The first marker placed in the state of Oregon was by Multnomah Chapter, NSDAR on August 25, 1916, at Multnomah Falls honoring the memory of Oregon Pioneers. The chapter originally selected a ten-ton bolder and placed a bronze marker, through which water was piped from the falls to a bowl chiseled in the rock. Today, the bronze marker is still in place but the boulder is much smaller and still has a water fountain.
From 1918 to 1933, the chapter would place markers honoring many pioneers who made their way to the Willamette Valley on the Barlow Road Trail. Samuel and Susannah Lee Barlow, the trails namesakes, and the grave of an unknown pioneer woman were marked along that same stretch of trail. As well as a marker placed honoring the lives lost in the explosion of the Steamer Gazelle. Our chapter also placed a marker at Tualatin Academy, now Pacific University, one of the oldest college buildings in the western U.S.
Organizing regent, Mary Phelps Montgomery was honored in 1925 with a drinking fountain and marker at the site of her original home where the very first meetings of the chapter took place.
The largest number of markers were placed between 1929 and 1939. More than 35 markers are said to have been placed in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho to honor the Men of Champoeg, those who founded Oregon’s Provisional Government on May 2, 1843.
Multnomah-Portland Chapter, NSDAR 