OTE - Oregon Travel Experience

Lure of Gold

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

Subject: Gold mining drew emigrants from the east and west along the Oregon Trail
Beginning in 1843, thousands of Oregon Trail emigrants trekked through this region toward new lives in the West. This epic journey indelibly etched the landscape with wagon ruts, such as those near by. When Henry Griffin, a prospector from California, discovered gold eight miles southwest of present-day Baker City in 1861, the emigration pattern changed radically. Eastern …

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Lone Tree of the Oregon Trail

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

Subject:Tells the story of the tree that served as a landmark for Indians, trappers and Oregon Trail emigrants.
Early Oregon Trail emigrants crested the south flank of Flagstaff Hill and, with the Blue Mountains looming to the west, saw a solitary tree in the valley below. Called l’arbre seul (the lone tree) by French-Canadian fur trappers, this large tree, possibly ponderosa pine or Douglas-fir, towered majestically above the floor of Baker …

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Historic La Grande

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

La Grande was the first town permanently settled in Northeastern Oregon. Daniel Chaplin laid out the original ‘Old Town’ in spring of 1862 and Ben Brown built the first house, a log cabin, alongside the Oregon Trail at the corner of B Avenue and Cedar Street.
As the prime lands of western Oregon were settled, and then gold was discovered in eastern Oregon, a reverse migration used the Oregon Trail from …

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Japanese Attack on Oregon

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

Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, a contingent of Japanese I-Class submarines sailed from Yokosuka via the Marshall Islands to take up positions off Hawaii and the coast of North America. Five of these vessels carried midget two-man submarines and 11 carried aircraft.
Early on the morning of September 9, 1942, the Japanese submarine I-25 surfaced off Brookings. The crew quickly assembled a specially designed seaplane, and within a few minutes …

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Witness Tree

Posted on: September 24th, 2011 in Heritage Tree Details |

Witness Tree

Oregon Heritage Tree Committee Members at the Witness Tree (photo taken by Paul Reis)

Dennis Devine, owner of the Witness Tree Vineyard (photo taken by Paul Reis)

Quercus garryanna
This Oregon White Oak reflects the early practice of using landmarks as survey markers for property boundaries. With time, these original markers have disappeared. The Witness Tree served as a survey marker for the southeast corner of the Claiborne C. Walker donation Land …

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Willamette Mission Cottonwood

Posted on: September 24th, 2011 in Heritage Tree Details |

Populus trichocarpa
This giant black cottonwood stands near the site of the Willamette Mission established by Reverend Jason Lee in 1834. At that time, the Mission and tree were located on the banks of the Willamette River. The great flood of 1861 changed the river course to its present channel, leaving what is now Mission Lake. The Willamette Mission Cottonwood is the largest of its kind in Oregon and the nation.

Tree …

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Wheeler Elm

Posted on: September 24th, 2011 in Heritage Tree Details |

Ulmus
This tree has long been identified with Henry H. Wheeler for whom Wheeler County is named. From 1864 through 1868, Wheeler drove the first stagecoach service past this site on The Dalles – Canyon City Wagon Road. In 1866, Wheeler was ambushed near here and severely wounded. A monument dedicated to Wheeler stood by this tree for over sixty years until it was moved with the realignment of Highway 26.

Tree …

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Waldo Tree at Island Lake

Posted on: September 24th, 2011 in Heritage Tree Details |

Tsuga mertensiana
On September 13, 1888, after traveling two months along the spine of the Cascade Range, Judge John B. Waldo, Oregon’s foremost nineteenth-century conservationist, and his companions rested at Island Lake and carved their names into the mountain hemlock near the southeast shore of the lake. This trip provided first-hand information for Waldo to use in his lobbying efforts to support legislation designating the 4.5 million-acre Cascade Forest Reserve in …

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Waldo Park Tree

Posted on: September 24th, 2011 in Heritage Tree Audio Tours, Heritage Tree Details |

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

Visit this tree

It is …

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Victory Way Norway Maple

Posted on: September 24th, 2011 in Heritage Tree Details |

Acer platanoides
One of the original 250 Norway maple trees planted by volunteers along Spruce Street and “S” Avenue in 1923 to commemorate the end of the First World War and to appreciate the returning veterans. The beautiful tree-lined parkway, known as Victory Way, stretches from downtown to Riverside Park. The planting culminated in a large ceremony including singing, a luncheon, and speeches.
Although less than 25 of the original maples survive …

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