Umpqua Valley Photo Works

Umpqua Valley Photo Works

      Hello fellow Internet surfer and welcome to a gem of a site dedicated to illuminating the onyx-like parallels unearthed from an otherwise beclouded and boring American and world historical perspective into its many hues and flavors, a spectrum inclusive of most light that makes up the untold stories, fascinating stories and journeys not quite attached or put together in this theatrical or holistic manner as you will find!
        We bring many years of personal and unique historical research, reading, collaboration, living, and writing experiences. One of us is a published historian, journalist, and genealogist, whose roots are in the Central Oregon Coast, the primary though not exclusive gathering or focal point of these stories. And her co-author is more centered, though not exclusively so on the personal-spiritual journey as a former Lutheran minister, and how this has come into play to reinvigorate her own philosophical historical understanding of faith and her questions of the world-church professional Christian training, vision and cultural paradigms, relying upon her common sense and also the expertise and critique of those historically disinherited, disenfranchised, and despised.
     Neither of us is professionally enamored by historicism in the classical sense, or any particular intellectual chains, other than the challenge to loosen the usual grip of white western european, heterosexist and masculinist elitism! And yes, we believe in being politically correct, and are proud of it, that we still name the names! We are students and practitioners of folk and established history, and are expanding our understanding of story, wishing to share some of those exciting findings and perspectives. We plan to update this site regularly with the little known gems and connections to "the rest of the story" usually relegated to footnotes we have uncovered from the current draft of our mammoth, interconnected, well documented history saga, Sovereigns of Themselves: A Liberating History of Oregon and Its Coast. We would welcome and appreciate hearing from you, comments, questions, suggestions, corrections, or other resources and we hope that you'll stick around long enough to get to know just a little bit more about what these two cyber-historians have to offer.

--Rev. Marilyn A. Riedel & M. Constance Guardino III

Maracon Challenges You To Believe It Or Not!

Umpqua is an historic name in Oregon. It was the Native American name of the locality of Umpqua River, and the name came to be applied both to the river and to a tribe; given as Umpqua, or Arquilas River, by David Douglas, in 1825, Oregon Historical Quarterly, V. 6, pp. 82, 84, 95. Peter Skene Ogden refers to Umpqua Mountains on November 25, 1826, writing of the Cascade Range, which he was viewing from the Deschutes River, Oregon Historical Quarterly, V. 11, p. 210. John Work used the style Umquah Mountain in his journal for October 3, 1883, referring to the divide between the Umpqua and Rogue rivers. Alexander Ross give Imp-qua in his First Settlers on the Oregon, p. 237, and Umpqua in his Fur Hunters of the Far West, V.1, p. 108. Wilkes's map (1841) shows Umpqua. William P. McArthur uses the form Umpqua in his survey of the Pacific Coast in 1850. Hale gives Umpquas in Ethnology and Philology, 1846, p. 198, and Umpqua and Umkwa, p. 204. The Umpquas are called as an Athapascan tribe of the Upper Umpqua River. The territorial legislature created an Umpqua County January 24, 1851. It ceased to exist October 16, 1862, its area having been added to other counties. The Hudson's Bay Company had an establishment in the Umpqua Valley as early as 1832, probably on Calapooya Creek. It was generally called Old Fort Umpqua. The company later had another Fort Umpqua near the present site of Elkton. During the Indian wars there was a federal establishment called Fort Umpqua north of the mouth of Umpqua River. (Oregon Geographic Names, p. 858)