The end of the Oregon Trail

Amazingly, our time here in Oregon is quickly departing. We leave Friday evening via Greyhound bus for Seattle where we will meet up with the Gardner family! We're both excited to hang out with them for several days before returning to Philly on July 31st.

Earlier this week, I realized that we're living about 15 minutes away from the end of the Oregon Trail--Oregon City! Do you remember playing the video game? (you can still play the original version online for free here!) I have fond memories of trekking past Soda Springs, fording the Kansas River, and most certainly gunning down buffalo in cold blood. Anyway, I went to visit the official "End of the Oregon Trail" tourist center:




While I didn't fork over the $9 to tour the exhibits that closed in 45 minutes from when I got there, I took the free trolley around the small town of Oregon City and heard several stories about the history of western Oregon. For example, did you know that Portland used to be called Stumptown? According to our trolley guide, they did a lot of logging up in Portland and shipped the wood down the rivers to California. Since about a mile of forest on both sides of the rivers were chopped down, they were left with a lot of stumps! As it turns out, they decided on the name Portland by a coin toss! A man from Portland, ME and a man from Boston, MA each wanted to name the city after their hometown. Obviously, the man from Maine won the toss!