Table Rock Sentinel July/Aug 1991

Sixty-two Years Ago ______(f�� SOUTHER N HIS1DRICAL OREGON ::::•••• SOCIE1Y - :>11'l(:1;14-4f;

Board of Trustees

President Dr. Gary H. Wheeler, Medford First Vice President: Vern Arnold, Medford Second Vice President: Jean Smith, Central Point Secretary: Barrelling its way up the rudimentary trail (leit), the 1929 Essex Challenger makes a successful James Kuntz, Medford bid to be the first motorized vehicle driven to the summit of Table Rock (right). SOHS #200, 202 Treasurer: Mary Foster, Medford

Once a spiritual sanctuar y to the Takelma Indians, the steep and John Deeson, Medford craggy Lower Table Rock became an engine stamina testing ground Mark Dennett, Jacksonville for Armstrong Motors, Inc., of Medford. In a publicity stunt, vice­ Edmund Dews, Ashland president and service manager Hugo F. Lange maneuvered the com­ Cindy Faubion, Gold Hill pany's 1929 Essex Challenger up the talus slopes to the mesa's Gerald Latham, Medford summit. Jessie McGraw, Eagle Point Using Associated ethyl gasoline and Cycol motor oil, the Marjorie Nichols, Ashland Challenger reached the top in thirty-five minutes, followed by an Thomas Pickering, Jacksonville entourage of photographers, movie cameramen and members of the Janie Stewart, Thlent press. The outfit then proceeded toward the opposite end where Samuel Whitford, Medford Lange parked the car atop the steep basalt cliffs. Armstrong Motors, then located at 101 South Riverside, claimed to be the first to crest Administrative Staff this geological wonder via automobile. Lower Table Rock and its upriver twin, Upper Table Rock, are Executive Director: remnants of a much larger prehistoric basalt flow long since eroded Samuel J. Wegner by the Rogue River and its tributaries. Lower Table Rock was estab­ Deputy Director: Brad Linder lished as a nature preserve in 1979 when the Nature Conservancy purchased portions of the John Day Ranch with assistance from the Development Ojjicer: Ted E. Lawson Elmer Feldenheimer Land Preservation Fund. Upper Table Rock has Finance Director: been designated as an area of critical and environmental concern by Maureen Smith the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Coordinator oj Photography Today the preserve is cooperatively owned and managed by the and Publications: Nature Conservancy and the B.L.M. and is easily accessible via a Natalie Brown well-maintained trail just off of Table Rock Road. Although moto­ Membership Coordinator: rized vehicles are no longer allowed on the trail, hikers enjoy abun­ Susan Cox-Smith dant wildflowers and scenic vistas of the Rogue River Valley.

The Table Rock Sentinel is published bimonthly by the Southern Ore­ CONT RIBUTIONS: Address all editorial communications to Table gon Historical Society. Administrative and membership offices are Rock Sentinel, 106 N. CentralAvenue, Medford, OR 97501-5926. We at the History Center, 106 N. Central Avenue, Medford, OR 97501- are happy to consider queries and contributions. All material must 5926. Subscription is free with membership. Single copies and back be identified with the sender's name and address, and will be returned issues are available for $2.50 each. if sent with sufficient postage. Care is taken with contributions, but POSTMASTER: Please send Change of Address (form 3579) to we are not responsible for damage or loss. The Society disclaims Southern Oregon Historical Society, 106 N. Central Avenue, Med­ responsibility for facts or opinions expressed in signed contributions. ford, OR 97501-5926. Editorial Production and Design: Natalie Brown, Susan Ray; Typog­ Copyright ©1991 by Southern Oregon Historical Society. ISSN raphy: ProType; Printing: Ram Offset Lithographers. #0732-0523. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted without written permission from the Society. ...------IABLE ROCK.------, VOLUME 11, NUMBER 4 JULY/AUGUST 1991 ENTINEL

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Features

2 Drive-along History, part II by Marjorie O'Harra Northbound travelers tired of the tedious Interstate 5 will find countless historic tidbits from Springfield to Portland in this second of a two-part series of history along the highway. Take this Sentinel on your next trip, and picture the determined pioneers who passed through and settled this section of the state.

18 Catch a Falling Star: The Meteorites of Oregon by Gordon W. Haas The fireballs which have fallen in this state are considered rare treasures by those that find them. Over the last century, a few Oregonians have stumbled onto or stolen some of these desirable pieces from the heavens.

Departments

Sixty-two Years Ago (inside front cover) 27 Then and Now

28 Welcome Members 26 From the Collections

Front cover: Two unidentified children look askance Back cover: Peter Britt's children, Emil and Mollie, sleep on a Britt at Peter Britt's camera, ca. 1875. SOHS #11101 family loveseat in the 1870s. SOHS #768 ...... � d ·· ._ __ \J

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Eugene Springfield MILEPOST Springfield, Exit 194-A, was named Springfield to Portland­ for a natural spring in a field that 9 was fenced off in the early 1850s. It Today's travelers will discover rn4 was near here that Elias Briggs oper­ countless historical tidbits in ated a ferry on the Willamette River. The community is known today as the this second of a two-part series gateway to the beautiful McKenzie River of history along 1-5. country. Yo u will cross the McKenzie River at Milepost 197 as the freeway carries you by Marjorie O'Harra north. If you look downstream you will

TABLE ROCK SENTINEL July/August 1991 3 see Armitage State Park on the banks of the river. The park was named in memory of George Henry Armitage, a pioneer fer­ ryman and sawmill operator who was active in the affairs of the growing com­ munity and is credited with being instrumental in securing the University of Oregon for Eugene. The river that tumbles from the Three Sisters Wilderness Area high in the Cas­ cade Mountains toward the broad, flat Willamette Valley was named for Donald McKenzie, a member of the Pacific Fur Company who explored the valley and its tributary streams in 1812. McKenzie was a native of Scotland and one of the four men chosen by John Jacob Astor, the New Yo rk capitalist, to be his partners when he formed the Pacific Fur Company and established the western trad­ ing post of Astoria. McKenzie arrived in Astoria in January 1812. The War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain broke out in June. The following year a decision was made to sell the Pacific Fur Company to the British North West Company to avoid seizure by the British. McKenzie went to work for the North West Company and became one of organized trapping expeditions using com­ Weighing in at over 300 its most successful traders and explorers. pany men as trappers instead of relying pounds, trapper and A huge man weighing more than 300 upon trading with the Indians. His first explorer Donald pounds, he was known as a skilled rifle­ expedition involved fifty-five men, 195 McKenzie earned the man and was both feared and respected by horses, 300 beaver traps and a stock of nickname "Perpetual the Indians with whom he traded. He led merchandise, but no provisions. He Motion" for his con­ stant activity. Photo trading expeditions on the Willamette, expected the men to live off the land as he courtesy Oregon Historical McKenzie, Columbia and Snake rivers, and did. It required 154 pack horses to bring Society in 1819 he went down the Snake from out his furs. Clearwater to Burnt River in a bateau, a McKenzie was sometimes called "Per­ feat of skill not duplicated until modern petual Motion" because of his tireless engine-powered craft were put on the river. energy. Some accounts also describe him as He was instrumental in building Fort. a very selfish man, caring for no one but Nez Perce (later renamed Fort Walla Walla) himself. It is said that he was ". .. a man as a trade center and supply depot, and he no hardship could fatigue, no danger could intimidate."1 He was married at Astoria to Princess Choim, a daughter of Chinook Chief Con­ comly, and they had three children. He accumulated a fortune in the fur trade and returned to New Yo rk, where he died in 1851.

