Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Salem (Oregon)

SALEM, a city of the United States, the capital of Oregon, in Marion county, on the east bank of Willamette river, 53 miles south of Portland by the Oregon and California Railroad. It lies in a fertile prairie district, adorned with copses, and possesses a good source of waterpower in Mill Creek. The capitol, a rather imposing edifice with a tower 180 feet high, erected in 1875-76, occupies a fine site above the city; other public buildings are the Willamette University (Methodist), which grants degrees in medicine, science, and general literature, the opera-house, the Roman Catholic school for girls, the State penitentiary, and State schools for the deaf and dumb and the blind. Lumber, woollen goods, flour, leather, brass castings, furniture, linseed oil, and building materials are the chief articles of manufacture and trade. The population was 2538 in 1880. Settled in 1834, incorporated in 1853, Salem became the State capital in 1860.