An Old Controversy...

The Sherwood Historical Society likes to make fun of Sherwood's onion farmers for taking the law into their own hands. However, the rascals resorted to dynamite only after they won their case to court and nothing happened. The "Lake" Oswego dam still stands!

Morning Oregonian March 3, 1906.

An animated postcard of Sherwood Oregon USA. Enjoy the energy and the diversity of the crowd we see here. Look! There goes a man in a weird hat, followed by a boy on a skate board. Followed by some horsing around by two Board Members of the Sherwood Historical Society. It's a world Walt Disney and Rod Serling yearned for and thought we had lost: A peaceful summer day in small town America. Thank you, Music on the Green sponsors, for helping it happen!

And likewise, a spontanious Thank You to all those who give away so much of their valuable time during events like this!

Click HERE for more information about Music on the Green!

Clyde Ray List Commentary: Somewhere Albert Einstein is Smiling.

Believe it or not. Sherwood's bedrock once caught the attention of Albert Einstein. The rocky layer is part of what is known as the Columbia River Basalts. A controversial scientist named Immanuel Velikovsky wrote a paper about the basalt and presented it to Albert Einstein. E. was so impressed with this and other things V. said, that he mentions V. during his final (1955) interview with the Scientific American.

Last night, I asked the geologists, archeologists and paleontologists that meet under the roof provided by the Tualatin Historical Society whether they had ever seen the manuscript. I expected them to call me crazy, as so many people have done over the years. But this time they did not. They had never heard of Immanuel Velikovsky.

It was a very enjoyable and thought-provoking meeting.

SPECIAL BONUS! See what a Native American has to say about Pacific Northwest geology!

Let's Play Ball!

A Special Sports Edition of The OE History Night
Thursday, December 2, 2010
7:45 pm (doors open at 7:15)
McMenamins Mission Theater
Free, minors with parents welcome

Kerry Eggers presents "Beavers v. Ducks: Over 100 Years of Civil War"

The Oregon Civil War--one of the country's longest-standing rivalries in college football--will rage again on Saturday, December 4th. For over 100 years, the Oregon State Beavers and the University of Oregon Ducks have been meeting on football fields up and down the Willamette Valley, inspiring the unflagging loyalty of generations of Oregonians. Sports writer Kerry Eggers traces the annual game to its beginnings (in 1893), looks back at ten of the top Civil War games of all time, and talks about how the Civil War has become such an important part of our state's sporting culture.

Kerry Eggers has been writing sports professionally since he arrived in Portland in 1975. He has written four books, including Wherever You May Be: The Bill Schonely Story, and Clyde the Glide: The Clyde Drexler Story.

Clyde Ray List Commentary: Should Sherwood be more like Leavenworth, WA.?

In Leavenworth, Washington they decided to create history rather than preserve it. It was a risky move, erasing your own history and replacing it with someone else's. But this time, it was an excellent move.

On the Road with the Sherwood Historical Society

Sherwood Historical Society President June Reynolds doesn't just teach at Sherwood. She teaches everywhere. On a trip through the State of Oregon, the lesson will be about the people, the flora and the fauna of the Pacific Northwest. Every turn along the highway, it seems, will take you to a place she's already visited years ago. She will introduce you to folks as genuine and down home as the people we see in this video.

GET EXTRA POINTS! Identify the critter JR is wrestling with here.

Car Show and Robin Hood Festival Advisory:

Special Message from Strawberry Shortcake and Popcorn provider Polly Blankenbaker, Morback House Museum (at First and Main in Old Town).

Have you ever wondered how the Robin Hood Festival got started? Come to the Heritage Center to find out. Have you ever wondered what happened to the Robin Hood tea cloth that used to hang in the vault at U. S. National Bank? Come to the Heritage Center to see it. Have you ever wanted a bird’s eye view of an 1800’s Sherwood complete with a model train? Come to the Heritage Center to see it. The answers to these and other pressing issues will be revealed at the Heritage Center. The Heritage Center which is located in Veteran’s Park includes the Morback House Museum with it’s changing exhibits and the new Smock House exhibit. Many of our Sherwood neighbors have donated furniture and other household goods to create the Smock House exhibit. We are so lucky to have these great historical facilities, please come and enjoy them.

We will be selling popcorn and strawberry shortcake on the front porch of the Morback House Museum soon. Stop in!

New Columbus Day Storm Pictures Emerge.

"After recently reading about the progress of the redevelopment of the Portland Canning Co. site, I came across these photos taken the day after the Columbus Day Storm. As you can see, Portland Canning lost almost all of it's rolling stock stored in the pine grove north of the canning building." --Dennis Lively

COMMENT: The storm happened Oct. 12, 1962. The cannery closed in 1971. The processing of Sherwood area farm products continued for a while, after the Columbus Day Storm, but the axe was falling. This photo could just as easily be a cartoon about what the global economy did to a very important Sherwood enterprise that rescued a lot of families from starvation and sent a lot kids through college!

