Click the title of each marker to see details about the markers.
Sunset Highway
Subject:The rest area was dedicated to the 41st Infantry (Sunset) Division.
This division was organized for World War I in 1917 at Camp Greene, North Carolina and was demobilized at Camp Die, New Jersey in 1919. It was reorganized and Federally recognized at Portland, Oregon in 1930. The division was mobilized for World War II …
George Abernethy
Subject: George Abernethy was the first Provisional Governor of the Oregon Country.
From 1845 to 1849, George Abernethy was the first Provisional Governor of the Oregon Country, which extended from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains and from California to Northern British Columbia. After arriving in Oregon in 1840 as part of the Methodist …
Abert Rim
Subject:Abert Rim,a 2,500-foot fault scarp, is one of the highest in the United States.
Discovered by Captain John C. Fremont December 20, 1843 and named in honor of Colonel J.J. Abert.
Abert Rim, some 2,500 feet above the valley floor is one of the highest fault scarps in the United States. This basalt formation, a basic …
America’s First Transcontinental Auto Race
Subject:First car to cross the Cascade Mountains in 1905 traveling from New York to Portland.
Automotive history was made here June 20, 1905, when the first car to cross the Cascade Mountains conquered the Santiam Wagon Road. Dwight Huss drove ‘Old Scout’, a 1904 Oldsmobile curved dash runabout, from New York to …
American Indian Seasonal Round
Subject: Describes the seasonal round of gathering food and plant material by the ancestors of the Paiute Tribe.
American Indians have occupied portions of the northern Great Basin for 10,000 years. The region’s earliest inhabitants lived in caves and camps along the shores of glacial lakes and marshes. This area was the homeland …
Ancient Indian Fishing Grounds
Subject: Before dam construction on the Columbia River, the falls were ancient fishing grounds of all the Indian tribes of the middle Columbia River area.
Before a network of dams controlled the Columbia River it was often a raging torrent. Here at Wyam Falls, known today as Celilo Falls, a vertical drop of …
Subject: Site where Applegate Trail crosses the Klamath River.
The Southern Emigrant Route
The first emigrant train over the ‘Southern Route’ including more than fifty wagons under the leadership of Captain Levi Scott and David Goff, left the Oregon Trail at Fall Creek or Raft River on the Snake River, August 10, 1846. The Klamath River was …
Jesse Applegate
Subject: Homestead of Jesse Applegate, pioneer, statesman, and philosopher.
Jesse applegate 1811-1888
Pioneer, statesman, philosopher. Leader of migration to Oregon in 1843. Leader of Provisional Government of Oregon in 1844-1849. First Surveyor General in 1844. Trailblazer, Fort Hall, Idaho, to Willamette Valley, in 1846. Member of Constitutional Convention for State of Oregon in 1857. Settled here …
Aurora
Subject: Site of a Christian co-operative founded by Dr. Wilhelm Keil.
Dr. Wilhelm Keil founded here a Christian co-operative colony patterned after his colony at Bethel, Missouri. Musicians of the settlement made it widely famous. After Dr. Keil’s death in 1877 the communal enterprise was dissolved.
Baker
Subject: Baker City is recognized for its place in the early transportation system for gold discovery.
In October 1861, a group of prospectors in search of the mythical Blue Bucket Mine, made camp on a creek six miles southwest of here. That evening, Henry Griffin discovered gold in the gulch which bears his name. That started …
Balloon Bomb
Subject: Site where military divisions were trained during World War ll
Very near here, on a warm spring day in 1945, six people- a woman and five children- were killed by a Japanese “balloon bomb,” or Fugo. The party had arrived for a picnic when they discovered the deflated balloon. While they gathered around the …
Subject: Site where military divisions were trained during World War ll
Very near here, on a warm spring day in 1945, six people- a woman and five children- were killed by a Japanese “balloon bomb,” or Fugo. The party had arrived for a picnic when they discovered the deflated balloon. While they gathered around the strange …
Bannock War
Subject: Site of the decisive battle between US troops and the Bannock and Paiute Indians.
Five miles northwest of this location, one of the last battles of the Bannock War was fought in June 1878. The Bannock War began in May 1878 when the Bannock Indians of Southern Idaho became angered over treaty violations and increasing …
Subject: Site of a decisive engagement of the Bannock War July 8, 1878.
