Perhaps resilience can best describe how pioneers met with their everyday challenges and experiences. Such was the case for mail carriers in the Siuslaw Valley during the early1900’s. They were fearless individuals who traversed rough trails often...

The attempt to reveal stories that touch our lives and connect us to history begins and ends with research. Along the way, it’s the discovery through research that we gain a sense of those bygone days and what life was like for the people who lived...

FLOOR LOOM DEMONSTRATIONS On the second floor in Jean’s Sewing Room, I was recently introduced to a 1951 wooden floor loom. To the unfamiliar, (such as myself), it commands attention as the largest display in the room. Each of the 528 parallel warp...

CHEESE, PLEASE Sometimes it can be the one thing or experience that makes all the difference. Such can be said in the case of Jesse Lee Houghton, who found his calling in cheese. In 1890, at 20 years old with an eighth-grade education, he found...

Popular Munsel Lake and Munsel Creek are named after an early settler to the Siuslaw area. David Munsell (often spelled Munsel) was born in 1824 in Ohio and is said to have crossed the plains in 1847. Records show he spent time on a donation claim...

  JOYCE AND WILLIE WORNSTAFFWith the upcoming 117th year of the Rhododendron celebration, it was an ideal time to visit and chat with a 1952 Rhody Princess. At first, the thought for this story was to capture the experience of becoming a Rhody...

George Duncan was 9 years old and living in Scotland when his father immigrated to Canada and never returned to his family. The year was 1836. To help support their family, George and his younger brother John raised and butchered sheep. Despite...

Dan Miles shares 1914 story of bear in Maple Creek on Siuslaw River near Florence, Oregon.

It’s no surprise the sight of whales swimming in the Siuslaw river in recent years brings great excitement to those lucky enough to witness it. What may be a surprise however, is to learn that stories of their occasional presence go back many...

MARC WANGERIN It’s often said it takes a certain kind of person to do the type of work a job requires. That can be said of Marc Wangerin. Born in 1956, he grew up in Elmira on a mink farm where his father was a furrier. Marc pursued a career in...