A New Book about Small Town Life

Ever since Sherwood Historical Society Secretary Clyde List served his one term as Mayor of Sherwood Oregon USA (1980-2), he has wondered about all the other people in America who have survived that job. A new book offers a glimpse into their lonely, desperate lives: MAYORS ACROSS AMERICA by Ed Morris.

Clyde List Editorial: Thanksgiving Day 2009

The First Thanksgiving by J.L.G. Ferris Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

NOTE: The Sherwood Historical Society does not endorse Clyde's Comments. Thanksgiving is the celebration of a very positive historical incident that happened between some white people and the Native Americans a long, long time ago. But there was a lot more than that to celebrate. Please go to: Forgotten Founders. Spend some time imagining what America might been like if only the story had not taken such a desperately wrong turn. The page will make you very angry. Sorry to spoil your holiday! Happy Thanksgiving anyway.

England is Paying Attention!

A book by the Sherwood historian June Reynolds has just appeared at
Amazon.co.uk. Please leave a review so that people will know how much fun it is.

The Music Man at Stella Olsen Park

BACKSTAGE in the GREEN ROOM Actors getting ready to perform The Music Man at Stella Olsen Park. In other words, my fellow Sherwood citizens, these people have come hither to deceive you. Yes! Right here in Sherwood Oregon! They will make you believe things that are not true. The year is 2009. Everyone knows that. But these rascals will convince you that it is really 1909. If you listen to them, you will wind up like a member of the Sherwood Historical Society, always searching through Old Town Sherwood for the way back!

The Music Man could have been about any Turn of the Century small town in America. The story about a shyster trombone salesman was perfect for Sherwood. We had it all: The controversy about pool halls, a barber shop quartet, a town band, and vaudeville shows. Once, the whole town emptied out and filled back up again-- just like the stage did Saturday night-- because of a false rumor that Farmer Peters had been gored by a bull. He must have been surprised by all the attention he got in one day! Any stranger in town got the same level of attention. A Music Man-type blew through in 1895 except that he was selling telephones. He walked off with $130 of the Town's money. Our own town father, J.C.Smock, was accused of swindling by the Hillsboro press. He was selling lightning rods that nobody needed. These stories, and more, can be found in the Old Town Minutes and newspapers.

Sherwood Historian Knighted!

JUNE REYNOLDS Kids call her weird. Now she's a weird Lady!

Robin Hood meets George Washington

If you went to History Camp, you already know all about the connection between Robin Hood and George Washington. Alas, the Sherwood Robin Hood Festival has to explain it all over again every time we go to Hillsboro to help celebrate the Fourth of July!

The cry 'Rob from the Rich. Give to the Poor' did not receive so many puzzled looks this year! A Portland Rosarian even offered us gifts!

It's common knowledge that the American Revolution was a Robin Hood Festival that got carried away. Lots of old battle flags have Robin Hood-friendly images on them.

President Polly says, "Hundreds and Hundreds!"

Hi all,

I wanted to remind you that the Tigard Historical Society is hosting a birthday party for Curtis Tigard. His 100th. The party is Saturday, April 25 from 1 to 4 at the Tigard Library Community Room.

Meanwhile, here at the Sherwood Heritage Center in Sherwood Oregon USA, a lot of desks and furniture was moved around on Wednesday. We didn't get as far as setting up the exhibit, but at least the heavy lifting is done at Smock House. I hope. I'm sure Paul and Steven hope so too. Those old metal box springs are heavy. Not to mention the cast iron stoves. We have relocated the school room to the area formerly used for an office in the Morback House and the office is now in a hall area that formerly housed old tools. The tools have been relocated to our tool shed. As you can imagine there was a lot of "we can't move this until we find a home for this and that has to get out of the way first."

Our next meeting is Monday, April 27 at 3:30 p.m. in the Morback House Museum. Everyone is welcome to attend. Our main agenda item will be discussing the 4th graders. They'll be arriving June 1, June 3, June 5, and June 8. Hundreds and Hundreds.

Polly Blankenbaker

Clyde List Editorial: The Stimulus

NOTE: This Comment is not Endorsed by the Sherwood Oregon Historical Society
A group of Governors from the poorest States in the Union is "thinking of refusing" the Federal Government's stimulus money. It may be because they are smarter than average. They are very intelligent, well educated people indeed. But then again, as an amateur historian, I keep thinking about a book that was published in 1996. Honor and Slavery by Kenneth Greenberg (Princeton University Press). In this book, Greenberg explains why the nation's black folk burned down their cities during the years of President Johnson's Great Society. It turns out that the President inadvertently pushed their Mad Button every time he tried to give them things!

