Chronology - 1902 to 1950

1902

Crater Lake National Park opens; Congress passes Federal Reclamation Act; Voters amend Constitution for Initiative and Referendum, allowing citizens to propose new laws and constitutional amendments

1903

Heppner Flood kills 225 people; First Voters' Pamphlet published

1904

Direct primary law passes; First Black American man, George Hardin, named officer in Portland Police Bureau

1905

Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; Klamath Irrigation Project begins; Oregon land fraud trials pursue high-profile wrongdoers

1906

City home rule law approved, allowing extensive city lawmaking authority; Indictment by grand jury law approved; Taxes begin on telephone, telegraph and railroads; First meeting of Association of Oregon Counties

1907

President Theodore Roosevelt creates "Midnight Reserves" setting aside millions of acres of national forests

1908

Constitution amended for Recall provision; First woman, Lola Baldwin, named head of Women’s Division, Portland Police

1909

State’s Central Fish Hatchery opens at Bonneville; Oregon Caves National Monument created; Pendleton Round-Up begins; Congress passes Enlarged Homestead Act; Carolyn B. Shelton serves as acting governor when Governor Chamberlain resigns to be sworn in as U.S. Senator. She serves for 48 hours, and is Oregon’s first female governor

1910

Three-fourths verdict in civil cases approved; Employers’ Liability Act approved

1911

Columbia River Gorge Highway construction begins; First U.S. primary elections held in Oregon; Oregon Trunk Railroad completes line to Bend

1912

Women’s suffrage approved; Prohibition of private convict labor approved; Eight-hour day on public works approved; First U.S. minimum wage law approved

1913

Presidential preference primary law approved; Governor Oswald West declares beaches open to public

1914

Death penalty abolished; Prohibition approved; Eight-hour day approved for women; Congress revests O & C Railroad land grant; Marian B. Towne is first woman elected to Oregon’s House of Representatives; Legislature requires publication of Oregon Blue Book

1915

Kathryn Clarke wins Douglas County special election to serve as first woman in the Oregon Senate

1916

Workmen complete Celilo Locks and Canal; Congress passes Stock-Raising Homestead Act

1917

U.S. Army Spruce Production Division begins logging

1918

Influenza pandemic kills hundreds; Emergency Fleet Corporation contracts for ships; Oregonians enlist to serve in World War I

1919

First state gasoline tax in U.S. authorized to fund highways

1920

Death penalty reinstated; Oregon League of Women Voters founded

1921

Ku Klux Klan organize chapters; Hurricane hits Oregon and Washington; ballot measure allowing women to serve as jurors passes

1922

First state park opened by Oregon Highway Commission south of Monmouth, named for Sarah Helmick; Compulsory School Act approved, outlawing private and parochial schools and requiring children aged 8 to 18 to attend public school; First Black American woman, Beatrice Cannady, graduates from Lewis & Clark Law School; Japanese American Citizens’ League founded

1923

Alien Land Law approved, preventing first generation Japanese Americans from owning or leasing land; Alien Business Restriction Law approved, denying business licenses to first generation Japanese Americans; Prohibition of sectarian garb in schools approved

1924

Congress extends citizenship to Native Americans; Compulsory School Act held unconstitutional; Mary Jane Spurlin first female judge in Oregon; Clarke-McNary Act aids federal-state forest fire protection

1925

State parks and waysides authorized; League of Oregon Cities founded

1926

Fishwheels abolished; Astor Column completed; Exclusion of Black Americans clause removed from Constitution

1927

State Constitution amended to remove voting restrictions on Black and Chinese people

1929

State Park Commission created

1930

Vale Irrigation Project begins water delivery; First Oregon woman judge, Mary Jane Spurlin, appointed to Multnomah County District Court

1933

Tillamook Burn destroys 350,000 acres of old growth timber; Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Projects Administration start projects

1934

First grazing district under Taylor Grazing Act forms at Bonanza

1935

Congress authorizes Bonneville Dam; Fire destroys State Capitol

1936

11 die as Bandon Fire destroys town; Nan Wood Honeyman is first Oregon woman elected to U.S. House of Representatives; Five major bridges are completed on Highway 101

1937

President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates Timberline Lodge and Bonneville Dam; Gas chamber built at Oregon State Penitentiary for capital punishment; Oregon Shakespeare Festival forms in Ashland; Congress creates Bonneville Power Administration; Bankhead-Jones Act authorizes buyout of homesteaders

1938

544 Report approved for Willamette River flood control; Bonneville Dam completed

1939

Second Tillamook Burn destroys 310,000 forest acres; State capitol completed in Salem

1941

Oregonians enlist to serve in World War II

1942

Executive Order 9066 authorizes removal of Japanese Americans to internment camps; Japanese submarine shells Fort Stevens; Siskiyou National Forest firebombed by Japan; U.S. Army builds Camp Adair and Camp Abbot; U.S. Navy builds Tillamook and Tongue Point Naval Air Stations; Vanport founded to house wartime workers

1945

Six Oregonians die in explosion of Japanese incendiary balloon near Bly; Third Tillamook Burn destroys 125,000 forest acres; Supplement to 1923 Alien Land Law passes

1946

Portland State University founded; Rural School Law encourages consolidation of districts

1947

Plane crash kills Governor Snell, Secretary of State Farrell, and others

1948

Columbia River Flood destroys Vanport; Vollum and Murdock found Tektronix

1949

State Department of Forestry begins replanting Tillamook Burn; Fair Labor Practices Commission established; State Supreme Court invalidates 1923 and 1945 Alien Land acts; First woman, Dorothy McCullough Lee, elected Portland mayor

1951 to Present