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Selected articles list
editPortal:Oregon/Selected article/1
Medford is a city in Jackson County, Oregon. As of 2014, the city had a total population of 78,557 and a metro population of more than 208,000. The city was named in the 1880s by David Loring, a civil engineer working for the Oregon and California Railroad for his home town of Medford, Massachusetts and in recognition of its position on the middle fork of Bear Creek. Medford was incorporated in 1885, and became the county seat of Jackson County in 1927. The Mail Tribune is the primary newspaper, and Rogue Valley International–Medford Airport the main airport. Education is provided by the Medford School District and Rogue Community College. Notable Medford residents include Kirstie Alley, Bill Bowerman, David B. Frohnmayer, Ginger Rogers, and Vic Snyder. Medford uses a council-manager style of government. The governing body of Medford consists of a mayor and eight city council members. Medford is located approximately 27 miles (43 km) north of the northern California border, at 42.3°N. Interstate 5 runs north-south through the center of the city with Oregon Routes 99, 238, and 62 also serving the city. Medford sits in a "weather shadow" between the Cascade Range and Siskiyou Mountains called the Rogue Valley. As such, most of the rain associated with the Pacific Northwest and Oregon in particular skips Medford, making it drier and sunnier than the Willamette Valley. Medford's economy is driven primarily by agriculture (pears, peaches, viticulture grapes) and timber products.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/2
The New Carissa was a freighter that ran aground on a beach near Coos Bay, Oregon, United States, during a storm in February 1999 and subsequently broke apart. An attempt to tow the bow section of the ship out to sea failed when the tow line broke, and the bow was grounded again. Eventually, the bow was successfully towed out to sea and sunk. The stern section remains on the beach near Coos Bay. Fuel on board the ship was burned off in situ, but a significant amount was also spilled from the wreckage, causing ecological damage to the coastline. The United States Coast Guard performed an investigation and found that captain's error was the main cause of the wreck; however, no criminal liability was established and the captain and crew were not charged. There were significant legal and financial consequences for the ship's owners and insurer. The stern section remained aground for over nine years until it was dismantled and removed from the beach in 2008.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/3
Exploding whales have been documented on two notable occasions, as well as several lesser-known ones. The most famous explosion occurred in Florence, Oregon in 1970, when a dead sperm whale (originally reported as a gray whale) that had washed ashore was blown up by the Oregon Highway Division in an attempt to dispose of its rotting carcass. This incident became famous in the U.S. when American humorist Dave Barry wrote about it in his syndicated newspaper column after viewing a videotape of television footage of the explosion. It later became well-known internationally when the same footage circulated on the Internet. There have also been spontaneous explosions. The other best-reported case of an exploding whale was in Taiwan in 2004, when a buildup of gas inside a decomposing sperm whale caused it to explode while it was being transported for a post-mortem examination. As exploding whales are an interesting and absurd topic, they have been written about by several authors.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/4
Ballot Measure 37 was a citizens' initiative passed in 2004, which requires that government compensate owners whose property value has been diminished by land-use regulations, or else waive the regulations. It followed Oregon Ballot Measure 7 passed in 2000 with similar provissions that had been struct down by the Oregon Supreme Court. Measure 37 represents a major change of course from Oregon's legacy of land use planning, and has generated a great deal of controversy. Passage led to many large land owners filing claims across the state that totaled in the millions of dollars each. The controversy surrounding these claims and the possibility of less controlled growth led lawmakers and other groups to propose changes to the law. Changes would exempt many larger developments from the provisions of Measure 37, while explicitly allowing some of the smaller claims, such as families building up to three houses on a single lot. These changes were turned into Measure 49. In a special election in November 2007, Measure 49 was passed by Oregon voters after one of the most expensive campaigns in the state's history.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/5
The USS Oregon (BB-3) was a pre-Dreadnought Indiana-class battleship of the United States Navy. Her construction was authorized on 30 June 1890, and the contract to build her was awarded to Union Iron Works of San Francisco, California on 19 November 1890. Her keel was laid exactly one year later. She was launched 26 October 1893, sponsored by Miss Daisy Ainsworth, delivered to the Navy 26 June 1896, and commissioned 15 July 1896, under the command of Captain H.L. Howison. Leaving drydock on 16 February 1898, she received news that Maine had blown up in Havana harbor the previous day. As tensions with Spain grew, on 9 March Oregon arrived in San Francisco and loaded ammunition. Three days later she was ordered on what was to become one of the most historic voyages ever undertaken by a Navy ship, sailing over 14,000 miles in 66 days. Despite Oregon's inspiring transit, the realization that the delay would have been cut to some three weeks if the Panama Canal had been operational greatly helped to persuade the United States to buy the failed French operations in Panama and complete the canal.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/6