MILEPOST The blacksmith was one of the most Interstate 5 carries you into Linn important members · of adeve loping com­ County, named in honor of a man munity.. Blacksmith Tholl1as Kane, who whose work in the U.S. Senate was operated. his smithy where Coburg now highly important to the settlement stands, was said to have named the .place of Oregon. after·a well-known local stallion. Created by the Oregon Provisional Legis­ rnlature in 1847, the county was named for 4 July/August 1991 TABLE ROCK SENTINEL Senator Lewis Fields Linn of Missouri. Sen. Linn was the author of the donation land law that served as the forerunner of the homestead law. Donald ·McKenzie A surgeon in St. Genevieve, Missouri, Donald McKenziewas a kinsman to Sr. Linn was appointed to the U.S. Senate in AlexanderMackenzie,the British explorer 1833, where he served until his death in and member of the North West Company 1843. His work in the Senate in support of who discovered the Mackenzie River in his bill to grant land to Oregon settlers was Canada and followed it to the Arctic opposed by those who argued that such a Ocean. bill would ". . . create a breach of faith In 1793, Mackenzie led an expedition with Great Britain and cause international to the Pacific Coast that was cited by complications."2 Great Britain to support its claim to the In 1846, three years after Sen. Linn's Oregon Country; it was the first overland death, the long-standing dispute with the journey across North America north of British over ownership of the Oregon Mexico. Country was settled by treaty, the bound­ Astoria, established in 1811 by the ary between Canada and the United States Pacific Fur Company as a fur collecting agreed upon. This helped clear the way for post at the mouth of the Columbia River, passage of the Donation Land Act of wasthe firstpermanent settlement in Ore� 1850, an act considered one of the major gon and represented one of the most motivating influences in settlement of the important Americanterritorial claims to Oregon Te rritory. the Northwest . John Jacob Astor, principal owner of the company, ook d the l e to expansion in Continuing north on Interstate 5 The McKenzie River, West as a step toward his goal of world through the open beauty of the Wil­ wide and tame where it trade. the com­ He kept half interest in lamette Valley, this was the Eden, meanders beneath 1-5 at pany and was president, but divided the the paradise the immigrants mile post 197 flows through the beautiful remaining half among four partners, men dreamed of as the wagon trains like McKenzie who had experience in the headed west from St. Louis. Most every Willamette Valley on its way to the ocean. Photo fur trade. wagon carried at least the basic farm tools, courtesy Oregon Historical because these folks knew they would have Society John McLoughlin, Father of Oregon "No single person aided the emigrants to cultivate the land if they were to survive more, than did John McLoughlin. A scenic view of dairy and prosper. To uched by the hardships they had cattle and fruit trees When they arrived in the middle and endured, he helped them again and again exemplifies how Orego­ with money, supplies and good counsel nians took advantage of upper valley they found " ... richly grassed the Willamette Valley's prairies that overlay vast unwooded areas even though his instructions were to dis­ rich and fertile soil and . . . wild grass so extensive and tall that courage settlement. But finally the turned their land into a wandering cattle were often obscured by it. instructions were adamant: he was to dis­ rich agricultural center. A man on horseback moved head and continue all assistance. 'Gentlemen,' it is Photo courtesy Oregon Histor­ "5 said he replied, 'if such is your order I will ical Society shoulders only above the green sea .... The Indians burned off the countryside serve you no longer.' And he did not, each fall to round up game, a practice that resigning in 1846 to retire in Oregon City. " destroyed much of the young tree growth - Historian Te rence O'Donnell but left the land rich with new grass. Dr. John McLoughlin was born in Oregon became an early agricultural cen­ Quebec in 1784 and practiced medicine ter for the Far West largely because of the in Montreal for a short time before he valley through which you are driving. became a partner in the North West The first to engage in farming were Company. former employees of the Pacific Fur Com­ The Canadian North West Company pany and the Hudson's Bay Company, merged with the British-owned Hudson's mainly French-Canadian men who had Bay Company in 1821, and in 1824 Dr. married native women and lived by hunt­ McLoughlin was put in charge of the ing, fishing and trapping. In 1828 Etienne Columbia District at Fort Vancouver. Fort Lucier decided to farm on the banks of the Vancouver became the Hudson's Bay Willamette River, planting wheat and pota­ Company's central fur depot, trading, toes in the area where Portland now center, and port from which furs and stands. Others started to work the land farm products from the Oregon Country nearby, receiving help from Dr. John were shipped to the Sandwich Islands, McLoughlin, who considered the Wil­ China and England. lamette Valley the best place in the region From 1825 to 1846 Dr. McLoughlin was adapted to settlement. Under his direction, a leading figure in the Oregon Country. the Hudson's Bay Company had developed To the natives he was known as "White an extensive farm at Fort Vancouver and Headed Eagle. " Because of the encour­ built a flour mill. agement and help he gave to American Wheat was the principal crop raised by missionaries and settlers -even though the pioneer families who began coming in his instructions were to monopolize the the early 1840s. Dr. McLoughlin made seed fur trade, subdue the Indians, and prevent wheat available to them with the stipUla­ agricultural settlement -Dr. McLoughlin tion that it be repaid in kind. In the became known as the "Father of Oregon." absence of money, wheat became legal ten-

TABLE ROCK SENTINEL 6 July/August 1991 der, with a standard value of one dollar built the first woolen mill on the Pacific per bushel. Coast on the banks of Mill Creek in Salem By 1846 more than 160,000 bushels of in 1856. wheat were produced in the Oregon Coun­ Cherries were brought to Oregon in try. During the gold rush of 1849, Oregon 1847, and from this stock local varieties wheat was shipped aboard sailing vessels such as the Bing and the Black Republican from Oregon river ports to the California were developed. In the 1850s, fruit trees, gold fields, where it brought six dollars a seeds, ornamental shrubbery, including a bushel. Wheat also was exported aboard number of rose varieties, and cane berry sailing vessels to the Sandwich Islands and rootings were received. After several unsuc­ to settlements in the Puget Sound. cessful attempts to establish bees, John The first cattle were brought in 1814 Davenport arrived in 1854 with a swarm of when a sailing ship landed two bulls and bees he brought across the plains in a hive two heifers at the fur trade post where constructed mostly of wire netting. Wild Astoria now stands. In 1837 Ewing Yo ung flax was cultivated and processed to pro­ drove 630 head of Spanish cattle north vide linseed oil and fiber for burlap bags. from California. Commercial hop-growing got under way in Cattle in large numbers came with the 1864. emigrant train of 1843, a division of which A group of Ya mhill County farms became known as the "Cow Column" (cap­ organized the first agricultural society, and tained by Jesse Applegate) because of the in the spring of 1854 a local fair was held. 1,300 or more cows and young cattle that Similar groups formed in other areas, and were driven along behind the wagons. The in 1861 the first Oregon State Fair was numbers of cattle increased with every held along the Clackamas River near Ore­ wagon train. gon City. The next year eighty acres of Oregon's woolen industry developed after land in Salem were acquired and a more the first large flocks of sheep were driven elaborate state fair was held. For the overland from Illinois in 1844 by Joshua countless thousands who enjoy the excite­ Shaw, accompanied by his wife and chil­ ment of competition, the animals, the dis­ Four prize winners at dren, and from Missouri in 1848 by plays, the blue ribbons and the bright the Oregon State Fair brothers Joseph and Ahio Watt, who also lights and fun of the midway, the Oregon sheepishly line up for brought machinery for processing the State Fair (Fairgrounds, Exit 256) has been recognition. Photo courtesy Oregon Historical wool. The Willamette Woolen Company the highlight of the year ever since. Society MILEPOST From time to time as you drive along Interstate 5 you might catch a glimpse of one or more elegant Chi­ nese ring-necked pheasants feeding in an open field. The Chinese pheasants found throughout Western America came from stock sent to Oregon rnfrom Shanghai, China, in 1880-81 and released on the Denny family homestead near here. Christian and Eliza Denny and their family came west from Ohio in 1852 and settled near the small community of Lebanon. Son John was involved for a time in pol­ itics, then he and his wife Sarah settled down to farm. The older brother Owen chose a career in law, graduated from Wil­ lamette University, married Genevieve Hale, a survivor of the Whitman Massacre, and eventually became the collector of internal revenue for Oregon and Alaska. In 1877 he was appointed U.S. Consul to China, where he served until 1884. It was during this time that he sent two ship­ ments of Chinese ring-necked pheasants to Oregon. The first shipment was released on a farm near Scappoose. Only fifteen cocks and five hens had survived out of a ship­ ment of seventy. The second shipment of twenty-eight birds was turned loose near Lebanon. The birds did well in the Wil­ lamette Valley and, aided in later years by

New Bird The shipment of Chinese ring-necked pheasants that the Hon. Owen N. Denny, then U.S. consul-general to China, made to his brother John in Oregon was the first successful importation of pheasants into the United States. The birds did so well that an open sea­ son of ten weeks was declared in 1892. The first day's shooting netted 50,000 birds. The experience drew demand from all parts of the country for breeding stock, and pheasantries multiplied throughout the state. In 1899 alone, ship­ ments of breeding birds were made from Oregon to 509 different localities, from Alaska to Mexico�

