Episode 3 of 3
Naming the River
- When
- May 18, 1792
- Where
- Columbia River
Gray named the Columbia River after his ship, Columbia Rediviva, on May 18, 1792.
After entering the river and trading with natives, Gray named the river after his privately owned vessel, Columbia Rediviva. This naming established the river's identity and later influenced territorial claims, although the specific names for features were assigned later by Lieutenant Broughton.
Sources
- Columbia River Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-25
- Robert Gray's Columbia River expedition Wikipedia
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.