Posts tagged ·
·...
This is a major update of my original Google Maps “Historic Oregon” file.
Download here
About forty new towns were added. I’ve also separated them out by Category instead of just alphabetical listing. More battles and military sites have been added, along with some general spell checking and links to web pages with information about the site.
The Agustus Fanno Farmhouse sits near Fanno Creek in Beaverton. The creek neatly bisects the cities of Beaveton, Tigard and Tualatin before it flows into the Tualatin River.
The Farmhouse is on the original land claim location, very near where Agustus would have built his first cabin in 1847. Fanno later convinced Thomas Denney to settle on adjoining land in 1850. This location was ideal for Fanno’s needs as it was adjoining Indian Trails that allowed passage from Willamette Falls in Oregon City all the way to the coast near Tillamook. This trail would later be expanded and become the Astoria Military Road. His intention was to sell onions to trappers headed back to Oregon City.
Fanno married Rebecca Denney on April 17th, 1851. She is described as a Spinster of 31 years of age. Augustus was 47 at the time. She must have been a fairly well educated woman as on Janurary 18th, 1855 Reverend Ezra Fisher reports that Mrs. Rebecca Fanno needed to be paid $1 for a magazine subscription called “Mothers’ Journal and Family Visitant.”
The Fanno’s did well as onion farmers. By this time he was probably shipping Onions downstream to Oregon City. In that day it was common to build a raft and hire a couple of Indians to paddle it along the creeks and rivers with it’s cargo. They made enough to build a new “fashionable” house in 1857. Note the sign at the house says 1859, but I am not sure where the discrepancy is. Perhaps it took two years to build and finish due to the amount of labor and materials that would have to have been shipped in.
His sons and grandsons continued the tradition of farming onions until the 1940′s. The Farmhouse itself was lived in by the family until 1974 and then it and the adjacent land were donated to the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District in March 1982.
The Farmhouse is now both a Century Farm, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Links:
Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District
which is a passage from “Chapter Five: The Settling of the Beaverton Area from
CHAKEIPI: “The Place of the Beaver” by Virginia Mapes (1993)
History of the Fanno Family and the Fanno Farmhouse” linked below on Amazon.
Here is version 1.0 of my “Historic Oregon” Google Earth file. Included in this file are Ghost Towns, Locations of Historic Events, Locations of Forts and Camps, lighthouses, Missions, Indian Battles, Historical Markers, Heritage Trees(coming soon,) Shipwrecks, and Native American Tribes (coming soon too,) and remaining covered bridges. In other words, pretty much anything of historical interest.
There is about 100 hours of work into this file. It could not have been done without much dependence on the following resources:
Fort Wiki
Ghost Towns.Com
Google
Covered Bridge Society of Oregon
www.markeroni.com
National Register of Historic Places
Oregon Travel Council Heritage Programs
And most importantly, Oregon Geographic Names by Lewis A. McArthur which is based off his father’s work.
This is a HUGE file and is roughly 25% complete by my estimate so it may take a while to load. If you have any information about locations please email rick@hamell.net and I’ll add it in with proper credit. New versions will be released to this page. Please feel free to redistribute it, but I would appreciate a link back here if you do.
Note on Ghost Town Classifications.
I found this to be a very handy guide but had to expand it. I added a Class H which is the same as a Class D, but with few original buildings. I also added a number guide to give an idea of the town’s main purpose during it’s peak population.
Ghost Town Classifications:
Class A: barren site
Class B: rubble and/or roofless building ruins
Class C: standing abandoned buildings (with roofs), no population, except maybe a caretaker.
Class D: semi/near ghost towns. A small resident population, many abandoned buildings.
Class E: busy historic community, yet still much smaller than in its boom years.
Class F: Not a stand-alone class, but an addition to any of the above. This class usually designates a restored town, state park, or indicates some other “additional” status.
Class G: the town joined or was absorbed by a neighboring thriving city.
Class H: Same as Class D, with no or very few original buildings
Originating Purpose:
1.) Mineral Explotation
2.) Agriculural or Live Stock
3.) Timber
4.) Shipping or Travel Depoe, Stage Coach Station, Train Station
5.) Religious or idelogical
6.) Recreation and Service (Saloon Towns)
Thus a towns classification of B1 means an abandoned gold town with a few traces of buildings and other structures such as mine entrances.
Classifications are assigned by myself based on direct observation of the town, or best guess based on Google Maps and Internet searches. Many towns main economic activity changed multiple times during their lifetimes. In these cases the first or largest is used for the classification.
****10/13/09 Updated
I have added a HUGE amount of more information to this. Many new towns, Cemetaries, Civilian Conservation Corps Projects, Events, Early Explorers, Musuems, Native American Tribal grounds and camps, and much more. Again, please be sure to email me rick@hamell.net with any updates and corrections you might have.
