Open Your Mind to Oregon - The Oregon Encyclopedia is Coming to Bend
Posted By: Webmaster
Date Posted: 12/10/2008
Where did the name Oregon come from? What was the Roseburg Blast of 1959? How did the Pendleton
Roundup get started? When did Mt. Mazama last erupt? What was Vortex?
For the first time, people interested in finding out answers to these questions, and to thousands of others
like them, will have a single, authoritative place to look.
The Oregon Historical Society and Portland State University invite the public to "open their minds to
Oregon" and contribute their knowledge of local history and culture to The Oregon Encyclopedia, a new online
resource where information on the state's significant people, places, events, institutions, and biota will
be available to anyone with access to the World Wide Web at www.oregonencyclopedia.org.
Right now, visitors to the web site won't find answers to everything they search for, but content will be
added to the site every week. By the fall 2009 - timed to commemorate the Oregon Statehood
Sesquicentennial - The Oregon Encyclopedia will have up to 3,000 entries and essays, plus additional
features such as photographs, maps, and other engaging materials from the Oregon Historical Society and
other sources.
A public Community Meeting will be held on the project in Bend on Monday, December 15 from 6:00 - 8:00
p.m., Bend Public Library, 601 N.W. Wall Street, Bend (calendar). The meeting will provide information about The
Oregon Encyclopedia and gather information for the project. Facilitating the meeting will be William L. Lang,
Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia and Professor of History at Portland State University; he will be assisted
by Jerry Ramsey, OEP editorial board member, professor of English emeritus at University of Rochester and
author of "New Era," "Coyote Was Going There" and other books on Oregon folklore and cultural history.
Page Last Modified Wednesday, March 8, 2023