[Heritage] Oregon Heritage News 2009-02-10

[Heritage Info]

In this issue:
1.  Paul Bunyan strides into National Register
2.  Legislature listening to history minutes
3.  Heritage Tourism award nominations sought
4.  Records management publications available online
5.  Etulain to discuss Lincoln links to Oregon
6. More sesquicentennial events


PAUL BUNYAN STRIDES INTO NATIONAL REGISTER

The Paul Bunyan statue in Portland's Kenton neighborhood has been
included in the National Register of Historic Places.  The statue is the
only example of Oregon
roadside architecture to receive this recognition.

Constructed in 1959, the statue owes its existence to Oregon's
centennial celebrations. Centennial-themed festivals,ceremonies,
parades, balls, exhibits, rodeos, and jamborees filled the event
schedules in Oregon throughout the centennial year. The anchor event was
the Oregon Centennial Exposition and International Trade Fair, held in
north Portland for 100 days. The Kenton neighborhood, celebrating its
proximity to the event site, the neighborhood's industrial heritage, and
Oregon's timber industry, erected a 31-foot-tall statue of the famed,
over-sized lumberjack to welcome Exposition visitors.

The statue is recognized for its architectural importance as a highly
evocative and well-crafted example of roadside architecture in Oregon.
Roadside architecture includes the many themed, and often garish,
hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and unusual creations that popped up
along highways during the mid-20th century. Paul Bunyan was among many
favorite characters of exaggerated size that cropped up along America's
roads between the 1930s and the 1960s, before freeways and zoning codes
limited the popularity of such constructions. The largest of the few
purpose-built Paul Bunyans in the state, Kenton's Paul Bunyan stands as
an urban marker and a community legacy. 

Oregon*s State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation recommended
Paul Bunyan's nomination in October 2008. More than 500 historic
Portland properties are listed in the National Register, which is
maintained by the National Park Service under the authority of the
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. 

More information about the National Register and recent Oregon listings
is online at www.oregonheritage.org (click on "National Register" at
left of page). 


LEGISLATURE LISTENING TO HISTORY MINUTES

In commemoration of 150 years of Oregon statehood, a minute of Oregon
history is read before the Oregon State Legislature each morning during
the 2009 session.  The minutes are provided by the community of
historians writing for the Oregon Historical Society and The Oregon
Encyclopedia.  To read these minutes, visit
http://www.ohs.org/education/History-Minutes.cfm


HERITAGE TOURISM AWARD NOMINATIONS SOUGHT

Travel Oregon is looking for nominations of its awards given out during
the Governor's Tourism Conference in April.  There are seven award
categories: creative tourism development, Gene Leo memorial, heritage
tourism, partnership, sustainable tourism award, and tourism industry
awareness.

The heritage tourism award recognizes outstanding use of Oregon*s
cultural or natural history by an Oregon individual, organization,
business, community, or region, in order to draw visitors to the state.

Nominations must be received at the Travel Oregon office no later than
noon on March 6. More information about the awards is available at
<http://www.oregontourismconference.com/index.php?page=tourism-industry-awards>


RECORDS MANAGEMENT PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE ONLINE

The National Association of Government Archives and Records
Administrators (NAGARA) has launched an online document library which
allows users to share archives and records management publications .
Subject categories include: accessibility, advocacy, electronic records,
disaster preparedness, electronic records, facilities, files management,
grants, historical records, inactive records, local government records,
microfilm, preservation, legal issues, retention, scanning and
digitization, security,
storage, training, and miscellaneous.

Located at www.NAGARAresources.org , the library currently houses
nearly 300 documentsy. As content grows, site administrators will add
new subject categories and/or subdivide existing categories. 

The site was built in partial response to a 2008 recommendation of the
Council of State Archivists' "Closest to Home" Task Force on Archival
Programs for Local Governments to "develop a coordinated plan for a
portal to provide access to web-based resources on local government
archives," but as content expanded, the site has proven to be of
interest to archivists from other fields as well. 


ETULAIN TO DISCUSS LINCOLN LINKS

Richard Etulain, a Lincoln scholar and former director of the Center
for the American West, will discuss "Lincoln links" to Oregon and the
west during a 6 p.m. Feb. 11 event in Bend. Other presentations will be
made by living history actor Steve Holgate, musician Doug Tracy, Lincoln
scholar Elliott Trommald and author Tony Wolk. 

The event is sponsored by Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, Boys and
Girls Clubs, Des Chutes Historical Museum and the Deschutes County
Cultural Coalition

To reserve a place, contact Karen Aylward at 
<mailto:kaylward at cocc.edu> kaylward at cocc.edu or 383-7257.

 
MORE SESQUICENTENNIAL EVENTS

INDEPENDENCE:  "Writing our Watershed" is the title of a book to be
featured at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 14 at the Heritage Museum. Eight of the 13
essay authors of the essays will read from and sign books at the museum,
112 S. Third St. After the free reading, visitors can take a tour
through the museum*s displays including expanded additions to the
Western Oregon University, military room and state anniversary displays.
"Writing Our Watershed" was released last fall by the Luckiamute
Watershed Council, after a group of farmers, landowners, scientists and
residents in the Luckiamute River and Ash Creek watersheds learned to
write personal essays - a genre most of them had never tried before. The
book, edited by Gail Oberst, includes essays by historian Arlie Holt,
Buena Vista landowner Kirk Lewis, Shawn Irvine of the City of
Independence, master gardener Jo Yeager, ecologist Phil Larsen of
Corvallis, landowners Ron Nestlerode of Airlie and Tammee Stump of
Monmouth, farmers Howard and Linda Grund-Clampit of Monmouth, and
others. For more information about the Luckiamute Watershed Council and
its work, visit http://luckiamute.watershedcouncils.net/ 

PENDLETON:  On Feb. 14, the Heritage Station museum will hold a
birthday party celebrating Oregon's sesquicentennial, 150 years old.
Festivities are from noon-4 p.m. Included in the celebrations are the
Pendleton Woolen Mills and rodeo clown Monk Carden, both of whom will
mark 100 years in Pendleton this year. For more information contact:
Travel Pendleton at 541-276-7411

SALEM: The University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History
has mounted in the Oregon State Capitol an exhibit of Pacific Northwest
maps created in the 19th century. The earliest map was drawn before
Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark west.  The exhibit will be on
display through Feb. 28, including during the Capitol's statehood
sesquicentennial events on Feb. 14.
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Oregon Heritage News is a service of the Oregon Heritage Commission,
which can be contacted at heritage.info at state.or.us