The Oregon City School District was an 1858 split-off from the original Oregon Township District established in 1853 in the Messilla Valley. For a few years it was called the Franklin District until 1861 when the Cherokee District was split off and Oregon City District acquired the name we know today. The district was then annexed to the Cherokee District in 1923 as the population center shifted. More recently both areas became a part of the Golden Feather Union School District with an office at Concow. The Oregon City School was acquired by the Society in 1983.

Oregon City was the camp of men arriving from Oregon during the earliest days of the California Gold Rush. The gulch in which they staked their claims was also named for their most recent home. Most were settlers who had come from the East during the 1840's to the Oregon Territory seeking to insure that valuable land should become part of the United States during joint occupation with Great Britain.

One such settler was Tennessean Peter H. Burnett, who, in 1843, left Missouri where he was a district attorney to take an active part in Oregon's Provincial Government. In 1845 he was Supreme Judge. He left Oregon in 1848 with a party of men and headed for the gold fields. Burnett was soon involved in California's political organization. He was candidate for the highest office in the new state and served as California's first governor. Later he became Supreme Court Judge and still later President of the Pacific Bank of San Francisco.