Jeb Bladine: Time to start celebrating Mac’s historic birthday
Aliens are already here, with more arriving for Saturday’s annual UFO Festival parade.
As usual, this popular McMinnville affair launches an extensive schedule of community events. This year, that list includes a new celebration at the expanded Yamhill County History Museum, and a much-anticipated schedule of activities for commemoration of McMinnville’s 150th birthday.
Yes — say it with me — 2026 is McMinnville’s “seskwəˌsenˈtenēəl” year.
You’ll see it spelled out often this year — sesquicentennial — from simple Latin roots of sesqui (one and a half) and centennial (100 years).
There is a lot to like about McMinnville’s evolution of annual events, despite demise of the venerable Turkey Rama. In 2026 that list includes:
• MacFresco — downtown open-air dining from June through October — this year changing from weekly to once-monthly on the third weekends;
• The new “American Past Times,” June 27 at the History Museum, featuring pancakes, muscle cars, baseball, hot dogs, ice cream and old-time tunes.
• Yamhill County Fair and Rodeo, July 29 to Aug. 1, with the full schedule to come.
• Oregon International Air Show, Aug. 14-16, featuring the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.
• Cruising McMinnville, Aug. 22, celebrating the city’s prolific history of “dragging the gut.”
• Scottish Festival, and perhaps others, with dates to be announced.
Meanwhile, as one of McMinnville’s many curators of local history, the News-Register is undertaking a major sesquicentennial project by donating newspaper issues more than 100 years old to the History Museum. Two pallets of boxed newspapers are headed to the museum next week, with a research project the following week to find the most significant local news stories from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
We anticipate finding original stories about Samual Cozine, John Baker and W.T. Newby, among the most prominent figures in the early history and development of McMinnville. We’ll be looking for reports on historical roots of local government, Water & Light, public schools, Linfield, businesses, institutions, families and more.
The city of McMinnville has a working committee with plans to release the sesquicentennial logo soon, followed by detailed plans for a major community celebration in October. Along the way, there may be other history-leaning activities added to the schedule.
Planning continues for a series of newspaper sections remembering the long and progressive history of McMinnville, which is documented in many forms but not all-inclusive. So, consider this an invitation to contribute to those efforts.
We invite our readers to complete this sentence and send it to us at the News-Register: “When collecting information about the most significant people, places, things, events and trends in McMinnville’s history, I hope you will consider … (fill in the blank).”
We also would welcome opportunities to include truly historic images some of you may keep in your own family, business or institutional archives. Related to that interest — in 2012 — we acquired publication rights for many historic images from the McMinnville book in the “Images of America” series.
It should be a great birthday party in 2026 celebrating the McMinnville “seskwəˌsenˈtenēəl.”
Jeb Bladine can be reached at jbladine@newsregister.com or 503-687-1223.
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