During the early nineteenth century, upwards of thirty Native American villages were documented in the Portland Basin (present-day Multnomah, Clark, Clackamas, and east Columbia Counties). …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Ranald MacDonald (Clatsop Chinook) was a navigator, whaler, tutor, interpreter, and writer. In 1848-1849, he was the first native speaker of English to teach that …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Raymond Carver was America’s preeminent short story-writer during the 1970s and 1980s, a time that witnessed a great renaissance of the art of the story. …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Reuben Crawford was a leader in Portland's Black community from the 1870s until his death in 1918. A skilled ship caulker, he was a …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Robert Shortess, an early pioneer in Oregon, played a significant role in the acquisition of Oregon Territory, the formation of the Oregon state government, and …

Oregon Encyclopedia

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 first streetcars in Salem were horsecars that began running between the downtown business district and the train depot on January 15, 1889. Later that …

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

Samuel Magnus Hill came to Oregon in 1915 as minister of the Swedish Carlsborg congregation in Colton. A poet, pacifist, and retired schoolteacher, he served …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Sebastian C. Adams provides an example of how the Christian missionary zeal of many early Oregon settlers was accompanied by exceptional entreprenurial talents. Adams was …

Oregon Encyclopedia