Welcome to the Oregon Encyclopedia.
Explore Oregon's history and culture — from Athapaskan Indians to Zigzag Ranger Station
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June: LGBTQ Pride Month
Explore LGBTQ History in Oregon.
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Alan Hart (1890-1962)
Alan L. Hart was an Oregon physician, researcher, and writer and one of the first female-to-male tr…
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Basic Rights Oregon
Established in 1996, Basic Rights Oregon was the first statewide political organization in Oregon t…
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Bosco-Milligan Foundation
The Bosco-Milligan Foundation of Portland was founded in 1987 by Jerry Bosco and Ben Milligan to pr…
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Daniel Rives Kistler (1949–)
Rives Kistler served on the Oregon Supreme Court for fifteen years, from 2003 to 2018. His work on …
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Gay & Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest LGBTQ History
The Gay & Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest was founded in October 1994 by a small group of…
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Gay and lesbian rights movement
Before Stonewall Before New York’s Stonewall Riots in 1969, the history of gay rights in Oregon, a…
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Gus Van Sant (1952-)
Gus Van Sant, Oregon’s most celebrated filmmaker, has lived and worked in Portland for more than th…
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Johnnie Ray (1927-1990)
Johnnie Ray was completely different from anything that went before him. . . . I consider Johnnie R…
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Marie Equi (1872-1952)
Dr. Marie Equi was a fiercely independent Oregon physician who was engaged in the political turmoil…
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Minor White (1908-1976)
Minor White was an American photographer, teacher, and writer whose career began in Oregon during t…
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Oregon Citizens Alliance
The Oregon Citizens Alliance was a conservative activist group and political action committee that …
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Portland Gay Men's Chorus
The Portland Gay Men's Chorus (PGMC) was founded in April 1980 to perform a concert as part of that…
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Portland Vice Scandal (1912-1913)
On November 8, 1912, Portland police arrested nineteen-year-old Benjamin Trout for a minor offense.…
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Walter Cole (Darcelle) (1930-2023)
When Walter Cole was discharged from the military in the late 1950s, he had little idea that his al…
Feeling adventurous? How Oregonian of you.
Or may we suggest…
Explore OHS Digital History Projects
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Wayfinder
An interactive map of notable places, people, and events in Oregon history.
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Oregon History Project
The Research Library at the Oregon Historical Society provides direct access to digitized and digital materials as well as narratives from Pacific Northwest historians.
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Oregon TimeWeb
An interactive timeline of archival materials and historical scholarship on the history of Oregon.
This Just In
New Entries
"We could see the top of one hill and think that was the last. But when we gained that, others kept rising before us. To look back, in retreat, seemed utterly out of the question. To look forward was to look directly upwards, as the ascent seemed almost perpendicular." Harriet Hitchcock, 13, 1865, Oregon Trail


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All American Toy Company
More than fifteen hundred lumber mills operated in Oregon in 1947, and …
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Assisted Plant Migration
Assisted migration is the human-assisted movement of species and popula…
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Daniel Drew (1843–1923)
Daniel Drew was a civic and religious figure in the Willamette Valley f…
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Droughts in Oregon
A standard dictionary definition for drought is “a prolonged period of …
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Endangered Klamath suckers
Since Lost River suckers (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose suckers (Cha…
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Henry Hamilton Hicklin (1825–1873)
White supremacy dominated opposition to slavery in mid-nineteenth-centu…
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Josephine Martin Plymale (1845–1899)
Josephine Martin Plymale was both a woman of her time and a woman who d…
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Letitia Carson (1814-1818–1888)
Letitia Carson, a nineteenth-century farmer and homesteader, was one of…
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Mark A. Bell (1825–1897)
Marcus "Mark" A. Bell was a visible and enterprising leader in Portland…
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Matsutake (mushroom)
On November 13, 1911, mycologist William Murrill collected a mushroom “…
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Oregon Forests and Climate Change
How climate change affects Oregon forests and how those forests affect …
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Oregon Natural Resources Council v. John R. Block
In December 1983, the Oregon Natural Resources Council (now called Oreg…
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Raymond Newman (R. N.) Hockenberry (1876–1951)
For a brief time in the early twentieth century, R. N. Hockenberry was …
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Sahomi Tachibana (1924–)
Sahomi Tachibana is a Japanese American master teacher and performer of…
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Stand By Me (film)
Stand By Me, a classic of 1980s American cinema, was filmed mostly in a…
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The 2021 Pacific Northwest Heatwave (Heat Dome)
A historic heatwave affected Oregon and the greater Pacific Northwest d…
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The Goonies (Film)
For four weeks in the fall of 1984, the Uppertown neighborhood of Astor…
The OE is Green!
Our editorial process is completely paperless — 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
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This project has been funded in part by the Oregon Heritage Commission and the Oregon Cultural Trust
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LSTA Libraries as Community Resources Meetings is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.