TABLE ROCK SENTINEL Political Parties In the years preceding statehood, granted in 1859, Oregon was a territory where conversations that flirted with pol­ itics often exploded into loud and abu­ sive argument. Political differences involved such issues as slavery, statehood (Join the Union? Establish a sovereign nation west of the Rockies?), location of the state capital and prohibition, among other things. One of the groups involved in the fray was the Know Nothing Party, a secret Tho elegant Chinese pheasant breeding farms, scattered over political society officially known as the ring-necked pheasants much of the western part of the country. "Supreme Order of the Star Spangled whose descendants were Banner." The main purposes of the brought to Oregon from Shanghai in MILEPOsr organization, which developed in the East, were to keep America the exclusive 1880-81, stand perched Albany, the birthplace of the atop Jacksonville's Republican Party in Oregon, was a preserve of white, Protestant Americans Table Rock Saloon's political "hot spot" in the late 1850s and to resist "... the corrupting counter in the late nine­ and 1860s. influences of the Roman Catholic teenth century. SOHS #1941 Located where the Calapooya Church� Its purpose in Oregon was to River spills into the Willamette, the town defeat the Democratic Party. Because its was founded in 1848 by Walter and members denied all knowledge of the rnThomas Monteith, who bought the site for organization and its activities it became $400 and a horse, and named it for their known as the Know Nothing Party. former home of Albany, New Yo rk. A The party was exposed in Oregon by a gristmill was built, the first steamboat faction of the Democratic Party known reached its dock in 1852, and river com­ as the "Salem Clique" after the clique merce began. Albany grew as an agricul­ infiltrated the Know Nothing mem­ tural and trade center. bership. The Oregon Republican Party evolved Also active in Oregon politics in the out of a meeting of "Free State" men held 1850s was the Te mperance Society. The in Albany in 1856. The organizing conven­ provisional government had prohibited tion, held February 11, 1857, attracted liquor (thought to be the first prohibition delegates from eight counties who law in the U.S.), but then reversed itself represented a variety of political beliefs and passed regulatory laws. that differed substantially from those. held by the Democratic Party. The Republicans were opposed to slavery and strong in their support of the rights of MILEPOsr Negroes as free agents in the American Interstate 5 will soon carry you labor force. The Democratic Party was nei­ across the Santiam River into ther anti- nor pro-slavery, but torn by Marion County. The river was differences of opinion and by factions named for the small bands of which split from the main group. Indians, described as "generally Opinions were expressed in subtle and friendly but thievish," who made the land not-so-subtle ways. When Abraham Lin­ along its banks their home.6 This desirable coln was elected President in 1860, those rnland attracted perhaps equally thievish sympathetic to the South and slavery threw white settlers in the early 1840s. Eventually the Albany municipal cannon into the river the Santiam Indians were removed to the so it couldn't be fired during the victory Grand Ronde Reservation. celebration. Marion County was named in honor of

TABLE ROCK SENTINEL July/August 1991 9 General Francis Marion, the Revolutionary War hero known as the "Swamp Fox" because of his skill in guerrilla warfare and his ability to elude the British. A biogra­ phy of the soldier, The Life of General Francis Marion, was popular with early Oregon settlers.

Salem has been Oregon's EXIT capital since 1864, when 252 voters ended a political ~ squabble and fifteen-year game of musical chairs and voted deci­ sively to locate the seat of state govern­ ment here. The first legislative assembly of the provisional government met at Oregon City, and in 1849 Oregon City became the territorial capital. By subsequent act of the Legislature, the capital was moved to Salem in 1851, where legislators met in a private home, then in rented halls. In 1855 the capital was moved to Corvallis for a MILEPOST short time, then back to Salem again (after Interstate 5 soon will approach and After years of debate, the U.S. Treasury Department ruled against bypass two communities - Mount voters finally designated, spending money other than at Salem, as Angel (Exit 271) and Aurora (Exit Salem as Oregon's capi­ appropriated), where the capitol building 278) - established by pioneers dedi­ tal in 1864. This 1870 (top) that had been started the previous year was cated to their religious beliefs. view of the city looks across Wilson now ready for occupancy. On December The name Mount Angel applies both to Park to Court Street. 29, 1855, the capitol building burned. the town and the forested butte that rises Photo courtesy Many public records were lost. Wfrom the valley floor several miles east of Oregon Historical Society The territorial capital remained at Interstate 5. Salem, but with the loss of the building The butte was known to the Indians as the debate over location of the seat of Ta p-a-lam-a-ho, meaning a mountain used Mt. Angel Abbey (right) government started all over again. for communion with the Great Spirit. In church stands high atop a hillside and When Oregon became the thirty-third 1883 the Rev. Father Adelhelm Odermatt, is still used today as a state in 1859 and the Oregon Constitution who had come from Switzerland and place for work and went into effect, the matter of a perma­ established a Benedictine community in worship. Photo courtesy nent seat of government still had not been nearby Gervais, built a pilgrimage chapel Oregon Historical Society settled. The issue was submitted twice to on top of the butte. He gave the name the voters before it was decisively resolved Mount Angel to both the rounded hill, in the election of 1864. which could be seen from miles around, Salem dates its founding to 1840, when and to the settlement at its base. the Methodist missionary and pioneer The hilltop still is a place dedicated to leader Jason Lee established a Methodist prayer and work. At Mount Angel Abbey, mission here. Two years earlier Lee had a monastery of Benedictine monks, you gone east to recruit Methodist settlers for will find a seminary where students are the Oregon Country, seeing this as the best educated for the Catholic priesthood, the way to strengthen the claim of the United abbey church, a research library, two States to the land and to free it from museums and a retreat. domination by the British. Continuing the work started more than a The settlement initially was called century ago by Mother Bernadine Wachter Chemeketa, a Calapooya word translated and a small group of Benedictine Sisters is by some as "place of peace" and by others Queen of Angels Priory. as "meeting place" or "resting place." When the first group of Sisters arrived Salem, a name chosen later, is the angli­ from Switzerland they lived in an aban­ cized form of the Hebrew word shalom, doned saloon in Gervais until their convent meaning peace. was built. Six years later they moved to the

TABLE ROCK SENTINEL 10 July/August 1991 site of the present priory. The ministries of the Sisters continue to center on hospital­ ity, prayer, education, nursing, retreat work, social justice and ministry. Mount Angel is a pleasant small town that reflects its Swiss-Bavarian heritage. The highlight of each year is Oktoberfest, a four-day festival patterned after the Oktoberfest of Munich. Held the third weekend in September, the event attracts thousands. Another annual event is the Abbey Bach Festival, held the last week of July. For information write Abbey Bach Festival, Mount Angel Abbey, St. Benedict, OR 97373. A few miles north of Mount Angel, situ­ After the death of Dr. Keil, the colony ated on the banks of Mill Creek, is declined, and eventually the property that Aurora, established in 1857 by Dr. William had been held in common was divided Keil and a group of his German-Dutch among the remaining members. followers who lived by the communal code A side trip to Aurora, with time allowed ". . . from every man according to his for exploring the town and the fine Ox capacity, to every man according to his Barn Museum where the simplicity of com­ needs."? munal life is well presented, is strongly As head of the Christian communal recommended. group, Dr. Keil demanded full authority which, it is said, was either " ... ardently supported or openly resented."8 In Champoeg State Park, The religious pattern was strict and the on the banks of the Wil­ lifestyle simple. Ornamentation in dress lamette River just west of was not tolerated; marriage outside the Interstate 5, the pageant colony was prohibited. "Champoeg-the Story of Old Oregon" is The Aurora Colony members, who num­ presented in an outdoor theater on summer bered about 500, farmed large tracts of evenings. This colorful drama brings to life land and sold what produce the colony some of the people who struggled to bring didn't need. The women were excellent order through government to the Oregon cooks, and were known as well for their Country. For a pageant schedule and ticket Champoeg, a National skills at glovemaking and embroidery. The information, write Champoeg Historical Historic District as well men made furniture, clothing, baskets and Pageant, Box 4567, Salem, OR 97302, or as a state park, offers tools. The colony gained a reputation call (503) 245-3922. travelers a beautiful throughout the United States for the high Champoeg boasts an excellent visitors area to cool their quality of the clarinet reeds made there, center, and both the Pioneer Mother's engines and catch their and the Aurora Band was known through­ Cabin and the Robert Newell House are breath on the banks of out the region for its stirring, oom-pah the Willamette River. open to the public. Champoeg is a Photo courtesy Oregon Histor­ German-style music. National Historic District as well as a state ical Society park. Because of the natural beauty of the siderable confusion and dissension"lo a groves of tall trees and the open meadows, body of law and a government of three and because of the generous placement of branches -legislative, executive and picnic tables, an unhurried visit is highly judiciary-were created. recommended. After the organizational meetings, the It was at Champoeg in 1843 that the seat of provisional government was located Oregon provisional government came into at Oregon City. being. The need for some sort of govern­ ment, particularly for laws relating to land title, was recognized by Willamette Valley settlers especially following the death of Ewing Yo ung in 1841. Yo ung died leaving an estate of considerable value, but no known heirs. There had been talk about government, but little headway had been made. A major problem was the fact that the region still was jointly claimed by both Great Britain and the United States, and jointly occupied by citizens of both nations. The boundary question had not been solved. Finally, following two preliminary meet­ ings, a committee was asked to report to a general meeting called for May 2, 1843, at Champoeg, the place on the river where the Hudson's Bay Company had a ware­ house that later became a shipping point for valley wheat. The meeting drew about an equal number of Americans and French-Canadians, some one hundred in all. After what has been described as "con-

