Standing in the Gap for Oregon

Umpqua River, Douglas County, OR He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. Psalm 23:2 We are moving south from Lane County into the southern coast region of Oregon, or really the Southwest Region. This is a five-county region in the southwest corner of the state, with three counties bordering the Pacific Ocean: Douglas, Coos, and Curry. The largest, and next in line after Lane, is Douglas County. Douglas, like Lane, stretches from a little strip along the coast where Reedsport and Winchester Bay are located, to the Umpqua National Forest on the eastern edge of the county. Highway I-5 cuts down through the middle, running through Roseburg, the county seat, about half-way down. The county was named for Stephen A. Douglas, a politician who supported Oregon statehood. This is a heavily timbered county with 1.8 million acres of commercial timberland. About 1/3 of the working population has jobs in the forest products industry. Other industries are...

Franklin Church, Lane County, OR And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. Ephesians 5:11 Lane County, just below Linn, Benton, and Lincoln to the north, stretches all the way from Deschutes County in the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west. It is the fourth most populous county in Oregon at 379,611 population in an area of 4,620 square miles. It was established in 1851 and named after Joseph Lane, the first governor of Oregon Territory, appointed by President James K. Polk. Most of the population is around Eugene, the county seat, located in the mid-northern portion of the county. A large expanse of the eastern portion of the county is the Willamette National Forest, a part of the Cascade Mountain range.  Agricultural lands dominate the middle portion with the Eugene-Springfield area being one of the largest urban areas in the state, after Portland and Salem. About an hour to the west of Eugene is the coast with tourist destinations ...

Mary's Peak, Benton County, OR The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. Proverbs 18:15 Benton County, just south of Polk, is bordered on the east by Linn and on the west by Lincoln. It was named after Senator Thomas Hart Benton, a supporter of Manifest Destiny and the belief that the Oregon Country should be part of the United States. One might believe that nearly everyone in those days thought Oregon should be part of the United States, and that the country should go from “sea to shining sea.” It is hard to imagine otherwise, now. However, there were numerous thoughtful men who thought the Northwest should be its own country, or a colony of the United States that could become its own independent country, or that the border of the U.S. should just naturally stop at the Rocky Mountains. Some very determined individuals, like Benton, tipped the balance to create the country we have. Benton County, Oregon Corvallis, once named Marysvill...

Dallas House, Polk County, OR Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15. We looked at Yamhill County last week. Moving south we find ourselves in Polk County which was created from a portion of Yamhill on December 22, 1845. It was named for the 11 th President of the U.S., James K. Polk. The county seat is Dallas, named for Polk’s Vice-president. Polk County includes the towns and communities of Grande Ronde, Rickreall, Eola, Fort Hill, Monmouth, Independence, Falls City and parts of Salem and Willamina. Forestry and agriculture are strong economic forces in Polk County with the western half or two-thirds heavily forested. The eastern half is in the Willamette Valley and has a lot of farms and vineyards. Polk County was settled early, along with most of this portion of the state, so there is much history here. While some historical research has been done on the impact  of the secon...

  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:11. When I started this blog I just…started. Just jumped in with only a general idea of the scope and sequence. I do believe I was Spirit-led, however. The blog quickly settled into looking into the history of each county in Oregon, with a few ad hoc posts on other topics (like this one) thrown in when appropriate. This blog, Standing in the Gap for Oregon , will be three years old on April 10, 2020. To date, there are 120 posts and they have been viewed 9,687 times. Not a runaway success as such things are judged, but we weren’t going for that anyway. Our target audience is those with a heart and a calling to pray for the state of Oregon - a smaller group, at least at first. I do believe the interest and burden to pray for our state is growing, though. The question arises, why pray over the history of an area? Is this a Biblical concept? What are we searching for, and w...