Roswell Hawks Lamson came of age during a transformative period in the mid-nineteenth century. An emigrant on the Oregon Trail when he was a boy, …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The English writer Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) spent five days in Oregon in June 1889. He wrote about his adventures in Portland, traveling by train …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Sam Simpson was a singer of love songs to Oregon. In 1899, Judge John Burnett called him “the [Robert] Burns of Oregon…who could make the …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Santiam Pass, at an elevation of 4,817 feet, is a major highway crossing of the middle Cascade Range. Located on U.S. 20 at milepost 80.8, …

Oregon Encyclopedia

No town in Oregon has seen more rapid growth and decline than Shaniko, about forty miles northeast of Madras in Wasco County. Incorporated in 1901, …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The South Yamhill River divides the city of Sheridan, a town of about 4,640 people in Yamhill County. In 1847, Absolom “Ab” Faulconer settled on …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Sherwood is located on the traces of the Oregon City–Lafayette Wagon Trail, which cut through the A.Z. Hall Donation Land Claim of the late …

Oregon Encyclopedia

A humble wife, mother, and public servant in Hood River, Shizue Iwatsuki was also an internationally recognized poet. Born in Okayama, Japan, in 1896, …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Sidney I. Lezak was Oregon’s longest-serving U.S. Attorney, holding the position for twenty-one years, under five presidents. He also was known as the “Godfather of …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Silas Bryant Smith played a key role in recording the traditions, religions, and customs of the Clatsop people in nineteenth-century Oregon. A prominent historian of …

Oregon Encyclopedia