Talk:History of Oregon

Article development, outline and suggestions
Snazzy introduction goes here. Often useful to write this last.


 * Comment: The structure of the final article need not be chronological. See History of California 1900 to present for an example of a page that does well by following historical themes in their own sections. -Pete 21:27, 13 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Sections in chronological order is a great way, however, to brainstorm what should ultimately be included.

Ideas for sections to be used in the final version (as if anything is ever final on WP…)
 * geological history
 * native American and pioneer history: Oregon Trail, L&C...
 * race: white, black, hispanic, Indian; influence of KKK in 20s, Vanport, neo-nazism in 80s
 * progressive political reforms: initiatives, bottle bill, death with dignity…
 * conservation/stewardship of the environment: Gifford Pinchot, Tom McCall, SB 100, Hatfield…
 * famous "independent spirit"
 * anti-"californication"
 * agriculture, timber industry
 * arts and culture
 * sports

Geological history
✅ for the most part, maybe add Vanport, Oregon flood and damming of Columbia River -Pete (talk) 10:49, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Native American settlement
Herein the settlement of Native Americanss are discussed, prior to the arrival of the first European explorers.

The emergence of Celilo Falls as a regional hub of economic and cultural commerce. Tie in with Missoula Floods and the construction of hydro-electric dams.

The most widly held beliefs about human migration to the Americas involve hunter-gatherer immigrants that traveled from Asia across the Bering Land Bridge towards the end of the Pleistocene era. Archeological records indicate human activity in Oregon 11,000 years ago.

Early European exploration
Herein is discussed early European exploration of the area, including James Cook and the like; events leading up to the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Lewis and Clark Expedition
Herein Lewis and Clark are discussed, along with events up to the abandonment of all but British and US claims on Oregon and surrounding regions

Oregon Country and Territory

 * Events leading up to statehood, including the various political dramas in Washington DC (the topic was very relevant to the issue of slavery, of course).
 * The founding of Portland

Statehood
Early events in the state since 1859 up to the turn of the century, I suppose. Include the racist Oregon constitution, Indian wars, other forms of political intrigue, etc.


 * Matthew Deady - first federal judge in Oregon, and architect of the Oregon constitution - please add to any templates out there.
 * "The 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment was formed in 1864 and its last company was mustered out of service in July 1867. Both units were used to guard travel routes and Native American reservations, escort immigrant wagon trains, and protect settlers from Native American raiders." "Both" means two. What are the two units, the First and its last company? If so, the wording is confusing; if not, then what? Kdammers (talk) 00:25, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

Early 20th century

 * Notable events here include the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, Oregon political reforms like the initiative and referendum, the Ku Klux Klan (who were present at the time).
 * Women's suffrage established by ballot initiative in 1912, thanks in part to Abigail Scott Duniway (who had previously contributed to its establishment in Idaho and Washington.)
 * politics of the gold standard
 * 1910: Oregon is first state to pay for road construction with a gas tax.

Shipbuilding industry

 * Housing community at Vanport built primarily to house shipyard workers for:
 * Three shipyards established by Henry J. Kaiser - Oregon Ship, Swan Island, and Vancouver Ship (link has embedded sound file)
 * Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation
 * SS Star of Oregon: first Liberty Ship


 * Willamette/Oregon Iron and Steel Company


 * Commercial Iron Works

1940s after WWII

 * Vanport flood
 * Robert Moses comes to town (tie in with Samuel Hill before, Neil Goldschmidt and the Mount Hood Freeway revolt of the 1970s)
 * Tillamook Burn - series of 4 wildfires from 1933 to 1951
 * blimps housed at Naval Air Station Tillamook (present-day Tillamook Air Museum)

1950s

 * Oregon Centennial

1960s

 * Columbus Day Storm
 * Goatee incident at OSU, black players quit football team en masse
 * Dick Fosbury, Terry Baker
 * Ken Kesey, The Kingsmen
 * Oregon as hippie/back-to-the land mecca (intentional communities, communes, Jesus People, etc.) continues through the 1970s and today, with remnants especially in Lane and Benton counties and southern Oregon (see also Kesey, above, Grateful Dead)
 * 1964 Good Friday Earthquake in Alaska caused tsunamis that damaged several coastal towns. There were four deaths in Newport...

1970s

 * D. B. Cooper (famous hijacking; perpetrator never caught)
 * Oregon Bottle Bill, land use law (Senate Bill 100), Tom McCall
 * Blazers get a franchise, later a championship
 * Steve Prefontaine, Bobby Moore
 * Freeway revolts kill Mount Hood Freeway, other freeways; Harbor Drive torn up and replaced with Tom McCall Waterfront Park
 * Neil Goldschmidt: Portland mayor, sex scandal, US Trans. Sec'ty (OR Gov '87-'91)
 * Trojan nuclear power plant and attempts to close it

1980s

 * Decline of timber industry: Rise of wood products industry in SE US, raw log exports, spotted owl.
 * Rise of Earth First!, and accompanying non-violent (mostly) civil disobediance actions, treesits (became more popular in the '90s, vs. tree spiking in the '80s)


