Trail to Tale

Filled with mild lunatics and coffee fueled adventurers since the Lewis and Clark expedition, Oregon has begun wrestling a flood of new comers while seeking a happy medium between the new and the old. Only a fraction of those who rose from distant pioneers that risked everything to travel the Oregon Trail, now must deal with street violence, homelessness, and out-of-state arrivals wanting their piece of Oregon's many environments. Challenges to traditional social mores and community livability have left locals struggling to maintain something of their "Oregon-ness."

After a ten year absence from his home state, author Michael Kofford returned to the farming conditions endured by his relatives in La Grande, to settle in the cozy wine country of the Willamette Valley. Thus began a journey encountering family history, old stories, and little adventures that renewed his love of a complex state. Seeking places, people, and things that told a story, he searches (with his brother) for a family relic, the state's best cup of coffee, and the elusive aurora borealis in the Northern Cascades. Follow one man's loving tribute to the state where he was born, and returns to embrace everything he once took for granted.

One moment representative of many experienced in the work...

"I am reminded of why I walk cities. The odd personalities, the random encounters, the kids jumping bikes off poorly constructed plywood, the street person grumbling to himself about trains, the waitress filling saltshakers at 5 a.m. A different kind of texture from that found at the pond during my early morning meditations on the farm, but then, Oregon is alive with texture."