During the summer of 1920, Frederick William Cleator (1883-1957), a Forest Service recreational planner, surveyed and signposted the Skyline Trail. This trail, first laid out between Crater Lake and Mount Jefferson, was a predecessor to the Pacific Crest Trail, which, decades later, completed Cleator's dream of a recreational trail running from Mexico to Canada. During his survey, Cleator took more than two hundred photographs of peaks, forest glens, lake shorelines, and scenic vistas. These photographs show the landscape of the time.

In the summer of 2020, with the help of many friends and colleagues, Jim O'Connor retraced Cleator's steps, re-photographing the landscape almost exactly a hundred years later, to the hour. These centennial counterparts show-in ways otherwise hard to know or describe-the changing skyline, forests, and glaciers, and the human influence on the Central Oregon Cascade Range.

About Jim O'Connor

Jim O'Connor is a geologist in Portland, Oregon. He is an expert in the processes and events that shape the Pacific Northwest's remarkable and diverse scenery. Jim holds a degree in geological science from the University of Washington and a Masters and PhD from the University of Arizona. Jim has spent the last 30+ years hiking, wading, boating, studying and writing about the rivers, glaciers, and landscapes of Oregon.

These events are open to everyone interested in Pacific Northwest history, and beyond! Often co-sponsored by local or state historical and civic organizations, we bring you experts, scholars, first-person experiencers, historians and documentaries expounding on topics from indigenous history to the birth of Portland, early explorers to hop growing, and on and on! It's like being back in the classroom - except this time you get to settle into comfortable seats and enjoy a drink or two with dinner while you listen and learn.

This event is eligible for a History Pub Stamp