Champoeg was first settled in the 1830's by French Canadian trappers who had grown weary of the trapping life as the beaver trade died out.  Its location established it as a major shipping port for north Willamette Valley agricultural products that were shipped around the world.  But Champoeg is best known as the site of a series of meetings held in the town in the 1840s.

        With the death of Ewing Young in 1841 Oregon settlers started to recognize the need for some form of government in order to handle the probate of his estate.  However, early attempts to organize a government failed primarily because of pressure from Britain and the Hudson Bay Company.  Then in 1843  settlers in the Willamette Valley convened at Champoeg to consider measures to deal with the problem of wolves menacing the settlements of the valley. It was to be the first in a series of "wolf meetings" at the town site that would establish the basis of civil codes in Oregon.  At the second wolf meeting Robert Newell served on the committee of twelve who were appointed to "consider the propriety of organizing a civil government".

          By the mid-1840s, the question of the possession of the disputed Oregon Country between the United States and the British began to loom large. The committee of twelve called for a general assembly on May 2, 1843 in Champoeg for the purpose of determining whether a provisional government should be established. The measure passed by a vote of 52 to 50, with Robert Newell being among the 52 in favor. A group of nine representatives was named to create a provisional government with Champoeg as its capital. A petition to the United States Congress was drafted and sent to Washington, DC. in 1845. The question of possession of the Oregon Country was settled the following year in the 1846 Oregon Treaty. When the Oregon Territory was formally organized in 1848 however, Champoeg was not chosen as the capital. Robert Newell served as the first Speaker of the first full House of Representatives for the provisional government.

          While not the capitol, the town of Champoeg continued to thrive after Oregon was accepted into the union as the 33rd state on February 14, 1859. Then on December 2, 1861, the Willamette River rose 55 feet above its summer stage, sending a flood over twenty feet deep across the town. Residents evacuated to the Newell house, one of the few structures high enough to be spared.  The flood destroyed everything in the town except two saloons. The Newells housed and fed some 200 people until new housing could be arranged --- nearly bankrupting themselves in the process.  Champoeg was never rebuilt after the disaster. The town site is now preserved as Champoeg State Heritage Area. A 1901 monument records the names of the 52 settlers who voted to establish Oregon's first provisional government at that 1843 meeting.