That Oregon Life · Stories & discoveries
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There are restaurants you remember because the food was good, and then there are restaurants you remember because a guy with an accordion might appear while you were halfway through a plate of schnitzel and suddenly…
By late September, Oregon starts doing half the work for a Twilight road trip. Evergreen hills turn nearly black beneath low clouds. The Columbia goes pewter. The Coast trades its summer brightness for salt spray, wind,…
Oregon closed thousands of psychiatric hospital beds with a promise of community care. Historical records reveal what happened when that system never caught up.
There is something wonderfully Oregon about finding an old covered bridge where you least expect one. Drive east from Eugene and Springfield on Highway 58, following the road toward the forested foothills of the Cascades, and…
Most Oregonians and tourists have driven right past them without a second thought. You've fished and boated there. Swam and picniced nearby. Beneath the deep blue water of some of Oregon's most familiar reservoirs lie hidden…
There’s something about Oregon that feels like it was designed for a treasure hunt. Maybe it’s the fog curling through the Coast Range. Maybe it’s the abandoned mining roads disappearing beneath sword ferns, the black-sand beaches,…
Smoke had drifted into Lane County again, turning the sky a sickly-yellow and the surrounding hills into indistinct hazy blue, when I found myself remembering an old newspaper clipping I’d saved during some research into western…
Part two of two. Read Part One here. At the bottom of Crabtree Valley, the argument seems impossibly far away. Crabtree Lake lies dark beneath the trees. Water gathers along fallen logs. Moss hangs from branches…
Ten years ago, That Oregon Life introduced readers to the Salmonberry corridor, a place that seemed to exist somewhere between Oregon history and an outdoor legend. Back in 2016, the old railroad through the Coast Range…
For a lot of Oregonians, the drive to the coast has never just been about the destination. It's about the traditions. It's the excitement of packing up the car before sunrise. The smell of Douglas fir…
There are certain places in Oregon that become part of your family's story. Not because they're famous. Not because they're trendy. But because they were simply there, year after year, waiting for you on the journey.…
There’s something deeply comforting about a basket of crispy tater tots next to a perfectly golden corn dog. It's giving county fairs, little league games, school cafeterias, and childhood lunches. But what if we told you…
