Talk:Oregon Geographic Names Board

A fact from Oregon Geographic Names Board appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 13 September 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the Oregon Geographic Names Board was established by Governor George Chamberlain in 1908 to assist the United States Board on Geographic Names in naming geographic features within the state of Oregon?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/September.

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Government agency?[edit]

Is this really a state agency? It's not on this list. Katr67 (talk) 14:36, 11 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The origianl Oregon Geographic Board was part of the state government. Over the years, the board was managed by several state agencies. In 1959, Governor Hatfield transferred responsibility for the board to the Oregon Historical Society. Therefore, I don't believe OGNB qualifies as a state agency today. However, the state may still retain ultimate authority over the board's function (i.e. the state put OHS in charge of the board so it might be able to back if it wanted to exercise direct control again). To determine the OGNB's relationship to the state, would probably require a careful reading of the transfer document and related public laws.--Orygun (talk) 00:29, 13 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]