The World Beat Gallery exhibit, Japanese Voices from the Northwest, tells the tale of a small, vibrant Japanese American community that once thrived in the Lake Labish area of Salem, off present-day Portland Road. Members of this community were drawn to the area by landowner-legislators M.L. Jones and his son Ronald, and Japanese immigrant farmer, Roy Kinzaburo Fukuda, who saw the potential of the rich dark ”beaver dam” land. In its prime, Lake Labish was one of the most famous, prolific agricultural areas in the country. 

Source: http://www.salemmulticultural.org/gallery_current.shtml