Think Oregon

Parks and gardens proposed for the riverbank.

Albina Rising

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PNW Businesses Rush to Aid in the Battle Against COVID-19

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Puppies in Prison

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Tetherow home

An architect and interior designer fashion a modern Tetherow home befitting the high desert

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Liberty Bell in Oregon

When the Liberty Bell Came to Oregon

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Oregon Granges continue to connect rural communities

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My Workspace: Saddle Up with Rod Retherford

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Festival Sustainability

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Portland Flood of 1894

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14 Things We Love About Oregon

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Founder Robert Seidel at The Essential Oil Company in Portland.

Aromatic Quest

The scent of balsam fir propelled a forestry student to build a company based on essential oils written by Seamus Casey photography by Dan Hawk Robert Seidel was studying forestry in New York in the 1970s when he encountered the aroma of balsam fir. This set off a “quest” for the extraction of aromatic compounds from natural products and, later, designing his own distillation equipment. He learned everything he could find on the topic and then, at Powell’s Books, found a six-volume set of books, The Essential Oils by Ernest Guenther. “I devoured all six volumes and still use that set of books today.” “I started my business in 1977 with the goal of supplying true essential oils to the consumer, the herbalists, soap makers and candle makers,” Seidel said. The Essential Oil Company, based in Portland, imports the majority of its essential oils from around the world—rose from Bulgaria…

Jason McNeal Graham of Bend leverages humor while addressing serious topics.

WOtta Fellow

The artist known as MOsley WOtta embarks on a new chapter encouraging dialogue interview by Cathy Carroll When Jason McNeal Graham of Bend, better known as MOsley WOtta, describes himself as a “multiethnic, multimedia, multivitamin artist,” it’s clear that humor doesn’t run counter to his writing, painting, and music. He recently received a Fields Artist Fellowship, a partnership between Oregon Humanities and Oregon Community Foundation to invest in individual artists and culture bearers and their communities. Four Fields Artist Fellows will receive $100,000 each during the next two years, along with robust professional development, networking, and community building opportunities. With this fellowship, he plans to produce multimedia performances, collaborative murals and stories addressing and explore system inequities in Oregon and encourage dialogue throughout the state. His work in music and writing has been featured on “TEDx, NPR, the NBA, and several other three letter acronyms,” according to Graham, and he…

Argonaut bikes are made with sealed resin and pressurized carbon for a sleek, stable ride.

Argonaut Cycles—Wheels of Fortune

Argonaut Cycles drives a carbon manufacturing and aesthetic revolution Written by Kevin Max The Argonaut Cycles bike manufacturing space in Bend may seem like many other modern maker spaces in Oregon—a stylish small array of furniture, an espresso machine, the latest craft Pilsner from a local brewer and a large screen TV to watch the Tour de France and other cycling events. Then there’s the Argonaut bike that, while motionless on a stand, feels like speed interrupted. Its lithe carbon frame has an appearance so clean and smooth that it feels as if no manufacturing process was involved in its creation. Indeed, none of this was accidental. “I wanted more control over the material and more ability to differentiate,” said Argonaut founder and owner Ben Farver. When he first started making bikes in Portland in 2007, Farver was working with steel frames and what he describes as a lot of…

Parks and gardens proposed for the riverbank.

Albina Rising

After bulldozers, highways and development brought down Portland’s historic cultural hub of the Black community, an innovative path forward emerges Written by Fiona Max On a Friday evening in the ’60s, locals of Northeast Portland’s Albina district could be found in the Hill Block building, an iconic, domed building on the corner of Williams and Russell Street. At the time, the place was home to the Cotton Club, a jazz club which had quickly gained popularity under owner Paul Knauls. Knauls had worked his way into the scene in Spokane, Washington, at the Davenport Hotel, and had gone to Portland in search of a venue of his own. He bought the rundown Cotton Club in 1963, and brought it back to life. Its fall, Knauls said, would come in 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., as tensions between the Black and white community ran high. “People came…

Kate Fitzpatrick, the new executive director of Deschutes River Conservancy, thinks big.

