Historical Marker Details Archives - Page 3 of 11 - Oregon Travel Information Council

Central Coast Region

Posted on: October 26th, 2011 in Historical Marker Details |

This marker was made possible by the City of Yachats
Marker Text:
Welcome To the Oregon Coast
The rugged shore of the Central and Northern Oregon Coast is backed by the Coast Range Mountains, remnants of a chain of volcanic islands that collided with the North American continent some 50 million years ago. The Oregon Coast is notable for its basalt headlands, such as Cape Foulweather and Cape Perpetua, and for a succession of …

Yaquina Bay

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

The old Yaquina Bay Lighthouse established in 1871 is the earliest aid to navigation standing within the range of the first recorded landfall made from a ship to the shores of the Pacific Northwest. Captain James Cook made this landfall on March 7, 1778. At noon he named Cape Foulweather. On account of the heavy weather he was compelled to stand out at sea at night and only approach the …

Williamson River

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 in Historical Marker Details |

Subject:Camp site for the Pacific Railroad survey party in 1855.
A Pacific Railroad Survey party searching for a practicable route for a railroad to connect the Sacramento Valley with the Columbia River passed near this point bound north on August 20, 1855. Lieutenant R.S. Williamson headed the party with 2nd Lieutenant Henry I. Abbot second in command. Among the officers in the Army escort were Lieutenant Phil S. Sheridan and Lieutenant …

Willamette Stone

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

Subject:Site of first surveyor’s base mark in Pacific Northwest.
This short trail leads to the Willamette Stone, the surveyor’s monument that is the point of origin for all public land surveys in Oregon and Washington. The landmark was established on June 4, 1851 by John B. Preston, Oregon’s first Surveyor General.
With increasing settlement and passage of the Donation Land Claim Act, the Oregon Territory desperately needed to extend the Public Land …

Willamette Post

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 in Historical Marker Details |

Subject:The first trading post in the Willamette Valley in 1811.
The first trading post in the Willamette Valley was located on the Prairie Knoll just east of this point. The post was established in 1811 by the Astor Company to trade for furs and to take game which was cured and sent by canoe to Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia. Subsequently operated by the North West Company for …

Willamette Falls Locks

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

Subject:Series of five locks with a total lift of 50.2 feet opened in 1873.
Willamette Falls Locks- still in use below this point-were opened on New Years Day, 1873, when the steamer Maria Wilkins became the first vessel to navigate up the west end of Willamette Falls. Farming and shipping interests had long sought to eliminate expensive portages around this age-old bar to navigation 26 miles above the mouth of the …

Willamette Falls

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

Subject:The falls were originally a Native American fishing site and later became the power source for numerous mills and electricity generation.
Willamette Falls was early the site of an Indian salmon fishing village. The falls furnished the power for a lumber mill which began operation in 1842, a flour mill in 1844, a woolen mill in 1864 and the first paper mill in the Pacific Northwest in 1867. The first long …

West, “Captain” John

Posted on: September 26th, 2011 in Historical Marker Details |

Subject:Founded the first cannery on the Oregon shore of the Columbia River and exported lumber and canned salmon globally.
WESTPORT, OREGON
“Captain” John West was a selfmade man. A native of Scotland, he settled on the lower Columbia River near this spot in the early 1850s after trying his luck in the goldfields of California. West built and operated sawmills, ran a general store and post office, built and managed a salmon …

Wallowa Lake

Posted on: September 25th, 2011 in Historical Marker Details |

Subject:Wallowa Lake was created by the advance and retreat of alpine glaciers.
OREGON GEOLOGY
Wallowa Lake has been formed by the damming action of glacial drift. The easterly shore of the lake is a splendid example of a lateral moraine and the northern boundary of the lake of a terminal moraine. An outwash plain extends beyond the town of Joseph. The east and west lateral moraines record two major stages of glaciation …

Vanport

Posted on: September 25th, 2011 in Historical Marker Audio Tours, Historical Marker Details |

Subject:Site of the nation’s largest public housing project. Vanport was destroyed in a flood in 1948.
VANPORT
Within a year of the US entering World War II, more than 160,000 people moved to Portland- a city of only 360,000 – to work in Home Front industries. Industrialist Henry Kaiser’s three shipyards employed the most workers. To house his employees and their families, Kaiser persuaded the US Maritime Commission in 1942 to fund …