Author's Entries

• Albert R. Kitzhaber (1915-2006)

  If you learned anything about writing in school, you may have University of Oregon Professor Albert R. Kitzhaber to thank. A researcher, teacher, and author, Kitzhaber was an early, important advocate for reform in teaching composition at the high school and college levels. An Iowa native, Kitzhaber completed an undergraduate …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Allann Bros Coffee

  In the new American coffee culture, Albany-based Allann Bros Coffee carved out a niche as a gourmet roaster. Founded in 1972, just a year after Starbucks opened its first shop in Seattle, Allann Bros operates Beanery coffee shops in Salem, Eugene, Corvallis, Albany, and Ashland and distributes …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Ashland Independent Film Festival

  The Ashland Independent Film Festival (AIFF) is a five-day film festival showing a broad range of non-studio films. The festival typically offers more than eighty works and, though international in scope, features its Oregon connections with filmmakers such as Klamath Falls native Chris Eyre ("Smoke Signals," 1998) and Jacksonville resident …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Brian James Patrick Doyle (1956-2017)

  Writer Brian Doyle explored the spirit of Oregon’s small towns and the wonders of the world. Describing himself as “a story catcher,” he wrote about spirituality, family, nature, place, wine, and the human heart with a distinctive playful style and zest. The author of over two dozen books, Doyle was …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Carson Helicopters

  For nearly twenty years, Oregon has been the home to Carson Helicopters, Inc., which operates a fleet of heavy-lift helicopters from its headquarters in Grants Pass. The brainchild of engineer Frank Carson, the company got its start in 1958, when Carson sold the first helicopter he built, and bought …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Country Coach

  The Oregon RV (recreational vehicle) industry has its beginning in 1968, when Bob Lee and three other young entrepreneurs established Caribou Manufacturing in Junction City. In 1973, Lee left Caribou to found Country Campers. The company started making mini-motor homes the next year, and by 1983 a hundred employees were …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Damon Knight (1922-2002)

  In an episode of the Twilight Zone, a domed, nine-foot-tall alien race arrives on Earth to promote exchanges with its planet. Humans are skeptical until a cryptographer translates the title of one of their books, To Serve Man; later, we learn the book is a cookbook. This episode …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Davidson Baking Company (Sunbeam Bakery)

  Coffee cake, donuts, butterhorns, cinnamon rolls, snack cakes, and, of course, bread. These were all products of the Davidson Baking Company, founded in 1914 by Eugene F. Davidson (1887-1968). In the early years, the company sold Liberty Bread, a mix of cornmeal, rice, rye, bran, whole wheat, and white flour …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Ebbert T. (Bert) Webber (1921-2006)

  Bert Webber called himself a research photojournalist. It is an apt description for a writer who was equal parts historian, journalist, and librarian. Ebbert True "Bert" Webber grew up in San Francisco, where he became interested in writing and photography at a young age. He joined the Army Signal Corps …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Erickson Air-Crane

  In the early 1970s, logger Jack Erickson was pioneering a new way to transport logs out of forests—carrying them out by helicopter. Using a leased Sikorsky S-64E Skycrane, the civilian version of the Sikorsky Tarhe helicopter, he reinvented the Erickson Lumber Company as Erickson Air-Crane. Today, that company is the …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Eugene Debs "Debbs" Potts (1909–2003)

  In a long career of public service, Eugene Debs Potts was a mayor, state senator and senate president, and acting governor. He was also the first chair of the Oregon State Lottery Commission and the founder of the Josephine County tourist attraction that bears his name, Pottsville.  Potts was born …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Full Sail Brewing Company

  Founded in 1987 in Hood River, the Full Sail Brewing Company is one of the earliest craft breweries in Oregon. Originally called the Hood River Brewing Company, the company now produces about 100,000 barrels of beer a year, sold in bottles, cans, and kegs in twenty-eight states. In the …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Gardenburger Inc.

  Leftovers at a vegetarian restaurant in Oregon gave birth to the world’s most popular meatless hamburger—the Gardenburger®.  Paul Wenner (b. 1947), a health-conscious eater during the 1960s, served in the Air Force and graduated from Mt. Hood Community College in 1973. He taught natural food cooking and founded the Gardenhouse …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Grants Pass

  Located on the Rogue River about thirty miles northwest of Medford, Grants Pass is the county seat of Josephine County. The area’s Mediterranean climate, with hot summers and mild winters, has long been a source of pride for residents, so much so that in 1920 engineer John Hampshire donated …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Gus Van Sant (1952-)

  Gus Van Sant, Oregon’s most celebrated filmmaker, has lived and worked in Portland for more than thirty years. Portland is the setting for several of his independent films, which portray the Bohemian youth culture of the city and its grittier landmarks, including rail yards, warehouses, rooftops, and skate parks. Portland …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• John Edward Frohnmayer (1942-)

  John Edward Frohnmayer is a lawyer, writer, and arts leader who served as the fifth chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and as the chair of both the Oregon Arts Commission and Oregon Humanities. His tenure at the NEA came at a time of widely publicized debate about …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Kim Novak (1933-)

  In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Kim Novak was one of Hollywood’s top box office stars, even appearing on the cover of Time magazine. In 1992, she moved to southern Oregon, where she still makes her home. Born in Chicago in 1933, Marilyn Pauline Novak wrote poetry and studied …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Klamath Falls (city)

