Oregonian, May 2, 1979
Page F-10 - Portland Library, Oregon
RESTORATION OF PAINTING UNVEILING SET
ST. PAUL - A restored painting called "The Birth of Oregon" will be unveiled at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Champoeg State Park. The 6-by-12-foot painting, done in 1920 by French Canadian Theodore Gegoux when he was caretaker at Champoeg, hung for many years in the state Capitol before being placed in safekeeping. Joe McKay, spokesman for the St. Paul Mission Historical Society, said interest in the painting was kindled by Frank Jetty, 98, of Portland, whose parents at one time had a store at Oregon's historic Champoeg settlement.
McKay said the painting depicts the historic signing at Champoeg of documents that formed Oregon's provisional government. When missionaries and pioneers arrived in the Willamette Valley in the 1830s and 1840's, there was no organized government other than that provided by the British Hudson's Bay Company. A series of steps to form a provisional government under the United States, begun in 1841, culminated in the Champoeg signing on May 3, 1843. Wednesday's ceremonies will be on the 136th anniversary of that signing. The painting depicting it will hang in the new information center at Champoeg State Park. The project is sponsored by the State Parks, the Oregon Historical Society and Sons and daughters of the Oregon Pioneers. Descendants of the provisional government signatories at Champoeg will be honored.