Old Oregon Towns

We were both born and raised in Colorado, which became a state in 1876.  It has been rather amazing to discover how old Oregon is.  It become a state in 1859.  Obviously, the Oregon trail migration came before the Colorado gold rush.    We have been in Astoria and Portland  and earlier in Salem here in Oregon.

Salem was organized in 1842 and became the capital city of the Territory in 1851.  Astoria was founded in 1811 and became the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains.  Portland was founded in 1843.

We enjoyed walking around downtown Astoria

Astoria is a fishing port and there were lots of fishing boats in the harbor.

Plants will grow just about anywhere in this climate.  These pilings along the harbor were sprouting foliage.  We saw this everywhere.

As we walked around Portland, we saw a number of bronze statues.  We were always sure who they depicted but we enjoyed them.

Look at this elk up on a roof.

A dolphin, I guess.

We spotted these men near our RV park.  They inspired and led the construction of the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway.

These old cities are attractive and very interesting.

Visiting Gnat Creek

The first time we spent much time in Oregon was 2008.  After driving north along the Oregon coast, we began a 2-month stay at Gnat Creek Salmon Hatchery near Astoria, followed by 2 months at White River Wildlife Refuge south of The Dalles in eastern Oregon.

This year, after getting settled in an RV park in Astoria, we drove to Gnat Creek.  It was good to remember our time and work there.

This shows one of the fish in one of the tanks at the hatchery during this visit.  It isn't one of the salmon that are raised here.

If you click on this next photo to enlarge it, I think you can see hundreds of fingerling salmon.

This is a view of the campsite we were in while we volunteered.

In my blog post about our 2008 volunteer time at Gnat Creek, you can see what it looked like back then.  Gnat Creek

This downed tree lies along the hatchery path through the surrounding forest.  You can see how it provides a place for other plants to sprout.  It is called a nurse tree.

The temperate rain forest in the area is lush and green.  Ferns and other plants grow profusely.

Ferns at the base of some trees covered in moss.  In the background you can see Gnat Creek flowing by.

We spent a lot of our volunteer time keeping this trail cleaned for hatchery visitors  Often John trimmed back vegetation to keep the trail open and I used a blower to clean off debris.

I love these little flowers.

This is a nearby community of house boats on the John Day River.