The decisive engagement of the Bannock War was fought on the foothills of Battle Mountain, July 8, 1878. The war a – protest against White encroachment, and the last major uprising in the Pacific Northwest was started by Bannock Indians, but Egan, a Piutes, …
Beacon Rock
Subject: Prominent geographic feature named by Lewis and Clark in 1805.
HISTORIC OREGON TRAIL
The prominent monolith across the river was named Beacon Rock by Lewis and Clark, November 2, 1805. It marked the beginning of tidewater for early river explorers who used it for a landmark in their journeys. The Indians say that when the …
Subject: Tells the history of the Boones Ferry across the Willamette River near this site.
During the period of Oregon’s Provisional Government (1841-1849), residents traveled by Indian trails, water courses, or on primitive rough-hewn wagon roads etched by emigrant settlers. During the days of the Territorial Government (1849-1859), and long before the State Highway Commission was established …
Subject: The establishment of Boone’s Ferry, Boone’s Landing (the precurser to the City of Wilsonville) and Boone’s Ferry Road.
Many of Oregon’s early transportation routes resulted from the efforts of enterprising pioneers like the Boone family of Clackamas County. In 1846 Alphonso Boone, grandson of Daniel Boone, emigrated to Oregon via the Applegate Trail with his …
Subject: Commemorates Bristow as 1846 settler in Lane County.
Elijah Bristow, a veteran of Andrew Jackson’s army, erected his cabin here on Pleasant Hill in 1846, the earliest year of settlement in Lane County. He and his wife, Susannah, then led in establishing the county’s first church and first school. This replica of their fireplace is from …
Subject: Furthest point inland reached by British Comander William Broughton sailing up the Columbia River in 1792.
Captain George Vancouver in a voyage of exploration to the northwest coast of America ordered by the British Admiralty Office assigned Lieutenant William Robert Broughton, Commander of H.M.S. Chatham, to explore the navigable waters of the Columbia River with boat …
Subject:Describes the ancient beginnings of Brownsville and its evolution of names.
A TOWN WITH ANCIENT BEGINNINGS AND MANY NAMES
Long before the first pioneer settlers arrived here in the 1840′s, this area was occupied by the ancient Mound Builders and then the Kalapuya Indians. The relative ease of finding food in the valley made the Kalapuya vulnerable …
Subject: Site where military divisions were trained during World War ll
The US War Department ulimately selected 55,000 acres at this location for an infantry training site in 141. Temporary quarters were constructed, and the site was dedicated as Camp Adair in 1942. Camp Adair was designed to train two divisions at the same time.
CAPTION #1:
The camp …
Subject: Site where military divisions were trained during World War ll
SITE OF THE CANTONMENT WHERE THESE DIVISIONS TRAINED DURING WORLD WAR II.
70TH INFANTRY DIVISION
TRAILBLAZER DIVISION
274th, 275th and 276th Inf. Regts; 882nd, 883rd, 884th (I) and 725th (M) FA Bns. Attached to Seventh Army. Action in Saar Region. Maj. Gen. John E. Dalquist and Allison J. Barnett, …
Subject: How Cannon Beach got its name from the 1846 wreck of the Naval schooner Shark.
Lt. Neil M. Howison, U.S.N., arrived in the Columbia River 1 July, 1846 on board the 300-ton United States Naval Survey Schooner ‘Shark’ for the purpose of making an investigation of part of the Oregon Country. His report was instrumental …
Subject: Route of trappers, Applegate Trail, stage coaches and freight wagons.
The narrow gorge of Canyon Creek has long served as a travel corridor. Native Americans likely trekked this canyon for thousands of years. Alexander McLeod of the Hudson’s Bay Company provided the first written account of the route in 1829, while traveling from Fort Vancouver on …
Subject: Spanish navigators were the first to explore the North American Pacific Coast.
Spanish navigators were the first to explore the North American Pacific Coast, beginning fifty years after Columbus discovered the western continents. Sebastian Vizciano saw this cape in 1603 and named it after the patron saint of the day of his discovery. Other navigators Spanish, …
Subject: The old Oregon Cattle Trail along which up to 100,000 head of cattle were driven to eastern buyers.
After the close of the Sioux and Paiute Indian Wars the ranchers of Wyoming and Montana discouraged in their attempts to fatten the Texas Longhorn, turned to Oregon for their cattle. During the spring cattlemen and their …
This marker was made possible by the City of Yachats
Marker Text:
Welcome To the Oregon Coast
The rugged shore of the Central and Northern Oregon Coast is backed by the Coast Range Mountains, remnants of a chain of volcanic islands that collided with the North American continent some 50 million years ago. The Oregon Coast is notable for …
Subject: The site where Oregon’s provisional constitution was adopted in 1843.
