Writers' program. Oregon

“ Their manner of living was Oregon's last link to the fabulous West that has vanished forever. Many of the cattlemen rode into the unmapped country with no other possessions than their rifles and blankets and the clothing that they wore. Their successful efforts to wring livelihoods from the hostile land is an unwritten epic of the frontier. ”

“ In Oregon, as elsewhere, the Federal Government has entered into the relief field upon a tremendous scale, and the number of the unemployed apparently makes the continuation of Federal aid imperative. The achievements of the Federal agencies— the WPA, PWA, NYA, and FSA—are a warm penumbra between the bright accomplishments of Oregonians who have striven to keep alive the best pioneer tradition of mutual help, and the darkness of insufficient relief, the thin slops provided on soup lines, and the county poor farms for the needy aged. ”

“ The transportation kings arrived, to wrestle for supremacy like embattled bulls, and while their methods may have shocked students of ethics, the shining rails went down, so that men along the Deschutes might ship some of the largest and finest potatoes in the world, and Jackson County fruit growers might find a market for their golden pears, and the lumber barons might hack at the State's timber resources. ”

“ The mountain range stood as a colossal veto of whatever motions the early eastern Oregon settlers might have made toward economic equality with the pioneers of the lush country west of the Cascades. It turned them, out of sheer necessity, into cattlemen and sheepmen and miners and "dry" farmers, just as more benign circumstances made western Oregon residents into lumbermen, dairymen, fishermen and farmers, and—in the more populous centers—into artisans and politi
cians and financiers. ”

“ Oregon today is still the most unspoiled and most uncluttered spot in America — partly because the gold rushes of California and Alaska left it undisturbed. Soon, perhaps, it will be changed by the coming of Power, the inrolling of immigration from the dust bowl, the devastation of timbercutting and forest fires, and the boosting activities of chambers of commerce. ”

“ Thousands of dust-bowl refugees have drifted into Oregon since 1930. If hunger and hardships and uncertainty are the essences of the pioneer tradition, they are a part of it already; and as the bearded early immigrants brought a first cohesion to the territory, these latter day American pioneers may strengthen that cohesion and make their own distinctive contribution to the future state. ”

“ It may be regrettable to see this peaceful beautiful land transformed into a network of highways, clogged with cars and defaced with hot dog stands, the groves littered with tin cans and papers, the hills pock-marked with stumps, and the cities cursed with the slums that seem to accompany industrial progress. ”

“ Although fur was the first natural resource of Oregon it is by no means its most prominent, but the fur trade is still a stable part of the state's industry. Oregon is a green land of forests and grassy wilderness teeming with wild life; a land of rich-soiled valleys maturing to golden harvests; a land of minerals; of streams that hold a vast potential water power; of timbered areas immensely valuable for lumber. ”

“ For, generally, the writer believes that long after the best road of his day has been supplanted by a straighter and wider one, and long after the highest building has crumbled with time or been blown to bits by air bombs, this book will remain. And the makers of this Guide have faith, too, that their book will survive; in the future, when it no longer fills a current need as a handbook for tourists, it will serve as a reference source well-thumbed by school children and cherished by scholars, as a treasure trove of history, a picture of a period, and as a fadeless film of a civilization. ”

“ Oregon's recreational resources are unsurpassed in the United States. The green beauty of the country makes it constantly attractive, while the ever- varying contrasts of mountains, streams, and valleys holds continued surprise. There are in the state more than 1,000 lakes, many in settings that would make them famous for loveliness, were they better known. ”

“ The excellence of hospital facilities is perhaps the brightest tone of the Oregon social welfare spectrum. While many of the state's 72 hospitals, sanitariums, and related institutions with their total of 10,298 beds, are in Portland, there are modern hospitals in every section of the state except the most remote areas. On Marquam Hill in Portland are a notable group, consisting of the Doernbecher Memorial hospital for children, The United States Veterans hospital and the Multnomah County General hospital which houses the laboratory and class-rooms of the University of Oregon Medical school. ”

“ The prince of all the fresh-water fishes is the great steelhead trout, the fighting spirit of which is so renowned that fishermen have crossed oceans and continents to pit their skill against its strength. ”

“ PIONEER Oregon had a simple formula of social welfare: work was provided for those who could work and aid for those who could not. Whatever latter-day society has added to the homespun tradition has been brought forward by trial and error methods in a state which still has vast unexploited natural resources and, theoretically at least, offers more opportunities than many other states. ”

