The coast of southern Oregon was probably seen on voyages of exploration by Bartolome Ferrelo of Spain in 1542–43, England's Sir Francis Drake in 1579, and Sebastián Vizcaíno of Spain in 1602–03. After that it was ignored for almost 175 years. When the Russians started a fur trade in the Aleutians in the mid-18th century, however, the Spanish became alarmed. Missionaries were sent northward from Mexico, and the navigators Juan Perez in 1774 and Bruno Heceta in 1775 sailed up the Pacific coast and claimed the Northwest for Spain.

The English, also interested in trading for furs, sent Captain James Cook to the area in 1778, and George Vancouver in 1791–94. Both explored and mapped the area. New England merchants in the newly independent United States sent out two ships in 1787. Robert Gray, captain of one of them, landed on the Oregon coast, probably at Tillamook Bay, the next year. On a return trip in 1792, Gray discovered the mouth of a river he named after his ship, the Columbia.