OTE - Oregon Travel Experience

Populus trichocarpa – black cottonwood

From 1942 to 1948, over 40,000 war industry workers and their families moved to Vanport, which became Oregon’s second largest and most racially diverse city. Vanport was wiped out by a flood in May of 1948. A few of the largest cottonwood trees are some of the only remaining features from the city. While the families of displaced Vanport survivors continue to tell their stories, these …

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Shellbark Hickory, Gravenstein Apple, Bartlett Pear

These trees are all that remain from an extensive orchard planted on the west side of the Elizabeth Constable and John Quincy Adams Young House. Family orchards were common in the 1870s, but few homes from Oregon’s Resettlement Era survive to show the association of the trees with the house. Familiar fruit and nut trees provided a customary food source for some pioneers and connections …

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Picea breweriana

The Brewer spruce was first scientifically identified in 1884 by Thomas Jefferson Howell, an important early Oregon pioneer botanist. T.J. Howell created the first book on regional flora of the Pacific Northwest. The Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area was created in 1966 to protect one of the largest remaining stands of Brewer spruce, which as a small native range. The 2002 Biscuit Fire consumed most of the protected trees; only …

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Arbutus menziesii

This Pacific madrone was planted by Hoya Yang to complement the house his wife, Edith Yang, designed. In 1954 Edith became the first female minority architect licensed in Oregon. She designed many buildings in the area and started the Corvallis street tree program. Hoya was a prominent food scientist who was influential in the beginnings of the Oregon wine industry and the development of the maraschino cherry.

Tree Facts

Circumference: 23feet

Height: …

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Quercus garryanna

This Oregon White Oak reflects the early practice of using landmarks as survey markers for property boundaries. With time, these original markers have disappeared. The Witness Tree served as a survey marker for the southeast corner of the Claiborne C. Walker donation Land Claim. The original markings scribed into the tree’s trunk on July 8, 1854, were carved away for an unknown reason, leaving a large cavity in the …

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Pinus ponderosa

Indigenous peoples have cared for and cultivated the ancient pine forests in this area since time immemorial. In 1855, the Williamson-Abbot Expedition camped here while surveying the Deschutes Basin for possible railway routes, utilizing existing Native American trails. While encamped here during that expedition, Lt. Phillip Sheridan carved his name and the date into this old growth ponderosa pine. The tree has since healed over the carving.

Tree Facts

Height: 111 …

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Pseudotsuga menziesii & Populus trichocarpa

For more than a century, loggers used rivers, especially the Willamette, to move millions of board feet in logs. Until ground transport became more economical in the 1970s, men walked the logs, assembling huge rafts with long pike poles that tug boats pulled down the river. Cables wrapped around the trees along the bank tethered the rafts to shore while they waited for access to mills, …

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Populus trichocarpa

This giant black cottonwood stands near the site of the Willamette Mission established by Reverend Jason Lee in 1834. At the time the mission and tree were located on the banks of the Willamette River. The great flood in 1861 changed the river course to its present channel leaving what is now Mission Lake. The Willamette Mission Cottonwood is the largest of its kind in Oregon and the nation.

Tree …

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Ulmus americana

This tree has long been identified with Henry H. Wheeler for whom Wheeler County is named. From 1864 through 1868, Wheeler drove the first stage coach service past this site on The Dalles – Canyon City Wagon Road. In 1866, Wheeler was ambushed here and severely wounded. A monument dedicated to Wheeler stood by this tree for over sixty years until it was moved with the realignment of Highway …

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Tsuga mertensiana

Judge John B. Waldo, Oregon’s foremost 19th century conservationist, and his companions carved their names on this mountain hemlock on September 13, 1888. Waldo was gathering information to use in advocating for designation of the Cascade Forest Reserve. The journey proved significant in the forest conservation history of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.

Tree Facts

Age: 200 years

Circumference: 8′ 4″

Dedicated on: April 7, 1999

Location: Sky Lakes Wilderness, Rogue River Natl forest, …

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