OTE - Oregon Travel Experience

TIC Careers and Employment

Posted on: February 17th, 2023 in News & Press |

The Travel Information Council is hiring for multiple positions, in multiple locations around the state of Oregon. Are you seeking an opportunity to shape the quality and features of Oregon’s Highway Rest Areas to tangibly improve the experience for the millions of travelers who use them each year?

Careers

Everything is coming up roses at French Prairie Rest Area.

Pendleton group helps nudge history forward

Posted on: August 11th, 2015 in News & Press |

On August 6, 2015, a new Oregon historical marker was dedicated by the community of Pendleton and Oregon Travel Experience. The marker’s installation and historic text revision was sponsored by the 2015 Leadership Pendleton Class. A brief ceremony took place in front of the new marker on the eastern end of Pendleton, along Highway 30.
OTE’s Annie von Domitz and Oregon Historical Marker Committee member George Forbes attended the dedication and …

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2023 Deep Roots Newsletter

Posted on: April 27th, 2023 in News & Press |

2023 Deep Roots pg 1

Check out this year’s Deep Roots newsletter to find out what our heritage programs have been up to! Some articles include:

Philomath Commemorates Untold History: With an inspirational line-up of speakers and record public attendance, we were moved the dedication of the Shipley Family Homestead historical marker. Reuben and Mary Jane Shipley, former slaves, donated two acres of their land to create the Mt. Union Cemetery on the condition Blacks could …

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West Yaquina Sitka Spruce

Posted on: April 24th, 2023 in Heritage Tree Details |

Height: 158 ftCircumference: 22.4 ftCrown Spread: 90 ftApproximate Age: 200 ft

The West Yaquina Sitka spruce stands at the end of Water Street in the former township of West Yaquina. Colonel T. Egenton Hogg, a San Francisco entrepreneur, had a vision to build tracks from Corvallis to the coast, making a transcontinental railroad. In 1882, Yaquina City was founded as the terminus for Hogg’s railroad. In 1884, West Yaquina was incorporated …

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Eddyville Redwood

Posted on: August 22nd, 2022 in Heritage Tree Details |

Sequoia sempervirens— Commonly known as the “The Giant Tree in Straight-a-Way”

In 1870, Israel Fisk Eddy purchased land that is now Eddyville and built a sawmill and gristmill, using a small dam on the Yaquina River to supply the power. He is known as the founder of Eddyville and is also known for his fondness of trees. According to a local publication, “Eddy had a fine orchard in Eddyville. One man …

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Shipley Family Homestead

Posted on: July 21st, 2022 in Historical Marker Details |

Reuben Shipley was born a slave in Kentucky and emigrated to the Willamette Valley over the Oregon Trail in 1853 with his enslaver, Robert Shipley. In return for accompanying the family to Oregon, Reuben was given his freedom and worked for Eldridge Hartless on a farm south of Corvallis. He saved $1,500 with which he purchased 101 acres of the Charles Bales’ Donation Land Claim.

Mary Jane Holmes was born in …

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Beaver Hill Mine

Posted on: July 21st, 2022 in Historical Marker Details |

Coal was first discovered in Coos County in 1853, and several mines opened before R. A. Graham and J. D. Spreckles and Brother Co. of San Francisco decided to run a spur of their railroad, the Coos Bay, Roseburg and Eastern, to a hill near Beaver Slough. The railroad reached Beaver Hill on August 22, 1894, and construction of houses and a store quickly got underway. The company town prospered …

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Smith Farm Walnut

Posted on: May 4th, 2022 in Heritage Tree Details |

Tree Info:

Age: 157

Height: approx. 120′

Circumference: 14′ 8″

Average Crown Spread: approx. 140′

The walnut tree at the entrance to the historic George W. Smith Farm on S. Coos River Road in Coos Bay, Oregon, was originally planted by William D.L.F. Smith in 1865. Smith included the walnut in a grouping of four trees along with Chinese Chestnuts when the farmhouse was built. This tree has been an important community landmark for generations. …

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PSU Copper Beech

Posted on: May 4th, 2022 in Heritage Tree Details |

Tree Facts:

Age: 125+

Date planted: Around 1890

Circumference: Approximately 19 ft

Height: Approximately 84 ft

Crown spread: Approximately 84 ft

When you walk down the campus of Portland State University (PSU), it’s hard not to notice the lone beech tree surrounded by the sides of the Millar Library. This tree has witnessed a lot of life in its 100+ year life span. The PSU Copper Beech was planted in the early 1890s at the home …

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Williamson-Abbot Expedition Ponderosa

Posted on: May 2nd, 2022 in Heritage Tree Details |

Whispering Pines Horse Camp – Tree locaiton

In the 1850s, at the request of Congress, several expeditions were launched to survey possible railway routes to connect the Pacific Ocean with the Mississippi River. Under this directive, then Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (later president of the Confederacy), charged Lieutenants Robert Stockton Williamson and Henry Larcom Abbot with surveying a possible route between Fort Reading, California, and Portland, Oregon, either through …

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Newly Completed Williamson-Abbot Heritage Tree Video now available!

Posted on: March 11th, 2022 in News & Press |

Heritage Tree Committee member David Hedberg has completed another great video about the newly inducted Williamson-Abbot Tree located in Whispering Horse Camp in the Deschutes National Forest. He worked in collaboration with the forest service and Dr. David Lewis to tell the complex story that made this tree notable.

TIC and the Heritage Tree Committee are very excited to be able to share this story and the excellent work done …

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