Ainsworth State Park "was a gift to the State of Oregon by the late J. C. Ainsworth, and Alice H. Ainsworth, his wife, by deed dated July 29, 1933." (OPRD 1946)
"John C. Ainsworth was a former Mississippi riverboat man (and once worked with Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain). He arrived in the Northwest in 1850 at the age of twenty-eight to introduce steam powered transportation to the region. A decade later, his Oregon Steam Navigation Company's monopoly on Columbia River commerce was bringing immense fortunes to him and his Front Street partners and establishing Portland as the regions commercial capital. He retired in 1880 for health reasons to Oakland California where he died thirteen years later."
"He served as chairman of the State Highway Commission 1931-1932 and was the son of Captain J. C. Ainsworth, pioneer steam-boatman and founder of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company."