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Oregon Trivia & Tidbits - Page 2

Looking for Oregon trivia? Try our list Oregon little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

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—For the last two years, residents of Canby (pop. 12,790) have held a “Shred It Day.” While the fire department assists in shredding personal documents, the police department provides information on identity theft, and a local consulting service helps clear computer hard drives before disposal.
first appeared: 2/8/2009
—Jean Saubert became the first Oregonian to win two medals at the Winter Olympics when she earned a silver in giant slalom and a bronze in slalom in 1964 in Innsbruck, Austria. Born in 1942 in Roseburg (pop. 20,017), Saubert was a member of the U.S. National Ski Team from 1962 to 1966, and was inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1976.
first appeared: 1/11/2009
—In February and March each year, the Wallowa Union Railroad and the Minam Motel in Minam, near Wallowa (pop. 869), team up to provide fishermen and sightseers access to about 10 miles of the Wallowa River Canyon, known for its steelhead fishing and scenic beauty. The motel is the pick-up and drop-off spot for the historic train.
first appeared: 12/29/2008
—The red cedar and Douglas fir log cabin that logger Gordon Smith built near Elsie in Clatsop County (pop. 35,630) in the 1980s is so big that the front doors weigh 500 pounds each and the roof beam measures 85 feet long. “Camp 18” is named for old logging camps that used numbers, not names, and is located at Milepost 18 along Highway 26.
first appeared: 11/30/2008
—The Roloff Farm near Hillsboro is home to the Roloff family, who appear in the TV series Little People, Big World on The Learning Channel. The family—including parents Matt and Amy—have opened their lives to TV cameras to promote better understanding of what life is like for people of short stature. The farm is open to the public during pumpkin-picking season.
first appeared: 11/16/2008
—Thomas J. Autzen became one of the nation’s first plywood salesmen when the Portland Manufacturing Co., which was co-owned by his father, demonstrated the wood panels at the 1905 Portland World’s Fair. Autzen eventually assumed management of the company, making his family a fortune that allowed them to establish the Autzen Foundation to support causes such as education and the arts.
first appeared: 11/2/2008
—The Bridge of the Gods, which crosses the Columbia River at Cascade Locks (pop. 1,115), links Oregon and Washington along the Pacific Crest Trail. Originally constructed in the 1920s, the cantilevered bridge is the third oldest on the Columbia. It’s built near the site of a natural rock bridge that collapsed centuries ago and featured prominently in American Indian legends.
first appeared: 10/19/2008
—The Seaside Aquarium in Seaside (pop. 5,900), one of the nation’s oldest privately owned aquariums, opened in 1937. At the time, admission prices were 15 cents for adults and 10 cents for children. The facility originally opened in the 1920s as a natatorium, where the public could bathe in salt water pumped in from the nearby Pacific Ocean.
first appeared: 10/5/2008
The first Umpqua River Lighthouse was built on the coast near Winchester Bay (pop. 488) in 1857, but lasted less than a decade before storm damage caused it to collapse. Today’s lighthouse has been standing since the 1890s, featuring a 65-foot brick tower that reaches 165 feet above sea level and emits a distinctive light signature of two white flashes followed by one red flash.
first appeared: 10/5/2008
—Donald Manson, chief trader with the fur-trading Hudson’s Bay Co., bought land and buildings in the settlement of Champoeg by 1857, but lost them when an 1861 flood devastated the area. The barn that he rebuilt on higher ground in 1862 has been refurbished and still stands in Champoeg State Park in St. Paul (pop. 354).
first appeared: 9/21/2008
—Boats have been delivering mail to Agness since 1895, when Elijah Price established the mail run on the Rogue River, covering 32 miles between the new settlement and Gold Beach (pop. 1,897), where the river meets the Pacific Ocean. Today, jet boats from Rogue River Mailboats carry the mail—along with paying passengers—on that same route from May through mid-October.
first appeared: 9/7/2008
—Steens Mountain, one of the largest landscape features in the northern Great Basin, rises 9,700 feet above sea level in Harney County (pop. 7,609), and was formed by geological pressures some 18 million to 20 million years ago that pushed up a massive block of earth.
first appeared: 8/24/2008
—Paintings created on black velvet have their own museum in Portland, thanks to Caren Anderson and Carl Baldwin. Their Velveteria Museum showcases some 300 velvet paintings from the couple’s collection of more than 1,000 works of art, depicting everything from Elvis Presley to clowns. They’ve also recently released a book, Black Velvet Masterpieces, to highlight the best works.
first appeared: 8/10/2008
—Danny Ainge was born in 1959 in Eugene, where he was an All-American in basketball, football and baseball at North Eugene High School. He played three seasons of major league baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays, crossing over to basketball when the Boston Celtics drafted him in 1981. He became the third player in National Basketball Association history to score 1,000 three-point shots.
first appeared: 7/27/2008
—The 180-foot-long Office Bridge in Westfir (pop. 276) is the state’s longest covered bridge. Built in 1944 to connect a sawmill on one side of the North Fork of the Willamette River to the mill’s office on the other, the red-painted bridge carried both log and foot traffic, and is one of only a few to have an attached covered walkway.
first appeared: 7/13/2008
The Asahel Bush House Museum in Salem is named for the home’s first owner, Asahel Bush, founder of the Oregon Statesman newspaper, and the Ladd and Bush Bank. Built between 1877 and 1878, the Victorian Italianate-style home was occupied by members of the Bush family for the next 75 years. Today, the museum features the home’s original wallpapers, Italian marble fireplaces, gaslights and furnishings.
first appeared: 7/13/2008
—The Sumpter Stockade & Hostel in Sumpter (pop. 171) offers guests the opportunity to spend the night in an Old West military fort-style setting. The owner has built a stockade wall, inside which is a barracks building with cots for sleeping, plus a saloon and mercantile.
first appeared: 6/29/2008
—Harvey the Giant Humanoid Rabbit towers 27 feet outside the Harvey Marine store in Aloha (pop. 41,741). Harvey is an old, metal service station statue with a rabbit’s head, and reportedly gained his name because Harvey Marine’s owner enjoyed the work of actor Jimmy Stewart, who once made a movie that included a giant rabbit named Harvey.
first appeared: 6/15/2008
—Robert Maxwell of Bend (pop. 52,029) was the only person in Oregon to qualify for a Medal of Honor license plate when new laws providing plates for military veterans and their families took effect earlier this year. Maxwell received the nation’s highest military honor after throwing himself on a grenade on Sept. 7, 1944, near Besancon, France, saving the lives of three other soldiers.
first appeared: 6/1/2008
—Astoria (pop. 9,813) has provided settings for a number of movies, including The Goonies, a 1985 Steven Spielberg movie about a group of kids fighting to save their homes from becoming a golf course; Short Circuit, a 1986 release that starred Ally Sheedy along with a robot named Number 5; and Kindergarten Cop, a 1990 film that featured Arnold Schwarzenegger as the lead actor.
first appeared: 5/18/2008
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