Who makes this
The Wallowa Record is published by Portland Civic Lab as an independent sister project, free to read. It is young, and it says so: what is covered and what is still missing is on the coverage page.
- Published by
- Portland Civic Lab
- Write to
- edan@portlandciviclab.org
- Current stage
- Opening collection, September 2026
Who this is for
Someone renting a cabin who wants to know what the moraine above the lake is. A family tracing the building their grandparents ran. A newcomer looking for the clinic, the library, or a church supper. A business owner checking that their listing is right. A resident with a memory, a correction, or an answer to the question of what home should be like in twenty years. The Record is built for the county’s own people first, and for anyone who wants to understand the place rather than only visit it.
Follow the connections
A storefront leads to the businesses that have been in it, the people who worked there, the building’s history and the industries that shaped it. The county line organizes the Record. It does not contain every tribal, ecological or economic relationship, and the Record follows those past it.
Voices belong to their authors
People’s own words keep their wording, their chosen credit, their context and their date. A line with a name on it appears only after the person has seen that exact wording and said yes, and they can change or withdraw it later. What several people said becomes a theme, counted by how many raised it, with no name and no detail that would identify anyone. The Record’s own reading of the records is labeled as analysis and shows the sources it rests on. Anything a person said about a neighbor, an employee or a tenant stays out.
Evidence and care
Every record carries its sources, and uncertain dates and conflicting evidence stay visible rather than smoothed over. Private submissions and contact details never reach a public page. The Record does not build profiles of people from who owns which parcel, and it does not guess at anyone’s religion or tribal affiliation. Page views are counted with Google Analytics, as on Portland Civic Lab’s own site, with addresses anonymized; nothing a contributor writes is sent to it.
How this is made
Software helps the editor research, transcribe and draft. No resident’s words, photographs or recordings are generated. A contributed account is never rewritten by software, and a contributor reviews any substantive change before it is published. Each story lists the sources it rests on.
Independent and free to read
The Wallowa Record is an independently published sister project to Portland Civic Lab. There is no advertising, paid placement, or assumed institutional partnership. The working name and collection will evolve with the project.
Build the collection with us
Most of the county is not yet on these pages. The coverage report says what is documented and what is still needed, and one sentence from you is enough to start.