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 …

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Grand fir: Abies grandis

The Northrup Creek Horse Camp Big Tree Trail was created in 2012 when the Oregon Department of Forestry identified numerous large conifer and deciduous trees in close proximity to Northrup Creek.  The species include grand fir, western redcedar, Sitka spruce, bigleaf maple, red alder, and bitter cherry.  It is believed that many of these are among the top five largest in the state, with possible state champions …

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Picea sitchensis

The West Yaquina Sitka spruce stands at the end of Water Street in the former township of West Yaquina. Colonel T. Egenton Hogg, a San Francisco entrepreneur, had a vision to build tracks from Corvallis to the coast, making a transcontinental railroad. In 1882, Yaquina City was founded as the terminus for Hogg’s railroad. In 1884, West Yaquina was incorporated on the peninsula directly across the bay from Yaquina …

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Sequoia sempervirens— Commonly known as the “The Giant Tree in Straight-a-Way”

In 1870, Israel Fisk Eddy purchased land that is now Eddyville and built a sawmill and gristmill, using a small dam on the Yaquina River to supply the power. He is known as the founder of Eddyville and is also known for his fondness of trees. According to a local publication, “Eddy had a fine orchard in Eddyville. One man …

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Tree Info:

Age: 157

Height: approx. 120′

Circumference: 14′ 8″

Average Crown Spread: approx. 140′

The walnut tree at the entrance to the historic George W. Smith Farm on S. Coos River Road in Coos Bay, Oregon, was originally planted by William D.L.F. Smith in 1865. Smith included the walnut in a grouping of four trees along with Chinese Chestnuts when the farmhouse was built. This tree has been an important community landmark for generations. …

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Fagus sylvatica

When you walk down the campus of Portland State University (PSU), it’s hard not to notice the lone beech tree surrounded by the sides of the Millar Library. This tree has witnessed a lot of life in its 100+ year life span. The PSU Copper Beech was planted in the early 1890s at the home of industrialist and banker, Joseph Franklin Watson.  Mr. Watson’s ties to industry and finance …

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Whispering Pines Horse Camp – Tree location

In the 1850s, at the request of Congress, several expeditions were launched to survey possible railway routes to connect the Pacific Ocean with the Mississippi River. Under this directive, then Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (later president of the Confederacy), charged Lieutenants Robert Stockton Williamson and Henry Larcom Abbot with surveying a possible route between Fort Reading, California, and Portland, Oregon, either through the …

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