Just downstream from the handsome prairie where Lewis & Clark and David Thompson camped there was a natural boat landing that later became known as Parker's Landing and played an important role for settlers following the Oregon Trail. Many pioneers coming out west would arrive at the Dalles (Oregon), where they would make rafts to float down the Columbia River. Dr. John McLoughlin, the chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company at Ft. Vancouver, tried to dissuade American pioneers from settling on the north side of the Columbia River. He sent men to build barges and rafts to float pioneers to Ft. Vancouver, where they received food and clothing and were encouraged to settle in the Willamette Valley (Oregon). Those who did not want to settle in Oregon would float rafts to Parker's Landing, where a natural eddy would wash their barges and rafts up against the north bank. By arriving at Parker's Landing, they could travel to the interior of what would become Washington State, avoiding the British at Fort Vancouver who would try to persuade them to settle elsewhere. A well-known free African-American named George Washington Bush entered the state of Washington through Parker's Landing, and eventually traveled to the center of the state, where he founded the community of Tumwater. David C. Parker came out on a wagon train with Bush and both floated down the Columbia on rafts in 1845. In 1846, when the Oregon Territory land dispute was resolved between England and the United States and the northern boundary was moved to the 49th parallel, Parker was quick to file for a land grant, which included the popular beach landing that would later assume his name and become the marina for the Port of Camas-Washougal. In fact, Parker would apply to have a young, fledgling community incorporated in 1852, and the community would be called Parkersville. This is thought to be the oldest incorporated community in the state of Washington. But a new community was developed just one mile upriver from Parkersville, closer to the lowlands for dairy farming and logging. It is this community that eventually became Washougal.