OTE - Oregon Travel Experience

Pseudotsuga menziesii & Populus trichocarpa

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 1970s, 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, …

Read More

Populus trichocarpa

This giant black cottonwood stands near the site of the Willamette Mission established by Reverend Jason Lee in 1834. At the time the mission and tree were located on the banks of the Willamette River. The great flood in 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 …

Read More

Ulmus americana

This tree has long been identified with Henry H. Wheeler for whom Wheeler County is named. From 1864 through 1868, Wheeler drove the first stage coach service past this site on The Dalles – Canyon City Wagon Road. In 1866, Wheeler was ambushed 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 …

Read More

Tsuga mertensiana

Judge John B. Waldo, Oregon’s foremost 19th century conservationist, and his companions carved their names on this mountain hemlock on September 13, 1888. Waldo was gathering information to use in advocating for designation of the Cascade Forest Reserve. The journey proved significant in the forest conservation history of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.

Tree Facts

Age: 200 years

Circumference: 8′ 4″

Dedicated on: April 7, 1999

Location: Sky Lakes Wilderness, Rogue River Natl forest, …

Read More

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 …

Read More

Acer platanoides

In 1923, volunteers planted 250 Norway maple trees along Spruce Street and “S” Avenue to commemorate the end of the First World War. Called Victory Way, this tree-lined parkway stretched from downtown to Riverside Park. In 1998, volunteers planted a variety of new trees along Victory Way to enhance the parkway’s historic value and restore its tree-lined appearance.

Tree Facts

Approx. height: 60′

Age: 83 years

Circumference: 7′

Dedicated on: April 10, 2003

Location: Greenwood …

Read More

Pseudotsuga menziesii

The Valley of the Giants is a 51-acre parcel of land containing a stand of old-growth Douglas-fir and hemlock trees. Because of the increasing rarity of such large trees in the Coast Range, a wave of public support for their protection was begun in the early 1970’s by Maynard Drawson of Salem, Oregon. In 1976, the trees were officially recognized as “Oregon’s Bicentennial Grove” and the Bureau of Land …

Read More

Pinus lambertina

When settlers crossed on the Applegate Trail, sugar pine trees dominated this landscape. Native Americans had seasonal camps and have purposefully managed the sugar pine, including using a hook-ladder to move up the tiered branches to reach the pinecones. Settlement pressures, needs and practice may have contributed to its decline here. The largest sugar pine in the area is located in the wash across the road from the tubs.

Tree …

Read More

Populus x canescens

This grey poplar, Trysting Tree II, is a clone of the original. The tree was named for its popularity as a romantic meeting spot in the early 1900s. It has become a symbol of Oregon State University (OSU), memorialized in the alma mater, “I love to wander on the pathway, Down to the Trysting Tree.” OSU is one of only two Land, Sea, Space and Sun grant colleges …

Read More

Pseudotsuga menziesii – Douglas fir

Between 1949 and 1973, an army of volunteers helped plant an estimated 72 million trees to reforest the Tillamook Burn-one of the largest forest replanting efforts in history. Here, in the area of Cedar Creek Flat, the new forest was planted entirely by school children from Tillamook, Forest Grove and Portland. Students arrived by the busload and were met by foresters who provided Douglas-fir seedlings, tools, …

Read More