My book “Bend Beer” is out today!

It’s finally come to fruition and is officially released today: my first book, Bend Beer: A History of Brewing in Central Oregon! Published by the History Press, it covers the history of Bend and Central Oregon from a beery perspective from the frontier era of the 1880 and ’90s through … Continue reading

Deschutes County interactive historic landmarks map

So this is kind of a neat tool: historic landmark locations in Deschutes County (not within Bend’s city limits though). It’s an interactive map with three different layers (structures, places, and sites) with a number of clickable landmarks to dig into, in gallery format. It’s built using the County’s GIS … Continue reading

Historic Haunts of Downtown Bend is back

The Des Chutes Historical Museum‘s annual Historic Haunts Heritage Walk is back again for another Halloween, and it started today and runs through Saturday the 26th. The Des Chutes Historical Museum invites visitors to take a walk on the haunted side with the Historical Haunts of Downtown Bend Heritage Walk, … Continue reading

Historic Haunts of Downtown Bend

This week, from the 25th through the 27th (Thursday through Saturday) the Des Chutes Historical Museum is again holding their annual “Historical Haunts of Downtown Bend Heritage Walk” which takes visitors through Bend’s colorful downtown history and historic buildings (though not inside of them) with a Halloween twist. If you … Continue reading

Railroad Day

Wednesday, October 5th, the Des Chutes Historical Museum is hosting Railroad Day at the Old Depot at the Art Station in the Old Mill District. It runs from 3:30 to 6:30pm, and is a completely free event; the Museum website says: Bring your family and friends and celebrate 100 years … Continue reading

Bend film from 1967

This has been making the rounds online today (my wife sent it to me, and I’ve seen it posted elsewhere on Twitter and Facebook): a video clip of an 8mm movie of driving through Bend in 1967. From the description: The movie begins at the north “Y” and goes south … Continue reading

George Putnam

Over on his Source Weekly blog, Bob Woodward (who should rightly be Bend’s official historian) posts an interesting piece of Bend history: a summary of the life of George Putnam, an early Bulletin publisher and mayor of Bend, who married Amelia Earnhart. As Mayor he approved the laying of Bend’s … Continue reading

Westward Oregon! Celebrates Oregon’s 150th Birthday

This came in as a press release but it sounds pretty cool. Sesquicentennial fun! Westward Oregon! Celebrates Oregon’s 150th Birthday In May with 1859 Stagecoach Rides, Encampment and Dinner In partnership with the Des Chutes Historical Museum and Bend Parks & Recreation, Deschutes County is proud to sponsor Oregon’s largest … Continue reading

Last year in January…

A new year and looking back at the January ’08 retrospective, it just doesn’t seem that long ago somehow (even though it was a full year!). Anyone else feeling the same way? In 2008: "Best of 2007" lists The Source started their Light Meter to run community-submitted photos Three Creeks … Continue reading

Last year (or two) in November…

Time for look back on what I was blogging about the past couple of Novembers. In 2006: The start of the Central Oregon Paranormal Society Construction on the Newport Bridge downtown was running long First word on the Oxford Hotel (supposed to be finished by Fall 2008…?) I blogged a … Continue reading