Established as Provisional Government Park in 1913 to commemorate May 2, 1843 meeting of the ‘Inhabitants of the Willamette Settlements’ to organize a civil government. The Organic Act, adopted July 5, 1843, was a Provisional Constitution for the Oregon Country, the first American Government on the …
Subject: Site of the battle in the Rogue River Indian Wars, 1856.
During the early 1850s hundreds of miners and settlers poured into southwest Oregon and onto Indian lands staking claims and establishing farms. The clash of cultural attitudes toward the ownership and use of natural resources led to the Rogue River Indian Wars of 1853-56. …
Subject: Story of perserverance and recovery by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians.
The story of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians is a tale of perseverance and strong recovery in the face of great loss. Epidemics and hostilities with miners let to large population declines. The tribe entered into a treaty with …
Subject: Describes three different Oregon Trail cutoff routes that wagon trails took from this location
Eager to save time on the Oregon Trail, emigrants often attempted shortcuts. Between 1845 and 1854, tree wagon trains left this campsite seeking a cutoff to the Willamette Valley
Sidebar #1
The Meek Cutoff of 1845
Frontiersman Stephen Meek persuaded over 1,000 people with 200 …
Subject: A shortcut to the Barlow Road from the Oregon Trail
Samuel K. Barlow established a wagon road in 1845-46 from The Dalles across the Cascade Range. Many Oregon Trail emigrants preferred the new road to the perilous Columbia River route, which had claimed many lives. The Barlow Road allowed emigrants to drive wagons to the …
Subject: Fort Yamhill moved to Dayton in 1911. Military Block house was built in 1856.
OREGON HISTORY (Sign A)
This building was a Military Blockhouse built at the Grand Ronde Agency by Willamette Valley settlers in 1856.
U.S. troops were sent to the station the same year and it was named ‘Fort Yamhill.’ Among the famous Army officers stationed …
Subject: Explains the events leading up to and the reasons for the naming of this road.
Long before the first Euro-American emigrants trekked westward, this road was a trail used by the Takelma and Shasta Peoples as a trade route. With the arrival of settlers and gold-seekers, the trail quickly became a wagon road called ‘Indian Market …
Subject: Campsite of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, 1805 and 1806.
Deer Island in the Columbia was named by the Lewis and Clark Expedition which stopped to dine here November 5, 1805 on its way down river. Homeward bound the explorers camped on the island on March 28,1806. Captain Clark recorded ‘This morning we set out very …
Subject: Point where the Oregon Trail crossed the Hazardous Deschutes River.
The Oregon Trail crossed the hazardous Deschutes River at this point by floating the prairie schooners and swimming the livestock. An island at the river mouth was often utilized when the water was high and the ford dangerous. Pioneer women and children were frequently ferried across …
Subject:Madam Dorion was a woman of courage and member of the Wilson Price Hunt Expedition of 1811-12.
MARIE DORION – WOMAN OF COURAGE
Madame Marie Dorion, a Native American of the Sioux Nation, gained recognition for her endurance and courage in the early American West. As the only woman on the long and difficult Wilson Price Hunt …
Subject: Durkee was a favorite emigrant campground and later a relay and stage station.
HISTORICAL OREGON TRAIL
This spot was famous in early days as Express Ranch an important relay station on the Umatilla-Boise Basin Stage and Freight Route. It was also a favorite camping place for emigrants and teamsters
Hwy/milepost: Old 30 MP 327
Subject:William Clark’s visit to this area in 1806 and his purchase of whale oil and blubber from the local Indians.
ECOLA
On January 8, 1806 William Clark and perhaps fourteen of the famous expedition reached a Tillamook village of five cabins on a creek which Captain Clark named Ecola or Whale Creek. Three days earlier, two men …
Subject: Describes the history of the controversial ditch built from 1863 to 1878 to carry water for gold mining.
HISTORIC ELDORADO DITCH 1863-1925
A remarkable construction enterprise of its time, the ‘Eldorado Ditch’ carried water for placed mining from the Burnt River above Unity, over Eldorado Pass to Malheur City and the Willow Creek Drainage. Conceived and …
Subject: Oregon Trail emigrants used the nearby spring for which the park is named.