Oregon City is a city of Oregon City, shown EXIT "firsts." Yo u will see it here ca. 1880, was gratefully considered 288 across the Willamette River the end of the trail for from a wayside park and @] westward-bound viewpoint if you choose to take the Inter­ pioneers and the state 205 (Exit 288) route east of Portland entrance to Oregon for rather than continue north on Interstate 5 thousands of emigrants. through the center of the city. SOHS #13480 Situated at the falls some twenty-five Odd New Justice miles upstream from where the Willamette Historian Terence O'Donnell writes: flows into the Columbia River, this place "Despite the fact that it [provisional was a center for Indian fishing and barter government] was not officially recognized when white explorers, fur trappers and by the majority over whom it presumed traders first penetrated the area. to rule, the laws it enacted were by and The first sawmill and the first gristmill large observed though on occasion in in Oregon were built here in 1831, using curious fashion. In Polk County, for water power from the falls. Oregon's provi­ example, a man was sentenced to three sional and first territorial governments years imprisonment, but there being no were located here. The first U.S. flag to fly jail and no taxes with which to build one, in Oregon was unfurled here, and in 1844 it was decided to sell him at auction. A Oregon City became the first incorporated local farmer bought the criminal and city west of the Rocky Mountains. worked him for three years after which For thousands of emigrants this was the time he was given a horse and saddle and entrance to Oregon. It was the end of the $20 and released."9 Oregon Tr ail, and the end of the trip by sailing ship around the Horn or across the

TABLE ROCK SENTINEL July/August 1991 13 Isthmus of Panama. The first Protestant resigned from the Hudson's Bay Company, church, the first Masonic lodge, and the where he had been in charge of Fort Van­ first newspaper west of the Missouri River couver for twenty-one years, Dr. McLough­ were started in Oregon City. Woolen mills lin built a home in Oregon City, became opened here in 1864 and the first paper an American citizen and with his wife mill on the West Coast was built here three Marguerite lived here until he died in 1857. years later. The McLoughlin House is now a National Historic Site and is open to tours Tu esdays Oregon City was laid out and named in through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., 1842 by Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor and on Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. It is of the Hudson's Bay Company, on a por­ closed on Mondays, holidays and during tion of land he had claimed. After he the month of January.

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/"-';... ,,�� ... .".-.....:� ... l"..,...;;.n' 'l'''''''� �\vJ When the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the Columbia River in 1805, there were more than a thousand members of Oregon's New the Clackamas tribe living in the region. Mormon Temple By the early 1850s there were fewer than Just . north of Exit 292, . the siellder ninety. Those who survived were taken to . white spires of the Templepf the Church the Grand Ronde Reservation in 1855. of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, dedi� b n b Portland grew from a sixteen-block clear­ cated. in .1989, ay. e.see rising. a ove the forestthat Tobscures the view. of the ing in the forest referred to as "Stump­ town" in 1845 to become Oregon's magnificent structure itself. from the freeway. .. "metropolis" with a population of about The· first LDS rnissionarie� wereSI!Ilt 2,000 in 1858. The reason for its rapid . fromt he Mormon settlemen.t in San Ber� growth was its advantageous location for nardino,California, to thegregon Terri� commerce. 14 Situated at the farthest point up the tory in the. 1850s. Because the reception they received. wasp60r, theirpro�elytiz� Columbia River that ocean-going ships The steamer ing efforts r t mporarily abandoned: could reach, Portland offered a deep water Lurline we e. e docks near Hawthorne seaport. It also was connected to the valley The PortlandTemple Districtdates back Bridge on the Columbia to 1855 when the Salmon River Mission settlements by a wagon road that led River during Portland's was formed, establishinga. colony Of through a low pass in the hills, making it a earlier seaport era. natural center for trade and shipping. SOHS #12479 Mormons in the. Bitter root MpuIlt�ins of what was then the Oregon Territory (now the eastern b?rder

MILEPOST As Interstate 5 approaches Mult­ nomah County and the Portland 9 metropolitan area, it passes briefly [4 through Clackamas and Washington counties. Clackamas County, created in 1843, received its name from the Clackamas Indians, a Chinookan tribe whose villages stood along the lower Clackamas River. Washington County, established in 1849, was named in honor of President George Washington. Multnomah County, created in 1854, was named for the Multnomah Indians, also of the Chinookan family, who had their central village on Sauvies The city's first big period of growth Island in the Columbia River. came during the California gold rush, The Chinookan family, a group of many when Portland boomed as a shipping and related tribes that numbered in the thou­ supply center. Produce from Willamette sands, lived along the Columbia, Clack­ Valley farms and lumber from Oregon amas and Willamette rivers in small mills left on every conceivable type of sail­ villages. Because their most frequent ing vessel headed for San Francisco. means of travel was by river, they were From the wharves and the waterfront, referred to as "canoe Indians" by Lewis the town sprawled. By 1850 Portland had and Clark and other early explorers.11 churches, a school, stores, boarding Contact with whites, exposure to new houses, nearly two hundred buildings and kinds of disease-smallpox, measles, a weekly newspaper, the Portland Orego­ influenza, venereal diseases, etc. - and the nian. Eight years later there were tree-lined introduction of liquor used in barter by streets, neat frame houses, brick buildings the fur traders had a "devastating effect on along the waterfront and land set aside for the native races."12 parks.

TABLE ROCK SENTINEL July/August 1991 15 Gold was discovered in Eastern Oregon Francis W. Pettygrove, merchant, who had and in Idaho in the 1860s, and this again come west from Portland, Maine, and increased Columbia River shipping. In the A. L. Lovejoy, lawyer, who had come from 1870s Portland was on its way to becoming Boston. Pettygrove won the toss. These one of the major wheat ports in the men also are credited with laying out the world!5 initial sixteen-block townsite. In 1883-84, some twenty-four years after Oregon became a state with poor commu­ nications and travel connections with the East, both Northern Pacific and Union The Columbia River, the Pacific railroad lines reached Portland, LEAVING legendary Great River of making an east-west transcontinental link. OREGON the West, forms the north­ In 1887, the north-south railroad between ern boundary of Oregon. Portland and San Francisco was finished. Continuing north, Interstate 5 will carry This completed the circle of railroad routes you into the state of Washington. around the United States. Portland entered The river has its own story to tell. a new era of growth and prosperity, A water route traveled by native peoples enhanced once again when it became a for centuries before the arrival of the white major shipping point during the Alaska man, the river also provided an abundance gold rushes of the 1890s. of food and was a source of myth and In 1905 Portland hosted the Lewis and spiritual strength. Clark Centennial Exposition, marking the Although a great river was suspected to 100th anniversary of the date Lewis and exist by Spanish, Russian, British and Clark explored an overland route to the American explorers and merchant traders Horse-drawn carts Oregon Country, and shortly thereafter, who had sailed off the west coast of maneuver a muddy historians say, the city reached "cultural Front Street in Port­ 6 America for almost 200 years, it wasn't maturity."1 land, ca. 1850. discovered until May 11, 1792, when Cap­ Photo courtesy Whether the clearing in the forest that tain Robert Gray, in command of the Oregon Historical Society was destined to become Oregon's major American merchant ship Columbia, found city was to be named Portland or Boston the entrance and sailed over the bar. was decided in 1845, it is said, by the toss Captain Gray continued ten miles of a coin. The two men involved were upstream and claimed the river and the surrounding region in the name of the United States, establishing for the first time the presence of the United States in western North America. He gave the river the name of his ship, Columbia. Five months later a British naval officer and maritime explorer, Lieutenant William R. Broughton, sailed upstream 120 miles, raised the British flag, and claimed the country in the name of King George III. On the Early Ownership of the river and the region it Automobile . . . represented remained in dispute for more "The automobile had come. ... In than fifty years until 1846, when the pres­ 1906 Portland grudgingly raised the speed ent boundaries between the United States limit from eight to ten miles an hour. The and Canada were finally agreed upon. real breakthrough came in 1910 when the The Lewis and Clark Expedition, Meier and Frank Company switched charged by President Thomas Jefferson to from horse delivery to trucks. In the same explore the land west of the Louisiana Pur­ year the Oregon Automobile Association chase and to report back whether or not called on the counties to put up road any of it was desirable, came by boat down signs, 'so that auto tourists . . . might be the river on the last leg of their long over­ able to find their way anywhere in Ore­ land trek from St. Louis, Missouri, in the gon.' ... In 1919 the state published its fall of 1805. first official road map." Next came the fur posts, Fort Astoria at - Historian Terence O'Donnelll3 the mouth of the river in 1811, Fort Van­ couver in 1824, and still farther upstream

