Peter Iredale in Seattle, around 1900.

Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel Braque sailing vessel that
ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to
Portland, Oregon with 1,000 tons of ballast and a crew of 27,
including two stowaways. She was abandoned on Clatsop Spit
near Fort Stevens in Warrenton about four miles south of the
Columbia River channel.

The ship was named after Peter Iredale, who not only owned the
vessel as part of his shipping fleet, but was also a well-known
figure in Liverpool, England, where his business was located.

Wreckage the Peter Iredale is still visible, making it a popular
tourist attraction as one of the most accessible shipwrecks of
the Graveyard of the Pacific.

    
Peter Iredale

On the morning of Friday, October 12, 1962—Columbus Day—a
massive storm hit the coast of northern California. The storm had originated several days earlier in the Pacific Ocean, about five
hundred miles north of Wake Island. 

Re-energized by a combination of unusual meteorological
conditions, the storm moved north with the gathering force
of a Category 3 hurricane. Originally named Typhoon Freda by meteorologists and called the Big Blow by many, it may have
been the most powerful extratropical cyclone ever to hit the
western United States.

Oregon experienced the full brunt of the typhoon and suffered
more damage than any other state. In addition to substantial
damage to thousands of buildings— residential, commercial,
and civic—and to miles of power lines, the severe winds
toppled countless trees in western Oregon’s forests.

The storm outranks all other natural disasters in the state in
terms of destruction and cost, including the 1903 Heppner
Flood. 

The intense winds left over a million people in Oregon without
electrical power, some of them for weeks.

Rose Festival Parade at NW corner of 10th & Madison in Portland, Oregon (1908).

In 1905, when Portland Mayor Harry Lane addressed a crowd at
the Lewis and Clark Exposition, one memorable phrase emerged
from his otherwise-forgotten speech. Lane, who served as mayor
from 1905 to 1909, told the audience that Portland needed an
annual "festival of roses."

Two years later, Portland hosted its first Rose Festival, and in
1908 local businessmen, including C.E.S. Wood, organized the
Portland Rose Festival as a nonprofit civic organization (now
called the Portland Rose Festival Foundation) to plan and fund
the annual event.
(From The Oregon Historical Society)

Harry Lane (1855 – 1917)

Portland Rose Festival float entry in 1910.

The Rosarians made their first appearance at the 1912 Rose Festival, wearing their signature white wool suits and straw
hats.

(AP) – The State Journal-Register reported a box made from a tree stump on which
Abraham Lincoln purportedly gave one of his earliest political speeches was given 
to the Rochester Historical Preservation Society last week. According to the paper,
Lincoln delivered a speech in the town in 1832, when he campaigned for the State
House.

Abraham Lincoln in 1832 at 23 years of age.