Rick Wheelock brings a love of history and many more things needed in his new role as Manager of the Heritage Center.

REPRINT: The Oregon Journal, October 31, 1937

Mastodon’s Teeth Taken From Well

Widely separated areas in Oregon recently have given up evidences of wild life in the state in prehistoric times. Near the grass toots of a new well he started on his farm near Tualatin, Charles M. Roberts, chief of police there, uncovered some teeth and parts of the skeleton of a mastodon. The skeleton rested in a low rich onion growing field, where not more that 20,000 years ago, believes Dr. H. C. Dake, Portland student of paleontology, the mastodon may have been a victim of the last great ice age which extended down nearly into Oregon, forcing these great mammals to migrate to the warmer climates of the south.

When Tualatin was barely a one stop sign town in the late 1940s and 1950s, the volunteer fire department would use its ladders to string lights on a tall redwood across Boone Ferry from today’s CI (then the Spot Tavern). Tualatin historians Loyce Martinazzi and Yvonne Addington remember families would gather around a big bonfire nearby to sing familiar carols. Elves from the fire department would then help Santa distribute donated toys they had repaired. Local church women sewed new clothing for cast-off dolls especially for children in need. See how we honored this tradition in 2021….

There is an increased public interest in identifying and learning about the current relationship to the Ice Ages, which still affects our lands today. Area collectors and public places now open to the public have simply run out of room to preserve and display our ancient history properly. The Tualatin Ice Age Foundation was created to finance and provide space for local collections and displays and learn about Tualatin’s ancient history and the surrounding areas over 10,000 years ago.

“The site assessors were impressed by our plant identification signs and the two updated guidebooks for visitors coordinated by THC manager Cindy Frost. Also attention-getting was weed removal work regularly done by Karin Olson and Margie Torgeson over the past several years.”

Celebrate Veterans with the Tualatin Historical Society.

The 2021 Heritage Evening netted over $9000 thanks to the continue support of our members and community. See details here.

Tualatin’s oldest community organization was founded long before Tualatin was incorporated in 1913. Twenty-four-farm family members met in 1895 to organize the Grange and chose the name Winona to honor the deceased eldest daughter of J. R. C. Thompson.

Read more about Joe Lipscomb and his service in a war that has never been declared over.

Some well known faces meet with Tualatin Chamber’s new CEO.

A must see!

What was highschool life like in 1916 Tualatin? Have a peek!

Tualatin Mayor Frank Bubenik discusses Tualatin’s state of the City now emerging from the pandemic

Thanks to an unexpected discovery at a Lake Oswego construction site, a new historical artifact will soon be on display outside the Tualatin Heritage Center. A two-ton chunk of rhyolite, a type of igneous rock that is not normally found in Oregon, is now believed to have been deposited in the Willamette Valley by the Missoula Floods around 15,000 years ago. It was found during excavation of the new Lakeridge Junior High School site in Lake Oswego.

The mastodon has figured prominently in the American imagination since the nation’s founding. Thomas Jefferson, who was famously obsessed with the animals, had bones laid out for study in the White House and is even rumored to have instructed Lewis and Clark to gather evidence of living elephants in the interior of North America.

Larry McClure is still a small-town boy at heart so he and his wife Ellie hit the jackpot when they decided to settle in Tualatin in May 1972.

Nami Sasaki - From Japan to Oregon to a relocation camp and back home again

Nami Sasaki’s in-laws had emigrated from Japan and in 1914 bought a 100-acre hops farm south of Tualatin. By 1939, Nami and husband Ajiro (Art) took over managing the farm and grew mostly berries. During WW2, the family was forced to move to an Idaho relocation camp, along with other West Coast Japanese-Americans.

Remembering John "Jack" Broome, a Tualatin legend. Jack passed peacefully in his sleep on June 17, 2020.

Norm Parker's service in Korea and more of his history.

A must see!

Enjoy a video interview with Loyce Martinazzi on Tualatin’s History.