Far Cry from Oxnard: A tiny town in Oregon hosted Cowboys' first-ever training camp

Forest Grove, Oregon- a little under six square miles in size and home to just over 26,000 people- is located a short drive west of Portland, the state’s largest city. The Annual Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival, held every September right on Main Street, is one of the highlights of the Forest Grove social calendar. The historic Star Theater, built in 1912, still packs them in for a half-dozen live stage productions every year, put on by the local community troupe. The town’s motto: “A place where families and businesses thrive.”

Forest Grove is a small town like countless others across this country- mostly unremarkable in nearly every way. Except one.

This quaint little burg, set in Tualatin Valley’s wine country and just outside the shadow of the snowcapped Mount Hood, also happens to be, quite unexpectedly, the place where the Dallas Cowboys assembled as a football team for the very first time.