From: Verts, B.J. and L.N.Carraway. 1998. Land Mammals of
Oregon. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Distribution.? The Virginia opossum is broadly distributed
in North America east of the Rocky Mountains and in Central
America; it was introduced into western North America.

The first introduction in Oregon was near McKay Creek,
Umatilla Co., between 1910 and 1921 (Jewett and Dobyns,1929).
A population apparently was established there as trappers
reported catching 212 animals during the 1927-1928 trapping
season and a specimen collected in the area in 1928 is on
deposit at the National Museum of Natural History (USNM 248510).
Bailey (1936:393) considered the species "well established
and thriving" in that area. However, the population in
Umatilla Co. apparently was extirpated sometime during the
1930s (Kebbe, 1955b).

Populations of D. virginiana were established in northwestern
Oregon apparently from releases of animals brought to the
state as pets or novelties (Kebbe, 1955b; Oregon State Game
Commission,1946b). By 1946, the species was established along
the lower Columbia, Nehalem, and Young's rivers (Oregon State
Game Commission, 1946b). Although a Virginia opossum from an
unexplained source was killed near Salem (Marion Co.) in 1948,
Clatsop Co. and nearby regions in adjoining counties were
considered the "only area in the state now known to have opossums"
(Kebbe,1955b:42). Hammer (1966:8) reported the species south to
the Benton-Lane county line in 1965 and east to "nine miles east
of Scio, Linn County, in 1963." Populations now are established
throughout the Willamette Valley and otber interior valleys,
and along the entire Pacific Coast. E. W. Hammer (pers.
comm., 24 March 1968) reported examining a specimen killed on
U. S. Route 26 in Wasco Co. about 21 km nor~ of the Wasco-
Jefferson county line. Also, since the claimed extirpation of
the population in Umatilla Co., numerous additional opossums
from east of the Cascade Range were reported taken for fur.


--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

Gull, you really got me going
http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2008/01/gull20080105.html