Exploring George Rogers Park
- May 8, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: May 22, 2023
On one of our days out exploring we came across this beautiful park nestled right up along the Willamette River and Lake Oswego Creek Junction. George Rogers Park is located in Lake Oswego, Oregon and is a historic site that sits on 26 acres. This park is amazing, it boasts a beautiful memorial garden area, sandy beaches, a large playground, tennis courts, two baseball fields, a soccer field and walking trails! The park was named after George Rogers, a city councilman for his efforts to develop and maintain the grounds.
Located in the park is an Oregon Iron Company furnace which has been placed on the Register of Historic Places, it's also a site of significant Native American activity over 10,000 years ago. The landing at the mouth of Lake Oswego Creek was a camping place for explorers, pioneers and fur traders.
The Oregon Iron Company was established in 1865, that's also when construction began on the blast furnace and was completed 10 months later. It was the first blast furnace on the pacific coast and the only surviving furnace west of the Rocky Mountains.
In 1893, the economic crisis caused the company to struggle after already being damaged by high labor costs and competition from imported pig iron, the furnace closed in 1994 and it never reopened.
At the front entrance to the lower park, you'll find a 13,000 pound of solidified iron remains known as a "salamander" which had been formed at the bottom of the iron furnace. Salamanders had to be removed because they could block the tap hole and stop further smelting.
Also found in this park is the Lower Oswego Creek Bridge, over four different bridges have been built over the last 150 years. Today, the bridge looks a lot different than it did back then.
-1860, a beam bridge was built for walking, horse and buggy.
-1885, a howe truss bridge was built parallel to the other beam bridge.
-1911, a roof and walls were put over the truss bridge for protection from weather and was used until the concrete pacific highway bridge was completed in 1920.
The covered bridge was used by people on foot until in the 1930s when it collapsed due to rotting, another bridge was then built following World War ll and used until 1975 when it was then removed by the National Guard for being unstable.
For full History on this beautiful park, visit this link below. Also used as reference.
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