Quarter Horses for Sale in Portland OR, Ridgefield WA

About Gladstone, OR

Prior to European settlement, there were several Native American groups living in the area that was to become Gladstone. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory and beyond. Although the expedition passed only near the Gladstone – Oregon City locality on their way to and from the Pacific Ocean, via the Columbia River, natives such as the Kalapuya and the Clackamas people told them about the area. In the subsequent years, successive waves of explorers and traders would introduce epidemics of cholera and smallpox, which would take a heavy toll on the native peoples and contributed to a substantial reduction in population. As Oregon City was founded and European settlers began moving to the area, they petitioned their governments to remove the local natives from the land, so that the settlers could use it for farming and housing.