Oregon
State in NW USA, on the Pacific coast; nicknamed Beaver State
Area:
251,500 sq km/97,079 sq mi
Capital:
Salem
Towns and Cities:
Portland, Eugene
Physical:
Columbia and Snake rivers ; the fertile Willamette River valley; Crater
Lake national park (the deepest lake in the USA, 589 m/ 1,933 ft), formed
as a result of the eruption of Mount Mazama; Newberry national volcanic
monument; Oregon Caves national monument; Cascade Mountains; Pacific
coast; Mount Hood national forest (Mount Hood 3,427 m/11,245 ft)
Features:
Vineyards; High Desert Museum, Bend, with a living exhibit of plants
and animals native to the arid region of the Pacific Northwest; Portland,
with Yamhill and Skidmore national historic districts, End of the Trail
Interpretative Center (the history of the Oregon Trail), the McLoughlin
historic district, with Victorian buildings, including the John McLoughlin
House national historic site (1846), Pittock Mansion (1909), Portland
Art Museum, Chinatown, Forest Park (the largest urban wilderness in
the USA), and Washington Park Rose Garden and Japanese Garden; Fort
Clatsop national memorial, commemorating the first sight of the Pacific
by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark 1805; Hoover-Minthorne House (1881),
the boyhood home of President Herbert Hoover; Willamette University,
Salem (1842), the oldest college in the West ; Reed College (1909);
the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland
Industries:
Wheat, livestock, timber, electronics
Population:
(1995) 3,140,600
Famous People:
Chief Joseph, Ursula LeGuin, Linus Pauling, John Reed
History:
Coast sighted by Spanish and English sailors 16th-17th centuries; part
of coastline charted by James Cook 1778 on his search for the
Northwest Passage; claimed for the USA 1792 by Robert Gray, whose
ship Columbia sailed into the river now named for it; explored
by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark 1805; Astoria, John Jacob
Astor's fur depot, founded at the mouth of the Columbia 1811;
boundary between US settlers and the Hudson's Bay Company fixed
1846 by Oregon Treaty. Oregon Territory included Washington until
1853; Oregon achieved statehood 1859. Oregon remained relatively
isolated until the completion of the first transcontinental railroad
link 1883. Improved transport helped make it the nation's leading
lumber producer and a major exporter of food products. Industrialization
was also aided by hydroelectric projects, many of them undertaken
by the federal government.
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