William Henry Rector was an Oregon pioneer, builder, business innovator, and political figure. He helped blaze the trail south of Mount Hood in 1845 and, …

Oregon Encyclopedia

More than fifteen hundred lumber mills operated in Oregon in 1947, and logging trucks rumbled past Steinke’s Truck Repair in Salem all day long on …

Oregon Encyclopedia

In 1878, Asahel Bush (1824-1913)—Oregon publisher, banker, and politician—moved into his new twelve-room house in Salem as a widower with four children, two of whom …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Belle W. Cooke was an Oregon poet and member of the Oregon literary community during the second half of the nineteenth century. While she did …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Benjamin Franklin Harding helped lead Oregon through the state’s formative and tumultuous years during the mid-nineteenth century as secretary of the Oregon Territory and speaker …

Oregon Encyclopedia

High-quality water and ideal conditions for growing hops set the stage for Oregon’s vibrant beer industry. The earliest commercial breweries in the 1850s were small, …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Frank Herbert is considered a grandmaster of science fiction writing. His best known work was Dune World (1965), later renamed Dune. The idea for …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Hattie Bratzel Kremen was Oregon’s first elected female district attorney. She was one of two women to serve as a district attorney in Oregon until …

Oregon Encyclopedia

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, only one Indian boarding school remained in Oregon—Chemawa Indian School, located along Interstate 5 at the …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Jewish Pioneers: Becoming Oregonians In 1869, Bernard Goldsmith, an immigrant Jew from Bavaria, was sworn in as the mayor of Portland. Two years later, …

Oregon Encyclopedia