Instead of Beaverton, we could be living Onionton! The history of onions in Beaverton

Onions? You might reasonably ask. What have onions to do with Beaverton? Had history been followed, the region now known as Beaverton should have been called Onionton! We are all grateful that it wasn’t. Although New York was called the Big Onion before it became the Big Apple.

The town of Beaverton began in the region where Fanno Creek flows into the Tualatin River. Before Europeans arrived, this was the home of the Native American tribe, the Atfalati, which had occupied the region for centuries. They lived here in a village called Chakeipi, which means Place of the Beaver, and the tribe had other villages as far away as present-day Noth Plains.

One of the first European American visitors to the area was Augustus Fanno (1804–1884). Fanno was born in Maine; he migrated first to Missouri then to Oregon, reaching Atafalti territory in 1847. By the time Fanno arrived, the Atafalti had burned down the forest, cleared the land and planted camas whose bulbs provided most of their carbohydrates. The bulbs were also used for trade; the Indian women carefully managed this valuable crop.

Fanno settled on Atafalti land, draining the beaver ponds. He also dug up the camas and planted his own bulbs, onions. In a horrible irony, Fanno used the Atafalti Indians as laborers on his onion plantation, paying them with food while depriving them of their own resources of camas, deer, and beaver.

The Atafalti tribe was devastated by introduced diseases such as malaria and smallpox which killed over 90% of the population. In 1855, the remaining Atfalati were forced to join the Rogue Valley Trail of Tears and were marched to the Grand Ronde Reservation.

Fanno developed his own strain of the Yellow Globe Danvers onion, which itself had been developed from European varieties in Danvers, Massachusetts. Fanno was so successful that he became known as the Onion King (the Atafalti were easily forgotten). In 1859, he built a grand farmhouse that still exists today (maintained by THPRD and located off Fanno Creek Trail).

His family continued to cultivate those onions until the 1940s, when they became infested with the onion maggot. Another irony: onion rot, which ended the Fannos’ business, does not affect camas bulbs.

Although the Atafalti may be long removed from their lands, both the camas and beaver can still be seen in various places throughout our city.

Tony Woodward is a retired physician with four wonderful grandchildren. He spends a lot of time reading and reviewing books, especially on art and history.