16 July/August 1991 TABLE ROCK SENTINEL forts Walla Walla, Okanogan and Colville. ENDNOT ES Trappers and traders guided canoes filled 1. Lewis A. McArthur, Oregon Geographic Names with furs down the Columbia to Fort Van­ (Portland: Western Imprints, Press of the Oregon Historical Society, 1982), p. 484. couver, where they were loaded onto mer­ 2. McArthur, p. 448. chant ships headed to China and London. 3. Encyclopedia Americana, (Americana Corpora­ In the 1840s emigrants who made the tion, 1957: vol. 21), p. 717. difficult trip overland loaded their wagons 4. Howard McKinley Corning, editor, Dictionary of and their possessions on rafts at The Oregon History (Portland: 1989, Binford and Mort Publishing Company, 1989), p. 137. Dalles and floated down the Columbia to 5. Corning, p. 268. reach the land they would claim in the 6. Corning, p. 216. Willamette Valley and beyond. 7. Corning, p. 14. 8. Corning, p. 132. 9. Terence O'Donnell, "Oregon History," Oregon And, finally, Portland grew to be Ore­ Blue Book (Salem: State Printing Division, 1985-86), gon's great city, a center of commerce and p. 437. culture on the banks of the Columbia 10. O'Donnell, p. 437. River. 11. Corning, p. 53. When the Washington Territory was 12. Corning, p. 80. 13. O'Donnell, p. 447. separated from the Oregon Territory in 14. O'Donnell, p. 441. 1853, the Columbia River became the 15. O'Donnell, p. 444. boundary line that eventually would sepa­ 16. Corning, p. 201. rate two of the most livable states in the United States, states carved out of what Marjorie O'Harra is a retired journalist once had been the vast and unknown Ore- and a lifelong resident oj southern Oregon gon Country. e .... who has acquired a whole new view oj ..!!!!. Interstate 5. She has written several books and numerous articles about southern Oregon.

TABLE ROCK SENTINEL July/August 1991 17 ------..

g eteorites of Dre

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Pitted with cavities by Gordon W. Haas large enough to hold a / child, the Willamette Meteorite (far right) tips the scales at more than 15 tons. This voy­ ager from space is cur­ rently housed at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. Photo courtesy Dick Pugh

THE WILLAMETTE �sitors from outer space have METEORITE landed in Oregon and are helping The largest meteorite ever found Oregon scientists to learn more in the United States, and the sixth about the earth, the solar system largest ever found in the world, the and the universe. This is the story Willamette Meteorite weighs in at of four of them, although there more than fifteen tons. This huge and very are thousands more in Oregon. VW Beetle-sized mass of valuable, they This story is neither science fiction nickel-iron is pitted with large plotted how to nor fantasy. The visitors are cavities, some large enough to hold obtain it. When the meteorites, and there are ways to a child. The pits were not caused Oregon Iron and Steel find and identify them. by the meteorite's fall through the Company refused to sell the prop­ Experts estimate that 1,000 tons air as many believe, but by 13,000 erty it was on, Hughes decided to of rock, metal, and ice enter the years of rusting in the rainy move it to his own land % mile earth's atmosphere from outer Northwest. away. space yearly. Most of the material In the fall of 1902, Ellis G. But moving the meteorite proved vaporizes before it reaches the Hughes, a Welsh farmer, was cut­ to be a monumental task. With earth's surface, and even then most ting firewood on land belonging to the help of his fifteen-year-old of it lands on the 75 percent of the Oregon Iron and Steel Com­ son, and occasionally his wife, the the earth that is water. Nonethe­ pany on the east side of the Tu ala­ work finally began in August 1903. less, each year meteorites land on tin Valley, two miles northwest of Deep in the forest, Hughes built a land - and have done so for mil­ West Linn, when he found an odd huge cart of logs with cross­ lions of years. Scientists estimate rock partly buried beneath earth sections of great logs for wheels. that there is an average of one col­ and dead leaves. After excavating around the lectible meteorite on every square The next day he brought his 31,OOO-pound mass of metal, mile of the earth. Four have been friend and boarder, Bill Dale, to Hughes used levers, jacks, and found in Oregon, and are named see the rock. block and tackle to wrestle the after the places they were found: Upon examining it, they hit it meteorite onto the cart. Willamette, Sams Valley, Klamath with a stone, and it rang like a Having made a heavy cable from Falls, and Salem. bell. Realizing it was a meteorite, braided wire, the crafty Welshman

18 July/August 1991 TABLE ROCK SENTINEL 4ll"UCUI� as witnesses. son a road court that the meteorite .V ."',UlIl!r>�": for cart, yet it still sank in the to their tribe and was sacred to gon Supreme a tem- mud. Some days they only moved them. They said they believed it porary injunction against further one cart length, other days twenty had fallen from the moon and that movement until he had appealed feet, and on one very successful dipping arrowheads in water col­ the ruling. The company left the day, fifty feet. lected in its cavities would insure cart alongside the road in front of After three months of this back­ success in battle. They also told the Johnston residence, and hired breaking work, including moving how young Indian men used to go Mr. Johnston to guard it. When he and re-anchoring the capstan fre­ to the stone in the dead of night heard it ring as people tried to quently, Hughes finally got the for initiation ceremonies. Hughes chisel away pieces, he would come meteorite to his property. The claimed that because of this, the running with his rifle and chase dense forest had kept all of this Indians, not the company, owned them away. work unobserved. When he finally the meteorite. Hughes also argued In the meantime, another neigh­ got it home, he built a shack that the stone had probably not bor blasted a crater on his land around it and began charging peo­ and then sued both Hughes and ple twenty-five cents each to look the company for stealing "his" at the "big rock from the sky." meteorite. His case was thrown out Unfortunately, one of his early by the court. customers was the lawyer for Hughes eventually had the Oregon Iron and Steel to give up Company.

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TABLE ROCK SENTINEL July/August 1991 19 found that meteorites are real estate and that they belong to those whose land they are found on. The company then took the meteorite to Port­ land, where it was a star attraction at the 1905 Lewis and Clar1< 'Expo,.. sition. The "Will3.l'l1etlte Meteorite went en displa'}l tin he Milles B-qUding, and wC!s unveiled in\. a cerem�ny attenoed ,by ,Governor George T. Chamberlain and other state offi­ cials. After the exposition, Mrs. Wil­ liam A. Dodge II purchased the meteorite for $20,600, then gave it to the American Museum of Natu­ ral History in New Yo rk City. When the Hayden Planetarium opened at the museum in 1936, the Pilfering the Willamette Meteorite from Oregon Iron and Steel Company's land, Willamette Meteorite was opened finder Ellis Hughes managed to haul the monstrosity back to his property there, where it remains today! G. after three months of back-breaking work. Photo courtesy Dick Pugh Recent investigations into the cone-shaped mass of metal have shown several interesting things: (1) what he considered one of the ern Oregon Historical Society. In It is the largest "oriented" meteor­ most beautiful valleys he had ever 1949, geologist Russell A. Morley ite in the world, in the form of a seen. The lush grasslands were of Salem suspected the celestial broad cone measuring ten feet, home to many deer and other origin of this two-pound piece four inches long by four feet, three game, while fish teemed in the found in a box of minerals in the inches tall by seven feet wide. (2) creeks. The upland Ta kilma had a Jacksonville Museum and had a When it first landed, it probably camp at the base of the hill on the local machinist remove a slice weighed more than twenty tons, western side of the valley. The which, when etched with acid, but has lost weight due to rusting. chief of the tribe was known to showed "Widmanstatten" patterns (3) It appears Hughes was right. the whites as "Sam," and today the characteristic of meteorites. The meteorite did not land where valley is known as Sams Valley. Morley managed to locate he found it but probably in Payne became the first white to Payne's son, Frank B. Payne, who Canada during the last ice age, settle in the valley, and had con­ still lived on the property along after which it rode down to siderable success as a gold miner. Sams Creek, and who pointed out Washington on the ice sheet, then Early settlers told the story of to Morley the location of the find. floated into place on an iceberg Payne's search for a vein of gold Frank Payne also told Morley during the great Missoula flood, he had been following. He had that his father had given one of when the huge ice dams broke up� practically given up on ever finding the pieces to his friend Edward the vein again when he knelt at Cooper, whose whereabouts the side of the stream to drink Morley could never determine. The some water. As he was drinking, disposition of the third piece is THE SAMS VA LLEY he noticed a yellow sparkle under unknown. METEORITES the water. He had found the miss­ In 1894, George P. Lindley of About 1850, a young prospector ing vein.� Medford found a fifteen-pound named Bill Payne was hunting gold Some years later, Payne was meteorite in Sams Valley. Lindley in what became Jackson County panning along Sams Creek when was related to George R. Lindley, along a tributary of the Rogue he found three blackened and vice president of the Jackson River which joins the river just to rusty lumps of metal. These were County Bank. When he died, the northwest of the two Table meteorites. One of these eventually Lindley willed the meteorite to his Rocks. The stream led him into became the property of the South- son, Nolo M. Lindley, a book-

