The Oregon Encyclopedia

An Authoritative and Free Resource on All Things Oregon

Bonneville Dam

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Bonneville Dam

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built and operated Bonneville Lock and Dam as the first of eight federal locks and dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Located 41 miles ...

Carnegie Libraries in Oregon

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Carnegie Libraries in Oregon

Of the 1,679 public library buildings funded in the United States by Andrew Carnegie between 1883 and 1929, 31 were in Oregon. As was true in most states, the possibility of ...

Crater Lake National Park

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Crater Lake National Park

As a focal point in the Cascade Range for almost a half million visitors each year, Crater Lake National Park is a place where beauty arose from cataclysmic events. Over seven millennia ...

Federal Writers' Project in Oregon

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Federal Writers' Project in Oregon

The Federal Writers' Project was one of five independent branches of the Works Progress Administration, established in the summer of 1935 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In its inception, the WPA sponsored ...

Forest Park

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Forest Park

Forest Park is a unique and impressive recreational and scenic area established in Portland as a city park in 1948. The park covers 5,170 forested acres within the city limits, is ...

Fort Clatsop

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Fort Clatsop

Built in 1805 near present-day Astoria, Fort Clatsop was the winter quarters for the Corps of Volunteers for Northwest Discovery, more commonly known as the Corps of Discovery or the Lewis and ...

Hart Mountain Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp

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Hart Mountain Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp

Camp Hart Mountain, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, operated from October 1937 until July 1941. Located near Plush, about forty miles northeast of Lakeview, the camp was established by enrollees from Camp ...

Hatfield Marine Science Center and Visitor Center

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Hatfield Marine Science Center and Visitor Center

The Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) on Yaquina Bay in Newport was originally established in 1965 as a marine laboratory for Oregon State University (OSU). It is named in honor of Mark O ...

Highway 101 (Oregon Coast Highway)

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Highway 101 (Oregon Coast Highway)

Many places on the Oregon coast were virtually inaccessible in the early twentieth century. Small fishing villages existed as remote outposts, separated by rocky headlands and timber-covered hills. The Roosevelt Coast Military ...

Lewis and Clark Expedition

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Lewis and Clark Expedition

The Expedition

No exploration of the Oregon Country has greater historical significance than the Voyage of Discovery led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Historians and geographers judge the Lewis and Clark ...

Oregon Caves National Monument

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Oregon Caves National Monument

Only a few places in the Beaver State are named in reference to California, and Oregon Caves is one of them. Its earlier moniker, the Josephine County Caves, gradually faded from use ...

Oregon Land Survey, 1851-1855

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Oregon Land Survey, 1851-1855

In 1850, President Millard Fillmore appointed John B. Preston as Oregon Territory's first surveyor general. Preston arrived in the territory in 1851; and by the time he and the last of ...

Oregon State Capitol

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Oregon State Capitol

Among capitol buildings in the United States, the Oregon State Capitol in Salem is a landmark of Modernistic design. Like most other statehouses, it was symmetrically organized in the tradition of Classically ...

Oregon State Library

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Oregon State Library

Since 1905, the State Library of Oregon in Salem has worked to develop library services for all Oregonians. The library also serves as the library for state government, maintaining a comprehensive collection ...

Oswald West State Park

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Oswald West State Park

Shortly after Samuel Boardman became Oregon’s first director of state parks in 1929, he received a proposal for a park along the north coast. Helen Drollinger, who owned land on the coast ...

Pine Mountain Observatory

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Pine Mountain Observatory

Located at 6,300 feet of elevation on a landmark butte in the High Desert, southeast of Bend, Pine Mountain Observatory (PMO) is owned and operated by the University of Oregon (UO ...

Starkey Experimental Forest and Range

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Starkey Experimental Forest and Range

A first-class U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife research facility, the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range is a 28,000-acre enclosure of forests and mountain meadows in ...

Timberline Lodge

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Timberline Lodge

Timberline Lodge is the showplace for Works Progress Administration projects in Oregon. Its construction was financed with nearly a million dollars from the WPA and additional funding from the Federal Art Project ...

Umatilla Army Depot

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Umatilla Army Depot

In 1940, the U.S. Army identified twenty thousand acres straddling the Umatilla and Morrow county line, eight miles west of Hermiston, as the site for a military munitions and supply depot ...

