Talk:History of Oregon

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  This article was a Collaboration of the Week for WikiProject Oregon from March 25-April 5, 2008.

Contents

[edit] Article development, outline and suggestions

Snazzy introduction goes here. Often useful to write this last.

Comment: The structure of the final article need not be chronological. See History of California 1900 to present for an example of a page that does well by following historical themes in their own sections. -Pete 21:27, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
Sections in chronological order is a great way, however, to brainstorm what should ultimately be included.

Ideas for sections to be used in the final version (as if anything is ever final on WP…)

  • geological history
  • native American and pioneer history: Oregon Trail, L&C...
  • race: white, black, hispanic, Indian; influence of KKK in 20s, Vanport, neo-nazism in 80s
  • progressive political reforms: initiatives, bottle bill, death with dignity…
  • conservation/stewardship of the environment: Gifford Pinchot, Tom McCall, SB 100, Hatfield…
  • famous "independent spirit"
  • anti-"californication"
  • agriculture, timber industry
  • arts and culture
  • sports

[edit] Geological history

Y Done for the most part, maybe add Vanport, Oregon flood and damming of Columbia River -Pete (talk) 10:49, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Native American settlement

Herein the settlement of Native Americanss are discussed, prior to the arrival of the first European explorers.

The emergence of Celilo Falls as a regional hub of economic and cultural commerce. Tie in with Missoula Floods and the construction of hydro-electric dams.

The most widly held beliefs about human migration to the Americas involve hunter-gatherer immigrants that traveled from Asia across the Bering Land Bridge towards the end of the Pleistocene era. Archeological records indicate human activity in Oregon 11,000 years ago.[1]

[edit] Early European exploration

Herein is discussed early European exploration of the area, including James Cook and the like; events leading up to the Lewis and Clark Expedition

[edit] Lewis and Clark Expedition

Herein Lewis and Clark are discussed, along with events up to the abandonment of all but British and US claims on Oregon and surrounding regions

[edit] Oregon Country and Territory

  • Events leading up to statehood, including the various political dramas in Washington DC (the topic was very relevant to the issue of slavery, of course).
  • The founding of Portland

[edit] Statehood

Early events in the state since 1859 up to the turn of the century, I suppose. Include the racist Oregon constitution, Indian wars, other forms of political intrigue, etc.

  • Matthew Deady - first federal judge in Oregon, and architect of the Oregon constitution - please add to any templates out there.

[edit] Early 20th century

[edit] 1920s, Great Depression

[edit] World War II

[edit] Shipbuilding industry

  • Willamette/Oregon Iron and Steel Company [4]

[edit] 1940s after WWII

[edit] 1950s

[edit] 1960s

  • Columbus Day Storm
  • Goatee incident at OSU, black players quit football team en masse
  • Dick Fosbury, Terry Baker
  • Ken Kesey, The Kingsmen
  • Oregon as hippie/back-to-the land mecca (intentional communities, communes, Jesus People, etc.) continues through the 1970s and today, with remnants especially in Lane and Benton counties and southern Oregon (see also Kesey, above, Grateful Dead)
  • 1964 Good Friday Earthquake in Alaska caused tsunamis that damaged several coastal towns. There were four deaths in Newport...[5]

[edit] 1970s

[edit] 1980s

  • Decline of timber industry: Rise of wood products industry in SE US, raw log exports, spotted owl.
  • Rise of Earth First!, and accompanying non-violent (mostly) civil disobediance actions, treesits (became more popular in the '90s, vs. tree spiking in the '80s)

[edit] 1990s

[edit] 2000s

Not sure if the 21st century is old enough to be called "history".

[edit] References

  1. ^ Loy, William G; Allan, Stuart; Buckley, Aileen R; Meacham, James E. (2001). Atlas of Oregon, 2nd, University of Oregon Press, 10. ISBN 0871141027. 
  2. ^ http://trimet.org/about/history/transitinportland.htm

Note:the above consists of a kind of scratch pad/brainstorming session for members of WikiProject Oregon to decide what should be included in the article before it was even an article. Feel free to add your suggestions. Katr67 (talk) 17:58, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Other discussion spaces

