A 639-foot freighter, the New Carissa, ran aground in inclement weather off the southern Oregon port of Coos Bay on February 4, 1999. It …

Oregon Encyclopedia

In March 1920, the Atlantic Monthly ran the first of six excerpts from the diary of Opal Whiteley, apparently written when she was six or …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Only a few places in the Beaver State are named in reference to California, and Oregon Caves is one of them. Its earlier moniker, the …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The Oregon Century Farm & Ranch Program was founded in 1958 to recognize the state's agricultural heritage and to honor farm and ranch families that …

Oregon Encyclopedia

“The Oregon Literature Series is a national model,” wrote John Frohnmayer, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. A project of the Oregon Council …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Oregon’s state song, “Oregon, My Oregon,” was composed by Henry B. Murtagh with lyrics by John Andrew Buchanan. Published in December 1920, it is a …

Oregon Encyclopedia

For years after achieving statehood in 1859, Oregon was deprived of a proper capitol due to controversy over fixing the seat of government in Salem …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The Oregon State Penitentiary, Oregon's only maximum-security prison, sits on 194 acres of land in the heart of Salem, just north of Mill Creek on …

Oregon Encyclopedia

For early Japanese immigrants to Oregon, a Japanese-language newspaper was their only contact with the world. In Portland, Shinsaburo Ban was a major labor …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Owen Murphy Panner was a lawyer and federal judge in Oregon from the mid-twentieth century into the first decades of the twenty-first. He was the …

Oregon Encyclopedia