The Oregon Encyclopedia

An Authoritative and Free Resource on All Things Oregon

Blue Mountains (essay)

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Blue Mountains (essay)

The Blue Mountains, perhaps the most geologically diverse part of Oregon, consist of a series of mountain ranges, rolling uplands, and valleys in the northeastern part of the state and extending into ...

Bridge of the Gods

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Bridge of the Gods

In the heart of the Columbia River Gorge, a 1,858-foot-long steel-truss bridge spans the Columbia River at Cascade Locks, about forty miles east of Portland. The Bridge of the Gods, first ...

Cape Blanco

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Cape Blanco

Windswept Cape Blanco—situated at N 42˚50'08.12", W 124˚33'51.16"—is the farthest western point on the mainland of Oregon. It is also the second-most westerly point of ...

Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area

Established by Congress in 1986, the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area extends eighty-five miles along both sides of the Columbia River, from the Sandy River to the Deschutes River, and extends ...

Crater Lake National Park

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

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 ...

Fossil Lake

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Fossil Lake

A small, sandy playa in central Oregon's Fort Rock Basin, Fossil Lake is one of the nation's most significant fossil sites, with fossils ranging from 10,000 to 400,000 ...

Heceta Head Lighthouse

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Heceta Head Lighthouse

Heceta Head Lighthouse stands 205 feet above the Pacific Ocean on a bluff carved out of the west side of 1,000-foot-high Heceta Head, twelve miles north of Florence. The light shining ...

John Day Fossil Beds

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

John Day Fossil Beds

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument showcases one of the world’s best and most continuous records of the Tertiary, the time from about 50 million years to 5 million years ago that ...

Mount Hood (essay)

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Mount Hood (essay)

Mount Hood is a stratovolcano in northwest Oregon located about fifty miles east of Portland and thirty-five miles south of the Columbia River. At 11,244 feet, it is the highest point ...

Newberry National Volcanic Monument

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Newberry National Volcanic Monument

Newberry Crater, as it is commonly known, is a large shield volcano east of the Cascade Range in central Oregon. The area was named for Dr. John Strong Newberry, a naturalist with ...

Oregon Dunes

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Oregon Dunes

Miles and miles of windblown sand. The Oregon Dunes stretch for fifty-four miles, from Heceta Head north of Florence to Cape Arago just south of Coos Bay. Well over 100,000 years ...

Smith Rock State Park

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Smith Rock State Park

Smith Rock State Park encompasses 652 acres near Redmond and Terrebonne, in the semi-arid High Desert of central Oregon. This landscape of rock spires, cliffs, and canyonlands lies along the northern edge ...

Snake River

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Snake River

The Snake River has its headwaters at an elevation of 8,200 feet on the Two Ocean Plateau, in the icy highlands of the Continental Divide in Wyoming. Roaring down the Idaho ...

South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

The South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (SSNERR)—an element of the South Slough watershed and inlet—is part of the larger Coos estuary and watershed located on the southern Oregon Coast. The ...

Strawberry Mountains

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Strawberry Mountains

The Strawberry Mountains—among the highest peaks in the Blue Mountain Range—extend east-west through northeast Oregon in Grant County, south of the John Day Highway in the Malheur National Forest. Along with the ...

Tamkaliks Celebration and Friendship Feast

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Tamkaliks Celebration and Friendship Feast

Tamkaliks Celebration takes place each July in Wallowa as a celebration and recognition of Niimiipuu (Nez Perce) presence in the Wallowa Valley. The event began in 1990 when the City of Wallowa ...

Timberline Lodge

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

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, with additional funding from the Federal Art Project ...

Umpqua River Lighthouse

July: Time for an Oregon Road Trip

Umpqua River Lighthouse

The Umpqua River Lighthouse, Oregon’s first, was built twice. The U.S. Office of Coast Survey in 1849 selected the mouth of the Umpqua River as one of the first sixteen ...

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 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 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 in good order; you'll get a subscription to the 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

July: Oregon Road Trip

Click here to learn about Oregon road trip sites.

Looking for history in All The Places?

The Oregon History Wayfinder is an interactive map that identifies significant places, people, and events in Oregon history. Each point on the map connects to the historical records and scholarship on the Oregon History Project and The Oregon Encyclopedia, two of the digital history sites created by the Oregon Historical Society. The Oregon History Wayfinder is supported in part by the Oregon Heritage Commission.

Click here to get out the 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.

Donate to the OE