Salem History Moment

May is Historic Preservation month and Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month! This year Preservation Month takes on a new meaning. As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of...

May is when the annual "UFO Festival" in McMinnville is celebrated. This is the second-largest UFO festival in the nation after the one held in Roswell, New Mexico . The McMinnville UFO festival began in 1999 – and was...

America 250 (or the U.S. Semiquincentennial ) commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, celebrated on July 4, 2026. It is a nationwide initiative to honor 250 years of...

In the summer of 1915 the Liberty Bell was brought to the west coast for the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and as it made its way there it stopped here in Salem. Thousands of people came to...

In 2017, as part of an effort to better understand the history of some of Salem’s underrepresented communities, the City of Salem’s Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC) decided to learn more about Salem’s Chinese...

March is Women’s History Month. Caralyn (Carrie) B. Shelton, was the Nation’s first female Governor, who served right here in Oregon in 1909. She stepped into this role after Governor Chamberlain resigned and before...

The Third Saturday of March is Cherry Blossom Day at the Capitol- and this year’s daylong celebration will be on Saturday March 21rst, which also happens to be the first day of Spring. Creation of a blossom day in Salem...

March is Women’s History Month. The National Women’s History Alliance selects and publishes the yearly theme, and this years is: “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future”. The Alliance explains in order...

Roger Tofte who designed and built the Enchanted Forest south of Salem, died last month on February 13 at the age of 96. From 1964-1971 he built up Storybook Lane during his free time from his job as a draftsman for the...

Black History month is celebrated throughout the month of February. Carter G. Woodson. In 1912, Woodson became the second African American to earn a PhD at Harvard University. In 1915, Dr. Woodson founded the...

Presidents' Day, observed on the third Monday in February, originated as a federal holiday in 1885 to honor George Washington's birthday (Feb. 22). Moved to a Monday in 1971 by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act to create...

Residents of Salem have celebrated Valentines Day since settling here in the mid-1880s. The tradition of sending ornate cards as part of the Valentine’s Day celebration on February 14 began during the Victorian Era...

134 years ago this week, on February 3, 1892 Salem experienced an earthquake. The following day, the Oregon Statesman featured an article on the front page titled: “Salem’s Earthquake Shock”. People in what is now...

100 years ago this week, the front page of the Capital Journal had an article titled: “Cook insists on discovery of the North Pole”. The article describes a letter written by Frederick a. Cook (who wrote the letter from...

The first week of the New Year on January 5th in 1885 there was a train wreck just south of the first Salem Train Depot as it was crossing the wooden bridge over south Mill Creek during a snow storm. While the steam...