Salem Began Here
Near Salem, Oregon
This sign marks where Salem began. In the fall of eighteen forty, the Methodist missionary Jason Lee and his followers dammed Mill Creek just below this spot. The water powered a sawmill, and two years later a flour mill followed. Around those mills, a granary, and a training school, the settlement took root.
Lee had first come west in eighteen thirty-four to preach to Native peoples, then moved his mission south to this site. The Jason Lee mission house, built between eighteen forty and eighteen forty-one, is among the oldest surviving frame buildings in Oregon. The mission itself struggled and was soon dissolved, but the town it seeded did not. Salem grew into the capital of Oregon. So this quiet creek crossing, easy to drive past without a glance, is where the whole city started.