The Oregon Supreme Court is the highest state court in the U.S. state of Oregon. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the Supreme Court of the United States. The OSC holds court at the Supreme Court building in Salem, Oregon, near the capitol building on State Street. Justices of the court serve six-year terms upon election; however, vacancies are filled by appointments of the Governor of Oregon until the next general election, when any qualified candidate may run for the position including the appointee. Tracing its beginnings back to 1841, when Oregon pioneers selected a supreme judge with probate powers, the court has grown from a single judge to its current make up of seven justices. These seven justices then select one member to serve a six-year term as Chief Justice. The court's Chief Justice is not only responsible for assigning cases to the other justices to write the court's opinions, but is also the chief executive of the Oregon Judicial Department. Primarily an appeals court, it is also the court of last resort in Oregon. Although most oral arguments before the court are held in the Oregon Supreme Court Building (built in 1914), the court does travel around the state, holding sessions in various schools.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/7
The Oregon Coast Range is a mountain range running north-south in western Oregon that extends over 200 miles from the Columbia River on the border of Oregon and Washington south to the middle fork of the Coquille River in the United States. It is thirty to sixty miles wide and averages around 1,500 feet in elevation. The oldest portions of the range are over 60 million years old, with volcanics and a forearc basin as the primary mountain building processes responsible for the range. It is part of the larger Pacific Coast Range that extends over much of the western edge of North America. The range creates a rain shadow effect for the Willamette Valley that lies to the east of the mountains, creating a more stable climate and significantly less rain than the coastal region of the state. The Oregon Coast Range is divided into three separate sections: Northern, Central, and Southern. In the south is the oldest portion of the range with formation beginning in the Paleocene era with the Roseburg volcanics, while the newest section is the northernmost portion formed first with the Siletz River Volcanics. The Central and Northern sections contain more sedimentary rocks from the mud, silt, sand, and other volcanic debris than the lower Southern section. Also, the Oregon Coast Range is home to over 50 mammal species, over 100 species of birds, and nearly 30 reptile or amphibian species that spent significant portions of their life cycle in the mountains.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/8
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Manifest Destiny was a phrase that expressed the idea that the United States was destined to expand from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not good, but that it was obvious ("manifest") and certain ("destiny"). It was originally a political catch phrase or slogan used by Democrats in the 1845-1855 period, and rejected by Whigs and Republicans of that era. Manifest Destiny was an explanation or justification for American expansion, or, in some interpretations, an ideology or doctrine which helped to promote the process. The phrase "Manifest Destiny" was first used primarily by Jackson Democrats after 1845 to promote the annexation of much of what is now the Western United States including the Texas Annexation and the Mexican Cession from Mexico, and the Oregon Territory to which both Great Britain and the U.S. laid claim. Not all Americans who believed that the United States was a divinely favored nation thought that it ought to expand. Whigs especially argued that the "mission" of the United States was only to serve as virtuous example to the rest of the world. If the United States was successful as a shining "city on a hill," people in other countries would seek to establish their own democratic republics. Also, the concept had serious consequences for American Indians. The United States purchased land rights by treaty from the Indian tribes. National policy was that Indians had to become "civilized" and abandon hunting and become farmers. Advocates of "civilization" programs believed that the process would greatly reduce the amount of land needed by the Indians, thereby making more land available for purchase by white Americans.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/9
The Columbia River is a river that flows from the Canadian province of British Columbia, through the U.S. state of Washington, and forms much of the border between Washington and Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. It is the largest river (measured by volume) flowing into the Pacific from the Western Hemisphere, and is the fourth-largest in North America. It is 1,243 miles (2,000 km) long and drains a 258,000 square miles (670,000 km2) basin. Humans have lived along the river for as many as 10,000 years. Natives enjoyed plentiful salmon, which could be easily caught during their spawning season; Celilo Falls, just east of the Columbia River Gorge, was an important fishing site, and also a regional trading hub, for many millennia. In 1775, Bruno de Heceta became the first European to sight the river's mouth from the Pacific. Spanish, American, and British explorers sought the river, seeking furs to trade and a navigable passage to the east coast of the continent. The river proved elusive until 1792, when American Robert Gray entered the river's mouth and named the river after his ship; and the English captain George Vancouver's crew explored it as far upstream as the Sandy River. Navigation by steamboats, and later by railroads along the river, was crucial to the settlement and trade in the 19th century. The Columbia's heavy flow, and its large elevation drop over a relatively short distance, give it tremendous potential for hydroelectricity generation. 14 dams on the Columbia, and many more on its tributaries, were built in the 20th century. The dams, and other industry near the river, profoundly altered the ecology and economy of the region; today Celilo Falls and other fishing sites have been flooded by lakes, which make up nearly the entire length of the once free-flowing river. The once plentiful salmon now struggle to reach their spawning grounds, and the removal of some of the dams to mitigate their impact on the fish is increasingly under consideration.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/10
