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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Poison Waters

Tickled by Fancy

Portland’s Poison Waters is a drag queen icon written by Joni Kabana After becoming starstruck while watching black drag queens perform in an all-ages show at The City Nightclub in Portland in the late ’80s, Kevin Cook said to himself: that could be me. Drag is for me! Fast forward to thirty-four years later, drag has definitely played an important focus for Cook via the sharp-tongued and glam gorgeous drag identity, Poison Waters. Poison’s award list over the years includes titles such as Rosebud 13 (Underage Drag Pageant), La Femme Magnifique (both Oregon and International), Imperial Princess 25, Rose Empress 44 and Queen of Queens. Accolades and awards aside, what is most important to this queen is kindness and humor. Known for her intelligent quick wit and sassy communication style, Poison can also be found volunteering at numerous nonprofits (she grew up poor and benefitted from charities) and hosting fundraising…

UO journalism professor of practice Torsten Kjellstrand (center) sees opportunity in rural storytelling.

The Rural Opportunity

A University of Oregon journalism professor sees risk and reward in small town news interview by Jonathan Shipley The world is on fire. But, so, too, are the students at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications as they covered the disastrous effects of climate change with Science Story. The Science Story project brought together students to write stories about the impacts of climate change with particular regard to Oregon’s Holiday Farm Fire in 2020, which burned more than 173,000 acres in the McKenzie River Valley. The class was led, with the help of award-winning journalist Dennis Dimick, by University of Oregon’s professor of practice Torsten Kjellstrand, an accomplished news photographer for more than three decades. What appeals to you in telling stories of the underrepresented and misrepresented in rural communities? I grew up in Lund, Sweden, where I spent a lot of time in my family village,…

Jeff Daly

Just Clowning Around

Emmy-winning cameraman Jeff Daly returns to Astoria to restore a piece of its past written and photographed by Joni Kabana What’s a guy to do after he is awarded two Peabodys and an Emmy for knuckle-clutching TV sports filming? Go back home. That is precisely what Jeff Daly did in the ’90s. He made his way back to the Pacific Northwest, settled in Seaside and opened his delightfully eclectic studio space in Astoria on the first floor of a boat house that juts out over the mighty Columbia River. Daly’s first foray into art car design was in 1969 when he acquired his first car—a 1948 Mercury Woody station wagon that he still drives today. When he realized he had to make a serious wage to be able to pay for all of his expanding projects, he took a career side trip to become a top notch TV cameraman. Having…

Hillsboro’s new Steeplejack proves what we’ve long known—Oregon beers are to be worshipped.

Summer Brews

A slew of new breweries and tap rooms emerge from hiatus written by Jonathan Shipley Many Oregonians have something in common with Thomas Jefferson—they believe beer is good. “Beer, if drank with moderation,” Jefferson wrote, “softens the temper, cheers the spirit and promotes health.” There are many Oregonians cheering that spirit with new breweries and taprooms. Here are some of those halls of health. BREAKSIDE BREWERY Breakside Beaverton is coming. What was first planned to be an outdoor only space with a shipping container bar and food trucks has expanded into a full-scale beer garden, food truck pod and pub. There are also whispers of creating a private event space, too. Cheers! FUNKY FAUNA ARTISAN ALES Sisters has a new brewery focusing on producing terroir-driven beers through the use of local and sustainable ingredients. Brewer Michael Frith and his wife, Danielle, run the operation. They’re originally from another beer-centric area:…

Fresh dulse seaweed could be the new kale and a carbon mitagtor as well. Fried, it tastes like bacon.

We Need Seaweed

Eating Oregon’s dulse can save the world True, you might not be interested in eating a clump of seaweed. When you’re hankering for a hefty meal, a red alga poking about in the tide might not be what you had in mind. It’s often called a weed, after all, and who wants to eat weeds? But there are particular strains of seaweed called dulse that you might want to consider. Patented in the labs of Oregon State University, under the guidance of professor Chris Langdon, who has specialized in aquaculture for decades, and promoted by Chuck Toombs, an entrepreneur who is part of OSU’s School of Business, dulse is something you should really get excited about. You’re not excited yet. It’s seaweed. But why can’t dulse be the new kale? It’s high in protein, provides natural iodine, has twice the potassium as a banana, has all the amino acids a…

Sunday Afternoons hats

Hat Trick

Ashland outdoors retailer Sunday Afternoons doesn’t put a lid on innovation written by Kevin Max Angeline and Robbin Lacy began their business thirty years ago with an outdoor blanket they’d designed for their family adventures, but it was the fabric scraps that built the Ashland-based company. They began making high quality hats from the scraps. Today, Sunday Afternoons is focused on innovation and hats. The company has forty-five patents for inventions such as a sunglass lock, which is two narrow pockets on the sides of a hat that hold the arms of sunglasses in place, and a split brim that allows for easy folding and packing. They sell their hats in fifty-seven countries. Prior to becoming Sunday Afternoons CEO, Sarah Sameh was working in the outdoor retail sector and was intrigued by the brand and where it could go. “I had known about Sunday Afternoons and, by chance, met Robbin…

Sixth, seventh and eighth graders participate in a field trip with ECO educators in November.

World Class

ECO drives a new model of climate change education written by Kevin Branaghin The idea for nonprofit ECO, Ecology for Classrooms & Outdoors, hatched in 2005 when friends Sarah Woods and Bethany Shetterly were volunteering as environmental educators. They identified a gap in primary education and a growing need among students who were increasingly interested in environmental studies. “They wanted to expand environmental education and do field trip programs to educate elementary youth in the Portland Metro area,’ said Monica Smiley, ECO director of development and communication. “Since then, they developed an organization and programs that serve elementary students with hands-on field trips and in-classroom educational lessons. At this point, ECO has served about 32,000 students.” ECO developed and has always used a model of direct service, one that sends its own educators into classrooms to teach the curriculum and lead the service aspects of the program, too. The restrictions…

In the Newberg Airpark, Longplay Wine’s sleek, modern, industrial style space reflects its tagline: “analog wine for a digital world— no overdubbing, no remixing.”

Space to Taste

Tasting rooms are blossoming throughout wine country and beyond, with no sign of a slowdown written by Cathy Carroll On the heels of soaring wine sales—with safe sipping, solo or in safety pods—now in the rear-view mirror, there’s a new trend in town and it’s oh so much better. Fresh concepts for tasting rooms are bearing fruit all around. Our list goes to eleven: 1: Willamette Valley Vineyards is opening a new winery in the Dundee Hills and sister sipping spots in four cities. Anticipated to open this year, Domaine Willamette will produce world-class méthode Traditionnelle sparkling wines with an underground aging cellar at the biodynamically-farmed Bernau Estate Vineyard in the Dundee Hills of Dayton. Oregon-inspired hospitality will reign with wine and food pairings, stunning views, educational tours and beautiful gardens to explore. Four winery restaurants are in the works, following a successful pilot restaurant, Willamette Wineworks in Folsom, California….

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…