Press Release

Portland, Oregon – PreservationDirectory.com, the leading online historic preservation resource, has announced the launch of their new partner-website HistoricForSale.com. The new website provides a vast directory of vintage homes and historic commercial properties for sale, real estate agents who specialize in historic houses for sale, and provides comprehensive historic preservation resources.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – February 11, 2009

Portland, Oregon – As part of the ongoing commitment to the preservation community, PreservationDirectory.com has once again teamed up with This Old House magazine to promote their search for "The Best Places to Buy an Old House". An upcoming issue of This Old House will feature the 2nd annual "The Best Places to Buy an Old House" article, which strives to identify affordable homes in historic neighborhoods and districts across the United States.

According to This Old House Associate Editor, Keith Pandolfi, "We want to spread the word about neighborhoods where the astonishing old houses are rivaled only by the community spirit."

Introducing:

A Song from
A Ferry Tale: Wilsonville; Oregon’s Transportation Town
A Play for the 150th Anniversary of Oregon Statehood by June Reynolds
with Original Music by Clyde ListHear Clyde Sing the Song!

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.

June Reynolds praised by the D.A.R.

Sherwood Historical Society Past President and Author June Reynolds received several impressive awards from the Daughters of the American Revolution this morning at the Marjorie Stewart Senior/Community Center. June is publishing a series of very large books about Sherwood history. See "Sherwood: A Time and Place" below. She spoke at some length about her success at involving Sherwood youth in Sherwood Historical Society projects. The D.A.R. gave her every minute they could, but there is never enough time to describe everything June does.

SPECIAL NOTE: Sherwood Historical Society Secretary Clyde took this photo, but no one wanted to hear him sing a once popular but naughty 18th century song about the American Revolution. It made George Washington furious to hear the British piping it during the surrender ceremony at Yorktown. Problem was: Washington did not realize the Brits were actually calling off the whole War! He was thinking too hard about how much longer he himself could go on without giving up the fight!

100 Years Ago in Old Sherwood Town

F. Colfelt, L. W. Roellich, W. J. Edwards and J. C. Smock have been elected to the Town Council. A. W. Hall is Mayor. J. E. Morback is Town Recorder, L. S. McConnell is Treasurer. No one wants to be Town Marshal. "There not being anyone up on the ticket for marshal, the names of C. T. Hall and Geo. Saylor were written in, both receiving an equal number of votes, but not being present to have the tie decided, the matter was deferred until next meeting." 1909 Town Council Minutes for Sherwood Oregon USA

ACROSS AMERICA BY THIS TIME there are 8,000 cars and 10 miles of paved roads. There are more lynchings than auto deaths. A white male can expect to live 46.3 years, females: 47.3 years, black males: 33 years.

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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Request for Information

JayCee--
Mention has been made several times about the Long Acre Store that was at the intersection of Brookman and Old Hwy 99. It seems to come up starting in the 1930s. Who owned it? Who worked there? What do we know about it? Could you set that on the blog to see if we get any info?? I'd like to find an old photo of it as well.
                        --Lilly

Oh Wow!

Click the photos to get a better close up. A rare gust of snow has made Old Sherwood Town even more spectacular than usual. A rare guest from the University of Oregon has also left her calling card (Right Photo), as though an angel had crashed to the ground. Below/Right, is a photo we took on the way home from the Heritage Center on the 20th. These guys on their hands and knees are building an igloo. They said they learned how twenty years ago, the last time it really snowed in Sherwood! How those guys on the Left climbed up to finish that snowman is anybody's guess! The ice-encased apples are left over from the Christmas party.

The Weary Children of Sherwood Oregon USA!

All summer long they ran along the trails at the Wildlife Refuge and the Cedar Creek green way searching for Robin Hood. And now it's winter and everyone says forget about Robin Hood. Go look for Santa Claus instead of Robin Hood. And so now the weary children of Sherwood leave the shady greenwood behind and search the lighted pathways of Old Sherwood Town instead. They arrive, breathless and worn, at the Sherwood Heritage Center in search of an Enhanced Understanding of the Present built upon Links to the Past (per our Mission Statement, above) only to be met at the door by Esmerelda. The Christmas Cow. Oh boy!



Once kids figured out that Esmerelda the Christmas Cow (Top, Middle) was nothing more than Sherwood Historical Society Past President June Reynolds Acting Weird Again, they got onto what was happening inside Morback House. The Model Train exhibit (Below) was a hit for sure!

Favorite Comment Heard in the Train Room: "You know what the Trail Guide said this summer? He said it was so quiet here that people thought they could hear the water falls at Oregon City!"