Pioneer memory is particularly powerful in Oregon due to its association with the famous Oregon Trail. Most people who traveled over the Oregon Trail in the 1840s and 1850s settled in the rich Willamette Valley. The valley stretches about 150 miles south from the Columbia River. It is bounded by the Coast Range to the west and the Cascades to the east. Numerous Native bands were displaced by Euro-American settlement in the mid-nineteenth century.
Willamette Valley pioneer monuments depict the Lewis & Clark Expedition’s explorations, covered wagons, sturdy Pioneer men, and maternal Pioneer Mothers. In so doing, they celebrate the establishment of modern-day Oregon, and commemorate the passing of traditional indigenous ways of living.
Alice Cooper, Sacajawea, 1905 Hermon MacNeil, Coming of the White Man, 1904 Detail of Avard T. Fairbanks, US National Bank doors, 1926 A. Phimister Proctor, The Circuit Rider, 1924 A. Phimister Proctor, The Pioneer, 1918 A. Phimister Proctor, Pioneer Mother, 1928 Avard T. Fairbanks, Pioneer Mother, 1928 Avard T. Fairbanks, The Pioneer Mothers, 1928 Gabriel Lavare, (Pioneer woman reading to child), circa 1939 Ulric Ellerhusen, Pioneer, 1936 Leo Friedlander, Lewis & Clark, circa 1937 Leo Friedlander, The Covered Wagon, circa 1937 Avard T. Fairbanks, Guidance of Youth, 1958 Avard T. Fairbanks, Oregon Centennial Medallion, 1958 Frederic Littman, Joy (Pioneer Woman), 1956. David Manuel, The Promised Land, 1993
Tour Oregon Pioneer Monuments
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Salem’s Pioneer Monuments

Willamette Valley Pioneer Monuments

Oregon’s Pioneer Monuments
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