Weekly Episodes featuring interesting history about Salem, Oregon. Airs weekly on KMUZ radio in Salem. Sponsored by the Salem Historic Landmarks Commission.
The first fair for the Oregon Agricultural Society was held at the Clackamas County Fairgrounds, near Oregon City on the 1st, 2d, 3d and 4th days of October in 1861. The Weekly Oregon reported on June 28, 1862 that the Board of Managers for the Oregon State Agricultural Society, meeting in Salem on June 16, 1862, decided to hold the second State Fair at the Fairgrounds of the Marion County Society on the first Wednesday in October for four days. The location near Oregon City was problematic, due to its proximity to the river and flooding. The Weekly Oregon reported on September 20, 1862 that the issue of selecting a permanent location for the State Agricultural Fair was considered at the regular biennial session of the Society at their September 17-18th meeting in 1862, and the Marion County Society Fairgrounds was selected as the permanent location for the Oregon State Fair, where it has been held ever since. There are three designated historic buildings on the Fairgrounds including the Criterion Schoolhouse, the Horse Stadium and the Poultry Building. This year’s fair will be the 164th year it has been held in Salem and it will run from August 28-September 7th. This year there will be additional celebrations to honor America’s 250th Birthday. For more information please visit: oregonstatefair.org (http://oregonstatefair.org)
30 Jul 2026
Englewood Park
The HLC is currently finalizing a nomination for Englewood Park as a local Historic Landmark for its significance to our community. Englewood Park was originally part of a property platted in 1889, by the Salem Land Company. The property was originally owned by Thomas B. Kay- owner of the Thomas Kay Woolen mills (now at the Willamette Heritage Center). This was a tract of 6.96 acres, located just north of Englewood School between 19 and 21 Streets. This area was the first successful purchase of a park for use by the surrounding community which happened on February 15th, 1926. To learn more about the history of Englewood Park you can listen to a Willamette Wake up Interview recorded on August 10 2017 with Laurie Loomis Dietz and Ruth Roberts, Lord and Schryver Conservancy. You can hear about how the Englewood Park Forest Festival came about. Ruth shares a lot of the history about Elisabeth Lord’s design of the Park. The Englewood Park- Forest Festival was established in 2017 by Lynn Takata in order to bring both awareness and appreciation of Englewood Park, designed by Lord and Schryver; as well as to bring the community together to support the arts and provide opportunities for environmental education. The annual Englewood Park Forest Festival will be held on August 8, 2026 from 10:00am to 4:00pm. To learn more please visit: https://www.englewoodforestfestival.org/ (https://www.englewoodforestfestival.org/)
29 Jul 2026
The Great Fire of 1845
While looking into the history of wildfires in Oregon, I came across something called the “100 Fires Project” – created by the Wildland Firefighter Foundation. They have put together a historical timeline of 100 fires – telling the history of wildfire in the United States, and how these fires shaped the wildland fire service. Four of these fires on this list were in Oregon. The earliest was documented as the Great Fire of 1845 which began in the Willamette Valley and burned between 400,000 to 1.5 million acres. To learn more about the National Wildfire Foundations timeline of 100 fires, please visit https://wffoundation.org/100fires (https://wffoundation.org/100fires)
To learn more about Oregon’s wildfire fighting history, check out the book by Sean Davis Oregon Wildland Firefighting: A History (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1467138509?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback)- published in 2019.
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