OTE - Oregon Travel Experience

Picea sitchensis

Before Columbus sailed to the Americas, this Sitka spruce began its life nourished by a nurse log. As it grew, it shared Cape Creek with the Indians who lived just one-half mile west at their large seasonal campsite by the ocean. When the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp at Cape Perpetua in the early 1930’s, they built the first trail to the Giant Spruce, likely reopening the …

Read More

Various species

GeerCrest Farm was established in 1847, before Oregon became a U.S. Territory. Ralph Geer started his nursery and orchards with apple and pear seeds he brought over the Oregon Trail. He traded root stock for grafting wood with the Luelling-Meek nursery. Their successful cooperation helped to establish the fruit growing industry on the west coast.

Tree Facts

Species: Varied, including 24 pear trees, four plum trees, one apple, one Hawthorn tree, …

Read More

Thuja plicata

The grove of western redcedar trees at North Fork Crossing was planted by Frank Lockyear and his Boy Scout troop in 1934 in an area burned by fire in 1929. This was the first of hundreds of tree planting projects organized by Lockyear as he dedicated his life to reforestation. In 1973, Lockyear founded ReTree International to plant trees worldwide and to involve and educate youth about the importance …

Read More

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 …

Read More

Quercus garryana

Ewing Young, a former fur trapper and trader, settled in the Chehalem Valley in 1834 and died here in 1841. His death directly led to the Champoeg Meeting and the beginning of the organization of the Provisional Government in 1843. On May 6, 1846 an acorn was planted here on his grave near his cabin by Miranda Bayley and Sidney Smith.

Tree Facts

Crown spread: 88′

Date of dedication: April 7, 1999

Age …

Read More

Ellmaker Grove

In 1857, Enos and Elizabeth Fisher Ellmaker traded donation land claims with Levi W. and Mary Malinda Zumwalt. The Ellmakers built their house and blacksmith shop by this Oregon white oak, while nearby incense-cedar sheltered their livestock. The bigleaf maples, planted along the driveway by the Ellmakers, linked blacksmith shop customers to the ancient route sometimes known as a branch of the Applegate Trail.

Location: Zumwalt Park, near the town …

Read More

Sequoia sempervirens

Israel Fisk Eddy planted this tree in the 1880s on land that President Andrew Johnson had removed from the Oregon Coast Reservation in 1865. Israel’s grist mill, grocery store, and post office were integral in building this community, then called Little Elk. A railroad aimed to make Yaquina Bay the terminus of its transcontinental route and crossed Israel’s land. Israel said yes, but only if the depot was renamed …

Read More

Pinus ponderosa

This grove of old-growth Ponderosa Pines shaded the extensive lawn of the 1901 A.M. Drake home in the future site of Bend. Drake’s Pilot Butte Development Co. played a critical role in the town’s development, platting downtown Bend and its original residential area. Three of the trees remain, of an original six, which were likely lost when the home itself was demolished in the mid-1950s.

Tree Facts

Approximate height: 80 ft

Date …

Read More

Various species

The Caples family, 1844 Oregon Trail pioneers, were the very first settlers in this area and platted the town of Columbia City on their original donation land claim. Dr. Charles Caples planted this orchard of apple and pear trees shortly after bears decimated his original 1870 plum orchard. Charles Caples was the first doctor in Columbia County, founded the first school with his sister, and operated riverboats with his …

Read More

Malus domestica

Reverend Albert Kelly planted an orchard here on his homestead in 1850. the trees were bought from the pioneer Luelling and Meek Nursery in Milwaukie- the first grafted fruit tree nursery on the west coast. Colonel Henry E. Dosch purchased the property in 1886-87 and restored the health of the neglected orchard. In 1976, the Home Orchard Society declared this tree the oldest, living, grafted apple tree in the …

Read More