The Waldo Hills are a range of hills in the
Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, ...
of
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Encompassing an area of around , the hills are located east of
Salem.
[Corning, Howard M. ''Dictionary of Oregon History''. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1956.] The hills are named after pioneer
Daniel Waldo.
Geology
The hills stretch out from
Mill Creek in a northeasterly direction.
[ These hills were formed by a ]cuesta
A cuesta (from Spanish ''cuesta'' "slope") is a hill or ridge with a gentle slope on one side, and a steep slope on the other. In geology the term is more specifically applied to a ridge where a harder sedimentary rock overlies a softer layer ...
of Columbia River Basalt Group
The Columbia River Basalt Group is the youngest, smallest and one of the best-preserved continental flood basalt province on Earth, covering over mainly eastern Oregon and Washington, western Idaho, and part of northern Nevada. The basalt grou ...
.[Yeats, Robert]
Tectonic Setting of the Willamette Valley.
Geological Society of America, Accessed September 10, 2007. Rocks of the hills include Tertiary
Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago.
The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
volcanic bedrock, sedimentary bedrock, and Plio-Pleistocene
The Plio-Pleistocene is an informally described geological pseudo-period, which begins about 5 million years ago (Mya) and, drawing forward, combines the time ranges of the formally defined Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs—marking from about 5&nbs ...
sedimentary basin fill shaped by elongate domical folds.[Terry L. Tolan and Marvin H. Beeson]
Geologic Map of the Scotts Mills, Silverton, and Stayton Northeast 7.5 Minute Quadrangles, Oregon.
United States Geological Survey, 1999. The Waldo Hills form part of the divider between the upper and lower Willamette Valley.[ Additionally, the Waldo Hills as part of a larger fault system of low-lying hills in the mid-valley, are the largest geological structure in the mid-Willamette Valley.][ Along with the Silverton Hills, these hills form the foothills to the ]Cascade Mountains
The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...
to the east.[
]
Settlement
Euro-American settlement of the Waldo Hills began in 1843 when Daniel Waldo settled a land claim there and began farming.[ Later settlers included ]Homer Davenport
Homer Calvin Davenport (March 8, 1867 – May 2, 1912) was a political cartoonist and writer from the United States. He is known for drawings that satirized figures of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, most notably Ohio Senator Mark Hanna. Alth ...
and Samuel L. Simpson, along with Waldo's sons John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
and William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
.[
In 1846, the hills were the site of the formation and drilling of the ]Oregon Rangers
The Oregon Rangers was the first organized militia of the white settlers located in the Willamette Valley in the contested region of the Oregon Country, later the U.S. state of Oregon. First established in 1844, the force was never called out to ...
, a militia formed by the Provisional Government of Oregon
The Provisional Government of Oregon was a popularly elected settler government created in the Oregon Country, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Its formation had been advanced at the Champoeg Meetings since February 17, 1841, a ...
.[Brown, J. Henry (1892). Political History of Oregon: Provisional Government. The Lewis & Dryden Printing Co.: Portland.]
See also
*Eola Hills
The Eola Hills are a range of hills northwest of Salem, Oregon, United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It ...
*Howell Prairie Howell Prairie is an area west of Silverton, Oregon, United States, between the Little Pudding River and the Pudding River. It was named for John Howell, a pioneer of 1843. Howell Prairie post office was established in 1876 and closed in 1881. In 1 ...
*Salem Hills The Salem Hills are a range of hills spanning from southern Salem, Oregon, United States, south to Jefferson, west to the Willamette River and east to Turner and Marion.
They have also been called the Ankeny Hills, Chemeketa Hills, Illahee Hills, ...
*Theodore Thurston Geer
Theodore Thurston Geer (March 12, 1851February 21, 1924) was the tenth Governor of Oregon (the first born in the territory of the state), serving from January 9, 1899, to January 14, 1903. The Republican politician was in office when the legisla ...
References
External links
Winter scene in the Waldo Hills
from Salem Public Library Historic Photographs Collection
Geologic map of the area
{{coord, 44.89583, -122.86056, display=title
Hills of Oregon
Landforms of Marion County, Oregon