We're pleased to announce that News in the Grove is merging with the Gales Creek Journal, founder and editor Chas Hundley's first news publication.
Read the whole announcement here, but for our News in the Grove readers, you'll see more Gales Creek news and events here moving forward.
Gales Creek lies within the Forest Grove School District, is served by the Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District, and many residents have a Forest Grove zip code, which I will stress is a system invented to help mail carriers deliver mail in the 60s and 70s and nothing else, so stop complaining that you don't get to vote for Forest Grove city councilors.
Not familiar with Gales Creek? Gales Creek lies immediately to the west of Forest Grove, on, uh, Gales Creek Road. Ask any Gales Creek Person™ what or where Gales Creek is and you'll get a different answer. For me, I choose the most expansive definition: everything in the Gales Creek Watershed is Gales Creek.
Which includes Forest Grove.
Welcome to Gales Creek.
That's right: Gales Creek, a creek named after Joseph Gale, an early pioneer, politician and one of the more interesting figures in Oregon history, actually forms the border of Forest Grove city limits between Ritchey Road and B Street.
Are you on city water? Turn on your tap. That water is from Clear Creek or Roaring Creek or Deep Creek, various Gales Creek tributaries. Fun fact: I used to swim in the city's watershed as a kid. The city did not have very good signage in the early 2000s. Sorry.
The Gales Creek Journal has traditionally covered news in Gales Creek, Glenwood, Hillside and Watts, as well as some news and events in the Tillamook Forest.
Anyway, that's the announcement! Thanks for reading.
Chas Hundley, News in the Grove founder, and person who may have peed in Forest Grove's drinking water supply as a child but will neither confirm nor deny.
When the Gales Creek Journal launched as a “real” digital and print product in 2017, my intent was to ensure that Gales Creek had an independent voice, that the journalistic needs of larger communities like Forest Grove didn’t drown out the news that was happening in Gales Creek.
You see, back in the day, when journalism had a stable business model, the local newspaper in Forest Grove did an incredible job of covering Gales Creek and other rural communities. They did it with the help of volunteer community writers and by sending their own staff out here when something newsworthy happened. Over time, as local ownership of the newspaper changed to corporate ownership, Gales Creek’s interests were no longer covered in full.
Now, the same thing is happening to Forest Grove. A new owner, not even from Oregon, bought nearly every weekly newspaper in the Portland Metro area in June of 2024. Since then, they’ve gone through multiple layoffs, shuttered newspapers in communities like Sherwood and Estacada, and turned toward a more regional model. Some people might enjoy opening their Forest Grove newspaper and reading about Beaverton, but I don’t. That’s why I am Launching News in the Grove.
I’m committed to innovating to make journalism robust and relevant, and dare I say fun in the 21st century. You’ll see me do some wild things with News in the Grove. We’re focusing on live events right now with our events calendar, for example, and you’ll see all sorts of new ideas emerge from News in the Grove. Some of them will even work!
But one thing won’t change: We won’t leave Gales Creek behind. I am from here. I was baptized in Gales Creek. My first kiss was 25 feet from Highway 6. I’ve started and failed businesses in Gales Creek, lived in the Gales Creek County Store twice, and my family is buried in the Gales Creek Cemetery. The Gales Creek Journal is changing forms and the name is going away, but like the newspapers of the 1920s and 1930s, there won’t be a need for a separate Gales Creek newspaper. When you read or watch or listen to News in the Grove, you’ll see news and events from Gales Creek, Dilley, Verboort, Forest Grove, Hillside, Glenwood, Watts, Kansas City, and all the other rural dots on the map.
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