OTE - Oregon Travel Experience

Tillia americana; Wisteria floribunda

This wisteria vine and its companion linden tree, whose “partnership” is a local landmark, were planted in approximately 1881 by Brownsville entrepreneurs John and Elizabeth Moyer. With its distinctive braided trunk, the wisteria relies on the linden tree for support and to vividly display its profuse spring blossoms. It is the success of this long-standing partnership that makes them a unique addition to the Oregon Heritage Tree …

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Pinus ponderosa- Ponderosa pine

When a Japanese balloon bomb exploded at this site, Elsie Mitchell and her Sunday school class of five children, out on an early spring fishing outing, were killed. They were the only World War II casualties to occur on the North American continent as a result of enemy action. Standing as a silent witness to the tragedy, this Ponderosa pine still shows signs of shrapnel damage from …

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Magnolia grandiflora– Southern magnolia

This Southern magnolia was planted in front of the home of Captain John M. and Mary Elizabeth “Lizzie” McCall in memory of their daughter, Elsie, who died in 1890. John McCall was a statesman and entrepreneur who opened many businesses including the first bank and local newspaper, The Ashland Daily Tidings. Theresa Applegate McCall, John’s first wife and Elsie’s mother, was a member of the pioneer family …

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Carya ovata- Hickory

Mary Louisa Black planted this shagbark hickory near her home in 1866 from nuts she carried from Missouri on the Oregon Trail in 1865. Of the nuts she planted, two grew into trees. This tree is the lone survivor of the snow, summer heat and Rogue River flooding and the only shagbark hickory in the area.

Tree Facts

Approx. height: 18′

Age: 131 years

Circumference: 4′

Dedicated on: April 6, 1998

Location: One mile …

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Ulmus americana– American elm

In 1912, Belle and Ralph Jenkins purchased what is now the Jenkins Estate, Belle, the daughter of a prominent Portland businessman, Capt. J.C. Ainsworth, planted the Elm grove between the original farmhouse and the main house in the style of an old English Estate. American elms were a popular street tree in the early part of the 20th century, but have since been widely devastated due to …

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Pinus ponderosa- Ponderosa Pine

Located adjacent to the route of the Nez Perce National Historic Trail, the Indian Village Grove provides lasting evidence of the spring camp used in this vicinity by the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) people. Large oval scars on the tree trunks were created in the late 1800’s when the Nimiipuu peeled the outer bark of the tree and then skimmed the inner bark with a scraper. The cambium …

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Juniperous occidentalis – Western Juniper

Along this mile-long extant section of the Huntington Wagon Road, four juniper trees bear the ‘blazes’ of early travelers in the late 19th century. Three trees were blazed to mark the direction of the road. Soldiers camped along the road during the 1870s also blazed one juniper with a target for shooting practice. Large caliber bullet holes are still visible in the “Target Tree” today.

Tree Facts

Age: …

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Pyrus communis– Winter Nelis

This Winter Nelis pear tree, planted in 1879, is associated with the boyhood years of President Herbert Hoover. When the 11 year-old Hoover arrived here from Iowa in 1885 to live with his uncle John Minthorn and family, he joined his aunt and cousins in the task of making pear butter. Hoover later wrote that after the ill effects of an almost exclusive pear diet for two …

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