Trail guides now available!
Portland Forest Hikes and Hiking from Portland to the Coast now available at Powell's, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, and other major book retailers.
Author readings scheduled at Powell's (SE Hawthorne) on March 9th at 7:30 PM. Also at Annie Bloom Books in Hillsdale on March 17th at 7 PM.-
Recent Posts
- It takes a Forest. Part 2
- It takes a forest. Part 1
- What’s in a name?
- The chaos at the end of Belding Road.
- North Fork of the Salmonberry – alternative access to the Salmonberry River
- Excerpt from coming book on NW Oregon: What was Illahee?
- The river that connects us; the river that divides us.
- Tales from the Salmonberry River
- Moonshining along the Lower Columbia River.
- Kerfuffle in the St. Helens Schoolyard.
- Be careful what you ask for.
- The Grange movement – the Internet of its day.
- “Animals to Avoid”
- The Wreck of the 104
- 32 Indian and Pioneer Trails in the North Coast range – compiled by R. L. Benson
- Shoot-out at the Sophie Mozee homestead!
- How to avoid becoming a statistic in the Oregon Forests
- Hindu gems hidden in the hills above Scappoose.
- What the Indians really smoked in their peace pipes.
- My “deliverance” hike on Cronin Creek
- Close encounters with an Alder
- Kamaiakin and the Klickitat Wars of 1855-56
- Following the Golden Rule
- Timber Legacies 4: The Timber Wars
- The first big environmental battle in Oregon’s brewing timber wars.
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Setting up and maintaining the information behind this site is a huge undertaking, and any contribution that you can make to cover expenses would be most gratefully accepted. Happy Trails, Jim Thayer
Category Archives: Lower Columbia Trails
Excerpt from coming book on NW Oregon: What was Illahee?
Some of you may be aware that I am writing a book about trails between Portland and the Coast for the Oregon University Press that will probably be released in early 2016. As part of that exercise, I have been … Continue reading
Posted in Indian lore, Lower Columbia Trails, Pioneer Lore
4 Comments
The river that connects us; the river that divides us.
My fascination with history derives from the fact that in immersing myself in the accounts of long gone days, I am occasionally confronted with perspectives and insights that literally twist our world around. Today the landscape near the confluence of … Continue reading
Posted in Lower Columbia Trails, Railroads, Uncategorized
2 Comments
Moonshining along the Lower Columbia River.
Usually the banks of the Nehalem river are the very picture of pastoral peace and quiet, especially down on the old Warren Smith Farm near Pittsburg. In particular, the chickens sauntering around their pen in the small clearing along the … Continue reading
Kerfuffle in the St. Helens Schoolyard.
When Judge McBride became the St. Helens schoolmaster in 1866, the school was a low-slung log cabin located alongside a swamp which, according to the pupils, “was prolific of green slime, mosquitoes and ague”. At the time, St.Helens had only … Continue reading
Be careful what you ask for.
In the mid- 1800’s when the settlements on the lower Columbia River and in the Nehalem Valley were just beginning to proliferate, it was the practice to bring in a preacher to officiate at local marriages – and thus the … Continue reading
Posted in Lower Columbia Trails, Pioneer Lore, Uncategorized
1 Comment
The Grange movement – the Internet of its day.
The national Grange Movement was founded in 1867, immediately after the conclusion of the Civil War, when the country’s agriculture was in dire shape. Six years later the Oregon State Grange organization was established to help rural communities work more … Continue reading
Shoot-out at the Sophie Mozee homestead!
Here is is an excerpt from a piece I just completed and added to the roster of trails listed under the geographic tab for the West Hills. In this “historic trail” description I try to use nuggets of contemporary opinion … Continue reading
Posted in Indian lore, Lower Columbia Trails, Pioneer Lore, Trails
1 Comment
Hindu gems hidden in the hills above Scappoose.
It is unknown, but to a few, that in 1936 the Vedanta Society of Portland purchased 120 acres of newly harvested hillside in the Tualatin range to house their future spiritual retreat. This acquisition is all the more surprising … Continue reading
Posted in Lower Columbia Trails, Pioneer Lore, Trails, Uncategorized
37 Comments
Chief Cowaniah and the Klickitat Raiders
The Klickitats: The story of Klickitats’ ascendency during the European penetration into the Pacific Northwest is one of the most vivid examples of how outsiders could take advantage of the social turmoil amongst the Indians and turn it to their … Continue reading
The Tualatin Hills are not just “a walk in the woods”!
During the 1830’s the famed Methodist circuit rider, Jason Lee, is said to have established a road across the Tualatin Hills that connected Scappoose and St. Helens with the communities in northern Washington County. It is very possible that today’s … Continue reading