Dorena is an unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon, United States.[1] It is located southeast of Cottage Grove on the Row River, a tributary of the Coast Fork Willamette River.

Dorena, Oregon
Unincorporated community
Dorena Mercantile
Dorena Show map of Oregon Dorena Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 43°43′11″N 122°51′43″W
Country	United States
State	Oregon
County	Lane
Elevation [1]	922 ft (281 m)
Time zone	UTC-8 (Pacific (PST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-7 (PDT)
ZIP code	97434
Area code(s)	458 and 541
GNIS feature ID	1141192

History

The first settlers arrived in the Dorena area in the 1850s and depended on agriculture to survive, but later logging and gold mining became the mainstays of the local economy.[2] Dorena was named by combining the first names of Dora Burnette and Lorena Martin.[3] Dorena school was built in 1896,[4] and Dorena post office was established in 1899.[5] In 1946, the town was abandoned when the Corps of Engineers began construction of Dorena Dam on the Row River for flood control.[3][4] The Corps relocated approximately one hundred homes from the town's former site at 43°46′32″N 122°55′38″W.[6] The dam was completed in 1949 and created Dorena Reservoir, which flooded the townsite.[3] The community was moved five miles upriver.[3]

Climate

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F (22.0 °C). According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Dorena has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.[7]

Transportation

The Row River Trail, a rails to trails conversion of a former Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway line, passes through Dorena.[8]

References

External links

• Historic images of the Dorena area from Salem Public Library
• 1911 image of students inside Dorena School from University of Oregon Library