Oregon
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State nickname: Beaver State State motto: She Flies With Her Own Wings | |||||
Other U.S. States | |||||
| Capital | Salem | ||||
| Largest City | Portland | ||||
| Area - Total - Land - Water - % water |
Ranked 9th 255,026 km2 248,849 km2 6,177 km2 2.4% | ||||
| Population
- Total (2000) - Density |
Ranked 28th
3,421,399 13.4/km2 | ||||
| Admittance into Union
- Order - Date | 33th February 14, 1859 | ||||
| Time zone |
Pacific: UTC-8/-7 Mountain: UTC-7/-6 All but majority of Malheur County in Pacific | ||||
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Latitude Longitude |
42°N to 46°15'N 116°45'W to 124°30'W | ||||
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Width Length Elevation -Highest -Mean -Lowest |
420 km 580 km 3,426 meters 1,005 meters 0 meters | ||||
| ISO 3166-2: | US-OR | ||||
[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.Oregon is a state located in the western United States bordering the Pacific Ocean, California, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada. Its northern border lies along the Columbia River and the east along the Snake River. Two north-south mountain ranges - the Coastal Range and the Cascade Mountain Range - form the two boundaries of the Willamette Valley, one of the most fertile and agriculturally productive regions in the world. Oregon is known for its rain, but only the western half of the state is notably rainy; east of the Cascades the climate is much more arid.
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.
The origin of the state's name is something of a mystery. The earliest known use of this proper noun was in a 1765 petition by Major Robert Rogers to the English Crown (where he spelled the name as Ouragon), asking for money to finance an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. In 1778, Jonathan Carver used this name to label the River of the West in his book Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America; from this book the poet William Cullen Bryant took the name and used it in his poem "Thanatopsis" to evoke the recent discoveries of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, spreading this name into common use.
From where Rogers found the name has led to many theories, which include:
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 54ÃÂð40′ 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.
Oregon's geography may be split roughly into six areas:
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.
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:
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.
Her forests have historically made Oregon one of the nation's major lumbering 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 since the later 1980s. 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.
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.
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,
Origin of Oregon
History
Geography
See also: List of Oregon counties, Oregon Geographic Names
The state varies from rain forest in the Columbia Gorge to barren desert in the southeast, which still meets the technical definition of frontier.Law and government
See also: List of Oregon governors.Economy
Demographics
| 86.6% | (2,961,623) | identified themselves as White, |
| 8% | (275,314) | as Hispanic or Latino, |
| 1.6% | (55,662) | as black, |
| 3% | (101,350) | as Asian, |
| 1.3% | (45,211) | as American Indian or Alaska Native, |
| 0.2% | (7,976) | as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, |
| 4.2% | (144,832) | as other, and |
| 3.1% | (104,745) | identified themselves as belonging to two or more races. |
6.5% of its population were reported as under 5, 24.7% under 18, and 12.8% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 50.4% of the population.
See also the list of people from Oregon and the list of notable Portlanders.
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.Major cities and towns
See: List of Oregon cities
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Professional sports teams
Portland is under consideration to be the home of the Montreal Expos or another major league baseball team.
Broadcasting
State symbols
Trivia
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 is also the name of some places in the United States of America:
External links
and of several warships named in honor of the state.
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