Willamette University is a private institution of higher learning located in Salem, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest university in the western United States. Willamette has approximately 2,500 students in four schools, the undergraduate College of Liberal Arts, the graduate level College of Law, Atkinson Graduate School of Management, and the School of Education. The campus is located on 69 acres (250,000 m²) directly south of the Oregon State Capitol. Buildings on campus include Eaton Hall, Smullin/Walton Hall, Collins Hall, Olin Hall, G. Herbert Smith Auditorium, the Fine Arts building, the Hatfield Library, the Mary Stuart Rogers auditorium, Putnam University Center, Gatke Hall, Lausanne Hall, Goudy Commons, Kaneko Commons and Willamette's oldest building, Waller Hall. The university is a NCAA Division III school with the Bearcat as mascot. The university was founded as the Oregon Institute in the days of the Oregon Country by the missionary Jason Lee, who had arrived in the territory in 1834. On February 1, 1842, by-laws were adopted, a board of trustees was elected and thus the school was officially established. The original building of the institute was a three-story frame structure first occupied in 1844. At the time, it was one of the largest structures in the Pacific Northwest. It housed the first session of the state legislature to meet in Salem after the capital was moved there in 1851. The name of institution was changed to "Wallamet University" in 1852.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/11
Portland State University (PSU) is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon. It has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state. Part of the Oregon University System, it is also the state's only public university that is located in a major metropolitan city. PSU was established as the Vanport Extension Center in 1946 to satisfy the demand for higher education in Portland for returning World War II veterans. In 1952, the Center moved to downtown Portland and occupied the vacated buildings of Lincoln High School. In 1955, the Center changed its name to Portland State College, with graduate programs added in 1961 and doctoral programs added in 1968. The Oregon State System of Higher Education allowed the school to change its name in 1969 to Portland State University. In 1994, PSU eliminated the traditional undergraduate distribution system and adopted a new interdisciplinary general-education program known as University Studies. The Daily Vanguard, the student-run newspaper, was established in 1946. The student-run radio station is KPSU. "The Portland Review" is a literary magazine published by PSU's Student Publications Board. Additional student newspapers at PSU are The Rearguard, an alternative-monthly newspaper, and The Spectator.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/12
The Columbus Day Storm of 1962 was an extratropical wave cyclone that ranked among the most intense to strike the United States Pacific Northwest since the January 9, 1880, "Great Gale" and snowstorm. On a larger scale, the Columbus Day Storm of 1962 is a contender for the title of most powerful extratropical cyclone recorded in the U.S. in the 20th century. Only hurricanes of Category 3 or higher have brought winds of the magnitude witnessed in Oregon and Washington on Columbus Day, October 12, 1962. A tropical storm named Freda formed about 500 miles/800 km from Wake Island in the central Pacific Ocean. The system became an extratropical cyclone as it moved into colder waters and interacted with the jet stream. This storm moved northeastward, and then hooked straight north as it neared southwest Oregon before moving northward at an average speed of 40 mph (64 km/h) or greater, with the center just off of the Pacific Coast. It made landfall on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where it weakened rapidly. At the Mt. Hebo Air Force Station in the Oregon Coast Range, the anemometer pegged at its maximum 130 mph (209 km/h) for long periods—likely at the level of a Category 4 hurricane; damage to the radar domes suggested wind gusts to at least 170 mph (270 km/h). At least 46 fatalities were attributed to this storm, more than for any other Pacific Northwest wind event. The dollar damage adjusted to 2002 for inflation and population/property increase suggest a $3 to $5 billion storm.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/13
Mount Hood (called Wy'east by the Multnomah tribe), is a stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc in northern Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about 50 miles (80 km) east-southeast of the city of Portland, on the border between Clackamas and Hood River counties. Mount Hood's snow-covered peak rises 11,249 ft (3,429 m) and is home to twelve glaciers. It is the highest mountain in Oregon and the fourth-highest in the Cascade Range. Mount Hood is considered the Oregon volcano most likely to erupt, though based on its history, an explosive eruption is unlikely. Still, the odds of an eruption in the next 30 years are estimated at between 3 and 7 percent, so the USGS characterizes it as "potentially active". The mountain is sometimes informally described as "dormant" ("asleep"). Timberline Lodge is a National Historic Landmark located on the southern flank of Mount Hood just below Palmer Glacier. The mountain has six ski areas: Timberline, Mount Hood Meadows, Ski Bowl, Cooper Spur, Snow Bunny and Summit. They total over 4,600 acres (7.2 mi², 18.6 km²) of skiable terrain; Timberline offers the only year-round lift-served skiing in North America. Mount Hood is part of the Mount Hood National Forest, which has 1.067 million acres (1667 mi², 4318 km²), four designated wilderness areas which total 189,200 acres (295 mi², 766 km²), and more than 1200 mi (1900 km) of hiking trails.
