Gales Creek Journal Weekly Newsletter | June 7, 2025
Volume 1, issue #5
Good evening, Gales Creek Journal readers! This newsletter contains this week’s news, and an important notice about some weather patterns coming this weekend. Please take care of your loved ones, especially those who are elderly or need help with their day-to-day activities.
This week’s newsletter has:
-Details about free fishing weekend
-The Gales Creek Strawberry Festival and the big new feature: giant chess!
-A reminder about wildfire evacuation levels. Please read this, and familiarize yourself. I personally witnessed people evacuating from the Lee Falls Fire in Cherry Grove. The Tillamook Burn started in the Gales Creek watershed. It’s just a matter of time before residents in Gales Creek need to evacuate because of a wildfire. It would behoove you to know the terminology that officials will use next time there’s a wildfire in the area.
– And speaking of fires, we have a story on what happened to an outbuilding that caught fire in Gales Creek.
– At the very bottom of this email, there’s a new section called “around town.” First off, I’m aware that we don’t really have a “town” but it’s what I’m calling it. It’s for little bits and blurbs that I either ran out of time to turn into a full story or are just smaller pieces that don’t really make sense as a full story.
P.S. The events calendar will return next week.
-Chas Hundley, editor.
I’m Chas Hundley, the founder of the Gales Creek Journal.
I grew up in Gales Creek at the Gales Creek Country Store and then on Highway 6, and I plan to spend my entire journalism career here. I hope you will sign up for a subscription today to join my mission to bring the best journalism possible to the Gales Creek area.
On to the news!
Free fishing weekend is back June 7 and 8
Fishing, crabbing, clamming are free this weekend, and a free Hagg Lake—freshly stocked with trophy-size trout—event will present an opportunity to learn how to fish.
Gales Creek Strawberry Festival returns for 55th year Saturday, June 14
The Gales Creek Strawberry Festival is back for its 55th year—featuring strawberries, live music, 50+ vendors, and new this year, a giant chess set.
Heat wave expected starting Sunday
A heat advisory has been issued for much of the Willamette Valley beginning Sunday at 10 a.m. With temperatures expected to reach between 92 and 96 degrees throughout the region,…
ODF crews sent to Alberta, three states to fight wildfires
The Oregon Department of Forestry deployed 22 firefighters Friday to Canada and three states in what the agency said would be their “last big out-of-state resource push” until rains return…
Brush up on wildfire evacuation levels now
Manning residents in 2023. Cherry Grove residents in 2024. Areas less than two miles from Gales Creek in 2022. Evacuations in recent years due to wildfires have become more commonplace…
Outbuilding burns in Gales Creek
An outbuilding at a Gales Creek home on Soda Springs Road near Old Wilson River Road ignited in flames Saturday afternoon after a burn pile escaped, Forest Grove Fire &…
Column | 1925 in Gales Creek: Two Gales Creek pioneers pass within day of each other
“Twenty-eight great great grand children survive Mrs. Mary S. Jenkins Lilly who had lived at Gales Creek from 1814 until the time of her death,” was the obituary for a…
Around town
Things that didn’t quite make a full story
Volunteers needed for the Gales Creek Strawberry Festival June 14
Help the community put on a cherished tradition, and get free strawberry shortcake.
Think that this is some keyboard warrior asking for help? The editor of the Gales Creek Journal has a shift from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. If I can do it, you can too. Call or text Sharon Parker if you’re ready to step up. 503-332-7675. Teenagers welcome, too.
Need some incentive? The Gales Creek Journal will give anyone who signs up for a shift a free one month subscription to the Gales Creek Journal, print or digital version, your choice. Once you’ve confirmed your shift with Sharon, simply email me your name, email address or mailing address if you want a print edition, I’ll verify it with the festival organizers, and bing bang boom we’re off to the races.
Find Forest Grove news at newsinthegrove.com.
While the Gales Creek Journal covers some Forest Grove news, especially school district and occasional Forest Grove Fire & Rescue news owing to the Gales Creek area being in the school district and FGF&R serving Gales Creek’s Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District, we haven’t added the city to our coverage territory.
However, I am in the process of launching a newspaper in Forest Grove called News in the Grove. It is my intent to return the entirety of far western Washington County to being robustly covered by a responsible journalism outfit that is locally owned, actually shows up to cover community events and local government, and is written by people (real humans, not AI slop) with a keen understanding of the area. News in the Grove will cover the city of Forest Grove, and the rural communities of Dilley, Verboort, and the portions of the Hagg Lake area within the Forest Grove School District.
I know we have quite a few Forest Grove readers here, so I wanted to make sure you had the opportunity to join us at this early stage. Subscriptions are currently free, with an optional paid subscription.
Much like in our sister publication the Banks Post, there will be some inter-paper stories; for example, we published a story this week about Free Fishing Weekend. That story appeared on all three websites (bankspost.com, galescreekjournal.com, and newsinthegrove.com) and our print newspaper that combines the Banks Post & Gales Creek Journal.
News in the Grove will not be joining our print publication at this time.
Thank you for reading, and stay safe this weekend! – Chas Hundley
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Gales Creek Journal and sister news publications the Banks Post and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
