Oregon

Discover the overlooked guideposts of Oregon history. Following the example of suffragist Abigail Scott Duniway, Portland women have been reimagining the world since the town was little more than a speck on a map. Newberg played a crucial role in the passage to statehood. And despite being thousands of miles from the front lines, an influx of Civil War veterans irrevocably altered the trajectory of the Beaver State. From Bend sawmills to Woodlawn streetcars to Eugene wineries, reconnoiter Oregon history with our Oregon history books. [View all Oregon books]

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Astoria

$23.99 $12.00 Save 50%

Hillsboro

$23.99 $12.00 Save 50%

Lighthouses and Lifesaving on the Oregon Coast

Railway Palaces of Portland, Oregon

$24.99

Oregon's Capitol Buildings

$24.99

Astoria

9781467109581

$23.99 $12.00 Save 50%

Established in 1811, Astoria, Oregon, holds claim to being the oldest US settlement west of the Rockies. After surviving devastating fires and severe economic downturns, modern Astoria--with its well-preserved historic homes and bustling downtown--is a beacon on the scenic Columbia River. Celebrating this multilayered history, author Dr. Chelsea K. Vaughn is a native of the Pacific Northwest who has called Astoria home for the past nine years. She now works as the curator for the Clatsop County Historical Society.

Hillsboro

9781467109253

$23.99 $12.00 Save 50%

Hillsboro is the county seat in Washington County, Oregon. The early economy of the community was based on agriculture, dairy, and lumber. In the 1950s, technology companies started moving to Hillsboro, which resulted in the area eventually being nicknamed the Silicon Forest. Intel now has a massive presence in Hillsboro with over 20,000 employees. In 2021, Hillsboro was ranked by Livability.com as the seventh-best place to live in the United States.

Lighthouses and Lifesaving on the Oregon Coast

9780738548876

$24.99

The Oregon Coast has been the site of shipwrecks even before Lewis and Clark's arrival in 1805. Even as the population grew, the federal government let the Oregon Coast go unguarded by lighthouses and lifesavers for decades. Economic and political pressures finally forced the government to build the first Oregon lighthouse in 1857 at the Umpqua River. The LifeSaving Service followed in 1878 with a station at the mouth of Coos Bay. Eventually, most of the harbor entrances and headlands were protected by both the Lighthouse Service and the LifeSaving Service, the precursor to today's Coast Guard. Lighthouses and Lifesaving on the Oregon Coast commemorates the true heroes who served to warn, protect, and rescue those who went to sea.

Newberg

9781467160674

$24.99

Newberg has experienced significant growth in the last century, with a notable uptick in the 1990s. This growth can largely be attributed to increased employment and education opportunities. George Fox University along with ADEC and the ever-expanding wine industry have significantly contributed to Newberg's growth. For much of the 20th century, Newberg was removed from urban life and was simply a place people stopped on their way to the coast. Today, it is a thriving community in the heart of Oregon wine country. Manufacturing advancements in the dental industry were pioneered by the Austin family and their ADEC business. Additionally, as Newberg wines gained worldwide recognition, people began moving to the region to plant their own vineyards. The tourism industry throughout the Willamette Valley grown largely because people come to taste world class wines. Additionally, George Fox University continues to offer a top-notch education and has seen continual enrollment growth since the 1990s.

Oregon City

9781467160780

$24.99

Oregon City’s storied past remains embedded in its architecture, where impressions of earlier generations linger beneath bricks and plaster. These structures narrate the city’s growth and are concrete reminders of those who labored in its transition.

Anchored between historical and modern lenses, writer Johna Sans Heintz and photographer Jo Lynn Dow have combined their academic backgrounds in history and education to present time-capsuled snapshots of Oregon City. Their street scenes and anecdotes humanize those whose legacies are interwoven into the city’s fabric.

Railway Palaces of Portland, Oregon

9781626193093

$24.99

In 1883, railroad financier Henry Villard brought Portland and the Pacific Northwest their first transcontinental railroad. Earning a reputation for boldness on Wall Street, the war correspondent turned entrepreneur set out to establish Portland as a bourgeoning metropolis. To realize his vision, he hired architects McKim, Mead & White to design a massive passenger station and a first-class hotel. Despite financial panics, lost fortunes and stalled construction, the Portland Hotel opened in 1890 and remained the social heart of the city for sixty years. While the original station was never built, Villard returned as a pivotal benefactor of Union Station, saving its iconic clock tower in the process. Author Alexander Benjamin Craghead tells the story of this Gilded Age patron and the architecture that helped shape the city's identity.

Oregon's Capitol Buildings

9781467130257

$24.99

The state of Oregon has had not one, not two, but three state capitol buildings. Two of them met a sudden and unexpected end--destruction by fire. William Willson, a pioneer of Salem, donated some acres from his Donation Land Claim for a state capitol. The first, built in 1855, may have been torched in a desperate fight to move the capitol to Corvallis. A second capitol, built in 1873, was patterned after the US Capitol in Washington, DC. This capitol, adorned with a beautiful copper-clad dome, faced west toward the Willamette River. On April 25, 1935, a fire started in a basement storage area. It quickly spread to the whole structure, and within four hours, the entire thing lay in ruins. After an exhaustive design process, a new capitol was built in the midst of the Great Depression, topped with a golden pioneer.