OREGON'S HIGHWAY PARK SYSTEM: 1921-1989 An Administrative History

Source materials on Oregon State Parks are to be found chiefly in agency records. The most comprehensive use of the primary records was made by Chester Armstrong in his History of the Oregon State Parks, which was published by the Oregon State Highway Department in 1965. Mr. Armstrong set forth much valuable information. As superintendent of the agency from 1950 to 1960, he had participated in the events of a pivotal period and had access to materials long since discarded from the files. Although not all the details in History of the Oregon State Parks can be traced to their origin today, the information is reliable, and the book is widely used within the organization as an authoritative source on the acquisition and development of individual park areas up to and including 1963.

Samuel Boardman, too, had been moved to leave an account of the development of the state park system. The founding superintendent wrote voluminously in correspondence and essays on the nature of parks and the park lands he acquired. Some of the most interesting of Mr. Boardman's essays were gathered after his retirement for publication in a 1954 volume of the Oregon Historical Quarterly under the title "Oregon State Park System: A Brief History." His correspondence is well represented in a special section of the agency files.

State Parks files are maintained under the general care of separate units of the agency and contain an extensive documentary record of agency growth and development since 1965. An important resource is represented in the master plans for individual and clustered park areas. Typically, the master plan contains a summary history of the park and information on physiographic features, flora and fauna, development potential and priorities. Forerunners of the master plans were the summary histories and descriptive statements prepared by early Parks historian W. A. Langille in the 1940s. All told, over 40 articles were produced by Mr. Langille. They, together with Mr. Boardman's papers and the park area archive files, make up the nucleus of an archival collection. It is hoped that, as a by-product of this project, a comprehensive records analysis can be undertaken with the object of establishing a program for appropriate care of historically significant manuscript and printed materials.

The Department of Transportation administrative services section, through its general files, library and commission services units, holds well-organized records pertaining to State Parks through 1989. Minutes of the Oregon State Highway Commission and Transportation Commission provide a record of official action on parks and recreation matters. Various editions of the Biennial Report of the Oregon State Highway Commission contain information on park development in summary form.

One of the richest resources relating to state park development is the visual record compiled over many years by Oregon State Highway Department photographers. Beginning in the 1940s, photographs of park facilities were taken on a regular basis, many of them under auspices of the Department's travel information section as a means of advertising Oregon's scenic and recreational assets and promoting tourism. Large numbers of travel information photographs are held by the Oregon Historical Society in Portland. The nearly complete collection of negatives is held by the Oregon State Archives.

Primary information pertaining to projects executed by the Civilian Conservation Corps may be located in records of the National Park Service western regional office in San Francisco and the Seattle branch of the National Archives and Records Administration. Some reports pertaining to CCC betterment work of the Depression era in Oregon's state parks are to be found in Parks files.

A valuable record of later program developments and activities of Parks personnel is to be found in VIA, the Department of Transportation employee publication inaugurated in 1976, and in Oregon State Parks Quarterly, an ODOT division news report published from November 1978 to the summer of 1985.

Outside the sphere of recreation and natural resource agencies, records pertaining to State Parks may be found in collections of the Oregon State Library, Oregon State Archives, Oregon Historical Society, the Horner Museum, Oregon State University Kerr Library, and the University of Oregon Knight Library.

The most generally accessible reference concerning development of the State Parks organization is the Oregon Blue Book, the official biennial manual of facts and figures on government in Oregon, which has been published continuously under that title by the Secretary of State since 1911. Narrative reports on Highway and Parks agency activities were published in editions of the Blue Book from 1935 through 1968. Before and after that period, the scope was limited to identifying the relevant citizen commissions and advisory bodies, their makeup and duties.

Essential sources in tracing statutory authority for the programs and functions of Oregon State Parks are various editions of the session laws of the Oregon State Legislature and Journals and Calendar of the Senate and House, all published under authority of the Legislative Assembly. Since 1953, the session laws, entitled Oregon Laws, have been codified as Oregon Revised Statutes. A supplementary source is offered by various editions of Oregon Highway Laws: Constitutional and Statutory Provisions Relating to Roads, Highways, Bridges, Ferries and Parks, compiled by the Oregon State Highway Commission. In his History of the Oregon State Parks, Chester Armstrong reproduced the laws governing State Parks operations and programs as of 1963.

Oregon Beaches: A Birthright Preserved Kathryn Straton's detailed study of the Oregon Beach Law, was published at the urging of the State Parks Advisory Committee in 1977. As the first intra-agency history produced since 1965, it filled in the record of an important phase of program expansion. Students and researchers will find valuable also Webb S. Bauer's 1980 Oregon State University doctoral thesis on the Willamette River Greenway and the several works by Professor Thomas R. Cox on the place of Oregon's state park system in the national conservation movement.

MANUSCRIPT MATERIALS

Correspondence, public addresses, reminiscences, unpublished reports and theses

Astrup, Mark H., transcript of interview recorded May 9, 1981 by Elisabeth Walton Potter, Salem, Oregon. 25 pages.

Bauer, Webb Sterling, "A Case Analysis of Oregon's Willamette River Greenway Program." A thesis submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, April 18, 1980.

Boardman, S. H., "Facts and Figures Why the State Park Commission Should be Divorced from the State Highway Commission." Manuscript in State Parks and Recreation Department files, Salem, Oregon, 1944.

Boardman, Samuel H., Correspondence 1933-1949, State Parks and Recreation Department files, Salem, Oregon.

Espey, Laurance V., transcript of interview recorded January 21 and February 10, 1988 by Elisabeth Walton Potter, Salem, Oregon. 65 pages.

