TURNER, Ore. — The man behind Oregon’s iconic Enchanted
Forest amusement park in Turner has passed away.
Family members said that Roger Tofte (above) who created
the park south of Salem off of Interstate 5 more than half a
century ago, has died at age 96.
Tofte built much of the park by hand, opening it to the public
in August of 1971.
America’s first hospital opened its doors "to care for the sick-
poor and insane wandering the streets of Philadelphia."
It is co-founded by—you guessed it—Ben Franklin.
The hospital pioneered institutional healthcare in the colonies,
featuring the first hospital pharmacy.
While Bellevue Hospital in NYC was established earlier (1736)
as an almshouse, Pennsylvania Hospital is recognized as the
first dedicated hospital institution in the American colonies
The operating theater in the hospital.
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Robert Hall Weir (October 16, 1947 – January 10, 2026)
was a musician and songwriter best known as a founding
member of the Grateful Dead..
An announcement said he died after a “courageous” battle
with cancer and an underlying lung issue.
The two founders: President Franklin D. Roosevelt (left)
meeting with Basil O’Connor over a sack of dimes.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an adult victim of polio, founded the
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which he later
renamed the March of Dimes Foundation, on January 3, 1938.
A predominantly childhood disease in the early 20th century,
polio wreaked havoc among American children every summer.
Roosevelt managed to keep his disease out of the public eye,
yet his personal experience inspired in him an empathy with
the handicapped and prompted him to the found the March
of Dimes.
After a 13-year struggle with the bottle, stockbroker Bill Wilson
took his last drink of the hard stuff on this day in 1934.
The following year, he along with Doctor Bob Smith, would
found Alcoholics Anonymous the groundbreaking program
that treated alcoholism not as a moral failing, but as a
disease.
