[Heritage] Oregon Heritage News 2016-02-10

Wed Feb 10 12:49:08 PST 2016

In this issue:
1.  Second Heritage Conference keynote speaker announced
2.  Pilot Butte canal segment listed in National Register
3.  Digitized modern Heppner newspapers now available
4.  Researcher's discovery moves Civil War grave marker
5.  PSU to co-host archaeology field school
6.  Chinese Oregon speaker offer extended

SECOND HERITAGE CONFERENCE KEYNOTE SPEAKER ANNOUNCED

A social and cultural historian who examines changes in places during the 19th and 20th centuries will speak in a place of power in Oregon when she gives her keynote address at the 2016 Oregon Heritage Conference<http://www.oregon.gov/oprd/HCD/OHC/Pages/Conference.aspx>.

The historian, Reiko Hillyer, is an assistant professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland. Her keynote will be delivered in the Oregon State Capitol where most of the conference's events will take place. Hillyer has facilitated programs for Oregon Humanities, created specialized tours for Know Your City in Portland, and taught inside-out prison exchange courses on the history of crime and punishment in Oregon.

The conference will take place May 4-6 in Salem. Its theme is "16 Going on 20, 50, 100: Reflecting on the Past, Capitolizing on the Present and Building the Future." The theme highlights several major heritage anniversaries, including the 20th anniversary of the first meeting of the Oregon Heritage Commission and the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act. The other keynote speaker is Bob Beatty, the chief operating officer of the American Association for State and Local History.
Oregon Heritage, a division of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, is organizing the conference. Conference attendees will include community leaders, staff and volunteers from historical societies, museums, archives, historic cemeteries, ethnic organizations, schools, historic preservation commissions, humanities groups, Main Street programs, the tourism industry, economic development, staff from local, state, and federal governments, genealogists and professional historians and preservationists.

The conference includes workshops, tours, inter-active sessions, receptions, the Oregon Heritage Fellows, and the annual Oregon Heritage Excellence Awards. Registration will open next month.

PILOT BUTTE CANAL SEGMENT LISTED IN NATIONAL REGISTER

A segment of the Pilot Butte Canal between Cooley Road and Yeoman Road in Bend and unincorporated Deschutes County is Oregon's latest entry in the National Register of Historic Places.

The construction of the Pilot Butte Canal was a result of the vision of east-coast real-estate investor Alexander McClurg Drake. Drake sought to irrigate the lands surrounding the Deschutes River under the provisions of the federal Carey Desert Lands Act, which encouraged the establishment of irrigated farms in the arid West.

Construction on the canal began in 1903. The critical Cooley Road to Yeoman Road Segment connected the already-constructed flume from the Deschutes River and traversed the basalt bedrock on its way north. However, the section was particularly difficult due to the terrain, and resources were concentrated here. Laborers using horse-drawn Fresno Scrapers and steam-powered drills finished this portion of the canal on Feb. 10, 1905.

The canal's completion spurred rapid growth and development of central Oregon, including the establishment of Bend, Redmond, and other communities. It also provided an economic boost to the entire state with the growth of the agriculture and timber industries. The basalt floor and sides of the Cooley Road - Yeoman Road segment still show the tooling marks left by the scrapers and the steam drills, and its rough, unfinished nature reflects both the difficulty in digging the canal and the importance of finishing the project quickly.

The National Park Service under the authority of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 listed the Pilot Butte Canal segment in the National Register. The review process included comments from the Central Oregon Irrigation Company, residents, advocacy groups, and local, state, and federal agencies. NPS' decision is based only on the National Register criteria, which considers the degree to which the property retains its historic appearance and its historic importance.

More information about the National Register and the Pilot Butte Canal Historic District, including a description of the nomination process and a full copy of the nomination document is available online<http://www.oregon.gov/oprd/HCD/NATREG/Pages/index.aspx> .

DIGITIZED MODERN HEPPNER NEWSPAPERS AVAILABLE

Twenty-five more years of the Heppner Gazette-Times are now available on the Historic Oregon Newspapers<http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/> website. The issues cover the years 1951-1976 and can be read, searched by keyword, downloaded, and saved as a PDF or JPEG file for future perusal - all at no cost to users!

The Heppner-Gazette Times<http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071042/> has been in print since 1925 and chronicles news in Morrow County and at the state and national levels. The new versions are the result of a partnership with the Morrow County Museum<http://heppnerchamber.com/history-museum> supported by a grant from the Oregon Heritage Commission, along with copyright permission given from the Heppner Gazette-Times<http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071042/>.

RESEARCHER'S DISCOVERY MOVES CIVIL WAR GRAVE MARKER

The curator of the Lane County Historical Society and Museum found in its collection something that looked like a rusty garden stake. After identifying it for what it actually was, she conducted research that enabled it to be transferred to a more appropriate home. Read her story in the newest Oregon Heritage Exchange blog<https://oregonheritage.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/civil-war-veterans-long-forgotten-star-returned-home-after-research-serendipity/>.

[Public Archaeology Field School]

PSU TO CO-HOST ARCHAEOLOGY FIELD SCHOOL

Portland State University, Washington State University Vancouver and the National Park Service will host a public field school in historical archaeology this summer at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. The program will introduce the methods and theories of fieldwork in historical archaeology and is ideal for students entering the field of cultural resources management.

Students will participate in all aspects of field and laboratory work: pedestrian and subsurface survey, laying out excavation units, excavation by shovel and trowel, mapping, drawing, digital photography, and cleaning, identifying, and analyzing artifacts. The project will use tablet computers to digitally record excavations and document grave monuments at Vancouver's Old City Cemetery.

For more information, visit the NPS field school website<http://www.nps.gov/fova/learn/historyculture/2016fieldschool.htm>.

CHINESE OREGON SPEAKER OFFER EXTENDED

The Oregon Historical Society has extended its "Chinese Oregon" speaker series through Sept. 30. The speakers speak on local aspects of Chinese history in Oregon. Programs must take place between April 1 and June 15. Go to the OHS website<http://www.ohs.org/> for a list of speakers and to download a speaker request form.

Share your photos of Oregon's heritage on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using #oregonheritage.

Oregon Heritage News is a service of Oregon Heritage, a division of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. The news editor can be contacted at heritage.info at oregon.gov<mailto:heritage.info at oregon.gov>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/heritage/attachments/20160210/f60f7acd/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 92 bytes
Desc: image001.gif
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/heritage/attachments/20160210/f60f7acd/attachment.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 65515 bytes
Desc: image003.jpg
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/heritage/attachments/20160210/f60f7acd/attachment.jpg>