William Robert Broughton was a British naval officer in the late 18th century. As a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, he commanded the HMS Chatham as part of the voyage of exploration throught the Pacific Ocean led by Captain George Vancouver in the early 1790s.
In November 1791, while exploring the South Pacific, his crew were the first Europeans to sight the Chatham Islands. In October 1792, while exploring the Pacific Northwest of North America, Vancouver ordered Broughton to explore the lower Columbia, between present-day Oregon and Washington, with several boats from Broughton's ship. Broughton and his party navigated upriver as far as the Columbia River Gorge. On October 30, he reached the his farthest point up the Columbia, landing in eastern Multnomah County east of Portland and northwest of Mt. Hood. He named Mt. Hood for Viscount Samuel Hood, Admiral of the British Fleet.
A plaque erected by the State of Oregon along Interstate 84 in the Columbia Gorge commemorates the spot where Broughton landed in 1792.
