The Jennings Family in their yard in old Dorena. The old Dorena School is behind them.
Baby Donna Jennings and her proud parents.
Grandma Land at her house in Dorena
Katy, Isaac and Andrew Land, all early Dorena residents. Thanks go to Donna Jennings Brandt for these wonderful old family photos.
This photo from a 1917 wedding in Dorena is from the Oregon State Special Collection.
No clue as to the identity of these women but the photographer may have been A.L. Monroe of Cottage Grove.
I saw this postcard of Old Dorena on EBay. It shows the Dorena Store (the white building in the center) and a cool, old water tower. This photo dates from circa 1910, give or take a few years.
The Wicks Barn on Row River Rd near Rocky Point on a snowy day.
Joseph and Ida May Wicks and their six children settled here in 1894. The barn was built circa 1930. An old blacksmiths forge from the barn is on display at the Bohemia Gold Mining Museum at 308 S 10th St, Cottage Grove.
Katie Kirk sent these wonderful photos of her Great Great Grandfather, James Alan Kirk, on his land in Dorena.
This land is now part of Dorena Lake.
Katie remembers her grandfather, Ralph Kirk, holding her on his hip when she was a little girl, pointing out over the lake and saying “There was the land they took from us, Katie.”
Another photo from the Great Flood of 1964. On Christmas Day two women walk along the railroad tracks. This photo was taken at Rocky Point, where Sallee Road meets Row River Rd. The railroad tracks are now the Bike Trail.
An old washing machine serves as an ice bucket on a railroad flat car on a sweltering day in Dorena in 1959. A train excursion headed up the Row River Valley on a day that reached 100 degrees. This was back before the day of the excursion train with passenger cars, so everyone sat on the flat cars and tried to beat the heat as best they could.
Courtesy of the Cottage Grove Historical Society
At one time there were numerous small Post Offices in the Row River Valley, but now only the Dorena Post Office remains. The first Post Office in the valley was Star. It opened in 1891 and closed in 1923. It was located near Sallee Road about a mile up river from Dorena School.
Bohemia Post Office
From 1896 until about 1922 there were numerous small Post Offices in the Bohemia Mining District. Among these were Bohemia, Champion, Mineral and Orseco.
This Disston Post Office was established in 1906 and was open until the 1970s. The Row River Post Office was established in 1911 and closed in 1914. The Rujada Post Office was opened in 1916 and closed in 1918. Rujada County Park is located in the vicinity of this long forgotten little office. The Wildwood Post Office opened in 1888 and closed in 1914. It was located on a ranch adjacent to Wildwood Falls. There was a Post Office called Bluff from 1892 until 1899. The exact location of this office is unknown.
The Culp Creek Post office was established in 1925 and was closed in 2007. It was located in a private home until the early 1980s. It was certainly one of the last offices in the state to be located in someones living room. The history of the Dorena Post Office was detailed on the first post on this blog back in December of 2009.
In the early days of Dorena some of the women in town organized the Happy Circle Sewing Club. The club met twice a month to sew, mend and quilt. It gave the members a chance to get out of the house and visit and have fun. The grocery store building in town became vacant so the club members put on plays to raise the funds to buy the building. The Happy Circle ladies rented out their building to the Grange for 50 cents a month. The community often held dances there, too. Almost everyone in town came to kick up their heels and as one attendee stated “the rafters jumped!”
In the same spirit the Row River Sunshine Club has been meeting in the valley for over 50 years. They craft, bake, help residents in distress and generally keep the sense of community alive on the river.
They can be reached at PO Box 124, Dorena, OR 97434.
A photo of the Mother’s Tea at Culp Creek School
A couple of ladies from Star. One didn’t mess with the up river girls back then.