20 July/August 1991 TABLE ROCK SENTINEL estate agent Ernest W. Liljegran, until sold it in October 1914 to the o'clock did stab finally to Foote Mineral Company of the floor, leaving behind a pile of Philadelphia. metal filings and eighteen com­ Mr.W. M. Foote described the pletely ruined hacksaw blades. meteorite in a scientific journal as Coulter would not, however, accept 6.75I x4.75" x3.5': specific gravity any more than the original fee� 7.794. Chemical analysis: iron, Since the evidence indicates 89.36070 ; nickel, 9.76%; and cobalt, fairly clearly that the meteorites 0.686; with traces of silicon, sulfur fell as a shower, it is very possible and copper. The surface was thinly that other pieces may exist, as well oxidized, indicating it was an old largest of those cut from the origi­ as those pieces found by Payne. It fall. There were "thumbprints " or nal 15-pound meteorite, he was is hoped that some of these may flow lines caused by atmospheric very pleased that they would give be found and studied.

shaping. When a piece was cut, him a I-pound piece. continued polished, and etched with dilute Imagine his surprise when he nitric acid, Widmanstatten patterns opened the box and found an were produced. entire uncut meteorite weighing 2.7 The Foote Mineral Company pounds. As it turned out, reports sliced the meteorite up and sold that the Sams Valley meteorite had the pieces to collectors and fallen as one piece were incorrect. museums around the world, The museum had received this including the American Museum piece from E.W. Liljegran by of Natural History in New Yo rk exchange. It had been found before City, Harvard University, and 1918 at an unspecified location museums in London, Paris, and about six miles from Sams Valley. Calcutta. It is the most widely dis­ Cutting the hard metal from tributed of any of the Oregon outer space was quite a chore. meteorites. Pruett got C.A. Coulter of the In 1938. J. Hugh Pruett, Eugene High School faculty to astronomer for the University of agree to cut off the slice. Coulter Oregon, set out to get a piece of estimated that his diamond saw the meteorite for the university in ought to get the job done in an Eugene. He made arrangements hour, so he set the fee at $1.50. with the American Museum of With the assistance of his son, he Natural History to be given a piece began work at ten o'clock in the of their specimen if the university morning, but soon realized the would pay to have it cut, polished power saw would not make any and etched. Since the American progress in cutting the extremely Museum's 2.4-pound piece was the hard meteorite.

* * * * * * • * - *- * * � • - • - * * ; • * - * « . .- � - --. * * * * * *�! * * * * * * * * * Raining rocks? When the Salem Meteorite survived its journey through the atmosphere and fell to earth, it landed and broke into chunks. Photos courtesy Dick Pugh

THE KLAMATH FA LLS METEORITE In January, 1952, a rancher in Klamath Falls brought a small piece of nickel-iron to assayer J. D. Howard for analysis. Howard thought it might be part of a meteorite. The rancher had said it was part of a thirty-pound mass. So Howard sent it to Dr. H. H. Nininger of Arizona, who con­ firmed its meteoritic origin. Since the rancher never got back to Howard, it had been thought the meteorite was missing. Now it has been found that the rancher, rather than waiting for assay results, had put the meteorite in his truck and driven it to Albuquerque, where he sold it to the University of New Mexico� continued

22 July/August 1991 is gray. of and AVU'IUIJ'1!. concrete, with a black fusion coat­ sound of little rocks falling ing on the outside ranging from near them. Price looked around about 1.0 millimeter in thickness with a flashlight. and within ten on the leading edge to about 2.8 minutes he had found a rock in millimeters on the trailing edge. It contains almost no metal and is only slightly attracted to a magnet. No "thumbprints " appear on the surface. The meteorite was later exam­ • ined by Dr. J. C. Evans, the senior .. research scientist at Batelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories in Rich- � " land, Washington. Dr. Evans used " * *'" scanning electron microscopy and

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.� �.� ...... '-�. � "'" his driveway, less than ten feet . from where he and Wan had been. It was warm to the touch. Thanks to his training as a physics major at Linfield College, he was able to tell that he had found a meteorite. When the sun rose, Price looked around and found four more .. pieces: one on the back side of the garage roof, one in the rain gutter ·along the front of the garage, one in the driveway, and one in the street. The last piece had been run over by a car. The five pieces other sophisticated techniques to weighed a total of 61.28 grams. classify the Salem meteorite as an The meteorite had come in at a amphoterite, the rarest type of low angle and had broken a semi­ ordinary chondrites. (A chondrite circular piece about six centimeters is a meteorite containing spherical across off the bottom of one of formations of minerals known as the asphalt shingles on the roof. chondrules.) Among other charac-

TABLE ROCK SENT INEL July/August 1991 23 ------�----���------���------

THE PORT ORFORD METEORITE In 1856, Dr. John Evans, a geol­ ogist, conducted a survey of the southern Oregon Coast for the federal government. Among the specimens he brought back was a piece of a meteorite of a type con­ sisting of nickel-iron with olivine inclusions, known as a pallasite. A piece of this specimen weighing a little under an ounce still exists in the collec�i0n of the Smithsonian Institution, with maller f)ieceSi in museums in �ienna and Calcutta. 'The existence of the specimen was brought to the attention of the scienlific world by a Dr. Charles T. Jackson of Boston, in October 1859. Dr. Jackson, a chemist, cor­ responded with Dr. Evans about the meteorite, which Evans described as very large. Evans' descriptions are not very precise. He wrote, "I cannot speak with certainty," saying that the mass projecting from the earth was about four by five by three feet, and that much appeared to be buried. Since the sample in the Smithsonian has a density of 6.3 grams per cubic centimeter, the original meteorite can be estimated to weigh more than twelve tons on the basis of this information. The information provided by Evans regarding the location of the meteorite is sketchy at best. Evans died in 1860 at the start of the Civil War. Over the past 130 years, hundreds or even thousands of people have searched for the mete­ orite because of its supposed high value. One of the many articles that have appeared about it Port Orford Meteorite (above). Sams Valley Meteorite (below), showing the appraises it at $2.2 million in 1937 Widmanstatten pattern. Port Orford photo courtesy Dick Pugh, Sams Va lley photo by Susan Ray dollars.Nobody has found it� Many experts are of the opinion that the Port Orford Meteorite may not actually exist, and that the sample in the Smithsonian may meteors and meteorites) believe be from another meteorite not that tens of thousands of found in Oregon, as part of a meteorites litter the landscape of nineteenth-century hoax? Studies Oregon. Since the most are under way to confirm or deny noticeable -the iron meteorites ­ this hypothesis. look like the lava that covers so much of the state, and the THE ONES THAT commonest -the stony Gar AWAY meteorites -look a lot like concrete Meteoricists (scientists who study or granite, they are very hard to

TABLE ROCK SENTINEL 24 July/August 1991 spot. Perhaps the easiest way to find one is to track one of the huge fireballs that are seen each year to its landing site. This is eas­ ier said than done, yet searches continue. In Oregon, people con­ tinue to look for meteorites associated with bolides (fireballs) seen particularly on December 3, 1981, near SilvertonlO and on October 23, 1987, near John Day. Hundreds of people observed these falls, which almost certainly produced collectible meteorites, and it is still possible that they may be found! I It is also possible that Oregonians may have meteorites in their. yarcls, houses or barns. Meteorites are unusual in appearance, and are often saved by those who come upon them, even if they don't know what they are. Here are some characteristics of meteorites to assist in identifying possible specimens: 1. Meteorites are heavier than most rocks. Meteorites are not porous, nor are they cinder like. * 2. Meteorites are slightly to very much attracted to magnets. Most terrestrial rocks are not attracted at all. 3. When fresh, meteorites have I a black fusion crust on the outside caused by atmospheric melting and * oxidation. In weathered meteorites, this may be brown, or rusty, or even weathered away. 4. Freshly fallen meteorites may be covered with regmalypts, or "thumbprints. " These depressions • look as if someone had repeatedly poked their thumb into a piece of clay. They are caused by atmospheric melting and tumbling. Flow lines may also be found. 5. On cutting, breaking, sawing, or grinding with an emery wheel, nickel-iron may be seen in many meteorites. All meteorites contain nickel, and scientists can test for its presence. Nickel is rare in earth rocks, as is metal. 6. Meteorites are usually irregu­ lar in shape. Some, such as the Willa mette, are cone-shaped, and known as oriented meteorites. None are spherical. 7. When the cut, polished sur­ face of an iron or stony-iron mete­ orite is etched using a special

