Oregon Facts

There is a giant mushroom in Oregon that is over 2,400 years old, covers 3.4 square miles of land, and is still growing!

The Japanese pilot who attacked a town in Oregon during WW2 returned years later to present his family's 400-year-old samurai sword to the city as a symbol of regret.

In 1970, a dead whale washed up on an Oregon beach. Officials decided to dispose of it with half a ton of dynamite. A WWII explosives veteran warned them it was way too much. They ignored him. The explosion launched car-sized chunks of blubber 800 feet. One crushed a brand new Oldsmobile in the parking lot. The owner had just bought it from a dealership running a "Whale of a Deal" promotion.

In August 1923, a 2-year-old Scotch Collie named Bobbie was separated from his family during a road trip through Wolcott, Indiana - 2,551 miles from home. Six months later, on February 15, 1924, he turned up at his family's door in Silverton, Oregon: gaunt, paws bloody, claws worn to nothing. He had crossed the Continental Divide alone, in winter. He came home.

Two 14-year-old boys climbed to God's Thumb - a sheer volcanic bluff on the Oregon coast - and froze 30 feet from the top. A firefighter climbed up to rescue them and got stuck too. Coast Guard lowered a crew member from a helicopter and hoisted all three off the cliff face.