In the spring of 1909, The Oak Grove Improvement Association sponsored a writing contest for the community’s school children to write about Oak Grove, in an effort to encourage people to move there. The winner was 16-year-old Lillian Richter, who’s glowing account of Oak Grove occurred in the Oregon City Courier on May 14, 1909:
A Good Place
The Advantages of Oak Grove and Vicinity as a Place of Residence
It was an early spring morning, yes, really early. I had just climbed Oatfield’s Hill east of Oak Grove and stood drinking in the scenery.
I looked further east and saw wide, fertile valleys that yearly produce crops not to be excelled in the world. I saw snow-capped Mt. Hood, a monarch of the Cascades, peering above her neighboring timber-laden hills. I saw streams winding in and out on their way to the Willamette. I followed with my eye the course of one of these streams, the Clackamas by name, and saw where it was swallowed by the beautiful Willamette near the factories of the quaint and historic Oregon City. From this point I followed the Willamette on her course and thought of Simpson’s lines:
“Onward ever, lovely river,
Softly calling to the sea,
Time, that scars us, maims
and mars us,
Leaves no track or trace on
thee”
After I had followed it past the wharves and factories of Portland, the New York of the Pacific coast, I lost sight of this beautiful river just before it flows into the mighty Columbia. I then turned my attention and marveled at the scenery in the extreme west. The view presented was a continuous stretch of lofty mountains, here and there giving way to fertile valleys, and I wondered as I stood here if Nature had ever completed a better rounded task than she did when she created the land “Where rolls the Oregon”.
But wait, I am neglecting to tell you of the land that lies at my feet. I am neglecting to tell you about Oak Grove, the most ideal spot in all this peerless Oregon country and therefore unequalled by any other section of God’s great universe.
I am first impressed by the group of oaks, dotted here and there, from which this district procured its name. The land gently slopes toward the Willamette and is drained by a small tributary of that beautiful river. Many beautiful residences artistically arranged are scattered about this district, and in the ample grounds surrounding these homes are lawns, fruit trees, thrifty yards, and the slogan, “Roses fragrant, roses rare, roses roses everywhere,” applies to Oak Grove as well as to Portland, the Rose City.
But this is only how it looks to me, let me tell you how it really is. Let me first say that it is far better than it ever looks. A carline, running through the heart of this district, connects the business center of Portland, eight miles from Oak Grove, with Oregon City, the present metropolis of Clackamas County. This carline is splendidly equipped and renders a service to this suburb of Portland not to be excelled by any other carline running through any suburb equally distant. The Willamette river forms one boundary of Oak Grove, and beautiful residences are springing up along its banks.
Oak Grove already has two general merchandise stores, a post office, meat market, library, sanatorium, hall, tin shop, confectionery stand, telephones, local newspaper, Sunday School, Church, rock quarry, waiting room, greenhouse, and best of all, no saloon or any other enterprise undesirable in a residence district. This district has one of the finest schools between Portland and Oregon City. Oak Grove also enjoys the distinction of producing the finest grapes in the most extensive vineyards in this part of Oregon, as is evidenced by the fact that grape exhibits from Oak Grove have repeatedly been awarded first diplomas in world-wide competition. Last, but not least, the climate of Oak Grove cannot be surpassed.
Now, reader, are you not convinced that this is one of the most attractive sections of God’s great country and is nearer your ideal than any other? If so, come and help swell this suburb of Portland and share with us in the development and immense increase in values which must follow the movement inaugurated to give that great city a population of 500,000 in 1912. Once more I say Come to where a welcome awaits you and let us show you the favorable conditions and surroundings which we enjoy and which you are most heartily invited to share with us.
Lillie Richter
Oregon City Courier, Friday, May 14, 1909 p.6