The Tualatin Historical Society is a member based non-profit 501 c (3) organization dedicated to preserving, promoting and interpreting the rich and colorful history of Tualatin. We offer a number of educational programs and services to fulfill this mission.

New Prehistoric Update:

Click here to read the latest article, "ANCIENT GROUND SLOTH JOINS TUALATIN’s PREHISTORIC ANIMALS".

Photo above is from a recent performance of Tualatin’s “They Did It” Women telling their stories on Feb. 14, 2010 at the Winona Grange.

You may know Tualatin history.  But do you know Tualatin HerStory?

How did Maria Sweek get her mansion built and raise Tualatin’s social level?  How did Lois Dalton clean up a brambly park and get the Crawfish Festival going?  How did Lizzie Robinson get the brick store built?  How did Orpha Sagert get the farmers’ fields harvested?  How did Nellie Wesch guide her typing students into business careers?  How did Jessie Byrom get the little Methodist Church built?  How did Peggy Gensman build a thriving real estate business?  On Feb. 14 they told their stories.

These are among the 17 strong women were depicted by a few of their daughters or granddaughters, on Sunday, February 14, at 2p.m, in the historic Winona Grange Hall.  The stories, scripted by Loyce Martinazzi and Karen Lafky Nygaard, show the women’s role in the growth and development of Tualatin over the last 150 years.

The Tualatin Historical Society event included songs by the Sweet Adelines.  Valentine-theme refreshments were served. 

The image above was taken on February 15, 2009 at the Tualatin Heritage Center where a story theatre production titled "The Road to Statehood Ran Through Tualatin" was held in celebration of Oregon's 150 birthday. Photo is courtesy of THS member and volunteer Jon Hartman of Willamette Valley Media Group.

Did you know that...

At the close of the last ice age, a mastodon, perhaps injured or in poor health, died in the area that is now Tualatin?

The Atfalati tribe of the Kalapuya Indians settled in the region, rich with game, fish and natural foods and that many of their artifacts were found by the first homesteaders and later farmers?

Coming by covered wagons over the Oregon Trail, pioneers began arriving in 1850. By 1853, 26 families settled donation land claims and the hamlet was known as Galbreath for the local ferry by that name? Or that Taylor's Ferry was upriver and Brown's Ferry, downriver?

We invite and encourage you to make connections to the past by learning about Tualatin and joining us in our mission.