The state of Oregon has had not one, not two, but three state capitol buildings. Two of them met a sudden and unexpected end--destruction by fire. William Willson, a pioneer of Salem, donated some acres from his Donation Land Claim for a state capitol. The first, built in 1855, may have been torched in a desperate fight to move the capitol to Corvallis. A second capitol, built in 1873, was patterned after the US Capitol in Washington, DC. This capitol, adorned with a beautiful copper-clad dome, faced west toward the Willamette River. On April 25, 1935, a fire started in a basement storage...

William Newby had a vision to create a place of commerce and residence for settlers to the Willamette Valley. Newby named the town after his hometown of McMinnville, Tennessee, and saw plenty of local opportunities on his land, straddling an old Native American trail along what is now Baker Street. Newby had a millstone shipped from Oregon City so grain could be ground at his mill. Soon, a blacksmith shop and a general store attracted people to an expanding village. In 1866, the areas first newspaper began publication and would later become the McMinnville News-Register. Newby donated land...

Long before the city of Salem got its name, the lush valley was a favorite winter camping location for the Kalapuya tribe. Jason Lee first ventured to Oregon in 1834, at the invitation of Northwest tribes, creating a mission and a settlement here. Native Americans called it "Chemeketa." William H. Willson, who laid out the city plan in 1851, called it "Salem." Both words mean "peace." Salem's central location, in the middle of the Willamette Valley's agricultural belt, made it an ideal location for the new capital of Oregon. Since then, Salem's character has largely been influenced by the...