OREGON HISTORY, EXCITING AND DEADLY FROM THE BEGINNING

Don’t mistake real Oregon History for polite/academic Oregon History

The history of Oregon, a U.S. state, may be considered in five eras: geologic history, inhabitation by native peoples, early exploration by Europeans (primarily fur traders), settlement by pioneers, and modern development.

This is the sort of Oregon history you get from Wiki. It’s nice and compartmentalized.

You could write history for everything by this formula, and many historians follow the rules.

Or, you can go boots on the ground and find history more meaningful to you, to the region, and for those planning trips to the Beaver State.

With that in mind, take Oregon History based on its current borders and move backward.

For the curious, history happens where you find it. If you survive the encounter, you’re part of history.

Start with the most common history question:

What happened 500 hundred feet down the edge of the cliff side?

Captain Cook happened.

From the Captain Cook Society:

Having first sighted the coast of New Albion on the 6th March 1778, Capt. Cook’s Log for the 7th March reads, “The land appeared to be of a moderate height, diversified with hill and Valley and almost everywhere covered with wood. There was nothing remarkable about it except one hill… At the northern extreme the land formed a point which I called Cape Foul Weather from the very bad weather we soon after met with. I judge it to lie in the latitude of 44° 55′ North, longitude 235° 54′ East”. He was never nearer than 3 leagues (about 10 miles).

Tribute to Cook’s sighting and his naming of the Cape are to be found today on a board erected by the Lincoln County Historical Society. Beyond lies a souvenir shop – ‘The Lookout’ – the only building visible on the 1000 ft. high headland.

History is more than a board and a gift shop, but it’s a start.

All that’s missing is you.

Don’t wait for Thomas Jefferson to approve.

Oregon history compass points

Look to the North, East, West, and South for NEWS of Oregon history.

The Washington State Frontier, an area still bitter about the name Oregon Country instead of Washington Country, is getting even by leaking nuclear waste from their ‘Amerian Fukushima’ into the Columbia River.

From toxipedia.org and Washington Nuclear Museum:

The consumption of contaminated food was another source of exposure from the radiation of the Columbia. The fish of the Columbia River were contaminated. The radiation in the Columbia reached the Pacific Ocean and contaminated shellfish along the Washington and Oregon Coasts. Beginning in 1959 the levels of zinc-65 were monitored in the oysters of Willapa Bay. In 1959, the levels of zinc-65 were over 300 times higher the levels in oysters from the Japanese or Atlantic coasts. Ducks and geese that nested or fed along the Columbia River became contaminated. Waterfowl became radioactive from Hanford’s waste ponds. In the early 1970’s, ducks collected from the waste ponds near the reactors were found to have high levels of radiation. Consumption of one half pound of the most contaminated duck would have been four times higher than the annual accepted dose of radiation. Shoreline roots and berries would have also been a source of contaminated food.

When you build big in the middle of nowhere you’re good until time catches up.

Then you’re in the middle of town instead of out in the boonies.

Oregon could counter with nerve gas from Umatilla.

The UMCD opened in 1941. The Umatilla Chemical Depot began receiving and storing chemicals munitions between 1962 and 1969. The chemical warfare agents VX and GB (nerve agents) and HD (blister or “mustard” agent) were stored as liquid in various types of munitions and containers, including rockets, bombs, projectiles, mines, bulk containers and aerial spray tanks. Chemical weapons stored at the Depot represented about 12 percent of the nation’s original chemical weapons stockpile.

The Oregon hinterlands is no place for weapons mounds, but those were the days of huge national defense for WWII. And Oregon seemed so far away.

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The Idaho Border on the Eastern Front recently featured an occupation/land use complaint group showing guns.

Without going all Waco and SLA shootout, only one man died.

Call it an advance for western civilization and a handy filler for extra jail space.

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The California Wall isn’t working on the Southern Front.

They keep coming and coming like it was a free country or something.

Blame the new neighbors for the stucco siding on new houses.

Their big contribution to Oregon history is knowing what they don’t want.

If they move up from LA, they don’t want LA in the new neighborhood.

The dream is for a crime free, drug free, f#ck-up free Oregon, and LA gets pissed if their movie ends any different.

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The Oregon truth lies on the Pacific Front.

For every mile of gradual beach grade you find ten of stone cliffs undercut by the eternal wave.

Instead of laying a towel in the warm sand, you sit sideways on a log eyeing the rip tide on one side, an unstable cliff on the other.

Stay still long enough and one will get you.

Oregon people lived on this land for ten of thousand of years before others walked in, shipwrecked, or wagon trained over it.

The longest residents didn’t leave a trail of deadly waste, AK confrontation, and over population.

Their foundation lasted longer than the Roman Empire.

What better foundation are you making today?