San Francisco’s Mid-Winter Fair, 1894 There’s a connection between what Oregonians once ate and what Californians ate. Throughout the nineteenth century, Oregon’s closest commercial connections were with California, and it was common for wealthier Oregonians to go shopping in San Francisco, and to winter in Santa Barbara or Pasadena. IXL canned tamales The Dalles,…
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Rare enough to find a view of a small town restaurant; rarer yet to find one depicting staff and customers. This photograph was taken about 1914 in Waldport, Oregon, by Frederick F. Sasman of Newport. Fred was an inexperienced photographer, hence the shot directly at the mirror, the profusion of reflected images in other mirrors,…
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’Way back in 2010, I wrote about the State Café in the railroad town of Huntington, Oregon, in a posting called Oysters on the Snake. There I promised to write more later about oysters. And, some time soon, I will do that. Meanwhile, I want to say a bit more about the State Café, which…
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Harvey Kurtzman first spotted the image on a postcard pinned to the office bulletin board of Ballantine Books editor Bernard Shir-Cliff. “It was a face that didn’t have a care in the world, except mischief,” recalled Kurtzman. –Wikipedia entry for Alfred E. Neuman The postcard shown here was produced by the Western Stationery Company, which appears…
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The coastal town of Yachats, famously pronounced YAH-hots, is a resort locale today, smack on Highway 101, three hours’ driving time from Portland. But a century ago, getting to Yachats took an all-day trip on two trains, then a steam launch, an overnight stay, a jaunt by stage and two ferries, and finally either a…
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