In the Old South, gift giving can dredge up some ugly memories. In slave times, the Master would pick a special day to distribute gifts to his slaves. It seemed like a nice thing to do. However: "Between master and slave, gifts could only flow in one direction. A slave could own nothing and therefore could give nothing back." Nothing back... except of course, their very lives. They might see their gramma worked to death on some irrigation project or their children marched off to the auction house with chains around their necks. But a slave was always careful to say "Thankyou" for a new ball to play with or some cheese or a new string of beeds. They may have surrendered every facet of their earthly existence to this Man, and yet the Slave Master does not say "Thank You!" to a Slave.

Now it is the 21st Century. It is the Slave Master's great, great grand childrens' turn to line up and get gifts from the Man. It's their turn to say "Thank you Sir!" These governors are behaving as strangely as those folks in the Watts District of Los Angeles and in Newark, New Jersey during the Johnson years.

Let's hope it turns out okay and they don't burn their cities down.

FOR EXTRA CREDIT: Which U.S. President bought a Plantation and named it "Sherwood Forest?"
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The Eagles Have Landed!

Today we saw another Eagle Scout Project completed at what's starting to look like The Smock House Shrine. This time, it's a tool shed in the back yard of Smock House (The photo was taken from the porch of Morback House. Click on the photo to make it larger). The interesting part is that none of the busy buggers you see in this photo are from Sherwood. Tyler Johnson, the Eagle Scout in charge of everyone (he's the one pointing, far right) is from Newberg. Most everybody else is from Lake Oswego. The Sherwood Historical Society welcomes anyone and everyone to the Smock House Shrine, Oregon's (not just Sherwood's) tribute to the 1890s, when small town America was all there was, and you needn't bother running for President of these United States if you could not brag about your small American town roots.

Topic: Innovation and History

A Web site devoted to Innovation is saying things similar to what the Sherwood Historical Society Mission Statement says. At least I think so. Please read a very (very) short story called Parable of the Beautiful Town and tell me if it has anything for us and our political leaders.

Clyde List Editorial: The Middle East

NEW YEARS RESOLUTION FOR AMERICA: NO MORE CRUSADES!

"This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take awhile." --George W. Bush in 2001

"President Bush's use of the word 'crusade' was most unfortunate" --Soheib Bensheikh, Grand Mufti of the mosque in Marseille, France.

To this very day, moslems freak when they hear a Western leader say the word 'crusade.' When my German ancestors watched the First Crusade romp through their barley fields in 1099, they felt no different. The First Crusade was basically a motley procession of people on foot-- not only soldiers, but also country people, women and kids. It was obvious to anyone that these crusaders "...had altogether lost their wits."

But Germany's reluctance to (ta-da!)"Join the Crusade" did not last long. They soon helped lead the procession. I can just see an 11th Century Collin Powell (i.e. Peter the Hermit) going to a 11th Century united nations with the kind of evidence that was considered incontrovertible back then. It was reported that ...a woman after two years gestation finally gave birth to a boy who was able to talk; and that a child with a double set of limbs, another with two heads, and some lambs with two heads were also born; and that colts came into the world with great teeth, which we ordinarily call horses' teeth and which nature only grants to three-year old horses.... through these and similar signs the whole creation seemed to offer its services to the Creator. --Medieval Source Book

Oh! There you go! Even a glued to the party line semi-amusing milk-toast like Rush Limbaugh would agree. Case closed! Middle East, here we come. Grab your hat and staff and off the deep end we go!

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Clyde List Editorial: Hello China!

If the Sherwood Historical Society wants to live forever, she needs to do what businesses do, and "think global." Making friends with Edogawa, Japan was a good start. We also have a person named "Jessica" who is anxious to build bridges with China. I discovered China already, without Jessica. It happened many many years ago when I was a college student. I hated school. To this day, if I "take a course" in something it means I would have been better off reading a book.

Ah, what a library full of books my college had. Four stories tall and four stories deep. I worked out a system. Every Friday I would toss my course materials aside and march into the library. I would pick a number. One to Four. I would rise that many stories and then I'd toss an imaginary coin and turn left or right as I Ieft the elevator. After another series of randomized steps and turns I would arrive somewhere deep inside the stacks. On the countdown, I would shove out either my left or right arm and grab whatever book my fingers touched. If the book was at all readable, I would check it out and take it home with me and read it.

That is how I discovered Li Po (701–762). Li Po (pronounced "Li Bai") was a man of many talents, including writing poetry. He was obscure enough not to have a course taught about him at my college (thank God), but famous enough to receive one full column in my trusty old Brittanica. His biography reads like a comedy. He used to make little boats out of his poems and cast them adrift on a stream. He could have been an important member of the Emperor's court except that he would not stop composing poems about the Empress's nose! And so he wound up kissing his reflection in a pool and forgot to hang on to the guard rail, and he drowned. And so (life is strange) I became a friend of Li Po, who died many centuries before I lived, by a channel no mortal could predict.

But only in translation. I have been searching for some thirty years for someone who can read Li Po to me in Chinese. Jessica says she has waited over a thousand years to perform this honor. Ooooh! The word 'inscrutable' comes to mind....!