Town file
Dallas, Oregon
Dallas, Oregon (Polk County, Oregon) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 104, "The Trees Tell You To Murder" (31 January 2019). In the summer of 2010 Dallas, Oregon, a small town in Polk County about twenty-five minutes from Salem, was the setting for the murders of a couple who had moved there from Silicon Valley to farm.
- Town
- Dallas
- County
- Polk County
- State
- Oregon
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 104
- Approximate location
- 44.922, -123.313
Episode 104 / 31 January 2019 / 154 min / full
The Trees Tell You To Murder
"We are going to Dallas, Oregon ... it's in Polk County, zip code 97338." about 0:08:29
The case: Murder of David Scott and Marilyn Johndle (August 31, 2010). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2019
- Population
- 15,277
- Median age
- 38.9
- Median household income
- $50,000
- Median home value
- $278,000
- Two-bedroom rent
- $1,160
- Cost of living
- 114
- Religious
- 24%
- Property crime
- ▼ about 20% low
- Violent crime
- ▼ about 40% low
History, in brief
- Before the 1840s the area was home only to Native Americans and a few French Canadian fur trappers. about 0:10:02
- The river was named La Creole through the French Canadian influence. about 0:10:36
- The first wagon trains arrived in 1843. about 0:10:37
- Dallas was settled in the 1840s on the north side of a creek. about 0:10:54
- It was originally named Cynthia, after Synthiana, Kentucky, the hometown of Mrs Thomas Lovelady, who was given the honour of naming the settlement. about 0:11:13
- Another source claims the name came from Cynthia Ann, the wife of the pioneer Jesse Applegate. about 0:11:54
- Jesse Applegate was an influential member of the early Oregon government who helped establish the Applegate Trail as an alternative to the Oregon Trail. about 0:13:05
- The Dallas Post Office was established in 1852, before the town was called Dallas. about 0:13:51
- In 1856 the whole town was moved a mile south because the water supply was inadequate. about 0:13:57
- Dallas competed with Independence to be the county seat, and its citizens raised $17,000 to bring a branch of the narrow gauge railroad to the town, which won them the county seat. about 0:15:01
- The town was renamed Dallas after George Mifflin Dallas, vice president under James K. Polk, for whom the county was named. about 0:15:35
- Dallas was incorporated as a town in 1871, or perhaps 1874, and became a city in 1901; Dallas, Texas, was incorporated in 1856. about 0:15:45
- In 1903 the first train ran from Dallas to Falls City, a forty minute trip that cost 35 cents one way. about 0:16:39
- Willamette Industries was founded in 1906 as the Willamette Valley Lumber Company. about 0:17:28
- In 1967 Willamette Valley Lumber and other companies formed Willamette Industries, which was acquired by Weyerhaeuser in a hostile takeover in 2002. about 0:17:40
- Weyerhaeuser owned or controlled nearly 12.4 million acres of timberland in the United States. about 0:20:03
- In 2009 the mill formally closed its Dallas operation, seven years after the takeover. about 0:20:11
The reviews read out
"A resident complains that the Ceres Glen HOA acts like a supreme court with old geezers and hags who harass people, pull up plants, report them to multiple committees, fine them and try to foreclose; he calls it an ugly old place to live."about 0:20:52
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Eddyville, Oregon30 miles
- Alsea, Oregon40 miles
- Newport, Oregon41 miles
- Tillamook, Oregon45 miles
- Colton, Oregon46 miles
- Oak Grove, Oregon47 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.