In the first week of January, 1812, a party of trappers and traders, members of the Astor Overland Expedition, crossed the Blue Mountains in this area. Traveling afoot in bitter cold, often waist deep in snow, they were the first white men in …
Subject: Describes the history of the port city from its native origins through its decline after the turn of the 20th century.
Native Americans occupied the banks of this river and its bay long before Euro-American settlements appeared. Empire City, a bustling port of call that occupied this portion of Coos Bay’s waterfront, was once the …
Subject: Famous camping spot and the last sight of the Snake River for the westbound emigrants.
HISTORIC OREGON TRAIL
The last camp on the weary journey across the Snake River plains. Here the Oregon Trail left the Snake River and wound overland to the Columbia. Here, camped Wilson Price Hunt, December 23, 1811; Capt. Bonneville, January 10, …
Subject: First overland treks in 1826-27 led by Alexander McLeod of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Included French Canadians, such as Michel Laframboise who served as an interpreter, as well as Hawaiians, and Iroquois Indians. These explorations opened this portion of Oregon’s coast to commercial trapping and further exploration.
McLeod’s first expedition camped on the banks of nearby Beaver …
Subject: The 1805-1806 winter headquarters of explorers Lewis and Clark.
Fort Clatsop, built by Lewis and Clark in December, 1805 for use as winter headquarters, was situated eight-tenths of a mile south of this point. The site was chosen because of the game in the surrounding country and because it was convenient to the coast where salt …
Subject: History of the U.S. military post, 1867-1889.
Fort Harney-on the former Malheur Indian Reservation, was named for Gen. Wm. S. Harney. who took command of the Military Department of Oregon, Sept. 13, 1858. The fort was established Aug. 10, 1867, and became a permanent Military Post by order of the President. The Fort Harney Military Reserve …
Subject :Near here some of the earliest known inhabitants of this continent lived.
Some of the earliest known inhabitants of this continent made their home in a cave in one of the low knolls dominated by Fort Rock, visible across this basin. Radio-carbon dating indicates that sandals found in the cave may be 9,000 years old. …
Subject:History of the area, land uses, and the naming of Fort Stevens
Fort Stevens was named for General Isaac Ingalls Stevens, first Governor of Washington Territory, who died a hero of the Civil War of 1862. The fort was built in 1846 and decommissioned in 1947. Some 3000 acres of sandy wasteland known as Clatsop Sand …
Subject: A memorial to the 1843-44 John Fremont expedition to Oregon and California.
A MEMORIAL TO THE PERSONNEL OF THE SECOND FREMONT EXPLORING EXPEDITION TO OREGON AND NORTH CALIFORNIA.
The reports of this expedition directed the migration of the Western Settlement toward the Oregon Country which hitherto had been merely a rendezvous for trappers. On December 16th, …
Subject: This fine-grained rock was rafted to this location during catastrophic floods that occurred during the end of the Ice Age.
The 90-ton glacial erratic rock at the top of this 1/4 mile-long trail is a stranger from a distant location- it was transported here thousands of years ago on an iceberg in the wake of …
Subject:Tells of the forced relocation of inland valley Indians to the Grand Ronde Reservation, their fight for U.S. Government recognition, and their efforts toward economic stability.
Indians inhabited Oregon’s inland valleys for thousands of years before Euro-Americans began to arrive in the late 18th Century. In the early 1780s, and again in the 1830s, diseases spread …
Subject:Capt. Gray was the first known U.S. citizen in recorded history to set foot on the Oregon shoreline in 1788.
Captain Robert Gray, U.S. Naval Officer, in command of the sloop Lady Washington, together with the crew of about a dozen officers and men, left Boston October 1, 1787. After a journey filled with many hardships, …
Subject:Northern limit of the interior expanse known as the Great Basin.
This site marks the northern limit of the Great Basin, a region some six hundred miles long and up to five hundred miles wide. It began forming 17 million years ago as the result of regional uplift and east west stretching by geologic forces that …
A devastating tsunami hit the Oregon Coast in January 1700, wiping out native villages.
During the 18th century, Native American villages occupied the mouths of nearly every stream along this coastline-including here at Siletz Bay. Since native peoples probably had little idea about the relationship between earthquakes and tsunamis, they were taken by surprise in January …
Subject:A devastating tsunami hit the Oregon Coast in January 1700, wiping out native villages.
