Penn Cove, Oregon Donation Land Claim Act

Doing a bit of deep dive into history for a project on Whidbey Island, I noted the RH Lansdale Claim on the northwest side of Penn Cove. Many of the land claims on Whidbey Island were from the Donation Land Claim Act passed by Congress in 1850.

The Land Claim Act had several goals. One was to resolve the 640-acre claims of land that were made under an 1843 act by the Oregon Provisional Government. The provisional government in Oregon was set up before the Oregon Country dispute between Great Britain and the United States was resolved and applied to American citizens in the Oregon Country - essentially the Willamette valley. To some extent the earliest American settlers were squatters on land claimed by Great Britain and the United States and never mind the Indians.

The Act was more than retroactive in recognizing the provisional government act claims, it also allowed claims up to 1854. This brought a rush of Americans west to the Oregon Country including what later became Washington State. The intent may have been to encourage Americans to Oregon to limit other land claims. It also set up an Indian war in southern Oregon. The Act also had a provision to work out treaties with the Indians of the Oregon Territory. But given the overlay of time of allowing claims without treaties in place was a recipe for trouble and in part rushed the treaty process in a manner that leads to all sorts of What ifs?

The Act very likely brought RH Lansdale to Penn Cove. Lansdale is credited with naming Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island. And the small settlement of Coveland near or on his claim became the first County Seat.

Lansdale did not stay long at Penn Cove. He took a job as an Indian agent in eastern Washington in 1854. He attended the the Walla Walla Treaty in 1855 and later became the Indian agent at the Yakama Indian Reservation after the Yakama War. He was removed from that post abruptly in 1861.