Things You May Not Have Known, or Maybe You Did! Have you ever heard of Gopher Valley’s “flume,” its treacherous “plank road,” or “the Deer Creek Community Hall?” The meteorite strike in Wiley Canyon? Or that two of the early settlers’ feisty French ancestors helped overthrow British kings? If you have stories from the […]
Saving Gopher Valley History Read More »
Sincere thanks to all who are helping create this Gopher Valley history. It’s great to connect or reconnect and visit with you! Sadly, three of our helpers have passed away: John Agee, Roger Smith and Kenneth Tilden. Grace Armstrong Gary Remington Donna Lee Sanders Charleen Remington Charlotte Remington Dan Linscheid Linda Fagan Bird Mike Fagan
Who’s been helping Read More »
There’s still time to share YOUR information and stories, but don’t wait too long! See details at the bottom of the page. I am the researcher and writer. My wife Heather Marks is editor. Once a newspaper photo editor and graphic artist, she is designing the layout and book cover. This won’t be the first
Wanna Help Create a Book? Read More »
The timber industry was at its peak when I was a kid in Gopher Valley. Lumber mills were running at capacity. Logging trucks, at first with single axles and gas engines, followed by heavier diesel trucks, poured out of the hills around Sheridan. Sometime after the mid-1930s, Murphy Brothers was the first company to use
Logging and Log Trucks Read More »
Having a Ball at the Community Hall! Thanks to Marilyn Bride Levy, we now have ALL the names of the Gopher Twirler Square Dancers in this photo! Marilyn says the two mystery women on Alta Bradley’s right side (left as you look at the picture) were Bernice Smelzer and Evelyn Enhes. Back Row Left: Caller
The Gopher Twirlers Read More »
While people with radio sets in Gopher Valley could pick up stations in Portland and Salem, they didn’t have a local station until 1949. The Bladine brothers—Jack and Phil—who owned the News-Telephone newspaper (later the News-Register) in McMinnville recognized radio’s potential to broaden their empire. On Saturday June 18, 1949 at 11:00 am, McMinnville radio
Local Radio Comes to the Area, Even Gopher Valley! Read More »
Donna Sanders (left, above), the first-born Remington daughter, remembers the years around 1948 or 1949 when her family lived at their 60-acre place about halfway up Gopher Valley. The farm across Gopher Valley Road (to the west) of them, on part of the original Kerr Brothers Donation Land Claim, was owned by Frank Shannon and
Donna Remington Sanders Remembers Gopher Valley Read More »
Before the Thomson Brothers built their sawmill in 1929, the area was known as Beaver Dam. Beaver Dam, named for real dams on Beaver Creek, is where my mother, Alta Sanderlin, was born in 1918. Her grandparents–Floyd Levi and Alabama Long–bought a few hundred acres in the area around 1895. They had moved west from
Beaver Dam/Thomsons’ Mill Area Read More »