Oregon

     From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

[T]his state of scenic grandeur and easygoing individualism is writing the preface to what may be the future for all Americans: simple living, conservation, and limited growth. -- A 1977 article in U.S. News and World Report on Oregon.

Oregonians are proud of their state's wealth of beautiful forests and streams, and place great importance on proper use of their environment, yet struggle to balance this need with the desire for progress. The state has pioneered some of the nation's environmental firsts, such as the Oregon Bottle Bill, but has also suffered under the rapid pace of logging its forests.

Its population in 2000 was 3,421,399, a 20.4% increase over 1990; the 2002 estimate was 3,504,700.

History

Oregon was originally home to a number of Native American tribes, including the Bannock, Chinook, Klamath, and Nez Perce. James Cook explored the coast in 1778 in search of the Northwest Passage. The Lewis and Clark Expedition travelled through the region during their expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase, at the direction of Thomas Jefferson. They built their winter fort at Fort Clatsop, near the mouth of the Columbia River. Exploration by Lewis and Clark (1805-1806) and Britain's David Thompson (1811) publicized the abundance of fur in the area. In 1811, New York financier John Jacob Astor established Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River with the intention of starting a chain of Pacific Fur Company trading posts along the river. Fort Astoria was the first permanent white settlement in Oregon. In the War of 1812 the British gained control of all of the Pacific Fur Company posts.

By the 1820s and 1830s the British Hudson's Bay Company dominated the Pacific Northwest. John McLoughlin, who was appointed the Company's Chief Factor of the Columbia District, built Fort Vancouver in 1825.

The Oregon Trail infused the region with new settlers, starting in 1842-43, as the United States sought to wrest control of the Oregon Country from the United Kingdom. A popular slogan among the Democrats who wanted the Pacific territory as far north as latitude 54°40′ was "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight." This controversy was resolved in 1846 after a period of saber rattling where it seemed that the United States and the United Kingdom would go to war a third time in 75 years. Cooler heads prevailed, however, and the boundary between the United States and British North America was set at the 49th parallel. The Oregon Territory was officially organized in 1848. The state was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1859.

In the 1880s, railroads enabled marketing of the state's lumber and wheat, and the more rapid growth of its cities.

Industrial expansion began in earnest following the construction of the Bonneville Dam in 1943 on the Columbia River. The power, food, and lumber provided by Oregon have helped fuel the development of the west, and the periodic fluctuations in the nation's building industry has severely impacted the state's economy on multiple occasions.

The state has a long history of polarizing conflicts: Native Americans vs. British fur trappers, British vs. settlers from the U.S., ranchers vs. farmers, wealthy growing cities vs. established but poor rural areas, loggers vs. environmentalists, white supremacists vs. anti-racists, supporters of social spending vs. anti-tax activists, and native Oregonians vs. Californians (or outsiders in general). State ballots frequently illustrate the extremes of the political spectrum - anti-gay, pro-religious measures on the same ballot as liberal drug decriminalization measures.

Origin of Oregon

The earliest known use of this proper noun was in a 1765 petition by Major Robert Rogers to the English Crown. The petition referred to Ouragon and asked for money to finance an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage.

Why Rogers used the name has led to many theories, which include:

• George R. Stewart argued in a 1944 article in American Speech that the name came from an engraver's error in a French map published in the early 1700s, naming the Ouisiconsink (Wisconsin River). This theory was endorsed in Oregon Geographic Names as "the most plausible explanation."
• In 2001, David G. Lewis published an article in the Oregon Historical Quarterly argued that the name Oregon came from the word oolighan, referring to grease made from fish, which the Native Americans of the region traded in.
• In a 2004 article for the Oregon Historical Quarterly, professor Thomas Love and Smithsonian linguist Ives Goddard argue that Rogers chose the word based on exposure to either of the Algonquian words wauregan and olighin, both meaning "good and beautiful". Olighin was one of the early names for the Ohio River, shown on a 1680s map of the explorations of Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. Rogers is likely to have heard the terms because of his frequent encounters with Mohegans in the late 1750s.

In 1778, Jonathan Carver used Oregon to label the River of the West in his book Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America. The poet William Cullen Bryant took the name from Carver's book and used it in his poem "Thanatopsis" to refer to the recent discoveries of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; this use helped establish it in modern use.

Geography

See also: List of Oregon counties, Oregon Geographic Names, List of Oregon rivers Oregon's geography may be split roughly into six areas:

• the Coast Range,
• the Willamette Valley,
• the Cascade Mountains
• the Klamath Mountains,
• the Columbia Plateau, and
• the Basin and Range Region.

The state is about 360 miles long and 261 miles wide. Oregon is the ninth largest state, covering 98,386 square miles.

Its highest point is the summit of Mount Hood, at 11,239 feet (3,428 meters). As a West Coast state, its lowest point is sea level. Its mean elevation is 3300 feet.

Crater Lake National Park is Oregon's only national park.

Law and government

See also: List of Oregon governors, Oregon congressional districts Oregon's governor serves a four-year term. The legislature consists of a thirty member Senate and sixty member House. Senators serve four-year terms, and Representatives two. At the federal level, Oregon is represented by two senators and five representatives, which translates into seven electoral votes.

Oregon adopted many electorial reforms proposed during the Progressive Era, due to the efforts of William S. U'Ren. The state overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in 1902 that created the initiative and referendum processes for the citizans to directly approve proposed laws or amendments to the state constitution. In following years, the primary election to select party candidates was adopted in 1904, and in 1908 the Oregon Constitution was amended to include recall of public officials.

Of the measures placed on the ballot since 1902, the people have passed 99 of the 288 initiative measures and 25 of the 61 referenda on the ballot. During the same period, the legislature has referred 363 measures to the people, of which 206 have passed. For these ballot measures see List of Oregon ballot measures.

