Sweet Home - Oregon - Culture

Located on the southeastern edge of the beautiful Willamette Valley, the City of Sweet Home, home of the Oregon Jamboree, lies nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range not far from the scenic Oregon Coast. It is recognized as the "Gateway to the Santiam Playground" recreational area. Foster and Green Peter Lakes offer boating, fishing and camping for the whole family. From the east, US Hwy. 20 takes the traveler from Bend through Sisters in central Oregon over the Santiam Pass in the Cascade Mountains, then follows the Santiam River down into the Mid-Willamette Valley. Visitors drive pass the Foster Reservoir on their right, then enter Foster and Sweet Home. Sweet Home is the first major town in the valley that Hwy. 20 passes through. Sweet Home is surrounded by the Cascade foothills.

The Sweet Home Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest beckons hikers, hunters and campers. The City boasts a steady population of over 7,815 and covers approximately 6.5 square miles. Local industry includes timber and forest products, White's Electronics metal detectors home plant, and small manufacturing companies.

Sweet Home is the transition town for two of Oregon's largest industries, forest products and grass-seed production.

Drop down from the snow covered mountain peaks, and drive west into the fertile Willamette Valley. The deep green of Douglas Firs gives way to the lighter green of grass fields. Log trucks and yarders are replaced with combines and tractors pulling plows.

You are in Linn County, the heart of the Willamette Valley, the grass seed capital of the world. The mild, wet winters, combined with an early growing season, make the Willamette Valley a prime place for grass seed production. Fully three-fourths of the grass seed sold in the world is grown in Oregon, and half of that originates in Linn County.

Green Peter Lake on the Middle Santiam River, and Foster Lake on the South Santiam just downstream from the mouth of the Middle Santiam, are two of the 10 Army Corps of Engineers multi-purpose projects in the Willamette Valley. The lakes offer boating, water skiing, fishing and camping activities for thousands of Mid-Willamette visitors during summer months.

Nine murals grace buildings in Sweet Home. Seven are painted on buildings along Main Street. Space for the murals was donated by the building's owners. Two other murals are painted on the Sweet Home High School auditorium and on the side of the Linn Benton Community College, Sweet Home Branch, both on Long Street.

The week before Easter starting this year on Palm Sunday, April 5, is known as "Holy Week" in the Christian community. Pastors and churches which belong to the Sweet Home Ministerial Association (SHMA) occasionally schedule a combined community Easter Sunrise service.

three rodeo shows spiced up the Sportsman's Holiday action the second weekend in July. Cowpokes came from all over the west to compete in the 1996 contests held July 12-14 at the Calapooia Rodeo grounds. Howell Rodeo Company  supplied the stock.

The rodeo had all the elements of a typical western rodeo: superbly trained horses and riders who knew what they were doing, a clown, bucking broncos, pitching bulls, calf-roping, barrel racers, flying dust, sun in the eyes, and heat.

Unseasonably warm weather thinned out the crowds.