Water Wisdom

How the Deschutes River Conservancy aims to bridge the divide among water users Interview by Kevin Max Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting. At the Deschutes River Conservancy in Central Oregon, they’re taking the fight out of water. The new executive director, Kate Fitzpatrick, is a veteran of the organization and skillful ambassador among the widely divergent stakeholders of water management and marketing. We caught up with her just after the river conservancy received federal funds for new projects. What are the different water interests you’re balancing on a daily basis? We are balancing water demands for healthy river flows, irrigated agriculture and growing urban communities. The lion’s share of water in the Deschutes Basin (86 percent) is allocated in the form of water rights that are diverted from the river to support irrigated agriculture. The challenge is to restore more natural flows to the river while…

Devices reaching higher altitude winds produce up to four times the electricity of a small wind turbine.

Airborne Wind Energy Startup Takes Flight

Revolutionizing the kite-string-to-power idea not seen since the days of Ben Franklin Written by Kevin Max Bence Oliver had plenty of experience with renewable energy, even wind energy, but it was a coffee in Portland with eWind founder David Schaefer that put wind under his wings. Oliver had just resigned from his post as the chief financial officer at Windlift, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based airborne wind energy company, when he returned to Portland, where he’d lived before. Before Windlift, Oliver had spent five years with eBay, as its director of strategic sourcing in Switzerland. “Prior to my arrival at eWind, I was really impressed with how much they were able to do with relatively little money,” he said. “In a relatively short amount of time, they were able to put together a system that is fully functional, it flies, and it generates electricity.” Airborne wind energy is a system that uses…

The Grove Market Hall has nine food and beverage purveyors in NorthWest Crossing, Bend.

Hallowed Halls

New food halls offer flexibility and eclectic cuisine for a casual approach to dining out Written by Cathy Carroll Dining out is back again and a few new food halls are keeping it interesting, casual and flexible. In Portland, Collective Oregon Eateries, or CORE, is on a mission to elevate the work environment for culinary artists and the eatery experience. It has its sights set on being “the ultimate foodie destination,” according to its vision statement for the 36,000-square-foot space on SE 82nd Avenue. The offerings include Papi Sal’s Puerto Rican barbecue meets Philadelphia comfort food; Mitate sushi; Matta’s Vietnamese dishes, A UnicornCreationz Restaurant’s Mexican-Southern fusion; Gumba Pasta Parlor and EEM’s Thai barbecue. In Beaverton, 1st Street Dining Commons, a pandemic pop-up, prevails. The space offers tents around tables for enjoying takeout from surrounding downtown restaurants such as Koya Sushi, Ex Novo Brewing, Big’s Chicken, Top Burmese Bistro Royale, Nak Won…

Black Futures Farm co-owners Malcolm Hoover, left, and Mirabai Collins.

Of Fermentation and Equity

Brew Dr. writes a new prescription—uplifting Black farmers with their new yerba mate Written by Charles Rigby MATT THOMAS WAS a student at University of Oregon in 2002 when he became mystified with not being able to get good tea in coffee shops. He wrote a business plan to address this problem. “If you wanted tea in a coffee shop you had few options,” said Thomas. “I fell in love with tea in the process of writing the biz plan.” After graduating from UO in 2002, Thomas waded through uninspiring jobs before he returned to his business plan and raised $45,000 from friends and family for the first Townshend’s Tea Company teahouse in Portland. “For a long time I was unsure whether I could live off of tips,” he recalled. It wasn’t until 2007, when he was able to get out from behind the counter and focus on opening a second…

Breezy Anderson

Wonder Weld

Twisted steel and figurative appeal from a scrappy, self-taught sculptor Written by Kevin Max Breezy Anderson is a metal sculptor who turned a two-car garage in Bend into her workshop, where she began to learn the processes with “junkyard art.” She made mistakes along the way, but learned from them. Now she creates stunning works of beauty and pain sold around the world. Her metalwork began ten years ago when a family friend gave her an old welder and she was “instantly hooked.” Now her workspace includes a crane, a forge, multiple welders and, depending on her next piece, copper, steel, brass or aluminum. “Being a full-time sculptor hasn’t always been easy,” Anderson said. “A lot of the work would never have happened if I or others weren’t willing to try and accept the failures. The failures are where some of the largest successes come from.” “My style is a balance…