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The Oregon State Capitol is the building housing the state legislature and the offices of the governor, secretary of state, and treasurer of Oregon. It is located in the state capital, Salem. The current building, constructed in 1935 and expanded in 1977, is the third to house the Oregon state government since the state administration moved to Salem in 1852. Two former capitol buildings were destroyed by fire, one in 1855 and the other in 1935. New York architects Trowbridge & Livingston conceived the current structure's Art Deco design, in association with Francis Keally. Much of the interior and exterior are made of marble. The Oregon State Capitol was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The Public Works Administration, part of the U.S. government, partially financed construction, which was completed during the Great Depression, in 1937. The building was erected at a cost of $2.5 million for the central portion of the building, which includes a dome of 166 feet (51 m).
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/15
Hillsboro is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Oregon, United States. The community was founded in 1842 and was named Hillsborough in 1850; in 1876 the city was incorporated as Hillsboro. Located in the Tualatin Valley, the city is home to a number of technology companies such as microprocessor chip manufacturers and related suppliers, giving rise to the term Silicon Forest, which includes other high-tech employers in the region. Hillsboro is governed by a council-manager government consisting of a city manager and a city council headed by a mayor. Transportation modes in the city include the T.V. Highway, the Sunset Highway, and the Hillsboro Airport, with public transportation available through TriMet, including MAX Light Rail. The city has four high schools and four middle schools, and is also home to Pacific University's Health Professions Campus. Hillsboro's population was 91,611 as of the 2010 census, making it the most populous city in the county and fifth most populous in the state. The population is approximately 73% White, with those of Hispanic heritage as the largest minority group, comprising approximately 23% of the total population as of the 2010 census. Median household income was $51,737 as of the 2000 census.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/16
Oregon Route 99W is a state-numbered route in Oregon, United States that runs from OR 99 and OR 99E in Junction City north to I-5 in southwestern Portland. (Some signs continues it north to US 26 near downtown, but most signs agrees with the Oregon Department of Transportation's (ODOT) description, ending it at I-5. 99W is known by ODOT as the Pacific Highway West No. 1W (see Oregon highways and routes); that highway continues north through downtown (along a former extension of OR 99W) to the Pacific Highway No. 1 (I-5) in northern Portland, as well as south on OR 99 to the Pacific Highway (I-5) in Eugene. Until around 1972, OR 99W was U.S. Route 99W, rejoining OR 99E (former US 99E) in northern Portland. US 99 then continued north along present I-5 into Washington; the next segment still numbered 99 is WA 99 south of Seattle. Cities along the highway route include Tigard and Newberg along a mainly east-west alignment near Portland in the Willamette Valley. At McMinnville the road turns south and passes through Monmouth, Corvallis, Monroe, and Junction City before ending in Eugene.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/17
Crater Lake National Park is a United States National Park whose primary feature is Crater Lake. It was established on May 22, 1902 as the fifth National Park in the U.S., and is Oregon's only National Park. The park encompasses Crater Lake's caldera, which rests in the remains of a destroyed volcano posthumously called Mount Mazama. About 400,000 years ago, Mazama began life as overlapping shield volcanoes. Over time, alternating layers of lava flows and pyroclastic flows built Mazama until it reached about 11000 feet (3400 m) in height. After a period of dormancy, Mazama became active again. Then, around 5700 BC, Mazama collapsed into itself during a tremendous volcanic eruption. The eruption formed a large caldera that was filled in about 740 years, forming a lake with a deep blue hue, known today as Crater Lake. The lake is 1,949 feet (594 m) deep at its deepest point which makes it the deepest lake in the U.S., the second-deepest in North America, and the ninth-deepest anywhere in the world. The caldera rim ranges in elevation from 7000 to 8000 feet (2100 to 2400 m). The USGS benchmarked elevation of the lake surface itself is 6178 ft (1883 m). The park covers 286 mi² (741 km²) with the highest point at Mount Scott. The lake is filled entirely from direct precipitation in the form of snow and rain.