United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842)

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United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842)

The United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842), also known as the Wilkes Expedition, was shaped by both commercial and scientific concerns and a desire to expand American influence and interests in the Pacific ...

University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History

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University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History

Located in Eugene on the University of Oregon (UO) campus, the Museum of Natural and Cultural History traces its origins to 1876, when Thomas Condon was appointed the first professor of geology ...

U.S. Life-Saving Service in Oregon

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U.S. Life-Saving Service in Oregon

The mission of the U.S. Life-Saving Service was to rescue those in peril from the sea. To serve that mission, the federal government built coastal stations to house the men and ...

Vanport Extension Center

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Vanport Extension Center

The Vanport Extension Center grew from a converted shopping mall and recreation center in the World War II city of Vanport into Portland State University, the first publicly supported institution of higher ...

Willamette Stone and Willamette Meridian

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Willamette Stone and Willamette Meridian

Land surveys accomplished under the U.S. Government's Rectangular Survey System are the basis for the establishment of land titles and boundaries within Oregon. The initial point for the land surveys ...

Research Categories

Become a member of the Oregon Historical Society, GET THE QUARTERLY, have some cheese

As far as encyclopedias go, The Oregon Encyclopedia may be the greatest encyclopedia of all time. It has all the best entries, the best authors, and the best photographs—thousands of them. The OE is part of one of the greatest research libraries in the West, which is located in the largest historical society in the state—the Oregon Historical Society. All sorts of cool history things are here, including a pardon signed by President Harrison for an Oregon bootlegger, a photo of Santa Ana's cork leg, the film "The Haunted Camera" directed by a 15-year-old Medford girl in the 1930s, and an animatronic elf (or three) from SantaLand. Millions of awesome history items are catalogued, carefully stored, and kept safe at OHS. Come visit! Even better, with an annual membership to the Oregon Historical Society, you'll help keep all that history stuff in good order; you'll get a subscription to the fun-to-read Oregon Historical Quarterly; and you'll be invited to special events, cheese included. You'll also have access to many other historical and cultural institutions around the state. Excellent!

Click here to join Oregon's public history community

Watchman and Llao Rock formations at Crater Lake.

TAXES

Things we bought together, things we own together. "I will begin today with a commitment to invest in and enhance Oregon's human assets and Oregon's natural assets. And as I work for a better Oregon, I don't want you cheering me on from the sidelines. Oregon's future is not a spectator sport. We're all in this together. This is our time." --Gov. Barbara Roberts, Inaugural Address, January 14, 1991.

Click here to see what we bought

This Month in Oregon History: "the vein of gold in the quartz of [...] more rugged virtues"

2018: A year-long tribute to authors in The OE. The history of Oregon's people, places, events, and biota is remembered and made accessible to all by the dedicated people who contribute to this project and to hundreds of other public history projects and organizations across the Northwest. The OE is an amazing compendium of scholars, writers, and experts working throughout the region who generously share their research and knowledge about the history and culture of Oregon. We are endlessly grateful.

Click here to meet our featured authors.

Upcoming Events

History Pub: McMenamins Old St. Francis in Bend

"Rajneeshpuram Revisited," presented by Carl Abbott, Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University.

April 24, 2018 at 7 p.m.

More details...

Location

McMenamins Old St. Francis School
700 N.W. Bond Street
Bend, OR

Google Map...

Welcome to the award-winning Oregon Encyclopedia

Western History Association, Gene Autry Public History Award, 2012.

AASLH American Association of State and Local History, Leadership in History Award, 2011.

NCTE logo National Council of Teachers of English, Multicultural Program Award, 2009.

OHS Digital History Projects

In addition to The Oregon Encyclopedia, the OHS Digital History Projects include the Oregon History Project and Oregon History Wayfinder.

Oregon History Project

Oregon History Wayfinder

The OE is Green!

The Encyclopedia's editorial process is completely paperless. Our authors and editors use a one-of-a-kind online workshop developed by Portland State University. We've published hundreds of authoritative entries on Oregon history and culture without hurting a single Douglas Fir. Donate your green to The OE and keep us—and the trees—growing.

Additional Funding

This project has been funded in part by the Oregon Heritage Commission and the Oregon Cultural Trust.

Project Partners

LSTA Libraries as Community Resources Meetings, made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to The Oregon Encyclopedia.

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