The mouth of the Columbia River was breached for the first time by European mariners in 1792 and the Lewis and Clark Expedition spent a miserable winter in 1805-06 camped seven miles south and west of present day Astoria. Five years later America’s first millionaire, John Jacob Astor, sent a settling party to open a fur trading post on the southern edge of the Columbia. That first permanent American settlement on the West Coast evolved into Astoria.
By 1850 the port town boasted 250 settlers and had developed as the gateway into the emerging Oregon Territory. Fishing boats and ocean-going ships filled the long wharves at the river’s edge and along the banks sprang up flour mills, sawmills, and grain elevators. The first salmon cannery opened in 1866 and Astoria-packed salmon filled area coffers with up to seven million dollars every year.
Astoria grew to second rank among Oregon cities, boasting 14,027 residents in 1920. But at two o’clock in the morning of December 8, 1922 fire broke out in a restaurant on the waterfront. Fueled by the wooden pilings upon which the business section of Astoria was built, the flames quickly raged out of control. Before the fire burned itself out ten hours later the conflagration had consumed thirty-two city blocks with a property loss estimated around $15,000,000.
Save for an influx of wartime workers during World War II, Astoria has never reached such population heights again, hovering around 10,000 for decades. As the city struggled to rebuild after the fire the Great Depression struck, crippling the fishing and timber industries. So the streets of Astoria’s business district look a lot like they did in the 1920s after the fire, lined with two- and three-story structures.
Our walking tour of Oregon’s oldest town will begin at the block where the game-changing fire ended and at the foot of a souvenir from the days when Astoria was also the state’s richest town...
Until a 36-year old former county sheriff from Illinois named Eugene Franklin Skinner built a cabin on a hill west of the Willamette River in 1846 the only people to live here were the Kalapuya Indians. Skinner’s claim of 640 acres wasn’t prime farming land but it did include a ferry crossing and suitable land to establish a townsite. So Skinner set about starting a ferry service and platting land for building sites. He was the first mayor, the postmaster and when the Oregon Territorial government established Lane County, the settlement was named for Skinner and made the county seat. Eugene City was incorporated in 1862, two years before the founder passed away after the lingering ill effects of attempting to save cattle during a flood.
The 1870s saw the arrival of the railroads and the beginnings of the University of Oregon. Wheat had been the first cash crop in the Willamette Valley but it was soon joined by fruit orchards and lumbering as the population grew steadily and the boundaries of the city expanded. Eugene became a city of homes with long avenues of shade tree-bordered thoroughfares. Still, by the 1930s the population was less than 20,000.
In the 75 years since Eugene grew to over 150,000 residents, climbing to the status of second city of Oregon. City planners responded with modernization plans that had little use for the structures of the past. Today there is scant evidence of the pioneering days of Eugene but we will seek them out on our walking tour of the town and we’ll start at one of those 100-year old buildings, a place that was the traditional gateway to the town...
On June 1, 1905 the gates swung open at Guild’s Lake to officially kick off the Lewis and Clark Centennial American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair. There were exhibitions from 21 nations and 16 American states and admission was 50 cents for adults and a quarter for kids. The fair featured an amusement park, blimp rides and was the finish line for a much-anticipated transcontinental automobile race. During the fair’s fourteen-week run more than 1.5 million visitors paid the entrance fee and another million fair-goers got in gratis.
Before the Lewis and Clark Exhibition Portland had grown from a village of some 800 settlers when it was incorporated in 1851 to becoming the major port in the Northwest by the end of the 19th century. The town could have been named Boston but a coin flip between pioneers Asa Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove landed on the latter’s hometown. Located at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers its deep water harbor helped Portland emerge from the shadow of its more established neighbor at Oregon City. But by 1900 Seattle, kickstarted by the gold rushes in the Klondike, was emerging as the Pacific Northwest port of choice since mariners didn’t have to navigate the pesky sand bar at the mouth of the Columbia River.
The world’s fair proved just the elixir the city needed. Not only was a profit realized, unusual for international expositions, but was a success as a showcase for the city as well. In the years following the Lewis and Clark Exposition the population of Portland more than doubled from 90,000 to 200,000 and the city never looked back. A building boom started that would last over 20 years, push the city core off the Willamette River and create much of the streetscape seen today.
Our walking tour of downtown Portland in the Southwest section of the city will discover small one- and two-building blocks and pedestrian-friendly streets and we will begin this exploration east of Broadway at the oldest federal building west of the Mississippi River...
Our walking tour of downtown Portland in the Southwest section of the city will discover small one- and two-building blocks and pedestrian-friendly streets and we will begin this exploration west of Broadway on a strip of greenspace that was provided for before Portland was officially a city and there was not town in sight...
In 1851 the territorial legislature convened in Oregon City to select a capital. Salem, which had been founded in 1840 by New England missionary Jason Lee, got the nod but not everyone was pleased with the selection. The governor, two members of the territorial supreme court and a good chunk of the legislature refused to go. When the government grudgingly arrived in Salem they found a handful of families and scant accommodations; their first session was held in a resident’s home. it didn’t take long for the legislature to vote to move the capital to Corvallis but they trudged back to Salem after one session because Congress had appropriated money to construct buildings here. Even Asahael Bush, editor of the Oregon Statesman who was the leading champion for the move to Salem lobbied for the name to be changed back to its original handle, Chemeketa, a name derived from the native Kalapuya Indian language that translated to “place of rest.”
Salem weathered the early disgruntlement and when Oregon was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state in 1859 Salem continued as the capital and has served as such ever since. Government has been the driving industry in Salem during that time but also developed as a business hub for the rich lowlands of the Willamette Valley; it was estimated at one time that 1/3 of all the fruits and vegetables were processed in Salem’s canneries.
Our walking tour of Salem will start in the shadow of the state capitol and gradually work back in time as enter downtown, encountering century-old buildings from the Victorian Age and earlier, not so much different than what William Wilson envisioned when he laid out the town...