Oregon City in Clackamas County, Oregon — The American West (Northwest)
Sidney W. Moss
Hotel Keeper
Photographed By Barry Swackhamer, September 25, 2017
1. Sidney W. Moss Marker
Captions: (upper left) Sidney W. Moss; (bottom right) Flumgudeon Gazette and Bumble Bee Budget, written by Sidney Moss, August 20, 1845.
In 1842 Dr. Elijah White recruited over one hundred people to emigrate across the Oregon Trail. Sidney W. Moss, a widower and stonecutter, joined the group. Upon his arrival Moss went to work for John McLoughlin to survey the townsite of Oregon City. Moss lacked a surveyor's chain but used a knotted rope to lay out a somewhat irregular set of lots. Earning 75˘ a cord as a woodcutter, Moss purchased land at Third and Main where in 1843 he erected his hotel.
Moss frequently contributed articles to local newspapers and claimed, in later years, that he wrote the Prairie Flower (1848). A founder of the "Willamette Falls Debating Society." Moss and his friends addressed issues of the day. Charles E. Pickett published their "scratching and stinging of the follies of the times" in the Flumgudeon Gazette and Bumble Bee Budget, Oregon's first newspaper.
Based on adventures in the West, the Prairie Flower was a "namby-pamby tale of love and adventure." -- Herbert G. Nelson, The Literary Impulse in Pioneer Oregon (1948)
Erected by End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.
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Location. 45° 21.864′ N, 122° 35.676′ W. Marker is in Oregon City, Oregon, in Clackamas County. Marker can be reached from Washington Street near Abernethy Road, on the right when traveling north. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1726 Washington Street, Oregon City OR 97045, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Medorem Crawford (here, next to this marker); Earthquakes and Mountain Fog (here, next to this marker); Lot Whitcomb (here, next to this marker); Clackamas Chinook (here, next to this marker); Fishing At Tumwater (a few steps from this marker); Wagons (a few steps from this marker); Abigail Scott Duniway (a few steps from this marker); The Trail of Tears (a few steps from this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Oregon City.
More about this marker. This marker is located next to the End Of Oregon Trail Interpretive Center facing outward towards Abernethy Green.
Photographed By Barry Swackhamer, September 25, 2017
2. Sidney W. Moss Marker
Credits. This page was last revised on February 17, 2018. It was originally submitted on February 17, 2018, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California. This page has been viewed 313 times since then and 19 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on February 17, 2018, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California.
