Bob Benson gave me a copy of This Is Oregon by Charles Emerson 30 years ago.  I lost the book he gave me, and just recently, Powell’s bookstore located a copy.  Bob was always finding strange and interesting Oregon manuscripts and maps for me.  Bob grew up in the 1920s in Portland and died in 1990.  He was a self taught historian and map maker.  (He was also a vegetarian nudist and socialist, but that’s another story or two). He haunted bookstores, Public libraries and historical museums.  His Indian language map of Oregon is still used by scholars, and his map of the maritime northwest was the first iconic map of our bioregion, that others such as EcoTrust have imitated and improved on with GIS technology.  He did his map by hand in his tiny cabin on Mountain Lion Ranch off Skyline Blvd.

      When Bob gave me This is Oregon, I thought it was a wonderfully eclectic guide with little known facts and wonders of Oregon.  Reading through it now I was  struck by the innocence of the time Emerson wrote in.  He created a guidebook to Portland with names of people and their addresses, such as “Albert Konkos, inventor of chainsaw lived at 3933 N Minnesota.”  Today that might feel more like,  “Fred Smith, large flat screen TV, 4216 SE Main street.” 

      Here are a selection of facts about Portland.  Try putting some of these facts in local celebrity trivia contests.  Or maybe additions to Portland Walking Tours?  And Palahniuk, maybe some things to add to your Fugitives and Refugees guide to Portland. A few new plaques for the Oregon Heritage Commission?  My twitter size thoughts in brackets.

Champions Rest, club on N. Cherry Street, operated by Mysterious Billy Smith, former welterweight boxing champion of the world. [why mysterious?]

Laboratory where earwigs with parasites are prepared to exterminate plant pests, Willamette and Emerson Blvd. {is that why there were so many earwigs in Portland in the 1950s but no more?]

Albert Konkos, inventor of chainsaw lived at 3933 N Minnesota

Tom Barclay, prize singing canaries, 2014 NE Multnomah

Amos Berg, National Geographic Explorer lived at 1706 NE Dekum

Robert Ormand Case, author of Just a Buckaroo, The Yukon Drive, Riders of the Grand Rhonde, lived at 3963 NE 17th

Dorothy Goldberg, one of the baby prizewinners at the Century of Progress in Chicago 1934, NE 6th ave.

Laura Shay Hastings, composer of operetta The Enchanted Forest lived at 6877 NE  Sacramento.

Alfred Powers, author of Marooned in Crater Lake, lived at 3518 NE Couch.

J Lewis Renton, owned a famous sagemite agate, 3366 NE Beakey

T.D. “Dad” Ross, old time fiddler, lived at 5936 NE Albina.

Elijah Coalman, Mt. Hood guide.  Guided 11,000 people on 586 trips, lived at 1833 SE Alder.

Sabra Connor, author of “Fighting Starrs of Oregon” lived at 8827 SE 16th. [why two rrs in stars?]

Ernest Haycox, author of Free grass and Whispering Range, lived at 6877 NE 53rd

Grace Hall, author of Homespun and Patchwork, lived at 2337 NE 49th

Herman Hafner, director of Leidertail Male Chorus, lived at 5033 NE 14