  Klamath Falls, the county seat of Klamath County, is on the southeastern shore of Upper Klamath Lake about seventeen miles north of the California-Oregon state line. Known by some as Oregon's City of Sunshine for its up to 300 sunny days a year, the city is located in the northeastern …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Lenn Hannon (1943-2010)

  With a nearly thirty-year tenure, Lenn Lamar Hannon was the second longest-serving state senator in Oregon’s history. Born on the Fourth of July in 1943, Hannon grew up in Ashland, where his father was a minister in the Church of the Nazarene. As a teen, he reportedly shook hands …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Les Schwab (1917 - 2007)

  Founded in 1952 as a two-man tire store in Prineville, Les Schwab Tire Centers has become a Fortune 500 Company with well over a billion dollars in annual sales. Its stores—located in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, California, Nevada, Utah, and Alaska—are recognized by their red and yellow signs. In …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Lithia Motors

  Lithia Motors in Ashland began in 1946 with a Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge car dealership founded by Walter DeBoer. Today, it is a Fortune 700 company whose growth is a case study in how a small business becomes a national leader in an industry. Named after the area's Lithia Springs and located in …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Monaco Motor Coach

  The recreational vehicle (RV) industry had its beginning in 1968, when entrepreneurs Bob Lee, Ray Mehaffey, Glenn Hancock, and John McCabe started Caribou Manufacturing in Junction City, Oregon. When Caribou introduced the Monaco motor home in 1971, the company established a sales and distribution network throughout the Pacific Northwest. Caribou …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Myrtlewood Industry

  The Oregon myrtle (Umbellularia californica) grows in a ninety-square-mile area of southern Oregon and in much of California, where it is known as the California laurel. A slow-growing bay laurel, related to camphor and cinnamon, its leaves are used in perfumes, candles, incense, and (when dried) seasoning. The West …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Oregon and the Film Industry

  Early Filmmaking in Oregon Motion pictures debuted in Oregon in 1894 when a kinetoscope arrived in Portland. The innovative technology allowed boxing matches, vaudeville acts, and other popular entertainment to be shown in penny arcades and peepshows and, after 1906, on the nickelodeon.  Soon early films were being projected …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Oregon, the name

  Two hundred and fifty years after the place-name appeared on maps and other documents, details of the etymology of the name Oregon are still being debated. There is growing consensus that its origin is most likely Algonquian, a family of Indigenous languages spoken east of the Rocky Mountains and in …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Pears and the pear industry

  European pears (Pyrus communis) thrive in the temperate climate of the coastal western states. Pear cultivation got its start in Oregon when Iowan Henderson Luelling brought two large boxes of fruit-tree sprouts—apples, pears, cherries, and more—to Oregon in 1847. Today, Oregon produces about 800 million pears annually, nearly …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Raven Maps

  Named after the view that ravens bring to the landscape, Raven Maps and Images in Medford exemplifies niche creative-services. The idea of selling maps as art arose from a 1981 conversation between mapmaker Stuart Allan and marketing entrepreneur Michael Beard. Allan Cartography, Inc., had established a reputation as a specialty …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Roseburg

  Roseburg, the county seat of Douglas County, is located in the Hundred Valleys of the Umpqua, a region that enjoys a Mediterranean climate with rare extremes of heat and cold. A timber town for much of the twentieth century, Roseburg calls itself the “Timber Capital of the Nation.” While timber …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Shari’s Café & Pies

  Ron and Sharon Bergquist opened the first Shari's restaurant—named after Sharon—in Hermiston, Oregon, in 1978. The couple had been living in Hermiston since 1974 and for a time operated the Blue Bucket Restaurant. An architect, Ron Bergquist had a vision for a new restaurant design and "Shari" Bergquist helped …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Thomas J. Autzen (1888-1958)

  You might say that Autzen Stadium at the University of Oregon owes its name to plywood. It is named in honor of Thomas John Autzen, a second-generation Portland lumberman who ushered in the age of plywood. Born on June 30, 1888, Autzen grew up in Hoquiam, Washington. His father, Peter …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Tucker Sno-Cat®

  When Emmitt Tucker was a young boy in northwest Jackson County, he walked to school in the deep snow, just like his schoolmates. What was different about Tucker is that he did something about it. The founder of Tucker Sno-Cat® Corporation of Medford, one of the world's oldest and …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Forensics Lab

  Who nailed a protected spotted owl to a park sign? Are ivory tusks from modern elephants or Ice Age mammoths? Are fish eggs sold as caviar actually from a sturgeon, or are they really from a paddlefish? Did a dried penis sold as an aphrodisiac come from a tiger or …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• United Bicycle Institute

  Ashland's United Bicycle Institute (UBI) is the largest trainer of certified bicycle mechanics in the United States and the only school in the world that teaches bicycle-frame building. Serving both enthusiasts and professionals, UBI has more than fifty classes annually, from basic repair to advanced mechanics, shop operation, and …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• White Stag Manufacturing

  The White Stag block is a renovated complex of environmentally friendly buildings in Old Town, Portland, which now houses the University of Oregon School of Architecture. The namesake White Stag building at 70 Northwest Couch Street, built in 1907, was originally known as the Hirsch-Weis building, after its owners …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• William McChord Hurt (1950–2022)

  An award-winning film, television, and theater actor, William Hurt had his first acting job in Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1975, when he appeared in Henry IV, Romeo and Juliet, and Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. Over twenty-five years later, he appeared in …

  Oregon Encyclopedia