Tiller Wigwam

Tiller Oregon is located in Douglas County, about an hours drive southeast of Roseburg. It's on the South Umpqua River, and I'm pretty sure I've been through there -- when I was significantly younger than I am now. It is definitely off the beaten path. That's why I'm delighted that Wade Rhodes shared these photos …

Shotgun Creek: Marcola

Shotgun creek flows southeast into the Mohawk Valley, not far from the town of Marcola. As the story goes, one day many, many, many years ago, a young man was out hunting and forgot his shotgun along a creek. He had to go back to get it, thus giving this creek its name. Fast forward …

Signs, signs, everywhere

It's been fun this spring and summer to see all the new signs that have been appearing around Cottage Grove. As someone who loves to be outdoors, and loves learning about history and nature, I've enjoyed discovering these signs as we've been out and about.   I blogged last fall about the History Here posters …

Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area: Sumpter, Oregon

In the middle of the 19th century, all around our newly established state, people began discovering gold. The southern Oregon gold rush in Josephine County began in the 1850s, Bohemia Johnson discovered gold in the Bohemia mines in 1863, and the town of Canyon City in eastern Oregon swelled to a population of 10,000 (larger than Portland …

Wigwam Memories: Swisshome

"Daddy, Ed, and I spent an hour or two pulling slab wood off the Erskine sawmill conveyor belt leading  to their wigwam burner," writes Joe Moreland in A Place to Rest My Head, his memoir about growing up in the coast range after WWII. Needing to build a chicken coop, they drove to Swisshome one evening to …

Lost Towns: Lane County Historical Museum Exhibit

In the days before log trucks, automation, or heli-logging, sawmills were built closer to the woods. Here in south Lane County, they sprang up along the O&SE Rail line (now the Row River Trail) to take advantage of the railroad. In some instances, whole communities would surround the mill, like the sawmill at Prune Hill. When I …

Luper Cemetery: Eugene

Just north of Eugene, surrounded by farmland, is one of the oldest pioneer cemeteries in the southern Willamette Valley, Luper Cemetery. I love wandering through old graveyards, looking at the headstones, and piecing together the family relationships. I wonder about these people's lives and history and I enjoy the markers their families had created for them. In this …

Connecting the Present to the Past: History Here, Eugene

As traffic streams by along West 11th in Eugene, four brick workers from the J. Marsh Martin brickyard silently observe the bustle from their poster adhered to a metal utility box. Three feet wide by four-and-a-half feet tall, the poster is basically a large photograph with a brief description of the people and places within …

Stand By Me: 30th Anniversary

In June of 1985 a young film director trying to prove himself brought four unknown child actors and an entire film crew to Eugene. For seven weeks they stayed at the Hilton, first to give acting classes to the young actors, and then to film on location, an adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, “The Body.” …

Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site: John Day, Oregon

By today’s standards, John Day Oregon would be considered a small town and in the 1880s it was even smaller, with a population under 300 people. However just outside the city limits along the banks of Canyon Creek stood a bustling community of at least 1,000 Chinese immigrants, the largest Chinese community in eastern Oregon. The …