“ Feeling ran high and for the first time in Oregon a line was sharply drawn between those for and against Orientals. Political destinies were shaped by the conflict, which was fought out in the decades following, industry as a whole staunchly favoring the low-wage coolie labor, and the white workers forming organizations to effect its exclusion. In 1886 the anti-Chinese agitation was at its height. Mayor Gates of Portland called a meeting of protest in favor of the Chinese, but Sylvester Pennoyer took over the meeting and declared that the Chinese must go. ”

“ Manufacturing in Oregon has made slow but steady progress. The lumber industry plays the role of a general stimulant through its demand for logging locomotives, donkey-engines, steel cables, blocks and timber-cutting tools, much of which equipment is made in the state. In Portland a factory, in business since 1887, builds 13,000 stoves and 2,500 furnaces a year. Another plant specializes in automatic stokers that are sold all over the world. Still another makes 2,000,000 tin cans annually to meet the demands of the local fruit and fish-canning industries. ”

“ The close of the Cretaceous period saw the Blue and Klamath regions, with their accretions, separated by a sea dike that had been slowly rising out of the ocean bed from Lower California to the Aleutian Islands. The elevation of this barrier, the Sierra Nevada Range in California and the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington, divided the State into two geologically, geographically, and climatically dissimilar parts. It made the region to the west a marine province, in which geologic changes were brought about by agencies existing in and emanating from the sea ”

“ The flora of Oregon plays an important part in the Indian lore of the region. Nearly two hundred plants found place in the commercial, industrial, medical, culinary, and religious economy of the Northwest tribes. With the passing of winter, camps became active with preparation for the annual food gathering. Tribes migrated to the camas prairie, the wappato lake, or the wocus swamp, for the yearly harvest. Throughout the State there is a great variety of wild fruit, which formed a principal article of subsistence for the natives. ”

“ Swedes had come in too, and Norwegians; German and Bohemian immigrants were planting garden plots and pulling stumps as the forest wall receded. In Astoria Finnish fishermen adapted themselves to a climate less rigorous than that of their native land, while on the hills of southeastern Oregon, Spanish Basques were raising sheep, to the disgust of cattlemen who ruled like feudal lords over ranches larger than the lesser Balkan states.
The ranchers and the cowboys who served them, were as pungent
a set of personalities as the North American continent ever knew. ”

“ At the opening of the hunting season, red-capped and red-shirted men flock to forest, mountain, or field. As many as 12,000 deer—the Columbian blacktailed in the western section and the mule-deer in the eastern and southeastern section of Oregon—are killed annually. Elk or Wapiti are hunted in the Wallowa and Blue Mountain region, but antelope are at present protected by law. On the Hart Mountain Antelope Preserve in the south central part of the state are great herds of this fleet little animal. Timber wolves are few but coyotes plentiful. ”

“ The climate is less temperate than in the western part of the State, and the annual rainfall is from ten to twenty inches. The only farms are on the broad river bottoms, with livestock, wool, and hay as the most important products. There is much gold mining, principally by dredging. Parts of five national forests lie within the region. Industrial activity is restricted largely to lumbering, flourmaking, and gold and copper refining. Highways are being extended as the recreational advantages of the region become more widely recognized. There is one main-line railroad. ”

“ The Southern Oregon Region, extending from the Calapooya Mountains southward to the state line between the Cascades and the Coast Range, is of rough topography, with heavily timbered mountainsides, dissected plateaus, and interior valleys of fine fruit, nut, and vegetable land. Portions of the Rogue River Valley are famous for pears and of the Umpqua River Valley for prunes, the former being raised largely with irrigation, the latter without. Game is plentiful in its many wilderness areas, and fish abound in its streams. ”

“ Old age pensions which seldom reach maximum payments of $30 a month have been declared inadequate by many sociologists. The state board of health, which has broad powers, cooperates with county and municipal agencies, and seldom operates locally, unless authorities refuse or neglect to enforce ordinances. The board has done yeoman service in Oregon's fight against disease, and its efficiency is reflected by the fact that the state has 9.2 hospital beds for every thousand of population, an enviable rating compared to the national standard of 4.6 beds per thousand. ”

