Our southwest Oregon community now has a new way to celebrate African-American History Month thanks to a decision to approve installation of an Oregon state historic marker at Illinois Valley Airport to commemorate the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion.
The 555th was a segregated African-American paratroop unit established during World War Two and was dispatched to Oregon as a defensive measure when the Japanese […]
This small truck was nicknamed the “blitz buggy” and was custom built in Grants Pass in the late 1930s for backcountry travel on a special road called the narrow gauge trail. This post gives some background on this forgotten piece of Illinois Valley history.
Background
The Narrow Gauge Trail was a road about four feet wide that connected Illinois Valley with Brookings through the area […]
