Corvallis, OR news and local guide

In October 1845 Joseph C. Avery of Pennsylvania arrived in Oregon and took a land claim where Marys River flows into the Willamette, and in June 1846 he moved into a hastily built log cabin, the first home within today's city limits. Other settlers soon joined him, including William F. Dixon, who took a 640-acre claim to his north in September 1846. The California gold discovery of 1848 briefly stalled the town, as Avery left to mine, but he returned in January 1849 with provisions, opened a store and surveyed a townsite he named Marysville, which became a supply stop for miners heading up the Willamette to the gold fields. The name was once thought to honor the settler Mary Lloyd but is now credited to French fur trappers who camped near Marys Peak, probably honoring the Virgin Mary.

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In the summer of 1851 Avery and Dixon each gave 40 acres for a county seat, with the Benton County Courthouse standing near the line between their gifts. In December 1853 the territorial legislature, considering petitions to rename Salem Corvallis, Latin for "heart of the valley," instead gave the name to Marysville in an act of December 20, on the argument that Marysville duplicated a town in California on the same stage route. In December 1855 a faction of the divided legislature made Corvallis the territorial capital, but after one session the capital went back to Salem, and a plaque marks the former capital. Corvallis was incorporated on January 29, 1857, and it had a three-year boom beginning in 1889. Sources Wikipedia: Corvallis, Oregon