In 1845 when Samuel K. Barlow and his party traveled over the Oregon Trail, Barlow decided to find a better way between The Dalles and the Willamette Valley than the route pioneers were currently using, which was to float down the treacherous Columbia River. He scouted a route up and over the Cascade Mountains and […]
Linn City
Robert Moore was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, on October 2, 1781. In 1805 he married Margaret Clark and together they later moved to Illinois. In 1839 they headed west on the Oregon Trail with the Peoria party and arrived in Oregon City in 1840. He negotiated the purchase of a 1,000 acre site from […]
Francis Ermatinger House
The Francis Ermatinger House is the oldest house in Oregon City and the third oldest house in the state of Oregon. In the photo below (a Lorenzo Loran photo that was the first ever taken of Oregon City) the house can be seen. Flat-roofed Ermatinger House circled in this 1857 Oregon City photo (Oregon State […]
West Linn City Hall
Prior to 1936, West Linn’s city offices were housed in one room of the train station for the Willamette Falls Railway. Willamette Falls Railway station, c1909 (Historic Photo Archive) The interurban line was shut down in 1930 and the station torn down in 1936 to make way for a new building that would become the […]
Asa Sanders House
Abby and Asa Sanders moved from Connecticut to Oregon in the early 1850s. In 1858 they bought more than half of the Mathias Sweigle land claim, which had been one of the earliest donation land claims in the Molalla area. The Sanders made their living growing wheat and fruit. Asa, Abby, and several infants are […]
West Linn Inn
The West Linn Inn was built in 1918 by the Crown Zellerbach Corporation. Stories differ about the original purpose of the place. One story says that it was built to provide homes for the mill employees as well as other workers in West Linn. Another story says it was built to house strikebreakers that were […]
Fields Bridge
In 1850 Joseph Fields filed a donation land claim along the Tualatin River in what is now the West Linn area. He owned the land on both sides of the river and in 1853 purchased a $5 license to operate a ferry at this spot, which he did until the first bridge was built. A […]
Church of the Annunciation
In 1946 a log-cabin-style church with knotty pine paneling, gothic beams, and a 40-foot steeple was built in Milwaukie, at 2615 Harrison Street. The church was beautifully situated amongst the trees near Crystal Lake. Crystal Lake Church, c1983 (Oregon State Historic Preservation Office) After membership declined, Crystal Lake Church closed in 1986. A developer bought […]