A new display celebrating the Oregon Trail and the settlers who came on the trail to settle in the area is now up at Toledo City Hall, courtesy of the Toledo Historical Society.
Toledo Historical Society member Joh Jones spoke at the Toledo City Council meeting on Monday, Aug. 3, to explain why they chose to focus their new display on the Oregon Trail.
Previously, the Toledo Historical Society used space inside the Toledo Community Library, but the volunteer-run library took that space to expand its children’s section last year as previously reported by The Chronicle.
With the Toledo City Council stepping in to offer the society storage space at Toledo City Hall for its collection, the Toledo Historical Society now has its new display at the South Lewis County community’s city hall.
And as this year is the nation’s 250th birthday, Jones explained they decided to theme their first display on the Oregon Trail.
“It is the biggest migration in America, 300,000 people came across,” Jones said. “One in 10, at least, died, that they know of, and are buried in places along the way. It was very, very important, and it changed America.”
Their exhibit doesn’t just focus on the settlers who made their way out west during the 1800s, but also those who were already here, represented by an arrow going through the “wagon canvas” which houses the display.
“We wanted to show and portray that we displaced all those people, we were coming into their lands, the native Indigenous people. And they didn’t have a choice, and it made it very hard. We brought cholera, dissentary, all kinds of flu, measles, that just devastated the (native) country,” Jones said.
The display also features renderings of what the Cowlitz River Landing where Toledo is now located looked like when the settlers originally arrived.
While nothing is set in stone yet, Toledo City Clerk-Treasurer Rachel Campbell explained she is going to coordinate with the Toledo Historical Society about having rotating monthly historical displays inside city hall moving forward in the future.
Campbell also made a public call for any interested Toledo residents to apply for a vacancy on the Toledo Park Board. The park board meets at Toledo City Hall on the second Thursday of each month at 4 p.m. For more information including the application for the vacancy, visit the City of Toledo’s website at https://www.toledowa.us/1361/Park-Board-Meetings.
During the meeting, councilors approved both an amendment to the city’s 2026 budget and a previously discussed city donation policy.
According to the council’s agenda report, the budget amendment “amends the 2026 annual budget to reflect revised revenue estimates and expenditure appropriations based upon current fiscal conditions, updated planning and development activity and other operational adjustments identified during the fiscal year.”
