John M. Shively was an Oregon pioneer who was active in territorial affairs as a businessman, lobbyist, postmaster, surveyor, and gold seeker. He was born …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Johnson Creek is a small stream in the Portland metropolitan area which has frequently flooded and suffered from severe pollution. Since the mid-1980s, however, it has …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Between 1906 and 1942, Portland architect John Virginius Bennes designed many buildings in Portland, at Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis, and elsewhere in Oregon. …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Peter (or Pete) French was a stockman of near-legendary status who ran great herds of cattle and horses in southeastern Oregon at the end of …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Few architects have influenced the state of Oregon as broadly as John Yeon. A planner, conservationist, historic preservationist, art collector, and urban activist, as well …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Rabbi Jonah B. Wise led Congregation Beth Israel, Portland’s oldest and most prestigious synagogue, from 1907 to 1926. He played a key role in shaping …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Jordan Craters is an otherworldly place, beautiful and foreboding, an outdoor museum of recent basalt volcanism amid sagebrush steppe rangeland. Located about eighteen miles northwest …

Oregon Encyclopedia

The town of Jordan Valley stretches along Highway 95 in Oregon’s High Desert. At an elevation of 4,385 feet, the town is on the north …

Oregon Encyclopedia

In the spring of 1974, Portland State University (PSU) inaugurated its fifth president, Joseph Carolton Blumel. The school had just turned twenty-eight years old, having …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Joseph Gale was a western explorer, trapper, settler, politician, and entrepreneur, and he was a member of the Oregon Provisional Government Executive Committee in 1843-1844, …

Oregon Encyclopedia