During the 18th century, Native American villages occupied the mouths of nearly every stream along this coastline-including here at Siletz Bay. Since native peoples probably had little idea about the relationship between earthquakes and tsunamis, they were taken by surprise in January …
Subject:Describes the devastating flood of 1903 which destroyed nearly the entire town.
OREGON HISTORY – SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 1903
A flash flood swept down on Heppner, and caught residents unaware, killing hundreds and destroying nearly the entire town. A cloudburst hit in Balm Fork Canyon, south of Heppner. The rushing waters tore down the narrow canyon, picking …
Subject:The first town permanently settled in Northestern Oregon.
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 …
Subject:History of the Wadatika band of Northern Paiute Indians.
This region is the homeland of the ‘Wadatika’ (wada seed eaters), a nomadic band of Northern Paiute Indians. Today, the descendents of these people are known as the Burns Paiute.
Armed conflicts between ranchers and the ‘Wadatika’, during the late 1800s, led President Ulysses S. Grant to create …
Subject:History of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians
This portion of the southwest Oregon is homeland to the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians. They thrived here for thousands of years before contact with Euro-Americans. Living in plank-house villages, they followed a seasonal round of resource use. Moving from summer camas meadows and salmon fisheries …
Subject:Early Indian trails and tracks used by early explorers, trappers and adventurers are noted.
An ancient trail passed through here as part of an extensive Indian trade network linking peoples of the Northern Great Basin and Columbia Plateau to those living west of the Cascades. Obsidian, bear grass, and slaves were transported over these trails to …
Subject:Describes the first enemy aircraft bombing of the U.S. mainland, an attack launched by the Japanese in September 1942.
Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, a contingent of Japanese 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 …
Subject:Site of the most treacherous descent of the Oregon Trail through Cascade Mountains.
HISTORIC OREGON TRAIL
The Pioneer Road here detoured the Columbia River Rapids and Mount Hood to the Willamette Valley. The road at first followed an old Indian trail. The later name was Barlow Road. Travel was difficult. Wagons were snubbed to trees by ropes …
Subject:Tells the story of the tree that served as a landmark for Indians, trappers and Oregon Trail emigrants.
Early Oregon Trail emigrants crested the south flank of Flagstaff Hill and, with the Blue Mountains looming to the west, saw a solitary tree in the valley below. Called l’arbre seul (the lone tree) by French-Canadian fur trappers, …
Subject:Gold mining drew emigrants from the east and west along the Oregon Trail
Beginning in 1843, thousands of Oregon Trail emigrants trekked through this region toward new lives in the West. This epic journey indelibly etched the landscape with wagon ruts, such as those near by. When Henry Griffin, a prospector from California, discovered gold eight …
Subject:Thomas McKay, Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader and operative, died near here.
‘One of the Oregon Country’s most picturesque fur-traders, Thomas McKay, is buried near Scappoose. He was a daring leader, famous storyteller and could drive a nail with a rifle ball. A Canadian, he arrived with Astorians as a teenage boy; served with North West …
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 …
Subject:Originally Lee’s Encampment, later site of the Mountain House. Honored by visit of President Harding in 1923.
HISTORIC OREGON TRAIL
First known as Lee’s Encampment, from establishment of a Troop Camp by Major H.A.G. Lee in 1844. A.B. and Harvey Meacham operated famous Mountain House here which gave the town its present name. In later years a …
Subject:The land claim of Meek, mountain man, who helped found the Oregon Provisional Government.
This marks the land claim of Joseph L. Meek, famed and unlettered ‘mountain man,’ who arrived in 1840 after driving from Fort Hall to Walla in the first wagon on that part of the Oregon Trail. He was a founder of the …
Subject:Site of ancient burial ground for Mid-Columbia Tribes.
Memaloose Island, visible from this point, was once an important Indian Burial Ground for Mid-Columbia Tribes. The dead were wrapped in skins or blankets and often placed in a sitting position, sheltered by Grave Houses of poles, slabs and bark. Before water rising above Bonneville Dam reduced the …
Subject:James Nesmith, a leader in early Oregon government, lived near this site.
PIONEER AND STATEMAN
James W. Nesmith, born in New Brunswick, Canada on July 23, 1820, was among the first emigrants to trek the Oregon Trail in 1843. He filed a land claim near present day Monmouth in 1844, and the following year took part in …
Subject:Homeland of the Nez Perce Chief Joseph.
