Category Archives: History

RAIL LAND GRANTS – PLAYING CHECKERS ON THE NORTHWESTERN MAP

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Oregon & California lands given back to the federal government include much of the BLM lands – orange. These were part of the original land grants given to the O&C Rail Road.

Looking at maps showing Federal lands of the West, you quickly notice a checkerboard arrangement incongruously drawn without seeming reason.  Certainly, no topographical purpose.  You now see the result of the rail land grants – grabs – of the 19th century.

One of Abraham Lincoln’s main planks to his 1860 presidential campaign became realized by the 1862 Pacific Railway Act.  This gave Congress the ability to grant land and low-cost loans to railway companies building lines across the West.  Lincoln’s goal was a transcontinental line to unite California and the Pacific Coast to the rest of the country.

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RAIL STATIONS OF THE NORTHWEST – MULTIPLE STATIONS BETTER THAN ONE?

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Union Station in Seattle – originally the Oregon & Washington Railroad Depot.

As rail travel in the western US continues to be a fade from the past, many people have forgotten several cities used to have more than one passenger terminal to use.  Some of the multiple rail stations have survived in other guises.  Some, simply gone.

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BEAVERS AT WAR – OAC RENOWNED FROM THE GREAT WAR

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Memorial Union building at Oregon State University. McAlexander helped with fundraising for the memorial to students killed in World War I.
Memorial Union building at Oregon State University, built as a memorial to students killed in World War I.

Oregon Agricultural College, OAC, is a land grant university.  As such, military science and tactics became part of the curriculum.  This in order for the school to receive land grants to help fund the establishment and development of the college.

All male students studied military classes for their first two years at school, taking part in military drills and parades in all the years of the school before 1917 – military classes would remain mandatory until 1961.  Many remained in the classes for their entire sojourn at the school.  With so many indoctrinated in the mysteries of military life, it should not surprise anyone that many students and graduates of OAC served in one branch or another during the first world conflagration the United States found itself involved with in 1917.

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BATOGNICA – GREAT WAR STALEMATE HIGH IN THE JULIAN ALPS

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Grenades, shoe leather, wire and bones – all atop Batognica, where time stood still for 26 months.

Rising as a bump on the long Krn-Vršič ridge just to the south of the pyramidal climax of Krn, Batognica looks nondescript from afar.  Closer up, say from the peak of Krn, that impression changes.  Standing not unlike an aircraft carrier as the last mound rising above the 2100-meter mark as the ridge begins its precipitous drop to the south – and the murderous grounds of Myrzli vrh – Batognica takes on a different impression.

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CAPAS – FILIPINO SACRIFICE IN THE SHADOWS OF NEW CLARK CITY

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Inside the three towers of the Capas National Shrine. Three columns representing Japan, the Philippines and the United States. A desire for peace.
Inside the three towers of the Capas National Shrine. Three columns representing Japan, the Philippines and the United States. A desire for peace.

The spire of the Capas National Shrine rises 240 feet into the air above the hot, humid plains of central Luzon.  There is lots of symbolism included in the site.  Three parts of the towering spire represent the peoples of the Philippines, the United States and … Japan.  Covering 54 hectares – 130 acres – over half of the grounds have been planted with 31,000 trees representing the 25,000 Filipinos and 6,000 Americans who perished here at Camp O’Donnell following the end of the Bataan Death March in 1942.  The park was named a national shrine by President Cory Aquino in 1991 with the tower was added in 2003 with a memorial wall behind with the names of those known to have perished here at the camp.

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CORGIS ON PARADE – MAGIC IN THE COAST AIR

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Corgis mix it up in Ecola Creek at Cannon Beach Corgi Day.
Corgis mix it up in Ecola Creek at Cannon Beach Corgi Day.

My wife, our Corgi and I recently escaped the summer heat of the Willamette Valley for a day at the beach, Cannon Beach to be exact. Home of the annual Corgi Day at the Beach. It was an awesome day made more mystical by swirls of fog lying along the shore. Over 500 Corgis were running up and down through the sands.

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HIGH ATOP MONTE NERO, THE COLONEL WEPT – MAGIC OF KRN

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View from atop Krn looking northeast into the heart of the Julian Alps, Jezero Lake far below.

Over a hundred years after the tumult of the Great War, vestiges of the struggle remain in visible evidence around the 2245-meter-high mountain top of Krn – Monte Nero (Black Mountain) in Italian.  Strands of barbed wire twirl about on the slopes adding to the drama of the incredible views from the Adriatic Sea to the Italian Dolomites and into the heart of the Slovene Julian Alps.  Here on Krn and its surrounding ridges, mountain warfare on a harsh scale took place from mid-June 1915 through to the end of October 1917 when the Battle of Caporetto moved the unmovable front far to the west for the Italian Front’s last acts.

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DEVELOPMENT – REALIGNMENT, US 101 ON EDGE OF OREGON

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Nestucca Spit - saved from realignment of US 101 by then Secretary of State Robert Straub.
Nestucca Spit – saved from realignment of US 101 by then Secretary of State Robert Straub.

US 101 is the main focus for would-be tourists to Oregon.  The Oregon coastline is truly spectacular.  The Oregon Coast Highway provides the main access for those wishing to see the magic.  Driving the length of the magnificent road gives one an excellent window into the wildness, beauty and changeability of a unique environment.

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GREAT DUNE OF KIWANDA – MAGIC ON THE OREGON COAST

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Erosion continually reshapes the landscape at Cape Kiwanda.

The Oregon Coast spans some fantastically beautiful scenery.  Driving along US 101 in the summer can be a bit frustrating at times stuck behind the travel trailers and rvs making their way north or south along the highway, but there is a reason so many are there.  People ask me what the favorite spot I have along the long coastline.  That is a lot like the question what your favorite travel place in the world is.  There are simply too many. One recent spot I discovered was the mystical charms to be discovered atop the Great Dune of Cape Kiwanda.

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THE DOUBLE NINE – PACIFIC HIGHWAY – DIVERGENCE AND WEALTH SHARING IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY

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Double Nine – East Side Version.

As a child, road maps drew me in. The lines on the map fascinated me, linking places I had never been to or heard of together. Numbers linked with the lines created journeys for discovery. In 1926, the federal government came up with a plan to number highways to replace names – in this case, the Pacific Highway – in order to establish an integrated system of roads throughout the country. The so-called “Federal system” did not mean the federal government built or maintained the roads. That process remained the responsibility of local and state governments. Highways simply gained numbers and signs so auto drivers could determine their location.

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