Mary Bowen, right, talks with Kaye Hering about her collection of Oregon centennial items, which she has displayed in her Carlton antique shop. Both women remember the state’s 100th birthday celebration.

News-Register / Marcus Larson

Fifty years ago, Oregonians were excited about celebrating the 100th birthday of our state.

Events took place all over the state. Songs were sung and pageants were held, along with numerous birthday parties and parades.

On the snowy Feb. 14 of 1959, new Gov. Mark Hatfield kicked things off at a centennial celebration in Salem attended by dignitaries such as Vice President Richard Nixon. Schoolchildren gathered for their own celebration at Champoeg, site of the vote that created Oregon's provisional government in 1843.

In Portland, the Oregon Centennial Exposition and International Trade Fair ran 100 days, drawing visitors from all over the state, nation and world.

A giant statue of Paul Bunyan, built for the expo, still stands in the Kenton neighborhood, near the University of Portland, as a reminder of those days. The Portland Zoo train made its debut at the expo, as well.

That summer, a wagon train re-enacted an Oregon Trail crossing, moving from Independence, Mo., to Independence, Ore. Many local residents remember the wagons rolling through Yamhill County.

McMinnville also played a role by contributing that year's Miss Oregon. Mary Ellen Vinton, now Mary Vinton Folberg, is the only Miss Oregon ever to come out of Yamhill County. She was a guest of honor at many of the centennial events.

Here are some memories from area residents who recall Oregon's last big birthday celebration:

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Nancy Thornton of Yamhill remembers 1959 very well. However, the Oregon centennial isn't the first event that comes to her mind, as her oldest son, Dale, was born that year.

"I'd only been married a year and I'd been in Oregon a year," she said.

She had come to live in Moore's Valley, west of Yamhill, on land her husband's family had owned since 1932. And she still makes her home there.

The family drove to Dundee that summer to see the centennial wagon train as it paused alongside Highway 99W.

Thornton noted memorable events of 1959 in her son's baby book. In addition to the Oregon centennial, the book contains information about two states joining the Union, Alaska and Hawaii, and the U.S. Mint changing the penny, so the back depicted the Lincoln Memorial instead of a pair of wheat sheaves.

These days, Thornton is active in the Yamhill County Historical Society, which is planning a number of public events on Saturday, Feb. 14.

She also will be giving a talk about the town of Rex, near Newberg, at the society's Sunday, Feb. 8 meeting. The program, which will include information about sesquicentennial farms and Oregon trivia, is set for 2 p.m. at the McMinnville Seventh-day Adventist Church.

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Kathy Dixon of Amity was living in Willamina or Bellevue in 1959.

She's not quite sure which, because she was only 6. However, she has clear memories of going to Amity to see the sesquicentennial wagon train.

"It was cool to see the wagons," she said. "Kids were dressed up and there were horses. I liked horses then and I'm still a horse person."

Although she was young, she definitely understood that Oregon was celebrating a birthday.

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Eleanor Willliams of McMinnville was in the sixth grade during the Oregon centennial. She recalled students being allowed to wear pioneer bonnets and dresses to school if they liked.

She also recalls learning the state song, "Oregon My Oregon," that year. She still remembers it: "Land of the empire builders, land of the golden west...."

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Elaine Walters of Yamhill was 12 when Oregon celebrated its 100th birthday.

She recalled dressing up in a pioneer costume with a long skirt and white blouse that day. She lived near the Shodeo grounds in McMinnville at the time.

She and her classmates boarded a bus bound for Champoeg State Park. There, they joined hundreds of other schoolchildren at an event celebrating the centennial.

"There were lots of people there, lots of schools from all over Oregon," she recalled. "Some kids didn't enjoy it, but I always liked history, so I thought it was fun."

Walters' father grew a beard for the centennial.

She thinks there was some type of contest, because many men were sporting beards that year. In fact, Hatfield, just sworn in for his first term the previous month at the age of 36, also grew a beard in honor of the centennial.

Walters will celebrate the sesquicentennial on a farm homesteaded by her husband's ancestor, T.C. Davis, in 1847. His maternal great-great-great-grandfather built the house in which they live.

Originally called Rosemont Farm, Walters said Davis selected the site near Yamhill because it is on a hilltop with a gorgeous view of Mount Hood and the surrounding valley. "When people come up here, they see the view and say, 'Wow,'" she said.

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Mary Bowen of Carlton was a sophomore in high school in 1959. She lived in Portland, but has few memories of the big, 100-day centennial exposition held there.

She does remember men growing beards to go with pioneer costumes. She also recalls attending a centennial edition of Lumberjack Days in Albany.

A friend bought her a white sweatshirt with the centennial on it. She and her mother both wore the sweatshirt, trading it back and forth for years, she said.

A few years after the celebration, she started collecting Oregon centennial souvenirs. She has a wide variety of items - playing cards, ashtrays and even Oregon Centennial stationery.

All bear the centennial seal.

It shows a woman in a covered wagon pulled by a yoke of oxen. Other wagons follow in the background.

Some versions include the motto, "Oregon, the Nation's Destination in 1959."

Many of her centennial items are on display at her Carlton antique store, Treasure Traders. Also on display there are other pieces representative of the state, along with photos of covered bridges and the centennial wagon train, and memorabilia from the 1993 Oregon Trail sesquicentennial.

Excited about the upcoming 150th birthday, Bowen is stocking her store with free material from the state Board of Tourism, such as maps and brochures about Oregon attractions. She also is selling Oregon sesquicentennial and covered bridge cards, created by Carlton artist Rusty Browning.

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Gloria Lutz of McMinnville is a native Oregonian, descendant of a family that settled here 150 years ago. She was a sophomore in high school when the state celebrated its 100th birthday.

"All the men grew some kind of beard that year, all of them," she said. Many young people wore centennial costumes as well.

Lutz, who is working with other Yamhill County Historical Society members to plan local sesquicentennial events, recalled doing lots of square dancing in school back then.

Her social studies teacher at Harrisburg High School, Mel Larkin, led the dancing. "He was the best square dancer," she said.

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Kaye Hering was just starting McMinnville High School in 1959.

That year, her grandmother, who sewed without using patterns, made her a centennial outfit - a long pioneer-style dress, a sunbonnet with a wide brim, a puffy top and a flap that covered the back of her neck to keep the sun away. "That was fun," she recalled.

Hering and other members of the freshman class looked forward to a centennial party given by classmate MaeRee. She was the granddaughter of Dr. White, a local chiropractor, who built the big white house at the Bayou, so was allowed to host the party in the ballroom on the top floor.

"We were all so excited to go to the 'rich' home," she said. "It was the most elegant formal we'd ever been to.

"We entered and climbed an elegant, open staircase. I tripped on my long dress."

Despite that, she said, "It was so memorable."

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Hering's future husband, John, also was at the party. But that's not the centennial element he remembers best.

His family drove from McMinnville to Amity to see the centennial wagon train, which stopped overnight at Amity City Park on its trek from Missouri to Oregon.

"I remember seeing all the wagons under the trees, set up for the night with their cooking utensils, cooking wonderful meals," he recalled. "Everyone was in period clothes. Horses, mules and oxen were pulling the wagons."

In his memory, the wagons were large, although he now knows that they were comparatively small when you consider they were carrying family's entire possessions to a new home.

His family had made a similar move when he was a child. In 1947, a century after wagons rolled over the Oregon Trail, his family moved to Oregon from the East Coast.

Instead of a wagon pulled by oxen, his family rode in a Buick. Even so, he said, "It was a long trip."