“ Conditions in the institutions for the mentally ill are less favorable. Both the Oregon State hospital at Salem and the Eastern Oregon State hospital at Pendleton are overcrowded, and the effect of economic cataclysm is evident in the steadily increasing number of commitments since 1930. These institutions supplanted—and improved—a system under which before the mentally ill were cared for under contract or by a private asylum in Portland. ”

“ The unions learned to make use of the strike, and, although most walkouts were lost, some, among them the strike of the harnessmakers in 1889, gave union labor confidence and a measure of badly needed prestige.
The period between 1880 and 1890 was one of tremendous expansion in Oregon, and alternately harsh and kind to labor. As the Northern Pacific Railroad, completed in 1883, linked the state to the great industrial cities of the East, Portland grew from a town of 25,000 to a marketing and shipping center with three times that many people. Building construction reached unprecedented levels. ”

“ Oregonians have expressed themselves well in the fields of art, letters and music. Although Portland has been called the "Athens of the West," only a few persons are inclined to be disagreeably emphatic about the matter, or to make a fetish of culture. The State's painters and sculptors show strength and imagination and skill, and men and women employed by WPA have executed some of the most forthright work among contemporary artists. Oregon writers delve into a wealth of raw source material, and do well with what they withdraw and refine ”

“ Of the 13,788,802 acres of national forests in Oregon, more than one-third are in the Cascade Region. The two most important agricultural districts are Hood River County, in the extreme north, with its famous irrigated apple orchards, and Klamath County, in the extreme south, prolific in potatoes, barley, and dairy products. Increasing accessibility has caused extensive use of the region as a playground. Being near to Portland, Mount Hood is the main focus of recreation, although Crater Lake, the Three Sisters, and other attractive natural areas are becoming increasingly popular. ”

“ In a canyon between Portland and its Cascade watershed the huge wooden pipeline was gnawed by beavers, which
were undeterred by the interminable length of the log they set themselves to severing. A village merchant in the Blue Mountains sold, and still sells, snowshoes for horses. Forty feet of cowhide belting used by an early Eastern Oregon sawmill stretched so much that within a week 50 feet had been cut off by installment shortening and 40 feet were still left. ”

“ Although Oregon Indians have abandoned most of their tribal ways, at times drums still throb above the music and words of tribal songs and busy feet pattern the ceremonial dances. The salmon festival on the Columbia River is generally held in secret each year; but the annual root feast at Simnasho in the spring, and the Warm Springs and Klamath Reservation huckleberry feasts in the fall, are open to the public. ”

“ Not only did the pioneer draw heavily upon the floral resources of the State for food and shelter but his modern descendant continues to utilize these products extensively. Wild berries are gathered by the ton, chit tarn bark, digitalis or foxglove, and other medicinal plants are collected for the market, and flowers and shrubs are brought in from forest and crag for rock garden, park, or lawn.
The bird and animal life of Oregon is fully as varied as the plant life. Eliot lists over three hundred species: song birds, game birds, and birds of prey ”

“ The character of the early settlers has, in numberless instances, been inherited by their descendants, and pioneer names abound in the register of Oregon industrialists, merchants, bankers, agriculturists, and public and professional men. The thoroughly American character of Oregon's population is emphasized by the few exceptions to the rule. Only in isolated instances do groups of people maintain cultural habits that distinguish them from the majority. Among these are the Basques of the southeastern part of the state; the Germans of Aurora; the Finns and Scandinavians in and about Astoria ”

“ A farmer in Eastern Oregon, who missed first his hogs, then his ripened corn, learned that bears had killed and cured the hogs and had ricked the corn in a secluded place.
In primitive Curry County areas wild hogs enjoy their porcine Eden, each succeeding generation teaching its young to sleep with heads downhill so that they may escape faster when disturbed by hunters. The first man to discover Chinook salmon in the Columbia, caught 264 in a day and. carried them across the river by walking on the backs of other fish. ”

“ Chinese is commonly spoken and Chinese dress frequently worn. Chinese funerals are still magnificent spectacles, and debts are still liquidated on the day of the Chinese New Year. However, these people are in general very quiet, peaceful and self-sufficient and ask only to be permitted to live as they see fit. With tong wars relegated to the past, the problems of work and business constitute their principal interests.
Oregon's 4,958 Japanese are engaged chiefly in farming, gardening and small commercial enterprises. A few are employed by industry or in hotels and restaurants. ”