George Rogers Park is a 26-acre (11 ha) public park at intersection of Ladd and South State streets in Lake Oswego, Oregon.^[1] This park contains two baseball fields, a soccer field, access to the Willamette River, a memorial garden area, restrooms, a playground, and two outdoor tennis courts.^[2] The park also features the Oregon Iron Company Furnace, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the Department of the Interior.^[3][4] The park is named after George Rogers—a City Councilman—in appreciation for his devoted efforts to develop and maintain the grounds.^[5]

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George Rogers Park
The park’s Oregon Iron Company Furnace
Location within Lake Oswego, Oregon
Type	Municipal Park
Location	611 S. State Street, Lake Oswego, Oregon
Coordinates	45°24′42″N 122°39′48″W
Area	23 acres (9.3 ha)

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George Rogers Park is Lake Oswego's first community park and one of its most diverse. Situated on the Willamette River, the park is the site of significant Native American activity over 10,000 years ago.^[2] In the early 19th century, the river landing at the mouth of Oswego Creek was a convenient camping place for explorers, fur traders, and pioneers. In the words of a Lake Oswego resident, it was "a stopping place, a sort of relay station for boats both large and small, plying up and down the river between Astoria and Champoeg."^[6]

in 1850, Albert Alonzo Durham and his wife Miranda filed a Donation Land Claim on 640 acres that included the river landing and the creek . Durham build a sawmill on the upper part of the creek and shipped lumber to San Francisco and the Sandwich Islands, now known as Hawaii. He founded a town on the bluff above the river and named it after Oswego, New York.^[2] The same features that attracted Durham to this spot made it an ideal location for an iron furnace. The lake provided waterpower and the landing provided access to shipping. The landing remained the town's transportation hub until the end of the steamboat era. For the next 60 years, the beach was an unofficial park where people launched boats, fished, swam, and picnicked. Every spring between 75 and 250 Gypsies arrived to camp beside the river for two to three weeks.^[6]

In 1945, the City purchased the site for a municipal park, and in 1952 named it after George Rogers.^{[citation needed]}

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This graph shows the production of Pig Iron in the 1800s from the Oregon Furnace in tons per year.^[9] Due to disputes over water rights, the furnace was forced to shut down until land rights were established in 74—as is evident by the production graph.^[9] The company struggled during 74–76 due to the depression, and did not produce at all in the 1877—the year the company was sold to Brown and Crichton. The company saw record production in 1888 when Simeon Reed was under control of the plant, but due to the combination of the panic of 1893, competitors in the industry, and rising labor costs the furnace was forced to close in 1894.^[9]

The lower Oswego Creek Bridge is built on the mouth of Oswego Creek adjacent to Oswego Landing - over four different bridges have been built here over the past 150 years. The earliest crossings gave travelers access to Old River Road on the west side of the Willamette River between Oswego and Willamette Falls. In the 1860s, a beam bridge invited foot, horse, and buggy traffic. in 1885 a hefty Howe truss Bridge stood parallel to the older beam structure and served the town's booming population and iron industry.^[10]

By 1911 the truss bridge was covered with a roof and walls for protection from the elements and remained in use until the concrete Pacific Highway Bridge of 1920 was completed. "Charcoal haulers would cross the covered bridge and follow the trail along the river..."(Mary Goodall, Oregon's Iron Dream). Thereafter, the covered bridge was used by those on foot until it rotted and collapsed in the 1930s. Following World War II a replacement was built and used until 1975 when it became unstable and was removed by the National Guard.^[10]