OTE - Oregon Travel Experience

Waldo Park Tree

Posted on: February 14th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Audio Tours, Heritage Tree Details |

Waldo Park

Sequoiadendron giganteum

Judge William Waldo, the son of an 1842 pioneer, planted this sequoia in 1872. Waldo made efforts during his lifetime to preserve the tree and over time others have saved it from the encroaching street system. In 1936 the Salem City Council declared the site, a twelve by twenty-foot plot of land, a city park.

Tree Facts

Approx. height: 85′

Planted in: 1872

Circumference: 22′

Dedicated on: April 8, 1998

Audio Tour:

Location: 605 Summer Street …

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Star Trees of Willamette University

Posted on: February 7th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Audio Tours, Heritage Tree Details |

Star Trees

Sequoiadendron giganteum

This grove of giant Sequoias was planted by students of the Class of 1942 in honor of Willamette University’s 100th anniversary. Founded by Jason Lee in 1842, Willamette University is recognized as the oldest university in the west. In 1997, the campus started an annual holiday tradition by lighting the Star Trees from mid-December to January. They are now considered to be the tallest Christmas trees on a college …

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Sitka Spruce at Klootchy Creek

Posted on: February 6th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Audio Tours, Heritage Tree Details |

Picea sitchensis – Sitka spruce

This is the first tree to be designated an official Oregon Heritage Tree and was once the biggest tree in Oregon and the National Co-Champion Sitka Spruce. It germinated from a seed onthe forest floor around the time of the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 and grew to its mature height about the time Christopher Columbus sailed to the new world. A legacy of …

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Peg Tree

Posted on: January 29th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Audio Tours, Heritage Tree Details |

Pseudotsuga menziesii – Douglas-fir

This tree was a meeting place for the early townspeople and Grange members of Oswego. A peg was driven into the tree for hanging a lantern to light these meetings. In 1852, before a proper building could be erected, Sunday school classes were held under the tree. The Peg Tree is the lone survivor of what was once a great row of Douglas-firs that lined the road …

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Owen Cherry Tree

Posted on: January 29th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Audio Tours, Heritage Tree Details |

Prunus avium – Black Tartarian or Republican

It is believed this tree was planted in the mid 1800s by Eugene Skinner, founder of the City of Eugene in 1853. The tree is within the boundaries of Skinner’s 1846 land claim. By 1850 the site of the tree was owned by George Owen, a former Eugene City Councilor, lumberman, and philanthropist. Mr. Owen donated the site to the city for use as …

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Moon Tree

Posted on: January 17th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Audio Tours, Heritage Tree Details |

Pseudotsuga menziesii– Douglas-fir

This Douglas Fir was raised from seed carried to the moon by astronaut Stuart Roosa of the Apollo 14 moon mission in 1971. It was the first “Moon Tree” to be planted in Oregon and was planted here by Governor Bob Straub on Arbor Day, April 30, 1976 for America’s bicentennial.

Tree Facts

Approx. height: 63′

Age: 31 years

Circumference: 19″

Dedicated on: April 11, 2003

Audio Tour:

Location: The Moon Tree is located in …

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Monterey Cypress

Posted on: January 17th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Audio Tours, Heritage Tree Details |

Cupressus macrocarpa

Harrison G. Blake planted this tree, now the largest Monterey Cypress found in Oregon, when he built his house here in the 1850s. Blake was the first member of the Oregon House of Representatives from Southern Curry County in 1874 and served as postmaster of the Chetco Post Office. The Blake house is the oldest in Chetco Valley and was once a stagecoach station and site of the post …

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Hanley Farm Willow

Posted on: January 8th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Audio Tours, Heritage Tree Details |

Salix babylonica– Weeping willow

In 1860, Martha Hanley planted this weeping willow to commemorate the birth of her son. The willow cutting was obtained from the pioneer Luelling Nursery in the Willamette Valley and delivered by Martha’s friend Kit Kearney, an express rider, who stuck it in a potato to keep it from drying out. The tree flourished and the Hanley farmstead eventually became know as “The Willows.”

Tree Facts

Height: 30 ft

Date …

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Governor McCall Maple

Posted on: January 7th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Audio Tours, Heritage Tree Details |

Acer palmatum

This Greenleaf Japanese Maple was planted by Governor Tom McCall in late 1973 or early 1974 during his second term of office. McCall is remembered for many environmental achievements, such as the “Beach Bill” which granted the state government the power to zone Oregon’s beaches, thus protecting them from private development, and the “Bottle Bill” which was the nation’s first mandatory bottle-deposit law, designed to decrease litter in Oregon.

Tree …

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Foster Lilac

Posted on: January 6th, 2025 in Heritage Tree Audio Tours, Heritage Tree Details |

Foster Lilac

Syringa vulgaris

The original start of this lilac tree was brought from Maine to Oregon in 1843 by Mary Charlotte Foster, wife of Philip Foster, partner with Sam Barlow on the Barlow Road. The Fosters sailed Cape Horn and Mary Charlotte planted the lilac immediately upon her arrival in Oregon City. She moved it five times, replanting it at each of her homes. It was planted at its current location in …

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