<body><div><p>If a Cottage Grove logger had been bonked on the head in January 1926, and woke up six months later, he would have scarcely recognized his home town.</p><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=20Tkn8_0vmHnQU200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=20Tkn8_0vmHnQU200" width="1059" height="779" ><figcaption>A still from the movie The General, in which Johnny Grey (Buster Keaton) climbs onto the cowcatcher on the front of his speeding locomotive to foil an attempt by bandits to rob his train. Courtesy from The General</figcaption></figure><p>There was a whole new Main Street built way out east of Main Street, with businesses and boardinghouses and banks and everything.</p><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1n9X5c_0vmHnQU200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1n9X5c_0vmHnQU200" width="1476" height="744" ><figcaption>The logging locomotive Buster Keaton purchased to play the role of the Texas is shown pulling the flatcar with the camera crew on it, during filming in Cottage Grove in 2016. Courtesy from the Oregon Historical Society</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3K9ylT_0vmHnQU200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3K9ylT_0vmHnQU200" width="1043" height="792" ><figcaption>The “money shot” in Buster Keaton’s classic The General: A full-size, working steam locomotive collapsing through a burning bridge into the Row River. Courtesy from the Cottage Grove Historical Society</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0xiAiR_0vmHnQU200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0xiAiR_0vmHnQU200" width="1058" height="798" ><figcaption>Buster Keaton perches happily atop the wreckage of his steam locomotive, which he purchased for the express purpose of crashing it for his movie, The General. Courtesy from the Alta Journal</figcaption></figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0CbhuE_0vmHnQU200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0CbhuE_0vmHnQU200" width="389" height="800" ></div></body>

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Photos / Offbeat Oregon: The summer Buster Keaton made Cottage Grove a mini-Hollywood

If a Cottage Grove logger had been bonked on the head in January 1926, and woke up six months later, he would have scarcely recognized his home town. There was a whole new Main Street built way out east of Main Street, with businesses and boardinghouses and banks and everything.