 * Rise of the Oregon Citizens Alliance
 * Rise of White Power movement (or is this a '70s thing?)
 * Recession hits Oregon particularly hard; Tektronix sheds 2/3 of workforce over the decade, many public schools shut their doors
 * Completion of Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge, eastside MAX Light Rail, I-205 through E. Portland
 * Oregon Lottery, state legalizes capital punishment
 * Rajneeshpuram
 * Nu Shooz? Nah...
 * Field burning causes deadly I-5 pileup in 1988 (still controversial today)
 * Trojan again and various cities delare themselves nuclear free zones (not like that's honored or anything)

1990s

 * Oregon tax revolt (especially Oregon Ballot Measure 5 (1990)) and Bill Sizemore, Don McIntyre (Don McIntire?), term limits, double majority law, school financing reform law (though some dispute it's a good reform...)
 * Sex scandal results in ouster of Bob Packwood, Mark Hatfield resigns; Oregon goes from one of the most powerful delegations in the United States Senate to one of the weakest.
 * Blazers in NBA finals in 90, 92; later start of "Jail Blazers" era
 * Ducks in Rose Bowl
 * Westside MAX
 * Earthquake in 1993, flood in 1996
 * Everclear, Dandy Warhols, Cherry Poppin' Daddies?, etc.
 * More legislation: Oregon Death with Dignity Act (1994-present), Medical marijuana (1998),
 * Earth Liberation Front
 * "You are welcome to visit Oregon, but please don't stay." John Lim proposed making border signs in 1999.

2000s
Not sure if the 21st century is old enough to be called "history".


 * Of course it is.

What is OHA? Oregon Health Authority? Oregon Health Association? OregonHousingAssociation? Abbreviations should be spelled out.Kdammers (talk) 00:27, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

Other discussion spaces
Check out WikiProject Oregon/History and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Oregon/History for more ideas on how to improve this article, and related articles. -Pete (talk) 06:57, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

walking on pioneer history
how does this page coordinate with other pages such as  OregonPioneer history? Just looking for a 50,000 foot perspective of how these things fit together. The thing that is sortof missing is a section on the economic history of the state. Money usually makes things happen and the state looks like it does because of that and Oregon is no exception. Salem is bigger, but not older than Champoeg because they won the election for the siting of the state capital, etc.Rvannatta (talk) 16:59, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Great suggestions! What we really need is an Economy of Oregon article. Would you like to start it? Katr67 (talk) 17:52, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Agreed, that's a great suggestion. For the 50,000 foot perspective, basically, the longer-term vision is that we'd have separate articles for Oregon native peoples history, Oregon early history, Oregon pioneer history, and Oregon modern history. This article would be essentially a summary of each, with an intro (and possibly additional sections like you suggest) to tie them together.
 * I added the Geologic History section to cover the "even earlier" stuff. I'm actually thinking it should be changed to "Geologic and natural history," and include an overview of native plants and animals, but I don't know that stuff well enough to start it. -Pete (talk) 18:23, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
 * That makes some sense. the issue with the native plants and animals is that there are a lot of them and don't know if ending up with a list of native plants, and fungii linked to the botney pages makes sense or not.    I did some writing on fungi in trees, and just the list of fungi that infect trees is mind boggling.   Dr. Morton Peck  a deceased professor from Willamette published a work on the higher plants of oregon  (excluded fungi, etc) and it is still 3 inches thick.   It's supported by the Peck Herbarium on file at Willamette.  It was a life time of work and beyond.   His widow was still working on the stuff after he died.   When I was at WU 45 years ago I used to see her there from time to time.   I'll think about a design for an economy of Oregon page if someone doesn't get there first.  it's a very complex topic with plenty of opportunity to be controversial.Rvannatta (talk) 23:42, 11 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I know a little about native plants and the natural history. Do you know of any states that have a section like that that I could refer to? List of native Oregon plants is also a good place to start. (Note that list appears to be geared towards landscaping and certainly isn't complete). If Oregon has anything remotely like this awesome book, we'd be in business. Katr67 (talk) 17:27, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
 * 922 pages---I listed its reference on the talk page of 'list of native oregon plants page'.Rvannatta (talk) 01:25, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

history of transportation
There are a good number of articles which could be used as a basis for History of transportation in Oregon either as a standalone article or a section in this one. See Category:History of transportation in Oregon. Which should it be? Also, there's the timeline data at Talk:Barlow Road. —EncMstr 18:11, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I think there is enough info for a standalone. That way it can be the main article for the category. Plus it would span all of the current sections in this article, which would look a little odd as it is broken down by era. Of course the key points can be mentioned in this article in each section and in the sub articles to this (see Oregon pioneer history) with lots o' links. Aboutmovies (talk) 19:26, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Sections/structure
In light of the above discussion, and the recent addition of race relations stuff, I want to bring back a point that was discussed in the early planning stages of this article. I think the target structure of the article should be:


 * The present four/five chronological sections, followed by
 * Transportation
 * Race relations
 * Land use planning
 * Hydropower
 * Agriculture

etc. (Those are just some sample sections, not intended to be comprehensive.)

