My friend Lloyd Palmer of Waldport, Oregon has an ongoing project where we are looking up the surviving incorportion papers of every railroad that filed as a corporation in Oregon from 1859-1930. There were hundreds of railroad companies that were incorporated but never built, and it is interesting to see who was involved with which companies. Since I moved from Salem I have not been able to help Lloyd much with this huge job, but I thought I would let people know that there is a resource available here. If you have questions about a particular railroad's incorporation records, either Lloyd or myself may be able to help you.

One question I have is just how much interest there might be in eventually distributing this compendium once it is finished? (Lloyd is about half way through all the records.) I've no idea how many people might be interested, but the more people who know about a source of information, the greater the chance of the information surviving into the future.