Editing Benton County, Oregon (section)

==History==
Benton County was created on December 23, 1847, by an act of the [[Provisional Government of Oregon]].<ref name="Bancroft706">Hubert Howe Bancroft, ''The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft: Volume XXX: History of Oregon: Volume II, 1848–1888''. San Francisco, CA: The History Company, 1888; pg. 706.</ref> The county was named after [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] Senator [[Thomas Hart Benton (senator)|Thomas Hart Benton]] of Missouri, an advocate of the doctrine of [[Manifest Destiny]] and the belief that the American government should control the whole of the Oregon Country. At the time of its formation the county included all the country west of the [[Willamette River]], south of [[Polk County, Oregon|Polk County]] and running all the way to the [[California]] border in the south and the [[Pacific Ocean]] in the west.<ref>Bancroft, ''History of Oregon, Volume II,'' pp. 706-707.</ref>

The county was created out of lands originally inhabited by the [[Klickitat (tribe)|Klickitat]], who rented it from the [[Kalapuya people|Kalapuya]]s for use as hunting grounds. All aboriginal claims to land within Benton County were ceded in the [[Treaty with the Kalapuya, etc.|Treaty of Dayton]] in 1855. Portions of Benton County were taken to form [[Coos County, Oregon|Coos]], [[Curry County, Oregon|Curry]], [[Douglas County, Oregon|Douglas]], [[Jackson County, Oregon|Jackson]], [[Josephine County, Oregon|Josephine]], [[Lane County, Oregon|Lane]] and [[Lincoln County, Oregon|Lincoln]] Counties, leaving Benton County in its present form.

The city of Marysville, later renamed Corvallis, was made the county seat in 1851. The city briefly was the capital of Oregon.<ref>[http://www.co.benton.or.us/history.html Benton County - A rich history] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150723145547/http://www.co.benton.or.us/history.html |date=July 23, 2015}}, Official Website of Benton County</ref> In 1862 Corvallis became the site of the Oregon State Agricultural College, known today as [[Oregon State University]].