water covering the land as far as the eye can see in the early 1800s. As American settlement of the Oregon Territory began in the 1840s, a great flood carried away many of the new businesses at the base of majestic Willamette Falls. Again and again the rivers rose, inundating the historic city to the north and south. But Oregon City, the first incorporated city in the Oregon Territory, survives, thrives, and grows despite these floods.