Salem History Moment

Historic Preservation Month 2026

May is Historic Preservation month and Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month! This year Preservation Month takes on a new meaning. As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we’re looking to the places that bring its most powerful promise to life, that “all people are created equal,” and to the preservationists making sure those places endure. This year, help us celebrate the historic sites, neighborhoods, and landmarks that tell the full American story—places that remind us of how far we've come and how far we still have to go. To learn more about the Salem Historic Landmarks Commission and Salem history, subscribe to our newsletter through the City of Salem's e-newsletter portal City of Salem Connect with Us [https://www.cityofsalem.net/community/connect-with-us]. Once on the page, enter your email address and select the Salem Historic Landmarks Commission Newsletter from the topic-specific mailing lists. Library of Congress Innovator in Residence Jeffrey Yoo Warren developed a toolkit for Asian Americans to reconstruct lost enclaves from Library collections and other sources. To experience this please visit the Library of Congress site and search for “seeing lost enclaves”. [https://libraryofcongress.github.io/seeing-lost-enclaves/]

McMinnville's UFO Festival

May is when the annual "UFO Festival" in McMinnville is celebrated. This is the second-largest UFO festival in the nation after the one held in Roswell, New Mexico [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell,_New_Mexico]. The McMinnville UFO festival began in 1999 – and was a way to honor the 1950 sighting where two local citizens witness and photographed a UFO. The photos were printed in Life magazine by Paul and Evelyn Trent at their farm outside of McMinnville. On June 8, 1950, Powell's story of the incident—accompanied by the two photos—was published as a front-page story in the McMinnville Telephone-Register. The headline read: "At Long Last—Authentic Photographs Of Flying Saucer." This year they are celebrating their 26th Festival. To learn more about this event please visit: ufofest.com [http://ufofest.com]. In 1974, the National UFO reporting center was established in Davenport Washington. This is a non-governmental, non profit organization registered in Washington State. Additional sightings continued to be reported – such as the sighting of a UFO over East Salem reported in January 1979 as reported by multiple residents to the Capitol Journal, who said they saw a round glowing object with red flashing lights, hovering in the sky. If you want to learn more about the National UFO reporting center please visit: https://nuforc.org/ [https://nuforc.org/]

Oregon Trail Coin

America 250 (or the U.S. Semiquincentennial [https://www.google.com/search?q=U.S.+Semiquincentennial&rlz=1C1GCEB_enUS1029US1029&oq=what+is+america+250&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i512l9.3737j0j3&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ved=2ahUKEwjdveTw0YSUAxWDEjQIHVMKPMIQgK4QegYIAQgAEAM]) commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, celebrated on July 4, 2026. It is a nationwide initiative to honor 250 years of American history. 100 years ago in 1926, the country was celebrating the sesquicentennial and Congress authorized the minting of the Oregon Trail half dollar coin, to help fund the installation of markers along the Oregon Trail. Prior to the request by the Oregon Trail Memorial Association in 1926 there was a lot of public interest in the history of the Oregon trail – For example. in 1923 Paramount Pictures released the silent film “The Covered Wagon” about two caravans of emigrants traveling the Oregon Trail in 1848. You can watch the full silent movie on YouTube [https://youtu.be/DwWjPfK5FJc?si=IHH8SEqg9Eczg_MA]. To celebrate the Nation's Semiquincentennial (SemiQ) this year, the United States Mint is proud to unveil one-year-only changes to well-known American coinage, such as the circulating dime, quarter, and half dollar. You can find out more at https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-programs/semiquincentennial/ [https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-programs/semiquincentennial/]

The Liberty Bell visits Salem, Oregon

In the summer of 1915 the Liberty Bell was brought to the west coast for the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and as it made its way there it stopped here in Salem. Thousands of people came to see the Liberty Bell in Salem that day. Schoolchildren were presented with a small silk flag to keep. The Cherrian Band gave a concert in Marion Square Park The train arrived at Salem’s Oregon Electric freight depot at 2:00pm, which was located on Front Street, near where the Marion Street Bridge is today. To ensure its long time preservation, and it was transferred to the keeping of the National Park Service after World War II. In 1976 it was moved from Independence Hall to a newly constructed glass pavilion, and then to a larger Liberty Bell Center at Independence Hall National Historical Park in 1976. To learn more about the history of the Liberty Bell, and in particular more about how the Liberty Bell helped the Treasury Departments war bond drive in 1917, please visit smithsonianmag.com [http://smithsonianmag.com] and search for “How the Liberty Bell won the Great War.” [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-liberty-bell-won-great-war-180962471/]

Salem's Qing Ming Festival

In 2017, as part of an effort to better understand the history of some of Salem’s underrepresented communities, the City of Salem’s Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC) decided to learn more about Salem’s Chinese community. We discovered that Salem did, in fact, have a Chinatown located in our downtown, but unfortunately no buildings remain. Archaeological excavations were conducted in 2017 and 2018 revealed a flat cement slab with three holes with a partial raised section along one edge and a marble tablet with a Chinese inscription. The inscription on the Shrine’s marble tablet has been translated to mean “To the Tomb of an Unknown Friend.” To learn more about this project please see our 2022 OHQ article [https://www.ohs.org/oregon-historical-quarterly/back-issues/upload/Fitzgerald-et-al_Salem-Shrine_OHQ-122_4_Winter-2021_web.pdf]. We believe the Shrine was constructed as a funerary table in order to provide the Chinese a place to leave offerings for their family members during their annual Qing Ming Festival, held every year in April. This celebration is similar to our Memorial Day that we celebrate in May. We worked with Salem’s Chinese community to reinstate our celebration of the Qing Ming Festival at the cemetery using the same funerary table they used in the 1800s. If you are interested in joining us this year, we will be celebrating The eighth annual Qing Ming Festival at Salem’s Pioneer Cemetery will be held on April 4, 2026 at 11:00. Please visit our website at cityofsalem.net [http://cityofsalem.net] to learn more.