Tag: Aurora Borealis

The Aurora Borealis Now Online!

Posted on by srabun@uoregon.edu

Thanks to a partnership with the Aurora Colony Historical Society and Museum of Aurora, Oregon, issues from May-December 1908 of the town’s historic newspaper, The Aurora Borealis, are now available for keyword searching and browsing at Historic Oregon Newspapers online!

Clipping shows masthead from the Aurora Borealis
The Aurora borealis. (Aurora, Or.) 19??-1909, May 28, 1908, Image 1. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088477/1908-05-28/ed-1/seq-1/

Founded as a Christian communal colony in the 1850s, Aurora was populated by several hundred members of the Bethel Colony in Missouri, mostly German and Swiss immigrants, led by founder Wilhelm Keil across the Oregon Trail. Despite hardships in the new frontier, Aurora colonists thrived until Keil’s death in 1877 and the subsequent dissolution of the colony, which is now incorporated as the City of Aurora.

Clipping reads: "Aurora is conceded by all to be one of the prettiest residence towns in the Valley. Surrounded by the finest farming country in Oregon, and populated with as good people as you can find anywhere, why shouldn't it be desirable to locate in?"
The Aurora borealis. (Aurora, Or.) 19??-1909, August 13, 1908, Image 2. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088477/1908-08-13/ed-1/seq-2/

Content from The Aurora Borealis can be browsed by issue date via the website’s calendar view, and keyword searches of the title can be performed on the Search page by selecting “The Aurora Borealis” on the “Select Newspaper(s)” list. The paper covered news at all levels, including world, national, state, and of course local:

Clipping from the "Personal and Local" section of the paper reads: "The Wilsonville baseball nine will play the Sherwood WhiteSox at Wilsonville on Sunday, June 21. The occasion will be the celebrated German picnic, where everybody in attendance is expected to enjoy themselves to the limit. Frank Miller went to Portland on business Wednesday. Miss Mary Schuman of San Francisco is visiting relatives in Aurora and vicinity. Otto Blosser had the misfortune to mutilate his finger while working on a buggy at Sam Miller's livery stable last Thursday, making it necessary for the doctor to lance it. He is unable to do any kind of work as a result. COW FOR SALE - One fresh milk cow. E.W. Smidt, Aurora, Oregon, R.F.D.3."
The Aurora borealis. (Aurora, Or.) 19??-1909, June 18, 1908, Image 3. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088477/1908-06-18/ed-1/seq-3/

Explore the many articles, advertisements, and other interesting tidbits that The Aurora Borealis has to offer, and discover Oregon’s history at Historic Oregon Newspapers online.