Oregon has been a pioneer in the use of vote-by-mail:

• 1981 The Oregon Legislature approves experimentation with vote-by-mail for local elections.
• 1987 Vote-by-mail becomes permanent, with the majority of Oregon's counties making use of it.
• 1995 Oregon becomes the first state to conduct a federal primary election totally by mail.
• 1996 Ron Wyden, Bob Packwood's replacement, is elected by mail with a 66% turnout.
• 1998 Through a voter initiative, Oregonians confirm their overwhelming support for vote-by-mail.
• 2000 Oregon becomes the first state in the nation to conduct a presidential election entirely by mail. About 80% of registered voters participated.

Economy

The Willamette Valley is very fertile, and coupled with Oregon's famous rains, gives the state a wealth of agricultural products. Appless and other fruits, cattle, dairy products, potatoes, and peppermint are all valuable products. Oregon is also one of four major world hazelnut growing regions. While the history of the wine production in Oregon can be traced to before Prohibition, it became a significant industry beginning in the 1970s, and Oregon is home to at least four wine appellations.

Her forests have historically made Oregon one of the nation's major timber production or logging states, but forest fires (such as the Tillamook Burn), over-harvesting, and law suits over the proper management of the extensive federal forest holdings have reduced the amount of timber produced. According to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, timber harvested from federal lands dropped some 96% from 1989 (when 4,333 million board feet was harvested) to 173 million board feet in 2001. While the 1980s saw an unsustainable amount of timber harvested, the drop in timber harvested is still significant, as the total amount of timber harvested in 2001 is less than half of that in the late 1970s. Even the shift in recent years towards finished goods such as paper and building materials have not slowed the decline of the timber industry. Examples include the Weyerhaeuser's acquisition of Willamette Industries in January, 2002, the announcement by Louisiana Pacific in September, 2003 that they will relocate their corporate headquarters from Portland to Nashville, and the experiences of small lumber towns like Gilchrist. Despite these changes, Oregon still leads the United States in softwood lumber production: in 2001, according to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, 6,056 million board feet was produced in Oregon, against 4,5257 mbf. in Washington, 2,731 in California, 2,413 in Georgia and 2,327 in Mississippi.

High technology industries and services have been a major employer since the 1970s. Tektronix was the largest private employer in Oregon until the late 1980s. Intel's creation and expansion of several plants in eastern Washington County continued the growth that Tektronix had started. The spinoffs and startups that were produced by these two companies led to the establishment of the Portland metropolitan area as the Silicon Forest. The recession and dotcom bust of 2001 in the Silicon Valley has led to similar results in the Silicon Forest; many high technology employers have either reduced the number of their employees or gone out of business.

Oregon had one of the largest salmon-fishing industries in the world, although ocean fisheries have reduced the river fisheries in recent years. Tourism is also strong in the state; Oregon's evergreen mountain forests, waterfalls, pristine lakes (including Crater Lake National Park), and scenic beaches draw visitors year round.

Oregon is home to a number of smaller breweries.

Demographics

As of the 2000 census, the population of Oregon is 3,421,399. Its population grew 20.4% (579,062) from its 1990 levels. According to the 2000 census,

See also the list of people from Oregon and the list of notable Portlanders.

Major cities and towns

See: List of Oregon cities The capital is Salem and the largest city is Portland.

Oregon City was the first incorporated city west of the Mississippi River and later, the first capital of the Oregon Territory, from 1848 to 1852, when the territory capitol was moved to Salem, Oregon. It was also the end of the Oregon Trail and the site of the first public library established west of the Rocky Mountains, stocked with only 300 volumes.

Colleges and universities

Professional sports teams

• Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA
• Portland Winter Hawks of the Western Hockey League
• Farm clubs of Major League Baseball
  • Eugene Emeralds, a single-A club in the Northwest League
  • Portland Beavers, a triple-A club in the Pacific Coast League
  • Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, a single-A club in the Northwest League

Broadcasting

• List of television stations in Oregon
• List of radio stations in Oregon
• Oregon Public Broadcasting

State symbols

State flower: Oregon grape (since 1899)

State song: Oregon, My Oregon (written in 1920 and adopted in 1927)

State bird: Western meadowlark (chosen by the state's children in 1927)

State tree: Douglas-fir (since 1939)

State fish: Chinook salmon (since 1961)

State rock: Thunderegg (like a geode but formed in a rhyolitic lava flow; since 1965)

State animal: Beaver (since 1969)

State dance: Square dance (since 1977)

State insect: Oregon Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio oregonius; since 1979)

State gemstone: Oregon sunstone, a type of feldspar (since 1987)

State nut: Hazelnut (since 1989)

State seashell: Oregon hairy triton (Fusitriton oregonensis, a gastropod in the cymatiidae family; since 1991)

Trivia

• Oregon has the smallest park in the world: Mill Ends Park in Portland, Oregon.
• Oregon has no sales tax.
• Abbreviations for the state include OR (postal), Ore., and Oreg.
• Oregon is one of two states that prohibit drivers from pumping their own gasoline. The other is New Jersey.
• Oregon claims the D River is the shortest river in the world, while the American state of Montana makes the same claim of the Roe River.
• The Kingsmen, who made the song Louie Louie famous are from Portland. There was once a failed effort to make Louie Louie Oregon's official state song.

External links

• Oregon Blue Book, the online version of the state's official directory and fact book
• State of Oregon Website
• Oregon News, News Sources, and News Searches
• Oregon History Project
• The Oregonian newspaper
• Oregon geography page
• mthood.org
• Louis, Louis as the official state song of Oregon?

• Oregon, Illinois
• Oregon, Ohio
• Oregon, Wisconsin