Maps have a magical ability to allow one to travel to places they have and have not been to. They offer an experiential taste. From the late 1920’s until the 1970’s, would-be travelers had options to pick up road maps at no cost from various gasoline stations around the US. My favorites as a child – and even now – fell to those produced by the H. M. Gousha Maps. Vibrant colors accompanied by bright fonts set the maps as a peak for other map companies to reach for in my eyes.
Continue reading
Waterfalls abound throughout the State of Oregon, especially in the western hills. Abundant rains fall throughout the forests filling streams cascading over lava cliffs. To catch these falls at their height means an off-season journey. Summer season can mean little or no rain for a month or more at a time making the falls seem much tamer than when they are at their fullest. Here, a small collection of waterfalls taken from the area around the Lower Columbia. This area gets pelted with rains out of summer. Astoria averages 86 inches of rain a year – Portland, by contrast, averages a mere 36 inches.
Continue reading
Until 1940, there really was no fast and easy way to reach the Pacific Coast from the main population center of Oregon – Portland. At first, there were river steamers coming downstream from Portland to Astoria. Then, the train to Astoria with a branch line going further south to Gearhart and Seaside. The first road connection finally came in 1915 with the building of the Lower Columbia Highway, today’s US Highway 30.
Continue reading
The 1840’s saw emigrants begin to make Oregon – especially the Willamette Valley – a destination of choice. After a brief struggle, newcomers chose to make Salem the capital of the new Territory instead of Oregon City. But Salem was definitely an inland choice. Transportation to the sea was needed to enable easier communication with the rest of the World as opposed to a six-month jaunt across the Rockies. As the 1850’s rolled on, the best choice of a seaport lay at the mouth of the Columbia River – enter the Astoria to Salem Road, military in purported purpose, but strategic thinking lay at the heart.
Continue reading
Travelling along at 70 mph along Interstate 84 along the Columbia River, it is easy to think Oregon’s mid-19th century pioneers just shuttled along rambling into Portland on Sandy Boulevard in no time at all. Drive out to Well Springs and that idea disappears very quickly. The long drive out here on the south side of the US Navy’s Boardman Bombing Range gives one the best example of what it must have been like to drive a wagon along the Oregon Trail with the end coming finally into view.
Continue reading
Following the deaths at the Whitman Mission in December 1847, emigrants travelling the Oregon Trail elected to bypass the jaunt of the trail to the north following the descent out of the Blue Mountains. Instead, the new path led down the Umatilla River before heading out across the dry Columbia Plateau roughly parallel to the river about 6-8 miles to the south.
Continue reading
Pioneers on the Oregon Trail found the crossing of the Blues to be a taxing affair, especially so late in their journey. Some writers have declared the passage over the Blue Mountains as the last big challenge faced by the Overlanders.
Continue reading
With the Cayuse War, the federal government finally acted in Washington, D.C., 18 August 1848, to develop an official form of government over the region of the Oregon Country transferred to American control by the Oregon Treaty of 1846 officially ending the awkward condominium shared with Great Britain since 1818. The new territorial government ushered in new power brokers – aka the Salem Clique – to administer the political machine during the next decade. This setting the stage for a Statehood granted 14 February 1859 with war clouds gathering furiously back in the East.
Continue reading
Driving down Interstate 84 today, you might be forgiven for thinking your route follows that taken by the pioneers of the middle 19th century coming to the new lands of Oregon. The hardest part of the Oregon Trail came at the end, from The Dalles through the Cascades. Before the Barlow Trail became a viable alternative in 1847, pioneer families put their wagons onto handmade rafts floating them through Columbia Gorge, whitewater of the Cascades Rapids and all. The river served as a highway for Lewis and Clark in their journey to the Pacific Ocean. It did not serve as such a fine route for the settlers who came later. But today, we focus on the Trail crossing the arid Columbia Plateau.
Continue reading
Oregon City is packed full of history. The first city of Oregon features two fine museums – Oregon Trail Museum and the Museum of the Oregon Territory – besides being home to the houses of two pioneers of the Hudson’s Bay Company, John McLoughlin and Forbes Barclay. Beyond that, the dramatic power of the Willamette is on display from roadside vista points off Oregon Highway 99E and Interstate 205. While the views are dramatic enough, that will change in the near future as the plans of the Grand Ronde Tribe come to fruition as the former industrial area reinvents itself to take advantage of the sheer magnificence of Willamette Falls. Two other nearby sights are not as well known to those outside of Oregon City – Singer Falls and the McLoughlin Promenade.
Continue reading