Scappoose, whose name means gravelly plains, was once covered by an Ice Age ocean and later was home to the Diersinno (Keeassino) Indian Tribe led by Chief Cassino, a member of the Chinook Indian Tribes headed by Chief Concomley; it became a gathering place where Northwest Indians met each year for contests of skill, gaming, feasts, trading, and tribe pow wows. Lewis and Clark camped near this site in 1804. In 1828, Thomas McKay, stepson of Dr. John McLaughlin, established a home and horse ranch and married a daughter of Chief Concomley, and James Bates, an American sailor, became the first independent white settler. In 1829, a mysterious plague killed most of the Indians, including Chief Concomley and McKay’s wife, after which Chief Cassino became the highest ranking chief of the Chinook Tribe. The first wagon train reached Scappoose in 1842, the Watts family wagon train arrived in 1852, the first organized school was built on West Lane Road in 1853, and after the last recorded Indian uprising in the area in 1855, settlers hastily built a block house on West Land Road. River travel by sidewheelers, sternwheelers, and smaller craft was the only transportation until later developments; the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, and in 1883 the last wagon train arrived by the Oregon Trail, then worn six tracks wide and six feet deep. The present town site was established in 1884 with a railroad depot, store, and post office. A two-story school built in 1908 on land donated by the Watts family housed grades one through high school, and in 1912 Oregon’s first public school transportation was established with a wagon bus pulled by horses and driven by Gustav Lange. In 1920, local founders voted to incorporate as a city and elected James Grant Watts as first mayor; in 1921 Scappoose became an incorporated city in Oregon, followed by installation of a city water system in 1922 and street lights in 1924. The Watts family home, built by J.G. Watts in 1902, later became the Watts Museum, preserving artifacts of Scappoose’s heritage, including items connected to Oregon Trail travel and early settlement.