TABLE ROCK SENTINEL rock had was recently found by a man who had Pugh, mown his lawn the day before and ENDNOI'ES 10. P. Murray and D. seen no rocks, yet found one sit­ 1. Natural History, "Ellis Hughes's Mete­ Map of Oreg on (1983). orite," (198 2: vol. 91-11), pp. 94 -97. ting in the middle of the lawn the 11. Lecture by Pugh. 2. Richard N. Pugh and John E. Allen, 12. A Collection of Articles on Meteorites. next morning. "Origin of the Willamette Meteorite: An If you believe you may have a alternative hypothesis," Oregon Geology meteorite, contact an expert to (1986: vol. 48-7), pp. 79-80, 85. Gordon W. Haas, a teacher and have it identified so that it may be 3. Frances Wilson, Sams Va lley History Ashland resident, hopes to some­ studied. Oregon's leading expert is (date unknown, although it appears to be reprinted from the "Extension Monitor," pp. day catch a ja lling star, put it in Dick Pugh, a teacher at Cleveland 12-14.) Av ailable in Medford and Gold Hill his pocket, and save it jo r a rainy High School in Portland. He may libraries. day.

____bY Janette Meek

It took first place at the fair! Ilene Pendleton laboredC many�i long hoursl;� to maketionsl this organdy dresser scarf, then entered it in the Picture Throw Category, Division J, Class 4 at the fair. She painted a sprig of holly on one side and a pink rose on the other, outlining each design with silk thread, then carefully edged it with three and a half inches of intricate needle-woven lace before painting it red, pink and green. The finished scarf measures forty­ four by fifteen inches. In 1897, Mrs. Pendleton entered several items in the first Southern Oregon Fair. Leading local businessmen organized the Board of Trade to promote orchard land and two years later the Southern Oregon Fair Association was incorporated and the first fair held in Medford to exhibit local produce. A local newspaper noted the fair would include a bicycle race, mule run, high wire act an advertising display of farm produce. In 1968, Mrs. Pendleton donated to the Southern Oregon Historical Society the dresser scarf proudly displaying the original blue ribbon and entry card. The Society houses numerous objects which, owing to limited exhibit space, are not often seen by visitors. We hope that featuring an item in each issue of the Table Rock Sentinel will provide an enjoyable and educational glimpse of the scope of the collection.

TABLE ROCK SENTINEL 26 July/August 1991 Then N�w_____ by Natalie Brown

As the summer sun sets in Jack­ sonville, thousands of music lovers will walk stone-edged paths through a leafy park to hear nationally recognized artists belt out bluegrass, jazz, pop and classi­ cal strains. Many of the Britt Music Festivals' headline per­ formers come from throughout the world to entertain local audiences. The lovely, lushly cultivated hill­ Considered one side setting, though, is deeply of southern Ore­ rooted in southern Oregon's past. gon's showpieces Nearly 140 years earlier, thirty­ in the nineteenth century, Peter three-year-old Swiss-born Peter Britt's elegant Britt arrived on this spot outside Victorian home the then-named town of Table sported a five­ Rock City and built a simple log acre park burst­ studio where he plied his trade as ing with exotic a daguerreotype artist. Succeeding botanicals. To day, as photographer, miner and land the park is home investor, Britt built an impressive to the popular Gothic Victorian home, plus water Britt Music Fes­ tival. tower, carriage house, winery and SOHS #760, photo by greenhouse. And he turned to Susan Ray landscaping the grounds with equal enthusiasm. Convinced that southern Oregon offered a near-Mediterranean cli­ mate, Britt began importing all shared cuttings from his plants ville. Supported by the community sorts of exotic plants. Demonstrat­ with his Jacksonville neighbors, and the college, the infant Britt ing an obvious green thumb, he propagating many of the fruits and Festival leased the land and con­ cultivated Chinese wisteria and flowers that still grace the town. structed a crude plywood shell Japanese persimmon, German edg­ Britt's unmarried children con­ which leaked on uncomfortable ing and Smyrna figs, palm and tinued to maintain the family's musicians during heavy rains. banana trees, various commercial showcase grounds until their Undaunted and increasingly popu­ fruits and dozens of varieties of deaths in the 1950s, when negli­ lar, the festival built a permanent wine and table grapes. In his gence turned the park to jungle pavilion on the hillside then owned greenhouse he propagated kum­ and fires destroyed the house. by Jackson County. quats and pomegranates, lemons Britt's heirs left the land to and exotic lilies, coffee plants and Southern Oregon College. To day, festival-goers stroll along unusual cactus. Newspapers and Then, in the early 1960s, musi­ paths outlining the foundation of promoters from all over the state cians Gordon Solie and John Britt's former home, past plants lauded Britt's five-acre park as the Tr udeau and promoter Sam cultivated by that irrepressible man "Eden of Oregon. " McKinney envisioned a classical a century earlier. Nothing renders Until his death in 1905, Britt music outdoor festival in Jackson- art so true as that home-grown.

TABLE ROCK SENTINEL July/August 1991 27 New and renewing members ACTIVE SENIOR Ethel M. Hale, Springfield fr om April I 10 May 31, 1991 Judith Barr, Medford Grace Armstrong, Eagle Point Lorene Hale, Medford */ndicQleS upgraded membership Leah Bird, Medford Mary L. Bagley, Ta lent Pete Hale, Medfocd category or monetary contribution in Dennis Boren, Eagle Point William R. Bagley, Ta lent Margaret E. Hall, Ta lent addition to membership dues to fu rther Medford Medford Society programs. Carl & Retha Brophy, Mrs. J. W. Barnard, Melvin H. Hall, Medford Maureen Esser, Medford Edwin Hugh Barron, Ve ntura, Amy Hanson, Ashland Steve Glass, White City CA Karl A. Hayes, Oregon City Arnold K. Harrang, Medford Mrs. Lee P. Bishop, Eugene Harold Head, Medford Welcome Peggyann Hutchinson, Bob Blankholm, Ashland Evelyn H. Henderson, Medford Dr. Thomas Boiton, Medford Medford Medford New Jim & Ve lma Johnson, Ta lent Mrs. Thomas Boiton, Burton Henke, Medford Members Mr. & Mrs. Ben Lombard, Jr., Virginia Bothwell, Medford Wilma Henke, Medford Ashland Carol G. Bowers, Medford Ruth Hickman, Medford Medford JR. HISTORIAN Jon & Judy Mooster, Medford Ruth Boyd, Thada A. Hilton, Medford Gra nts Pa ss Travis A. Bernard, Jack Nichols, White City Pat Brinson, Medford Marjorie B. Homer, Williams Jessica Bieber, Medford David Randolph, Clearlake, Martin E. Burke, Ja cksonville Maxine Hunnell, Ashland Gabriel Caballero, Central CA Leona D. Cartwright, Medford Earl Jackson, Medford Point J. C. Rawling, Jr., Seattle, WA Mr. & Mrs. John L. Coke, Arnold M. Johnson, Medford Christopher Campfield, Terry Schulz, Medford Cayucos, CA David H. Johnson, Ashland Medford Fl orence Bill & Janice Walters, Medford Harold R. Corliss, Evelyn E. Julien, Tu rlock, CA Justin Campfield, Medford Gladys H. Crowley, Medford Janis B. Kafton, Kla math Fa lls Billy Colley, Medford PATRON'S CLUB Gladys Curran, Phoenix Martha Kaufman, Medford Jason Frohreich, Medford Patricia E. Heffernan, Bill Darracott, Medford Mr. & Mrs. John E. Ke ller, Kristi Frohreich, Medford Medford Eunice Davis, Va ncouver, WA Ja cksonville Dillon Porter, Medford Mildred Baird Lawson, Mary A. Delsman, Riverside, Catherine Kellogg, Medford Kia Porter, Medford Arkansas City, KS CA J. Boyce Ke llogg, Medford Charles A. Richey, Ashland Dr. & Mrs. John McLaughlin, Roger DeShazer, Medford Mary Kerr, Medford Ashland William J. Richey, Medford Beulah S. Dollarhide, Medford Betty H. Kester, Medford Jared Sharp, Ja cksonville Irwin R. Doty, Coos Bay William H. Leever, Medford Megan Sharp, Ja cksonville Portland BUSINESS Celia Dromgoole, Roland C. Lindsay, Medford Jessica Ty ner, Central Point Medford CONTRIBUTO R Mrs. Clare Duval, Dr. & Mrs. Fred C. Lorish, Bethany Walker, Central Point InstaPrint, Medford Gertrude Easerling, Ashland Belgrade, MT Amanda Wyatt, Medford Fred Meyer, Medford Mr. & Mrs. Harry Elmore, Bill J. Lorton, Medford Kyle Wyatt, Medford Central Point Ve lma Lull, Medford Michael Wyatt, Medford Ashland BUSINESS Eleanor S. Everett, Jill Martin, Gold Hill Brookings BENEFACTO R Jody Ferg, P"ul & Muriel McDuffee, Phoenix SENIOR J & D Tr avel Enterprises, Jeanette Fe rtig, Medford Gail M. Adams, Medford Medford Mary M. Forman, Mea dow Dr. & Mrs. M. Donald W. K. Aderman, Central Point Vista, CA McGeary, Medford Walt Bird, Medford Ashland NONPROFIT Paul E. Francis, Elmo McGraw, Medford Frank C. Blair, Jr. D.D.S., Jerry's Rogue River Museum, Mrs. Victor E. Gardener, Eagle Merle McGraw, Eagle Point Long Beach, CA Gold Beach Point Mrs. George McUne, Vance Colvig III, Toluca Lake, Big Butte Historical Society, Frank C. Gimbolo, Phoenix Ja cksonville CA Butte Fa lls Ardeen Parkinson, Belvedere, Margaret E. Miles, Medford Betty Duffield, Green Va lley, CA Mary Moore, Medford CA Rev. Richard H. Gilman, Renewing Berkeley, CA Patricia S. Guild, Trail Members Medford Betty Haskell, JR. HISTO RIAN The Ta ble Rock Sentinel Robert L. Kruggel, Medford Mario K. Battaglia, Ashland Please send �e information Jerry Moore, Rogue River Joshua Buttel, Ashland on membership: • • • and more •' Marilyn C. Nielsen, Medford Beth Coleman, Butte Fa lls Harriet M. Ross, Medford David Coleman, Medford

