Collection is open for research.
Gift of Ruth E. Pasley, September 2000 (Lib. Acc. 24391).
Five Oaks, called Chatakuin ("Place of the Heavy Stone") by the Atfalati (Tualatin Kalapuya) people, is a group of five Oregon white oaks in Hillsboro, Oregon, and was a gathering place for Native people. When Euro-Americans emigrated to Oregon and claimed the land, they chose the site to hold the first Fourth of July celebration in Oregon in 1845. Euro-American emigrants would later hold court sessions and other meetings at the site.
The land on which Five Oaks is located became part of the land claim of Alexander Zachary and Sarah Zachary. Later, the Swiss American Berger family purchased part of the Zachary land claim, including Five Oaks, and farmed around the site. In the 20th century, the Five Oaks Garden Club encouraged subsequent owners of the site to preserve the trees. Two of the trees fell in storms shortly after World War II, and a third fell during the Columbus Day Storm in 1962. In 1998 and 1999, PacTrust, which then owned the site, planted three replacement trees and established a small park at the site. As of 2024, only one of the original five trees remains, with four replanted trees.
Sources: Five Oaks Historic Site Guide, Five Oaks Museum, 2022 (accessed October 29, 2024),
Ruth Eleanor Pasley (née Lundgren) was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1912, and lived in Washington County, Oregon, for her whole life. She studied at Oregon State Agricultural College (now Oregon State University), and worked as an administrative secretary. She was an active member of the American Association of University Women, and a member of multiple garden clubs, including the Five Oaks Garden Club. She died in 2012.
Sources: Obituary on Duyck and Vandehey Funeral Home website,
Information compiled by Ruth E. Pasley about the Five Oaks Historic Site, Coll 1058, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
This collection was initially cataloged in book collections at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library as "The Five Oaks Historic Site in the PacTrust Five Oaks West Business Park on Jacobson Road: east of Helvetia Road, north of Sunset Hwy (US26) in the city of Hillsboro, Washington, County, Oregon," call number ST 582.16 P282f. In November 2024, it was transferred to manuscript collections, and description was expanded into a collection guide by Jeffrey Hayes.
The collection consists of a packet of materials compiled by Ruth E. Pasley while she was serving as historic preservation chair of the Five Oaks Garden Club. These materials concern the history of Five Oaks, a group of five Oregon white oaks in Hillsboro, Oregon, and efforts to restore the site as a park in the 1990s. In addition to typed and handwritten historical information about the site, which was written by Pasley, the packet includes newspaper articles about the site and restoration work there in the 1990s; maps of the site; an architectural elevation of an informational pavilion built at the site; the program for a site dedication on September 17, 1999; and issues of the Tualatin Valley Heritage, Inc. newsletter. Most materials are photocopies.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.