Heritage house unveils artifact that shows life in Lake Oswego over 150 years ago

With a new item on display, the Oswego Heritage Council is highlighting a stand of trees that served as a gathering space for early Lake Oswego residents as the town was first forming.

The council added to its collection a peg used for placing lanterns on the trees that once lined Furnace Street to the Iron Company Furnace as early as the 1850s. The peg is on display at its museum on 10th Street.

The stand of trees where Peg Tree Apartments on Leonard Street now sit served as a gathering space for the residents of Lake Oswego even before the Oregon Iron & Steel Company was established. The heritage house said that a few families including the Durhams, which set up a saw mill on Sucker Creek, had settled here due to the United States government’s land donation program.

Adam Randolph Shipley provided religious instruction at the tree site, Oswego Heritage Council Executive Director Kathryn Sinor said. Later, the Oswego Grange, which partially served as a school, was built there in the 1890s. Most of the trees were cut down by order of a county road supervisor in the late 1800s.

“It was the place where people gathered and the peg represented that as well; it would hang the lantern and cast light on everyone,” Sinor said, later adding: “I think it felt like a natural meeting place. There is shelter. There is beauty. The location was central to the area.”

The peg was kept by a local family and recently donated to the heritage council’s collection.

Sinor commented on how much history the peg has weathered in the last 175 years.

“It is a small, unassuming artifact but has such a rich and deep history and a connection to the beginnings of Oswego,” Sinor said.