Editing St. Helens, Oregon (section)

==History==
The [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] passed through and camped in the area that is now St. Helens on the night of November 5, 1805, while on their way to the Pacific Ocean.  While there, the party encountered Native Americans and Clark observed "low rockey clifts".<ref name=ONPA>{{cite web |url= http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/read/?_xmlsrc=1805-11-05.xml&_xslsrc=LCstyles.xsl |title= Journals of Lewis & Clark |publisher= [[University of Nebraska-Lincoln]] |access-date= October 6, 2014}}</ref>

St. Helens was established as a river port on the Columbia River in the 1840s. The original town was surveyed and platted by Scottish-born [[Peter Crawford (land surveyor)|Peter Crawford]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://dahp.wa.gov/sites/default/files/glosurveyorsnotes_0.pdf| title= GLO Surveyor Personal Notes| publisher=Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation| author= Olson, Jerry| date=30 March 2014| access-date=29 August 2019}}</ref>  In 1853, the [[Pacific Mail Steamship Company]] tried to make the city their only stop on the Columbia River.<ref name="establishment">{{cite book|last=MacColl|first=E. Kimbark|title=The Growth of a City: Power and Politics in Portland, Oregon 1915-1950|year=1979|publisher=[[The Georgian Press]]|location=[[Portland, Oregon]]|isbn=0-9603408-1-5}}</ref> Portland's merchants boycotted this effort, and the San Francisco steamship ''Peytona'' helped break the impasse.<ref name="establishment" /> St. Helens was incorporated as a city in 1889.<ref name=bluebook>{{cite web|url=https://sos.oregon.gov/blue-book/Pages/local/cities/s-y/saint-helens.aspx|title=Incorporated Cities: St. Helens|work=Oregon Blue Book|publisher=Oregon State Archives|access-date=April 19, 2013}}</ref> St. Helens and the adjacent town of Houlton merged in 1914.<ref>[https://www.sthelensoregon.gov/about/page/history-st-helens History of St. Helens]. City of St. Helens, Oregon. Accessed 29 Nov 2024.</ref> Houlton is now a part of the West St. Helens neighborhood.