Many of these topics span multiple time periods, and should be treated in their own right. There is no requirement that the entire article be chronological. -Pete (talk) 23:20, 12 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I support this. While I was adding some content on race relations, I did feel some confusion as to where it should go. Being chronological makes it awkward for both the readers and editors. —Parhamr (talk) 23:27, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

I think you have missed the essence of Oregon in many ways with your list. Until WWII the most common ethnic minority were chinese workers left over from building the railroads and since then it has been a Multnomah county social issue. Elsewhere in the state it simply isn't a defining issue.

On the other hand what has defined Oregon in a big way from a historical perspective is mining and and timber. Many of Oregon's cities can trace their roots directly to a sawmill or a mine. Lost too in your outline is the fact that even in Portland, a huge factor in portland's history now ignored was its massive stockyards and slaughterhouse row in Kenton. Possibly 'agriculture' is broad enough to cover the livestock industry, but cowboys and sodbusters are the same only to cityboys. Never lose sight of the fact that after the Union Pacific RR opened circa 1884 up until the last 40 years, most of the cows grown between Portland and Omaha met their end at stockyards and thence a slaughterhouse either in Porland or Omaha. Forexample you never begin to understand Central Oregon and why it is like it is unless you see the picture that each town has a little different piece of history. Consider for example the profile of central Oregon: Shaniko: first rail head in the interior of Central Oregon. Early Cattle shipping point. Madras: Cow town that replaced Shaniko with better rail service and more convenient location. Redmond: Farming town convenient to best central Oregon farming area. Prinville: Cow town---ever see Les Schwab plowing a field in his commercials??? Bend: Sawmill town--on the edge of the vast pine forests with good access to the east side of the cascades, and to the south.Rvannatta (talk) 01:21, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Interesting related articles
Just found these. -Pete (talk) 21:24, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Spanish colonization of the Americas
 * Attempted Spanish colonization of Alaska

"Remembering" Mount Mazama
"After the mountain destroyed itself the Klamaths recounted the events as a great battle between Llao and his rival Skell, their sky god." Indeed? How were the Klsmaths giving a mythicized recounting of a volcanic eruption that occurred 5.5 million years ago? A volcanic eruption that they heard about from modern geologists? --Wetman (talk) 10:26, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Sources tend to say the mountain erupted about 7700 years ago which is well within the time frame of known human habitation of the region. Might not be the same tribe, but there were people around. Aboutmovies (talk) 11:33, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
 * This article had it listed incorrectly, it has now been fixed to reflect the more accurate date. Aboutmovies (talk) 11:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Trying to re-introduce an interesting pull quote about Oregon from a 1977 news magazine
Some books begin each chapter with quotes. This October 2003 version of Oregon tried to introduce a similar convention for WP articles that obviously never took hold. But I consider the quote from that version, reformatted for my purposes as a pull quote on the right, worth resurrecting within History of Oregon, assuming a proper reference can be found. I found a partial match at this Google Books link. It provides a summary of a 1977 issue of U.S. News & World Report and a snippet confirms that quote almost exactly, though critical information is missing:
 * "In the nation's far northwestern reaches, this state of scenic grandeur and easygoing individualists is writing the preface to what may be the future for all Americans: simple living, conservation and limited growth.

To get this quote, you have to convince Google Book to offer a snippet. These two worked for me, though not always: The point is this: Google Books confirms the existence of an issue of USN&WR from 1977 that has the quote, and it confirms the quote is on page 60 of an issue also covering topics such as Bert Lance, Jimmy Carter, Betamax (is that an advertisement?), Panama Canal treaties, and South Africa. There's enough information there that it could be used to get the date of the USN&WR issue containing the quote, assuming someone knew where online one could go to get per-issue USN&WR table of content summaries. Any ideas? 68.167.252.27 (talk) 23:18, 4 May 2009 (UTC).
 * http://www.google.com/books?q=%22scenic+grandeur%22+%22easygoing+individualists%22+%22simple+living%22+conservation+growth
 * http://www.google.com/books?q=%22scenic+grandeur%22+%22easygoing+individualists%22+%22simple+living%22+conservation


 * You seem to have put a lot of thought into this. Won't you consider making an account so that we can discuss it with someone who's more than a string of numbers?
 * In general, I approve of the approach you're suggesting. I've advocated for the inclusion of this sort of pull-quote on Columbia River and Forest Park (Portland), among other pages. -Pete (talk) 04:10, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Timeline of Oregon
Any interest in creating a Timeline of Oregon article? A few other US states have timelines (see Category:Timelines of states of the United States). Here is a source: -- M2545 (talk) 11:04, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

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Bibliography/historiography
A great deal has been written about Oregon, but not all of it is well respected by historians. It would be good to add an annotated bibliography, or some discussion of the important historians, or similar. Here is one source that could serve as a starting-point. -Pete Forsyth (talk) 16:55, 9 July 2018 (UTC)