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The Oregon wine industry contributed a total of USD $1.4 billion to the Oregon economy. Of that figure, over USD $800 million is directly provided by wineries and vineyards via sales, wages, and spending. It is estimated that the industry contributed 8,479 wine-related jobs and USD $203 million in wages. Exports to other states in 2004 were USD $64.1 million. Out of all US wine growing regions, Oregon ranked third in number of wineries and fourth in production. Nearly 1.6 million cases of Oregon wine were sold in 2005. The retail value of these cases was $184.7 million, a 24% increase over the previous vintage. Wine has been produced in Oregon since the Oregon Territory was settled in the 1840s; however, winemaking has only been a significant industry in the state since the 1960s. Grapes were first planted in the Oregon Territory in 1847, with the first recorded winery being established in 1850 in Jacksonville. Throughout the 19th century, there was experimentation with various varietals by immigrants to the state, and in 1904, an Oregon winemaker won a prize at the St. Louis World's Fair. There are three main wine producing regions with a major presence in the state of Oregon. Two of them, the Willamette Valley AVA and the Southern Oregon AVA, are wholly contained within Oregon; a third, the Columbia Gorge AVA straddles the Columbia River and includes territory in both Oregon and Washington.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/19
Moda Center, previously known as the Rose Garden arena, is the primary indoor sports arena in Portland, Oregon. It is suitable for large indoor events of all sorts, including basketball, ice hockey, rodeos, circuses, conventions, ice shows, concerts, and dramatic productions. The arena has a capacity of 19,980 spectators when configured for basketball; it holds smaller crowds when configured for other events. The arena is equipped with state-of-the-art acoustics and other amenities. It is owned by Vulcan Inc., a holding company owned by Paul Allen, and is currently managed by Global Spectrum, a company which manages sports facilities (and which also owns several sports franchises). The primary tenant is the Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchise, also owned by Allen. Several other professional sports franchises, and the Portland State University men's basketball team, either currently play home games in the Moda Center, or have done so in the past. In addition, the facility is a popular venue for concerts and other artistic productions. Construction of the arena began in 1993, and the facility opened on October 12, 1995, named the Rose Garden. The arena cost US $262 million to build; construction was financed with funds obtained from a variety of sources, including the City of Portland, Allen's personal fortune, and $155 million in bonds issued by a consortium of mutual funds and insurance companies. The Rose Garden arena was renamed Moda Center in 2013, under a 10-year naming rights deal with Moda Health.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/20
Willamette University College of Law is a private law school located in Salem. Founded in 1842, Willamette University is the oldest university in the Western United States. The College of Law, which was founded in 1883 and is the oldest law school in the Pacific Northwest, has approximately 30 law professors and a yearly entering class of 165 students. The campus is located across the street from the Oregon State Capitol and the Oregon Supreme Court Building. Housed in the Truman Wesley Collins Legal Center, Willamette's College of Law offers full-time enrollment for the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree, a joint-degree program, and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) program. Students may attend part time for the LL.M. program, which focuses on international legal issues. The joint-degree program allows students to earn both a J.D. and a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) concurrently in a four-year program.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/21
The 1985 Rajneeshee assassination plot was a conspiracy by high-ranking followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (now known as Osho) to assassinate Charles Turner, the then-United States Attorney for the District of Oregon. Osho's chief lieutenant, Ma Anand Sheela, assembled the hit squad after Turner was appointed to investigate illegal activity at Rajneeshpuram. Turner headed an investigation into the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack in The Dalles, Oregon, and also investigated charges of wiretapping, immigration fraud and sham marriages. The conspirators obtained false identification to purchase handguns out-of-state, stalked Turner, and planned to kill him near his workplace in Portland, Oregon. The assassination plot was uncovered as a result of an investigation by federal law enforcement into the bioterror attack in The Dalles, and Turner was never harmed. Prosecution of the conspirators began in 1990, when a federal grand jury brought indictments against several of the key players. Some had fled the country, and extradition proceedings against the perpetrators and subsequent prosecution and conviction was not completed for sixteen years. The final conspirator was convicted in 2006, when Catherine Jane Stork agreed to return to the United States from Germany in order to be allowed to visit her ill son in Australia. The perpetrators received sentences ranging from five years probation to five years in federal prison.
