Oregon150

A History Lesson

Helen Caster
Colton

Helen Caster
The year was 1937, and I was a teacher in the tiny, rural town of Colton. I was an inexperienced, new teacher, trying to make Oregon history come “alive” to my students. I dramatically described my own recent visit to one of Portland’s large parks where I had seen the statue of Sacajawea. I [...]

The Oregon Story of Jean F. Branson

Sue Rawlings
Hart Mountain

A Sweet Home, Oregon Story

Glenda Hopkins
Sweet Home, OR

Pioneering in Oregon

Gynn O. Deaton
Canyonville

Why Do I Love Oregon?

Marie Arnold
Coos Bay

By Marie Arnold
Coos Bay, Oregon

Mabel’s Journal

Alison Mae Lasher
Oregon

MABEL’S JOURNAL
A short story by Alison Mae Lasher, age 10, inspired by the diaries of her great-
grandmother’s aunt, Mabel F. O’Brian, who immigrated to Oregon in 1892.
February 12, 1892, Leon, Kansas
Dear Journal,
Pa got home from Oregon. It’s a wonderful land. Ma said, “I suppose we have to
pack. We’re going west.” I’m excited to go on [...]

Oregon at First Glance

Jhana McCullum
Roseburg, Oregon

Jhana McCullum
Roseburg, Oregon
When I first traveled through Oregon, I was totally amazed at its beauty. Even along I-5, its splendor overwhelmed me. I saw hawks floating on air waves high above rugged peaks, a clean blue sky and trees that stood tall and proud testifying of greatness. The air was cleaner than any I could [...]

On the Farm in Mid 20th Century

Robert Mumby
Roseburg, OR

Robert Mumby
During World War II my father sold his Farmer’s Market drug store in Los Angeles and brought my mother, brother and I to Roseburg. Shortly thereafter we moved to a ranch some 16 miles of paved, gravel and dirt road west of Roseburg at the base the Coast Range.
Two brothers, immigrants from Sweden, sold [...]

An Accidental Oregonian

Susan Castillo, State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Susan Castillo, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
I moved to Oregon from southern California when I was in my 20s. I didn’t plan on making the move permanent; I just sort of wandered here the way many young people did in the 1970s. I am an accidental Oregonian.
It may surprise some people to know that [...]

The Giant Spruce of Cape Perpetua

The Oregon Travel Information Council
Cape Perpetua

The Oregon Travel Information Council
The story of the Giant Spruce of Cape Perpetua (Picea sitchensis) began long ago. Half a century before Christopher Columbus sailed to the America’s, a tiny Sitka spruce began its life nourished by a nurse log on the Oregon coast. Today, it is the largest and oldest tree in the [...]

The Student Planter’s Grove

The Oregon Travel Information Council
Tillamook

The Oregon Travel Information Council
The Student Planters’ Grove (Pseudotsuga menziesii) came to life between 1949 and 1973, when an army of volunteers helped plant an estimated 72 million trees to reforest the Tillamook Burn—one of the largest forest replanting efforts in history. Here, in the area of Cedar Creek Flat, the new forest was [...]