The cartographic history of Oregon as a place in the Pacific Northwest began long before European visitation to the region. Mapmakers initially conceptualized the presence …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The lithograph above is derived from a sketch of Mountain House, a landmark farm and stage stop along the California-Oregon Trail. The house was built …

Oregon History Project

This wooden mortar is of Wasco or Wishram design.  Prior to moving to the Warm Springs Reservation, the closely related Wasco and Wishram peoples lived on …

Oregon History Project

This map, entitled “A New Map of North America from the Latest Discoveries 1778,” was a centerpiece of Jonathan Carver’s Travels Through the Interior Parts …

Oregon History Project

A massive ground movement known as the Bonneville Landslide, which occurred about 1200 AD, briefly blocked the Columbia River. The river subsequently broke through …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The Cascade mountain system extends from northern California to central British Columbia. In Oregon, it comprises the Cascade Range, which is 260 miles long and, …

Oregon Encyclopedia

“With towering fir forests, sunlit oak groves, wildflower-strewn meadows, and steep canyons, the Cascade–Siskiyou National Monument is an ecological wonder,” President Bill Clinton wrote in …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Cascadia Cave, near the South Santiam River, is one of the most significant cultural resources of the Indigenous peoples of the Cascade Mountains and the …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Charles Axel Smith became, for a time, one of Oregon's most powerful lumbermen, buying up huge tracts of forest land and developing the largest mill …

Oregon Encyclopedia

This 1859 reproduction of an 1846 sketch by Paul Kane depicts the Chinookan headman Cassino (pronounced káss-i-no), an important figure in the early history …

Oregon History Project