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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