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18
TIMES FACT BOOK
November 22, 2012
A few
fun facts
about
Sherwood
By RAY PITZ
Pamplin Media Group
S
ure, Sherwood is home
to the Bowmen, Sher-
wood High School’s of-
ten-winning sports
teams, and has garnered a
bunch of livable city awards in
recent years, but there are
tons of other facts about the
city of 18,000. Here are just a
few:
■
While prohibition in Ore-
gon began in 1914, it was ap-
proved in the city of Sherwood
several months earlier. In the
1970s, someone discovered a
large stash of whiskey bottles
in a Sherwood woods. The site
was believed to be a hiding
place for outlawed distilled
spirits during prohibition.
■
Sherwood was one of the
featured locations when film
crews for the popular NBC se-
ries “Grimm” filmed there in
an episode broadcast in De-
cember 2011. Hollywood folks,
including “Grimm” star David
Giuntoli, were in town for two
days in August filming South-
west Main Street in Old Town
as well as Southwest Baker
Road and Major Oak Drive off
of Sunset Boulevard where
they brought in fake plants,
shrubs and trees.
■
Inside the former Black-
bird Coffee shop on Railroad
Street (which before that was
Sherwood Coffee Company), is
an old iron bank vault from
the building’s years as a finan-
cial institution. In fact, you
can still see the time lock in-
spection stickers, some that
date from 1917. The door to
the vault even sports a rectan-
gular widow with the telltale
markings of a blow torch sug-
TIMES PHOTO: RAY PITZ
June Reynolds, who has been active in recording Sherwood’s history for years, recently released
“Sherwood: Tales from the Attic: Continuing Volume 1: 1859 to 1919.”
By RAY PITZ
Pamplin Media Group
W
hen local historian and former
teacher June Reynolds began
writing her first all-encompass-
ing book about the history of
Sherwood, many posed the same question:
“What right did I have to write the history?”
Reynolds answered quite succinctly with
“Sherwood: A Sense of Time and Place: The
History of Sherwood Oregon and the Surround-
ing Area,” published in 2006.
Since that book covered so much of the city’s
history, she wanted to move forward in her lat-
est effort, picking up with the city of the 1920s
and 1930s. However, new information (along
with area families loading her up with more
and more family history) caused her to pause.
“There was so much data,” Reynolds said of
not quite making it to the 1920s. What she end-
ed up with was publishing an addendum to her
first book. This last summer, Reynolds released
“Sherwood: Tales from the Attic: Continuing
Volume 1: 1859 to 1919,” a 146-page self-pub-
lished work that continues the saga of early
Sherwood. Cheyenne Publishing publishes the
book, which sells for $15.
Reynolds, who holds a bachelor’s degree in
English from the University of Oregon and a
master’s degree in library science from the
same university, worked for 11 years as a Sher-
wood High School librarian and one year in the
same capacity at Archer Glen Elementary
School.
Although she didn’t officially move here un-
til 2000, she has a prior connection to the city
having worked in the old cannery from 1970 to
1972.
“I pulled all the cans off the line and boxed
them for the warehouse,” she said.
A lifelong history buff, she sometimes gets
sidetracked during research, overwhelmed
with the wealth of information available.
“That’s the curse of being a librarian,” she
said. “You’re interested in everything.”
Reynolds said Sherwood was one of the last
cities in the Portland area to be settled because
it was not close to a major water source such as
the Willamette River.
While writing her latest book, Reynolds, who
is president of the Sherwood Historical Society,
June Reynolds pens second
book on Sherwood’s early days
See REYNOLDS / Page 21
Continued on Page 25