Bend, Ore. – James met Scott in the park yesterday when Scott’s daughter wandered too far into the Deschutes River and got stuck in the mud. James reached out his arm and pulled her back to safety, and they all got to talking.
Today the two sat down together and Scott, who wishes to give only […]

Bend, Ore. – Lois Gumpert has been playing the piano since she was 7 years old in 1922. The former Bend Water Pageant queen has played so many shows in the area that pretty much anybody who’s lived here long enough knows her name.
We met up with Lois in her home last night to sit […]

Pendleton, Ore. – A.O. “Monk” Carden was 19 years old when he first started “clowning” for Pendleton’s famous roundup in 1928. Today he is 97 years old, having survived his wife, who died just three years ago.
Monk, who was born in 1909, is one of the few people left who remembers the underground tunnels and […]

Pendleton, Ore. – We found John Bevis near his horse (pictured) at the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute just east of Pendleton, one of the country’s original Wild West rodeo towns. The institute is the interpretive center for the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes, all of which call the Umatilla Reservation home.
John, whose father was white […]

Mitchell, Ore. – On our way to Pendleton we took a quick detour to see one of Oregon’s best kept secrets: the Painted Hills.
The only signs from the freeway are in the occasional lavender- and brick-stained mounds of dirt etched into the hillside. But head north off the highway, into the Painted Hills Unit, and […]

Sisters, Ore. – This tiny timber town of 1,500 people jumped out at us with little warning from the great heights of Oregon’s Cascades. Sisters, named after the Three Sisters peaks that dominate the western horizon, sits near the mountain passes that lead to the Santiam and McKenzie rivers.
You wouldn’t know it today, but in […]

Corvallis, Ore. – Shortly after Danish newspapers published cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed (in various lights) in early 2006, the world erupted in debate and riot.
Dozens of small town reactions, however, were overlooked by major media. One occurred right here in Corvallis, when a student column published in Oregon State University’s newspaper prompted calls for […]

Silverton, Ore. – Today was a day that gives real meaning to the term “road trip.”
We barely left the car as we made our way from the coast into the heart of Willamette Valley, and we arrived just in time to tour covered bridge country before watching the sun set at the Oregon Garden in […]

Oceanside, Ore. – The boycott began as any successful one does. A small number of particularly verbal people drew the attention of many, and the whispers turned into a rallying cry.
Today, two years after troubles began brewing, 50 percent of the community has joined forces, sporting black-and-white boycott signs and bumper stickers in unified defiance. […]

Oceanside, Ore. – We arrived at 3pm, checked into our second-story two-bedroom rental, and set out, camera and microphone in tow, for some simple seascapes.
Oceanside is a tiny hamlet of 326 people, according to the 2000 US Census. Etched into a sharp and rocky cliff – agate hunting and hang gliding are popular sports here […]