Lititz Run passes through the village and joins the Conestoga River by the former Pinetown lumber mill and covered bridge. There are a few dozen houses in the village and a handful of small businesses, not including the surrounding farms.
A post office called Oregon was established in 1846, and remained in operation until 1912.[3] The community, formerly known as "Catfish", was renamed after the Oregon Territory.[4]
Oregon was a significant center of commerce in this area of the county in the 1700s and 1800s, being the site of a large mill run by Jacob Bear, a tavern, and the neighboring Bushong's Mill at Pinetown. The location here of Bear's mill was the original reason for the construction of a road between Lancaster, Ephrata, and Reading in 1734 (known as the Oregon or Catfish Pike, after the village) and between Oregon and Gap.[5]
A Mennonite meeting and schoolhouse was built in the village in 1792; there is also a United Methodist Church there that remains today. A large and historically significant "Great Meeting" occurred in the Isaac Long Barn outside Oregon in 1767, leading to the founding of the Evangelical United Brethren.[6] This is commemorated by a historical marker.
The Oregon Dairy, Supermarket, and Restaurant opened in the village in 1974. A limited access highway for US 222, parallel to the old turnpike, was completed in 1977, causing significant alteration of the roads and landscape around Oregon.[7]