Jensen, Gertrude G., "A List of Major Accomplishments in the Preservation of the Columbia River Gorge during the Past Four Years." Report in State Parks and Recreation Department files, Salem, Oregon, 1955.

Oregon State Parks Division, "A 20 Year Program for Oregon State Parks." Report in State Parks and Recreation Department files, Salem, Oregon, 1956.

Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department, archive files for State Park areas.

Oregon State Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, minutes, 1957-1989, Salem, Oregon.

Oregon State Parks and Recreation Division, "Economic Benefits of the State Parks and Recreation Division's Relationship with the Highway Department." Report in State Parks and Recreation Department files, Salem, Oregon, 1959.

Pacific Northwest Regional Planning Commission, Columbia Gorge Committee, "Columbia Gorge Conservation." Mimeographed report, 1937. 71 pages.

Peck, Arthur L:, "What Oregon is doing in State Park Development." Address to the National Conference on State Parks, June 28, 1928. Manuscript copy courtesy of John S. Blair, U.S. Department of the Interior, State Parks and Recreation Department files, Salem, Oregon.

Smith, Deilla A., "Emergence of the Oregon State Parks: A Trailer on the Highway System." A thesis submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Arts, April 30, 1987.

Sumner, E. Lowell, "Special Report on Cape Lookout State Park and Netarts Bay, Oregon." Manuscript in State Parks and Recreation Department files, Salem, Oregon, undated. 41 pages.

Talbot, David G., transcript of interview recorded April 10, May 16, June 6, June 13, 1990 by Elisabeth Walton Potter and Lawrence C. Merriam, Salem, Oregon. 159 pages.

PRINTED MATERIALS

Books, pamphlets, reports, periodical and newspaper articles

Armstrong, C. H., "Report of State Parks Division," Twentieth Biennial Report of the Oregon State Highway Commission, 1951-1952. Salem, Oregon: State Printing Department for Oregon State Highway Commission, 1952.

Armstrong, Chester H., History of the Oregon State Parks: 1917-1963. Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Highway Department, 1965.

Armstrong, Chester H., "Oregon State Parks," Oregon Blue Book Salem, Oregon: State Printing Department, 1951.

Boardman, Samuel H., "Oregon State Parks," Oregon Blue Book Salem, Oregon: State Printing Department, various editions, 1935-1950.

Boardman, Samuel H., "Oregon State Park System: A Brief History," Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. 55: 179-234, September, 1954.

Cox, Thomas R., "Conservation by Subterfuge: Robert M. Sawyer and the Birth of Oregon State Parks," Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Vol. 64: 21-29, January, 1973.

Cox, Thomas R., "The Crusade to Save Oregon's Scenery," Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 31: 179-199, May, 1968.

Cox, Thomas R., The Park Builders: A History of State Parks in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 1988.

Cutler, Phoebe, The Public Landscape of the New Deal New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985. Chapter 5, "Resorting to the Woods: State Parks and Recreation Demonstration Areas."

Governor's State Park Advisory Committee, Report and Recommendations on Oregon State Parks. Salem, Oregon, 1956. [Because this report to the Governor, the Legislative Highway Interim Committee and Oregon State Highway Commission was transmitted by William M. Tugman, chairman of the committee, it came to be known as the "Tugman Report."]

Hussey, John A., Champoeg: Place of Transition. Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society, 1967.

McArthur, Lewis A., Oregon Geographic Names. Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society, 1974. Fourth edition revised and enlarged by Lewis L. McArthur.

Merriam, John C., Parks National and State. Washington, D.C.: W. R. Roberts Co., 1932.

Montgomery, James M., Consulting Engineers, Oregon's Outdoor Recreation Delivery System. Portland, Oregon, 1980.

National Park Service, U. S. Department of the Interior, State Parks Statistics: Compiled from Annual Records on State Parks Land and Related Areas. Washington, D.C., various editions, 1943-1962.

Newton, Norman T., Design on the Land: The Development of Landscape Architecture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971. Chapter 37, "The State Park Movement: 1864-1933."

Oregon Blue Book, Secretary of State, compiler. State Printing Department, Salem, Oregon. Various editions from 1924.

Oregon State Parks and Recreation Division, Governor's Conference on the Future of the Oregon State Parks. Salem, Oregon, 1985.

Oregon State Parks and Recreation Division, Oregon Outdoor Recreation: A Study of Non-Urban Areas. Salem, Oregon, 1962.

Oregon State Parks and Recreation Division, Oregon Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan. Salem, Oregon. various editions, 1964 onward.

Oregon State Parks and Recreation Division, Oregon State Parks 2010 Plan. Salem, Oregon, 1988.

Oregon State Parks and Recreation Division, Progress Report. Salem, Oregon. Various editions, 1954-1966.

Oregon State Parks and Recreation Division, The State Park Visitor in Oregon. Salem, Oregon, 1964.

State Parks Commission and the Oregon State Planning Board, A Study of Parks, Parkways and Recreational Areas of Oregon: Volume 1, Present Development. Portland, Oregon: Prepared with the cooperation of United States Department of the Interior National Park Service under auspices of the Works Progress Administration, December 1938. [This document was an outgrowth of the Park, Parkway and Recreational Area Study Act of 1936 which directed the National Park Service to undertake a comprehensive survey of park use in America at all levels.]

Straton, Kathryn A., Oregon's Beaches: A Birthright Preserved. Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Parks and Recreation Branch, 1977.

Tilden, Freeman, The State Parks, Their Meaning in American Life. New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962.

U.S. Forest Service, Guide Map to Columbia Gorge Park Division of Oregon National Forest Washington, D.C.,: U. S. Geological Survey, c. 1916.