Reuben “Reub” C. Sanders was one of Oregon’s greatest all-around athletes. He lived for most of his life in Salem, where he played and coached …

Oregon Encyclopedia

More than any other figure during the years of the Pacific Northwest's beaver trade, Peter Skene Ogden epitomized that endeavor's transcontinental reach, its rapacious competition …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The 1847 murders of frontier missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman near the confluence of the Columbia and Walla Walla Rivers brought the Oregon Territory under …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Early explorers noted plankhouse structures up and down the Southern Oregon coast and at the mouth of the Coquille River. It may have been Spanish explorers …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Joseph Lane was the first governor of Oregon Territory. A leading Democrat, he was a U.S. senator and candidate for vice president in 1860. Fiercely …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Chief Halito, commonly shortened to Chief Halo (meaning “having little” or “needing little”), was leader of the Yoncalla Kalapuya tribe and was married to Du-Ni-Wi, …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Known as the father of Oregon archaeology and anthropology, Luther Cressman conducted pioneering archaeological work in the 1930s through the 1960s and established the broad …

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

Once called Wagner Creek, Talent is located in southwestern Oregon between Ashland and Medford. Situated near the confluences of Wagner and Anderson Creeks with Bear …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Joel Palmer, who first saw the Oregon Country from a wagon in 1845, spent three decades participating in central events in Oregon’s political history. At …

Oregon Encyclopedia