Emily Grosvenor

In this town of 3,000 people, built in the land grab of one of the state's most important periods of growth, history is the ultimate present. It’s one of those rare places where you can step in and out of the past and come out with fresh eyes. That’s thanks to several generations of town elders who have preserved the city's wide range of architectural styles and fostered a vivacious arts program, which rivals much larger cities. More

Words like “epic” might get thrown around a lot, but for Bend, the label fits. An active weekend in Bend without a car provides just enough time to soak in Central Oregon’s legendary sun, explore the Cascade Range, lap up life on the river and relax in the state’s great logger-turned-lager town. More

Set amid rolling hills of green and gold, verdant mountains, and the orchards and farms just southwest of Portland, Yamhill County does two things best: world-class wine and walkable small towns. With more than 300 wine producers calling the area home and regular buses to regional destinations, getting there isn’t a problem — but never wanting to leave might be. More

Here’s one thing you can say about the lasting legacy of the Oregon Trail, a fact that has lodged the 2,170-mile migration in the minds of generations: The struggle was real. The numbers alone are enough to chill. Of the estimated 500,000 settlers who made the five-month journey from Missouri to Oregon in the 1840s to 1860s, one in 10 would never arrive, having succumbed to all manner of mid-journey surprises: snake bites, gunshot wounds, drowning, starvation and, of course, dysentery. Those who did make...

Oregon’s frontier history is a series of booms and busts. It’s no wonder some have alleged that the state has more ghost towns than any other. And while it’s nearly impossible to prove a statement like that true, it’s a fact that dozens of once lively and now abandoned communities dot the landscape — specters of America’s restless heart, shadow monuments to the West’s dreamy-eyed ambition. More