OTE - Oregon Travel Experience

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 1970’s, 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, sometimes for several months.
This …

Read More

Location: GeerCrest Farm, Salem, Oregon
Species: Varied, including 24 pear trees, four plum trees, one apple, one Hawthorn tree, one butternut tree, and one hickory tree
Date Planted: approx. 1847
The year 1837 saw the beginnings of mass immigration to the Willamette Valley from the Eastern United States. The Willamette Valley, described to Americans in the East as an “Eden of the West,” had been shaped by millennia of active land management by …

Read More

Species: Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii)
Circumference: 23feet
Height: approx. 68 feet
Crown spread: 70 feet
Age: 65+ years
The large Pacific madrone tree overlooking the Yang house was designated a City of Corvallis Heritage Tree in 2016.  It is said by the Corvallis City forester to be the largest madrone in Corvallis, and the second largest madrone in Benton County; the largest being in an inaccessible rural area.
The tree is located at a house designed …

Read More

Species: Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)
Planted: 1890
Circumference: 90 inches
Height: approx. 50 feet
Crown spread: 50 feet
 
The McCall Magnolia was planted in 1890 in front of the renowned home of John M. and Mary Elizabeth McCall in memory of John’s daughter Elsie, who died in 1890. While a Southern Magnolia’s life span can be greater than 100 years, it is rare that this species can thrive in this climate for so many years.  Recent …

Read More

In 1967 Oregon Attorney General  Robert Y. Thornton hosted the 61st annual conference of the National Association of Attorneys General in Portland. As part of a conference event, Thornton planned for the Grove of the States as an homage to First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, and her work fostering the 1965 Highway Beautification Act. The First Lady pushed hard for freeway right-of-ways filled with green landscaping and wildflowers instead of …

Read More

This grove of trees was protected by the Garden Club of Oregon and given to the People of Oregon in 1949. The Garden Club started many conservation projects including Operation Wildflower on state highways, “Don’t Be a LitterBug!” campaign. The Oregon Myrtle is a highly valued evergreen hardwood that has played a significant role in Oregon’s coastal economies. The site is now owned by State Parks as the Coquille Myrtlewood Wayside …

Read More

Aurora Colony Black Walnut

Aurora Colony Black Walnut leaves

Heritage Tree Committee members, Nancy and Ed, admire the historic walnut from the balcony of the Christian Zimmerman House

 
Aurora Colony Black Walnut
(Juglans nigra)
This black walnut, was planted by the Zimmerman family sometime around 1884.  The Zimmerman’s were prominent members of the Aurora Colony, a religious community led by Dr. William Keil, that immigrated to this location from Bethel, Missouri. David Zimmerman was a …

Read More