Oregon’s 14th birthday gives us a reason to celebrate our states’ diverse history

What’s the first thing you think about February? Valentine’s day? Granted, it also hosts Women’s History Month and African-American History Month. It is a kind of fast month of 28 or 29 days. Did you know that there are more than 57 special days or awareness topics in February? Here’s a sample of them: American Heart Month, People Month, Shopping Cart Return Day, and a personal favourite: Library Lover’s Month! Oh, don’t forget Groundhog Day (Gretchen’s favorite) and, of course, Oregon’s birthday.

Oregon became a state on February 14, 1859. Learning and understanding our history, discussing history, and reminiscing allows us to gain insight into all that has come before. The Jefferson County Library is fortunate to have two collections to help you learn more about your past.

The Oregon History Collection

The Oregon Territory was a destination for many pioneers. Your library is fortunate to house a strong collection of Oregon materials. Remembering our roots, where we came from, how we got here, who settled here, the people who helped form the state – it’s all part of our history. The written words are important as a testimony of what happened to make the territory and the state. Who better to describe the problems, situations and anxieties of life at that time than those who lived through it?

Diaries, stories and photos can bring our history to life. Imagine life and land before the dams on the Columbia River and those hardy pioneers traversing treacherous currents in flatboats heading for the rapids at Cascade Locks, complete with boxcars aboard. Or travel the Oregon Trail, Barlow Trail, Applegate Trail in southern Oregon, or the Lost Wagon Train in southeastern and central Oregon.

Madras came into existence thanks to the railway. The frantic race across the Deschutes River to build the fastest railroads is part of our local history. Decades of “starving” settlers from drought, hares, and other situations led to many selling out to the government in areas that became the Crooked River Grasslands. The reregulation of dams on the Deschutes River has been instrumental in generating power in the steep canyon. The region was born of ideas and plans, and we have much to be grateful for in Jefferson County.

What better place to showcase our local talent, voices and history than the library? Our Oregon collection contains works by many local authors, including Jarold Ramsay, D. Bing Bingham, Rick Steber, Kathy Olson, Stan Pine, George Aguilar, Sr., Melvin Ashwill, the late Lawrence Nielsen, and the late Andrew Ontko.

What else, you ask? Oregon hiking books; Books on the gold panning region of Oregon; spooky tales from Oregon; Oregon General History Books; family history books, biographies, diaries; tales from urban and rural areas. There are stories of the dams and the irrigation system, of animal husbandry and agriculture; the events in Antelope and with the commune of Rajneeshpuram; geographical descriptions; quadrant maps of Oregon, with towns, ghost towns, and local areas of interest in each; the history of our indigenous peoples.

Reading the why and how of city and place names is a great place to start. You’ll find this in Oregon’s Geographical Names, by Lewis McArthur. Or open the “Little-Known Tales of Oregon History,” four volumes with short vignettes from a now-defunct magazine, Cascades East. Ontko wrote about the local native tribes of central Oregon with his five-volume “Thunder over the Ochoco” series. Ramsay has written extensively on the history of Jefferson County; Steve Lent compiled a three-volume set of place names with a large amount of information about the tri-county area, with the township, range, and section for each geographic name, mountain, or region.

It’s hard to pick just one book – Oregon’s geographic names might be a good place to start. It features the history and location and how the regions and towns were named. For those with a good sense of humor, “Weird Oregon” is an interesting read.

For many reasons people have come to the Oregon Territory. We had logging, mining, agriculture, sawmills, ranching, fishing, tourism, skiing, and beautiful mountain ranges. I grew up with Mt. Hood in my backyard, and every time I see Wy’East, I’m thrilled to see the changes on the mountain.

The above is our heritage, for good or ill; everything that comes after will be our story.

The Genealogy Collection

The Oregon and genealogy collections complement each other, and we are currently working to integrate the two together in the library. When we investigate our personal history, it can come alive with newspaper articles, stories, biographies, and family histories. We begin to understand the daily lives of relatives and friends who preceded us.

Online databases complement our collections. Ancestry.com, Library Edition (licensing rules make it available only at the library), Fold3 for the US Military Archives, and HeritageQuest (both available at the library or at your home). You also have access to digital magazines covering genealogy, including Family Tree. We have the Madras Pioneer of Microfilm. For all available resources, see our genealogy research guide – https://www.jcld.org/genealogy. One of our future projects will be to digitize this collection to make it more widely available.

Our genealogy librarian, Alex, came across “Who are the Schwenkfelders?” The Schwenkfelders are a Christian denomination (you can learn interesting things in the library). Another book in the Oregon collection is “Days of Yore & Then & Then Some More: A Celebration of Fossil”, which was donated by Alex after visiting the Fossil Museum to learn more about his family history.

February – Oregon State Month, Women’s History Month, African American History Month – lots to do. Come and discover the history of your family, your region and your state during a visit to the library. Don’t forget to return your cart first if you’re heading here from the store.