OREGONSCAPE

OHS neg., Drake 765, June Drake, photographer
Bobbie, the collie dog pictured here, accompanied his family on a trip from their home in Silverton, Oregon, to Walcott, Indiana, in August 1923. During the trip, Bobbie's owner, George Brazier, took him along when he went to fill the gas tank on the Overland Red Bird auto, also pictured here. As Bobbie nosed around the service station, he ran into a pack of local dogs, and they chased the visitor away from his master. The Brazier family drove around town looking for him and ran ads in the local newspapers for days, but they finally had to return to Oregon without their four-legged friend.	1
Six months later, on February 15, 1924, Bobbie limped into downtown Silverton. He was found by Brazier's daughter Nova. Despite being thin and footsore, the dog's celebrity grew as he recuperated. Newspapers around the country, including the Ripley's Believe It or Not column, picked up the story of the determined dog. The family received letters from many people who claimed to have seen Bobbie during his six months of traveling. The letters indicate that after leaving Indiana he searched for his family in Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Idaho, and then Oregon. After Bobbie recovered, he was presented with a custom doghouse by the Portland Realty Board and surrounded by crowds at every event he attended. He died in 1927, at the age of six, and was buried at the Oregon Humane Society. One week later, another famous dog, the original Rin Tin Tin, was brought to participate in a photo opportunity, leaving a wreath on Bobbie's grave.	2
June Drake operated a photo studio in Silverton from 1900 until his retirement in 1960. He took several studio portraits of Bobbie, along with more casual poses like this one. They can be found among the nearly 6000 photos in the June Drake Collection in the OHS Research Library.	3
—Mikki Tint, Special Collections Librarian, OHS Research Library

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