Check out Wikipedia:WikiProject Oregon/History and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Oregon/History for more ideas on how to improve this article, and related articles. -Pete (talk) 06:57, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] walking on pioneer history

how does this page coordinate with other pages such as OregonPioneer history? Just looking for a 50,000 foot perspective of how these things fit together. The thing that is sortof missing is a section on the economic history of the state. Money usually makes things happen and the state looks like it does because of that and Oregon is no exception. Salem is bigger, but not older than Champoeg because they won the election for the siting of the state capital, etc.Rvannatta (talk) 16:59, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Great suggestions! What we really need is an Economy of Oregon article. Would you like to start it? Katr67 (talk) 17:52, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
Agreed, that's a great suggestion. For the 50,000 foot perspective, basically, the longer-term vision is that we'd have separate articles for Oregon native peoples history, Oregon early history, Oregon pioneer history, and Oregon modern history. This article would be essentially a summary of each, with an intro (and possibly additional sections like you suggest) to tie them together.
I added the Geologic History section to cover the "even earlier" stuff. I'm actually thinking it should be changed to "Geologic and natural history," and include an overview of native plants and animals, but I don't know that stuff well enough to start it. -Pete (talk) 18:23, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
That makes some sense. the issue with the native plants and animals is that there are a lot of them and don't know if ending up with a list of native plants, and fungii linked to the botney pages makes sense or not. I did some writing on fungi in trees, and just the list of fungi that infect trees is mind boggling. Dr. Morton Peck a deceased professor from Willamette published a work on the higher plants of oregon (excluded fungi, etc) and it is still 3 inches thick. It's supported by the Peck Herbarium on file at Willamette. It was a life time of work and beyond. His widow was still working on the stuff after he died. When I was at WU 45 years ago I used to see her there from time to time. I'll think about a design for an economy of Oregon page if someone doesn't get there first. it's a very complex topic with plenty of opportunity to be controversial.Rvannatta (talk) 23:42, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
I know a little about native plants and the natural history. Do you know of any states that have a section like that that I could refer to? List of native Oregon plants is also a good place to start. (Note that list appears to be geared towards landscaping and certainly isn't complete). If Oregon has anything remotely like this awesome book, we'd be in business. Katr67 (talk) 17:27, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
922 pages---I listed its reference on the talk page of 'list of native oregon plants page'.Rvannatta (talk) 01:25, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] history of transportation

There are a good number of articles which could be used as a basis for History of transportation in Oregon either as a standalone article or a section in this one. See Category:History of transportation in Oregon. Which should it be? Also, there's the timeline data at Talk:Barlow Road#timeline. —EncMstr 18:11, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

I think there is enough info for a standalone. That way it can be the main article for the category. Plus it would span all of the current sections in this article, which would look a little odd as it is broken down by era. Of course the key points can be mentioned in this article in each section and in the sub articles to this (see Oregon pioneer history) with lots o' links. Aboutmovies (talk) 19:26, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sections/structure

In light of the above discussion, and the recent addition of race relations stuff, I want to bring back a point that was discussed in the early planning stages of this article. I think the target structure of the article should be:

  • The present four/five chronological sections, followed by
  • Transportation
  • Race relations
  • Land use planning
  • Hydropower
  • Agriculture

etc. (Those are just some sample sections, not intended to be comprehensive.)

Many of these topics span multiple time periods, and should be treated in their own right. There is no requirement that the entire article be chronological. -Pete (talk) 23:20, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

I support this. While I was adding some content on race relations, I did feel some confusion as to where it should go. Being chronological makes it awkward for both the readers and editors. —Parhamr (talk) 23:27, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

I think you have missed the essence of Oregon in many ways with your list. Until WWII the most common ethnic minority were chinese workers left over from building the railroads and since then it has been a Multnomah county social issue. Elsewhere in the state it simply isn't a defining issue.

On the other hand what has defined Oregon in a big way from a historical perspective is mining and and timber. Many of Oregon's cities can trace their roots directly to a sawmill or a mine. Lost too in your outline is the fact that even in Portland, a huge factor in portland's history now ignored was its massive stockyards and slaughterhouse row in Kenton. Possibly 'agriculture' is broad enough to cover the livestock industry, but cowboys and sodbusters are the same only to cityboys. Never lose sight of the fact that after the Union Pacific RR opened circa 1884 up until the last 40 years, most of the cows grown between Portland and Omaha met their end at stockyards and thence a slaughterhouse either in Porland or Omaha. Forexample you never begin to understand Central Oregon and why it is like it is unless you see the picture that each town has a little different piece of history. Consider for example the profile of central Oregon: Shaniko: first rail head in the interior of Central Oregon. Early Cattle shipping point. Madras: Cow town that replaced Shaniko with better rail service and more convenient location. Redmond: Farming town convenient to best central Oregon farming area. Prinville: Cow town---ever see Les Schwab plowing a field in his commercials??? Bend: Sawmill town--on the edge of the vast pine forests with good access to the east side of the cascades, and to the south.Rvannatta (talk) 01:21, 26 March 2008 (UTC)