OTE - Oregon Travel Experience

Willamette River Cottonwood

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

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 1970’s, 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, sometimes for several months.

Location: Wilsonville Memorial Park, near public dock and the River Shelter in Wilsonville