Author's Entries

• Adrian

  Adrian, Malheur County, is a small, incorporated town on the eastern edge of Oregon, near the confluence of the Snake and Owyhee rivers. Adrian had its start on the eastern side of the Snake River as a remote village with a post office called Riverview. When the Oregon Short …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Amelia City

  The gold mining town of Amelia City, in northern Malheur County, was located about thirty miles southeast of Baker City and a few miles south of Mormon Basin, where miners rushed in after gold was discovered in 1867. It was one of the first mining settlements that sprang up when …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Arlington

  Arlington, about fifty miles east of The Dalles, is on the Columbia River at the mouth of Alkali Canyon. In the early 1870s, settlers established corrals at the mouth of the canyon to hold cattle and sheep waiting to be transported downriver. Elijah Rhea built the first house in …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Athena

  Athena, in Umatilla County, is a small agricultural town situated on historical transportation routes: the route of the Oregon Trail, which went to the Whitman mission (1841 to 1847); the wagon road between Umatilla and Walla Walla, Washington (late 1860s); and the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company railroad (after …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Auburn

  The short-lived mining town of Auburn was in the Blue Mountains in Baker County. After gold was discovered on Griffin Creek in October 1861, thousands of miners rushed to the Blue Mountains and parts of Idaho where similar gold strikes were made. One of the first mining camps was located …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Cornelius Gilliam (1798–1848)

  Cornelius "Neal" Gilliam was a prominent settler in Oregon in the 1840s and the namesake of Gilliam County. He was born on April 13, 1798, in Buncombe County, North Carolina, and moved with his family to Missouri when he was young. He married Mary Crawford in 1820 and in 1830 …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Echo

  The town of Echo, in Umatilla County, is located at the historic crossroads of Indian trails and the Oregon Trail on the Umatilla River. In the early 1840s, some emigrants diverged from the main route of the Oregon Trail near present-day Pendleton and traveled past this site as they …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Fred Lockley (1871-1958)

  Fred Lockley was a newspaper columnist, a rare book dealer, and the author of books on Oregon and Pacific Northwest history. He was born March 19, 1871, in Leavenworth, Kansas, to Elizabeth Metcalf Campbell and Frederic Lockley, a Civil War veteran and newspaper editor. Between 1872 and 1881, the family …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Jesse Applegate (1811-1888)

  Jesse Applegate, an influential early Oregon settler, is most remembered for his leadership role in establishing the Applegate Trail. Born in Kentucky on July 5, 1811, to Daniel and Rachel Lindsay Applegate, Jesse moved with his family to St. Louis in 1821. He was educated at Rock Springs Seminary …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• John Shively (1804-1893)

  John M. Shively was an Oregon pioneer who was active in territorial affairs as a businessman, lobbyist, postmaster, surveyor, and gold seeker. He was born April 2, 1804, in Shelby County, Kentucky. He taught school and opened a dry goods store before marrying Martha Meade Johnson in 1836. In …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Owyhee River

  The Owyhee River, in the southeastern corner of Oregon, is a 280-mile-long tributary of the Snake River. It flows northward from its Nevada headwaters through Idaho, cuts through the arid uplands of southeastern Oregon, and flows into the Snake River on the Oregon-Idaho state line near Adrian. Much …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• Pendleton Field

  On November 29, 1940, the War Department announced that Pendleton, Oregon, had been selected as a site for an Army Air Corps station for training combat crews in the Northwest Air District, under the jurisdiction of the 2nd Air Force. Pendleton had a municipal airport with United Air Lines …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• 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. The Umatilla Army Ordnance Depot stored and supplied munitions to the army until the early 1990s. Between 1962 …

  Oregon Encyclopedia

• William Overton

  William P. Overton was in Oregon fewer than three years, yet he made a mark on Oregon history. In May 1841, Overton and others from Jackson County, Missouri, joined the John Bidwell and John Bartleson party, which intended to journey to California. Overton was one of at least twenty-three people …

  Oregon Encyclopedia