Oregon History 101 - "It's Not Just Portland: Cities and Towns....and Steamboats and Railroads"

Presented by Dr. Carl Abbott, Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University

Recorded on January 5, 2015
McMenamins Kennedy School, Portland, Oregon

Portland may be the largest city in Oregon, but it has had plenty of competition since the 1840s. As steamboats and then railroads tied the Pacific Northwest into the national economy, cities in different corners of Oregon experienced booming growth. Carl Abbott will present a lecture and slideshow that will start and end with a brief history of Portland, but will make brief stops along the way in cities as far apart as Astoria, Klamath Falls, and Baker City as he traces the development of a statewide system of cities and towns.

Carl Abbott taught at Portland State University from 1978 to 2013. He has written extensively on the history of Portland and the Pacific Northwest and has been active as a board member of a number of community groups, including the Oregon Encyclopedia, the Historic Preservation League of Oregon, the Oregon Downtown Development Association, and Livable Oregon. He is a contributor to the Oregonian and Portland Monthly and is a frequent speaker to community groups.

Many of the images prepared by the speakers for Oregon 101 presentations are copyrighted by institutions other than the Oregon Historical Society. The Oregon Historical Society may not make those images available on the Web, so the PowerPoints have been excluded from the videos.