<Tr> <Td> 1811 </Td> <Td> May </Td> <Td> Fort Astoria is established by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company at the mouth of the Columbia River . It is the first American settlement on the Pacific coast . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Jun 15--16 </Td> <Td> Most of the crew of the Tonquin, one of Astor's ships trading on Vancouver Island, is massacred by Tla - o - qui - aht Indians when the captain accidentally insults a chief . The ship is scuttled the following day in a magazine explosion that kills at least 100 natives . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1812 </Td> <Td> Mar </Td> <Td> Fort Ross is established by Russian traders on the California coast as the hub of the southernmost colony in Russian America . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Oct 21 </Td> <Td> Carrying word of the fate of the Tonquin to Saint Louis, seven men of the Pacific Fur Company, led by Robert Stuart become the first European Americans to cross the Continental Divide at South Pass, in present - day Wyoming . Later in the century, the pass will be used by half a million westward migrants as part of the main route of several emigrant trails . </Td> </Tr>

Development of the west between 1870 and 1890 was