Great Seal of Oregon

A bald eagle perches at the top of the seal with wings spread. The eagle is the national symbol of the United States, and its position above the Oregon state shield signals the relationship between the new state and the federal government.

The central shield is divided horizontally. The upper half shows the Pacific Ocean with a departing British man-of-war and an arriving American steamship. The lower half shows the Oregon landscape: mountains, forest, and a covered wagon.

A British man-of-war sails away from the Oregon coast in the upper portion of the shield. This image commemorates the 1846 Oregon Treaty, which fixed the boundary between the United States and British Canada at the 49th parallel and ended the joint occupation of the Oregon Country that had persisted since 1818.

An American steam-powered vessel enters the same Pacific scene. It represents the growing commercial connection between Oregon and the rest of the United States, enabled by sea routes around Cape Horn or through Panama.

A covered wagon crosses the lower portion of the shield, with mountains and forest behind it. This is a direct reference to the Oregon Trail, the overland route that carried an estimated 400,000 settlers from the Missouri River to the Willamette Valley between 1843 and 1869.

A beaver appears at the bottom of the seal. Oregon's connection to the beaver predates its formal designation as the state animal. The beaver pelt trade drove the first sustained European and American exploration and commercial activity in the Pacific Northwest from the 1790s onward.

A sheaf of wheat and a plow flank the shield on the seal, representing agriculture, the economic base of the Willamette Valley settlements that formed Oregon's core population at statehood.

A pickaxe appears on the seal alongside the agricultural symbols, representing mining. Oregon experienced its own gold rush beginning in 1852, when gold was discovered near Jacksonville in the Rogue River Valley.

Thirty-three stars appear around the border of the seal, representing Oregon's rank as the 33rd state admitted to the Union. Congress admitted Oregon on February 14, 1859.

"The Union" is Oregon's state motto, appearing on the seal. It was chosen at the 1857 Constitutional Convention, four years before the Civil War began. Oregon's delegates were meeting at a moment when the question of whether the United States would remain intact was a genuine political concern.