Dorena is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in
Lane County, Oregon
Lane County is one of the Oregon counties, 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 382,971, making it the fourth-most populous county in Oregon. The county seat is Eugene, ...
, United States. It is located southeast of
Cottage Grove on the
Row River
The Row River is a river, approximately long, in Lane County, Oregon, United States. It rises in the Cascade Range and flows into the Coast Fork Willamette River near Cottage Grove. The stream was originally known as the "East Fork Coast Fork", ...
, a tributary of the
Coast Fork Willamette River
The Coast Fork Willamette River is one of two forks that unite to form the Willamette River in western Oregon in the United States. It is about long, draining an area of the mountains at the south end of the Willamette Valley
The Willamette V ...
.
History
The first settlers arrived in the Dorena area in the 1850s and depended on agriculture to survive, but later
logging
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucks[gold mining
Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining.
Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...]
became the mainstays of the local economy.
Dorena was named by combining the first names of Dora Burnette and Lorena Martin.
Dorena school was built in 1896,
and Dorena post office was established in 1899. In 1946, the town was abandoned when the
Corps of Engineers began construction of Dorena Dam on the Row River for flood control.
[ The Corps relocated approximately one hundred homes from the town's former site at .][ The community was moved five miles upriver.][
]
Climate
This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above . According to the Köppen Climate Classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
system, Dorena has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...
, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.Climate Summary for Dorena, Oregon
/ref>
Transportation
The Row River Trail, a rails to trails
A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed but may also share the rail corridor with active railways, ligh ...
conversion of a former Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway
The Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway is an Oregon-based short line railroad that began near Eugene as the Oregon and Southeastern Railroad (O&SE) in 1904. O&SE's line ran along the Row River between the towns of Cottage Grove and Disston ...
line, passes through Dorena.
References
External links
Historic images of the Dorena area
from Salem Public Library
1911 image of students inside Dorena School
from University of Oregon Library
{{authority control
Unincorporated communities in Lane County, Oregon
1899 establishments in Oregon
Populated places established in 1899
Unincorporated communities in Oregon