Russel Farnham, an American adventurer, explorer, and fur trader, was sent by John Jacob Astor in 1811 to establish Fort Astoria, the first United …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Sacagawea was a member of the Agaideka (Lemhi) Shoshone, who lived in the upper Salmon River Basin in present-day Idaho. In about 1800, she was …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Salem originated in 1841 as the second central station of the Oregon mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The town was platted in 1846 and …

Oregon Encyclopedia

In 1986, Mixtec farmworker Santiago Ventura Morales was wrongfully convicted of murder at the end of a trial where he was given a Spanish interpreter …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Sarah Winnemucca, a Paiute, had a clear purpose in life: “I mean to fight for my down-trodden race while life lasts.” Winnemucca lived part of …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Located on the Multnomah Channel twenty miles northwest of Portland, Scappoose is one of seven incorporated cities in Columbia County. The Multnomah Channel flows …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The Schneider Museum of Art at Southern Oregon University in Ashland opened its doors to the public in the fall of 1986. The establishment of …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Eleven miles north of Florence on U.S. Highway 101 are the remains of an ice-age beach of seafloor basalt, where waves hit fracture zones in …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Sea serpent (or monster) lore has been a staple of Oregon’s coastal culture since at least the 1930s, when newspapers reported the sighting of an …

Oregon Encyclopedia

For much of their fishing history in Oregon, Native Americans used hand-operated haul seines. A fish seine is a horizontal net that has floats holding …

Oregon Encyclopedia