OTE - Oregon Travel Experience

Yaquina Bay

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

The old Yaquina Bay Lighthouse established in 1871 is the earliest aid to navigation standing within the range of the first recorded landfall made from a ship to the shores of the Pacific Northwest. Captain James Cook made this landfall on March 7, 1778. At noon he named Cape Foulweather. On account of the heavy weather he was compelled to stand out at sea at night and only approach the …

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Willamette Stone

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

Subject:Site of first surveyor’s base mark in Pacific Northwest.
This short trail leads to the Willamette Stone, the surveyor’s monument that is the point of origin for all public land surveys in Oregon and Washington. The landmark was established on June 4, 1851 by John B. Preston, Oregon’s first Surveyor General.
With increasing settlement and passage of the Donation Land Claim Act, the Oregon Territory desperately needed to extend the Public Land …

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Willamette Falls Locks

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

Subject:Series of five locks with a total lift of 50.2 feet opened in 1873.
Willamette Falls Locks- still in use below this point-were opened on New Years Day, 1873, when the steamer Maria Wilkins became the first vessel to navigate up the west end of Willamette Falls. Farming and shipping interests had long sought to eliminate expensive portages around this age-old bar to navigation 26 miles above the mouth of the …

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Willamette Falls

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

Subject:The falls were originally a Native American fishing site and later became the power source for numerous mills and electricity generation.
Willamette Falls was early the site of an Indian salmon fishing village. The falls furnished the power for a lumber mill which began operation in 1842, a flour mill in 1844, a woolen mill in 1864 and the first paper mill in the Pacific Northwest in 1867. The first long …

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Vanport

Posted on: September 25th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

Subject:Site of the nation’s largest public housing project. Vanport was destroyed in a flood in 1948.
VANPORT
Within a year of the US entering World War II, more than 160,000 people moved to Portland- a city of only 360,000 – to work in Home Front industries. Industrialist Henry Kaiser’s three shipyards employed the most workers. To house his employees and their families, Kaiser persuaded the US Maritime Commission in 1942 to fund …

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Oregon City Falls

Posted on: September 25th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

Subject:Notes uses of site ranging from early Indian salmon fishing village to first long-distance hydroelectric power generation in the United States.
Oregon City – once known as Willamette Falls – was early the site of an Indian salmon fishing village. The Falls furnished the power for a lumber mill which began operation in 1842, a flour mill in 1844, a woolen mill in 1864, and the first paper mill in the …

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Oregon City

Posted on: September 25th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

Subject:Honors Dr. McLoughlin, pioneers, early Oregon government and many firsts in Oregon.
Oregon City – supply point for pioneer emigrants was first located as a claim by Dr. John McLoughlin in 1829. The first provisional legislature of the Oregon Country was held here in 1843 and land and tax laws formulated. Oregon City was the capital of the Oregon Territory from 1845-1852. The first Protestant church (Methodist) west of the Rocky …

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McLoughlin, Dr. John

Posted on: September 25th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

Subject:Dr. John McLoughlin was the Chief Factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company and founder of Oregon City.
DR. JOHN McLOUGHLIN 1784-1857
Chief factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, philanthropist, and founder of Oregon City. The land on the east bank of the Willamette River at the falls was claimed by Dr. McLoughlin and the Hudson’s Bay Co. in 1828-29. First called Willamette Falls, the town was platted in 1842 …

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Historic La Grande

Posted on: September 25th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

La Grande was the first town permanently settled in Northeastern Oregon. Daniel Chaplin laid out the original ‘Old Town’ in spring of 1862 and Ben Brown built the first house, a log cabin, alongside the Oregon Trail at the corner of B Avenue and Cedar Street.
As the prime lands of western Oregon were settled, and then gold was discovered in eastern Oregon, a reverse migration used the Oregon Trail from …

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Japanese Attack on Oregon

Posted on: September 25th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, a contingent of JapaneseĀ I-Class submarines sailed from Yokosuka via the Marshall Islands to take up positions off Hawaii and the coast of North America. Five of these vessels carried midget two-man submarines and 11 carried aircraft.
Early on the morning of September 9, 1942, the Japanese submarine I-25 surfaced off Brookings. The crew quickly assembled a specially designed seaplane, and within a few minutes …

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