Name:______Margaret Schell peper, Jessie Coleman, Medford Ja cksonville Gregory Gradwell, Ja cksonville

Regina Schroeder, Medford Catherine Prairie Ku ntz, Address.______Charles & Maryke Shuttle, Medford Ashland Timothy Newburg, Medford City,______State:______Sibyl R. Stambaugh, Ta lent Julie Pearne, Central Point Nancy Stark, Butte Fa lls Ashley Rucker, Medford

Zip,______Te lephone:______Mrs. John R. Watson, Zachariah Schneeman, _ Medford Medford Mail membership requests, comments, or {f�"I!t questions to: Southern Oregon Historical Ve ra B. Weaver, San Pa blo, CA Adam Walker, Central Point •••• SOUTHERN m: IilSTORICAl Society, 106 North Central Av e., Medford, Te d Wharton, Medford Ben Walker, Central Point OREGON SOCIElY OR 97501-5926, or call (503) 773-6536. Helen A. Wheeler, Ashland Elena Wegner, Medford

28 July/August 1991 TABLE ROCK SENTINEL Ruth Morris, Ashland G. C. Wales, Yr eka, CA Grant Schroeder, Thcson, AZ A. E. Gene & Pat Piazza, Medford Medford Jacksonville Richard F. Mueller, Anna L. Wasson, Skip & Gayle Stokes, Margery G. Muncie, Mr. & Mrs. T. E. Wightman, Jacksonville Jackson County Title, Medford Jacksonville Jacksonville Steve & Kathy Straughan, Gold Marcelle M. Nadeau, Medford Mr. H. Dewey Wilson, Hill BUSINESS Pauline Nichols, Medford Medford Sylvia Surratt, Eagle Point BENEFACTOR Winston Nichols, Medford Mrs. H. Dewey Wilson, Elizabeth Udall, Gold Hill Small Business Advancement Mrs. John E. Noble, Eagle Medford Paulena E. C. Ve rzeano, Rogue Institute, Medford Point William & Joy Windt, River Fred Norris, Medford Medford Elmer C. Werner, M.D., El NONPROFIT Hazel Graten Norris, Medford Jack D. Wood, Phoenix Centro, CA Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA Betty L. Norton, Ta coma, WA Erma M. Woods, Ashland Janet Werren, Butte Falls Gold Hill Historical Society, Medford Gold Hill Dorothy H. Parke, Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Wicklund, Warren H. Parker, Placerville, ACTIVE Medford CA Barbara L. Adams, Medford Edith Patterson, Lynnwood, Julia P. Bailey, S. Pasadena, WA CA PATRON'S CLUB Eldred W. Peyton, Tigard Dr. & Mrs. James Benson, William & Cyd Bagley, Mary E. Phipps, Medford Ashland Medford Gertrude H. Piper, Redding, Anne Billeter, Medford *Janet Reter Baker, Medford CA Robert W. Borden, Redding, Dr. & Mrs. Theodore Barss, Lawrence Powell, Ashland CA Medford Viola L. Purrier, Rogue River Robert & Alpha Jane Butler, Mr. & Mrs. Fitz Brewer, Joan H. Redmond, Cocoa Medford Medford Beach, FL Cecile M. Camden, Gold Hill Mr. & Mrs. Jack M. Cramer, Dorothy Morris Reimers, Drs. Ke ith & Anne Chambers, Medford Saratoga, CA Ashland Margaret Frakes, Medford Gertrude W. Revoir, Ashland Murrit Davis & Family, Eagle *Wes & Mona Hartman, Donald S. Richardson, Point Jacksonville Portland Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Dill, Reeve & Lyn Hennion, Medford Jacksonville Paul K & Jean Richardson, Jacksonville Gregory A. Durand, Phoenix John W. Jackson, Medford Margaret K. Riggins, Medford Barbara Feinstein, Medford Ogden & Marjorie Ke llogg, Leah Ritchey, Medford Mrs. James J. Flood, Ashland Gold Hill Medford Maurice Ritchey, Medford Stuart Foster, James & Laurel Prairie Kuntz, Mrs. Billie H. Robertson, *Leota Frakes, Lakeview Medford Ashland Eugene Brooke Friendly, Ted & Shirley Lawson, Marvin Rosenberg, Mrs. Marrs R. Gibbons, Medford Jacksonville Medford Jessie McGraw, Eagle Point Letha Ross, Medford Shirlee Gustafson, Jacksonville *Betty 1. Miller, Jacksonville Eagle Mrs. Frank J. E. Ross, Arlene E. Hoffman, * J. T. & Ruth Naylor, Gra nts Medford Point Pass Robert W. Sage, Medford Dr. & Mrs. Gary Ingram, Fred & Donna Palmer, Fred Cyril Sander, Long Medford Medford Beach, CA George Kramer, Ashland * Jeanne E. Pierce, Trail Medford Ashland J. M. Sanderson, Flora MacCracken, Dom & Joyce Provost, Mildred Schoor, Hubbard Guss & Janet Mackelprang, Ashland Beth Scott, Medford Medford *H. M. Richards, Seattle, WA Ashland Claudia R. Scruggs, Medford Raoul Maddox, Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Searl, William Seibert, Medford Lyle & Jime Matoush, Ashland Salem Pearl Sleeter, Medford David K. Maurer Family, Medford Medford Cameron Slessler, APPLEGAT E CLUB Ve lma Slessler, Medford Michael McGraw, EaglePoint Roland Hubbard, Medford Wildon R. Sloan, Wilsonville James R. McIntyre, Ashland *Mrs. K. G. Johnson, Medford Mrs. William T. Smith, Mike & Martha Murphy, Lois Lovej oy, Medford Grants Pass Ashland *Mr. & Mrs. John Stewart, Norton Smith, Medford Gene & "A" Peterson, Medford Ta lent Phyllis Smith, Medford Robert Prestegaard, Medford Jacksonville Marjorie Snyder, BUSINESS Phoenix Bob Rasmussen, Ashland Leilia Sparks, CONTRIBUTOR Ira A. Spires, Medford Dr. & Mrs. John Retzlaff, Marquess & Associates, Inc., Sybyl Squire, Ashland Medford Medford Jacksonville John L. Sullivan, Paul A. Richardson, Isler & Company, Medford Medford Jacksonville Berthena H. Taylor, Tischhauser, Reid, Hanna & Paul Traver, Medford Nancy Hamilton, Lake Oswego Co., Ashland Sylvia Traver, Medford Va lerie Sauve, Central Point Rogue Va lley Manor, Medford tf~~ Non-Profit Org. SOUTHERN 1111 HISIORICAL U.S. POSTAGE PAID OREGON II II sociETY Permit No. 164 SINCE 1946 Medford, OR

-' 106 N. CentrCil Avenue • Medford. OR 97501-5926