By Melissa Wagoner The Fischer Flouring Mill was once one of the most eye-catching pieces of architecture in Silverton. Located along Silver Creek – where Silver Falls Library and Old Mill Park are situated today – the mill utilized state of the art turbine-powered electricity to process various grains for farmers in the Silverton area for over 30 years before […]
By James Day The oohing and aahing echoed throughout the cavernous warehouse building. “We’re so excited,” Silverton Area Community Aid board member Laura Wanker, who along with fellow board member Kathleen McCann, was giving Our Town a tour of the old Ratchet Brewery building in North Second Street on March 1. SACA, which provides food aid and other community services […]
By Melissa Wagoner There is no symbol in Silverton’s history more iconic than that of the “Old Oak Tree,” a meeting place initially for the Native tribes of the Molalla and Santiam area and eventually for the white homesteaders who settled here. “The old oak, as everybody called it, was a stately giant, and the early settlers of Silverton looked […]
By James Day Silverton’s favorite collie/shepherd mix, Bobbie the Wonder Dog, who traveled on his own more than 2,500 miles to rejoin his family in the 1920s, has been on the move again. And cloned. Silverton residents and his fans from out of town who were used to reading Bobbie’s story on the Water Street mural and then finding the […]
By Melissa Wagoner When Chris Davie joined the Silverton Mural Society in 2020 the organization was in desperate need of help. Longtime leader, Vince Till, had recently passed away and support had begun to wane. “The key thing for the mural society is, we always need money,” Davie, who is now the board treasurer, said. “It costs $10,000 to $12,000 […]
By Brenna Wiegand On Jan. 27, Silverton’s original Four Freedoms mural was reduced to matchsticks. But as the sign on the chain-link fence announced, the mural will make a grand second appearance. The mural’s former home on the old Masonic Lodge on Main Street was demolished and it cost too much – upwards of $90,000 without guarantee of success – […]
The Silverton Mural Society installed its latest mural on April 25. It was created by Silverton artist Tonya Smithburg and commemorates the Harvey Mikkelson Steam Engine Festival – a precursor to the Great Oregon Steam-up in Brooks – that was held in Bethany from 1954 to 1966. The mural was installed in four sections on the west facade of the Silverton […]
With a fresh paint job, rearranged gallery space and six new artists, a fresh wind of inspiration is blowing through Lunaria Gallery. The March show demonstrates the diversity of Lunaria Gallery’s newly juried-in members. Jane Godfrey is 72; Tonya Smithburg is 22 – and Helen Weins somewhere in between.