Wallowa Valley, summer homeland of the Joseph Band Nez Perce, was part of the expansive Nez Perce reservation established by the treaty of 1855. Upon discovery of gold in the region, the U.S. eliminated the reservation in the Wallowas in 1863. The Joseph Band held on until 1877 when, …
Subject:Travels of Ogden and his fur trapping party through Oregon.
Peter Skene Ogden, Chief Trader for the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Thomas McKay, Clerk, with a company of 15 employees and 20 freemen and some Native families and over 100 horses, left The Dalles, September 19, 1826. They went up the Deschutes and Crooked Rivers to …
Subject:Peter Skene Ogden, leader of five expeditions into ‘Snake Country.’
Peter Skene Ogden, leading a party of Hudson’s Bay Company trappers, camped near here on October 10, 1828. On this Ogden’s fifth and final expedition into the ‘Snake Country,’ he started on September 22, from Fort Nez Perce (Walla Walla). From here, passing Alvord Lake, he …
Subject:Commemorates the far-ranging chief trapper of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
This Park is named for Peter Skene Ogden, 1793-1854. In the fall of 1825, Ogden led a Hudson’s Bay Company trapping party on the first recorded journey into Central Oregon, crossing the country to the north and east into the Crooked River Valley not far above …
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 …
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 …
Subject:Campground for the Astor Party and emigrants on the Oregon Trail.
OREGON TRAIL
Members of the Astor Party under the leadership of Wilson Price Hunt camped here in 1812 on their way to the mouth of the Columbia. They traded with the Indians for horses which they used for food. The river was called the Eu.o.tal.la (Umatilla) …
Subject:An Ice Age river flowed across the high desert in the rocky canyon near the marker.
OREGON GEOLOGY
Ages ago a river flowed across the high desert country in the rocky canyon several hundred yards beyond the marker. The prehistoric river drained a large ice age lake that formed from the blocking of normal drainage in the …
Subject:Boat crew of HMS Chatham sights river and names Mt. Hood from here in 1792. How Sandy River received its name.
HISTORIC OREGON TRAIL
On Oct. 30th, 1792 off the point in the Columbia River where the Sandy empties its waters the boat crew from the H.M.S. Chatham (Vancouver’s Voyages) were the first white men to sight …
Subject:Founding of the route between central Oregon and the Willamette Valley
The pass located east of here through the Cascade Range was once called Wiley Pass after Andrew Wiley. Wiley with other Willamette Valley pioneers explored it in 1859 while searching for a route to move their livestock to the grass lands of central Oregon for …
Subject:Honors Levi Scott, founder of town, and early area commerce.
Few Oregon communities have had a more colorful history than Scottsburg. It was named for Levi Scott, a pioneer of 1844, who homesteaded here and founded the town in 1850. There was a lower town at the head of tidewater on the Umpqua River which became …
Subject:Gateway to Central Oregon crossing the Deschutes River.
This area of the Deschutes River has been a river crossing and fishing location for thousands of years. Peter Skene Ogden made note of an Indian camp and bridge when he crossed here in 1826. Early pioneers using the Meek Cutoff to the Barlow Road passed here on …
Subject:Describes the pioneer route along the Snake River.
During the late 20th Century thousands of Americans left farms, families and friends to trek the Oregon Trail toward new lives in the West. The trail was nearly 2,000 miles across prairies, mountains and parched deserts, and contrary to popular belief, it was not a single set of …
Subject:Describes the use of Oregon Sitka Spruce in the construction of aircraft during World War l.
SPRUCE SOLDIERS OREGON TRAVEL INFORMATION COUNCIL
Aircraft proved their military worth during World War I — initially for observation purposes, and later for the support of ground troops and bombing. When the United States entered the war in 1917, air supremacy …
Subject:The Sunset Highway is dedicated to members of the 41st Division who wore the Sunset emblem.
This highway is reverently dedicated to Oregon’s sons. Members of the 41st division, both living and dead, who wore the Sunset emblem and offered their all in complete devotion to the cause of world peace.
Subject:While trying to find their way into the upper Williamette Valley, emigrants traveled an alternate route that started in present-day Vale and traversed the desert near this site.
MEEK/ELLIOTT THE TERRIBLE TRAIL
Weary Oregon Trail emigrants, eager to ease travel or gain mileage, often attempted cutoffs and shortcuts. While many of these alternate routes proved successful, others …
Subject:The discovery of gold sends thousands of fortune hunters into the upper John Day basin.
