Oregon History: The Great Depression On October 29, 1929, a
calamity rocked the United States. Within hours the stock
market, buoyed by speculation and unreasonable expectations,
plunged into the abyss of "Black Tuesday." The onset of the
Great Depression meant little to tens of thousands of
Oregonians. They were already living in depressed circumstances,
trying to make a go of arid homesteads, stump farms, or
underpaid jobs in sawmills. Those who had savings, however, felt
the debacle acutely. Banks went bankrupt. In spite of handsome
buildings and facades of stability, white marble counters, brass
grills at the teller cages, and hulking vaults, their resources
were vulnerable and they fell by the droves, wiping out the
accumulated resources of depositors. Bank failures led to
foreclosures on homes, farms, and businesses and contributed to
the general malaise that had seized the country. In spite of his
reputation as a humanitarian, President Herbert Hoover, a
sometime Oregonian who had grown up in Newberg,