On this day in 1885, Gilliam County was created. And on this day in 1889, by Act of the Legislature, Sherman and Harney Counties were also mapped out of eastern Oregon.

The Bill that created Sherman County, the most westerly of the three, originally called for the county to be named Fulton, after Col. James Fulton one of its earliest settlers.

However, when it was learned that Fulton was a southern sympathizer and had made verbal attacks against General Sherman...the name was changed...to Sherman County.