The discovery of gold at Canyon Creek on June 8, 1862, brought a rush of people and supplies into the upper John Day basin. Within a year, nearly 10,000 fortune hunters trekked to the gold fields from the nearest access and …
Subject:Describes the devastating forest fires of 1933, 1939 and 1945 and subsequent reforestation.
Trees on 240,000 acres were killed in 1933 in one of the Nation’s worst forest fires which started four miles northeast of this point. Later fires extended the burn to 355,000 acres-to more than 13 billion board feet of timber. This area is …
Subject:The site of disastrous forest fires in 1933, 1939 and 1945.
Oregon’s Historic Tillamook Forest Fire of 1933 spread over 240,000 acres of forest land, fires in 1939 and 1945 brought the total to 355,000 acres. Over 13 billion board feet of timber were killed. Devastation by these disastrous fires aroused Oregon voters to approve a …
Subject:Pioneer community settled in the 1850′s.
This pioneer community gateway to the Columbia Gorge was settled in the 1850′s. Cattle herds of early pioneers were driven to the nearby Sandy River from the Dalles while the emigrants rafted their wagons down the Columbia. First known as Sandy, the present name came from fish ponds built by …
Subject:Provides information about the devastating waves called ‘tsunamis’ which can strike the Oregon coast and what action should be taken in case of such an occurrence.
TSUNAMI – SEASIDE
Devastating waves called ‘tsunamis’ can strike the Oregon coast at any time. These waves are caused by great undersea earthquakes that occur along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, one …
Subject:Provides information about the devastating waves called ‘tsunamis’ which can strike the Oregon coast and what action should be taken in case of such an occurrence.
Devastating waves called ‘tsunamis’ can strike the Oregon coast at any time. These waves are caused by great undersea earthquakes that occur along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, one of the …
Subject:Provides information about the devastating waves called ‘tsunamis’ which can strike the Oregon coast and what action should be taken in case of such an occurrence.
Devastating waves called ‘tsunamis’ can strike the Oregon coast at any time. These waves are caused by great undersea earthquakes that occur along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, one of the …
Subject:Campsite of emigrants on the Oregon Trail.
HISTORIC OREGON TRAIL
Weary emigrants traveling westward on the Oregon Trail favored a campsite on the near bank of the Umatilla River at this point. On leaving they climbed the same hill the highway now traverses, then recrossed the Umatilla River at Echo 20 hot, dusty miles westerly.
In the years …
Subject:Klamath Lake wildlife sanctuary and Oregon’s largest body of water.
This is Oregon’s largest body of water, about 90,000 acres. Indians inhabiting its shores (‘People of the Lake’) lived well on wild fowl, fish and wocus seeds. The first known white visitors (1825-26) were Hudson’s Bay trappers under Tom McKay and Finan McDonald. In 1846, while …
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 …
Subject:Wallowa Lake was created by the advance and retreat of alpine glaciers.
OREGON GEOLOGY
Wallowa Lake has been formed by the damming action of glacial drift. The easterly shore of the lake is a splendid example of a lateral moraine and the northern boundary of the lake of a terminal moraine. An outwash plain extends beyond the …
Subject:Founded the first cannery on the Oregon shore of the Columbia River and exported lumber and canned salmon globally.
WESTPORT, OREGON
“Captain” John West was a selfmade man. A native of Scotland, he settled on the lower Columbia River near this spot in the early 1850s after trying his luck in the goldfields of California. West built …
Subject:The falls were originally a Native American fishing site and later became the power source for numerous mills and electricity generation.
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 …
Subject:Series of five locks with a total lift of 50.2 feet opened in 1873.
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 …
Subject:The first trading post in the Willamette Valley in 1811.
The first trading post in the Willamette Valley was located on the Prairie Knoll just east of this point. The post was established in 1811 by the Astor Company to trade for furs and to take game which was cured and sent by canoe to Fort …
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 …
Subject:Camp site for the Pacific Railroad survey party in 1855.
A Pacific Railroad Survey party searching for a practicable route for a railroad to connect the Sacramento Valley with the Columbia River passed near this point bound north on August 20, 1855. Lieutenant R.S. Williamson headed the party with 2nd Lieutenant Henry I. Abbot second in …
Subject:Yaquina Bay Lighthouse established in 1871. The old Yaquina Bay Llighthouse 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 …