Oregon, Illinois
Oregon, Illinois

Author: Keith Call

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 9780738534169

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Oregon, Ill., the administrative seat of Ogle County, lies midway between Rockford and Dixon. From its four state parks to Stronghold Castle, and from quiet tree-lined avenues to the regal Blackhawk statue, Oregon has long provided a haven for tourists, campers, boy scouts, church retreats, and artists: anyone seeking a unique taste of small town Midwestern life. In the early 1830s, pioneer John Phelps journeyed into the Rock River valley, eager to explore. He befriended Native Americans and enjoyed the land, but harbored no intent to stay. However, he wrote that "these beautiful undulating and rich prairies left an impression on my memory that no time could erase." Thus, at the suggestion of surveyor Colonel William S. Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, he built a cabin, planted a crop, and staked his claim. Others wisely followed Phelps, and have been following ever since. Through text and images, Oregon, Illinois seeks to chronicle the story of a most remarkable community whose rich heritage reaches back nearly to the founding of this nation.

Mary Jane's Ghost
Mary Jane's Ghost

Author: Ted Gregory

Publisher: University of Iowa Press

Published: 2017-10

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1609385233

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Summer 1948. In the scenic, remote river town of Oregon, Illinois, a young couple visiting the local lovers’ lane is murdered. The shocking crime garners headlines from Portland, Maine, to Long Beach, California. But after a sweeping manhunt, no one is arrested and the violent deaths of Mary Jane Reed and Stanley Skridla fade into time’s indifference. Fast forward fifty years. Eccentric entrepreneur Michael Arians moves to Oregon, opens a roadhouse, gets elected mayor, and becomes obsessed with the crime. He comes up with a scandalous conspiracy theory and starts to believe that Mary Jane’s ghost is haunting his establishment. He also reaches out to the Chicago Tribune for help. Arians’s letter falls on the desk of general assignment reporter Ted Gregory. For the next thirteen years, while he ricochets from story to story and his newspaper is deconstructed around him, Gregory remains beguiled by the case of the teenaged telephone operator Mary Jane and twenty-eight-year-old Navy vet Stanley—and equally fascinated by Arians’s seemingly hopeless pursuit of whoever murdered them. Mary Jane’s Ghost is the story of these two odysseys.