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The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was the most significant volcanic eruption to occur in the lower 48 states of the United States in recorded history. The eruption was preceded by a two-month long series of earthquakes and steam venting episodes that created a huge bulge and a fracture system on Mount St. Helens' north slope. An earthquake on May 18, 1980 caused the entire weakened north face to slide away, suddenly exposing the partly molten, gas and steam-rich rock in the volcano to lower pressure. The rock responded by exploding into a super-heated mix of pulverized lava and older rock that sped toward Spirit Lake so fast that it quickly passed the avalanching north face. By the time the ash settled and the lahars stopped advancing, 57 people were dead, many thousands of animals were killed, hundreds of square miles were reduced to a wasteland, and over a billion U.S. dollars in damage was done. Additionally, large mud flows created by the blast flowed into area rivers and made their way to the Columbia River. This resulted in 13-foot (4 m) river depths on the Columbia, and temporarily closed the busy channel to ocean-going freighters, costing Portland an estimated five million US dollars. Portland mayor Connie McCready eventually threatened local businesses with fines if they failed to remove the ash that had accumulated from three blasts from their parking lots.
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The Columbia River Basalt Group is a large igneous province that lies across parts of the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in the United States. During late Miocene and early Pliocene times, one of the largest flood basalts ever to appear on the earth's surface engulfed about 163,700 km² (63,000 mile²) of the Pacific Northwest, forming a large igneous province with an estimated volume of 174,300 km³. Eruptions were most vigorous from 17—14 million years ago, when over 99% of the basalt was released. Less extensive eruptions continued from 14—6 million years ago. These lava flows have been extensively exposed by the erosion resulting from the Missoula Floods, which laid bare many layers of the basalt flows at Wallula Gap, the lower Palouse River, the Columbia River Gorge and throughout the Channeled Scablands. Over a period of perhaps 10 to 15 million years lava flow after lava flow poured out, eventually accumulating to a thickness of more than 1.8 km (6,000 feet). The subsidence of the crust produced a large, slightly depressed lava plain now known as the Columbia Basin or Columbia River Plateau. Flowing from modern Eastern Oregon, the flows would make it as far as the modern Oregon Coast and form portions of the Oregon Coast Range. The ancient Columbia River was forced into its present course by the northwesterly advancing lava. The lava, as it flowed over the area, first filled the stream valleys, forming dams that in turn caused impoundments or lakes. In these ancient lake beds are found fossil leaf impressions, petrified wood, fossil insects, and bones of vertebrate animals.
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Eugene is the county seat of Lane County, Oregon. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about 60 miles (97 km) east of the Oregon Coast. According to the official 2007 population figures Eugene is the second-largest city in Oregon, with an estimated population of 153,690, and the third-largest metropolitan population. Eugene was long the state's second-largest city after Portland, but was overtaken by Salem in terms of population from around 2004 to 2006. Eugene is named after its founder, Eugene Franklin Skinner, who in 1846 erected the first cabin in the area. The first post office was registered on January 8, 1850 and the city was incorporated in 1862. Eugene is home to the University of Oregon's main campus, which is downtown. The city is also noted for its natural beauty, activist political leanings, alternative lifestyles, recreation opportunities (especially bicycling, rafting, and kayaking), and arts focus. Eugene's motto is "The World's Greatest City of the Arts and Outdoors." In addition to the university-owned cultural facilities, the city is home to the Hult Center for the Performing Arts and The John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts. It is also referred to as "The Emerald Empire," "The Emerald City," "The People's Republic of Eugene," and "Track Town, USA" or "The Track Capital of the World." The Nike corporation had its beginnings in UO's track program. Eugene's largest industries are wood products manufacturing and recreational vehicle manufacturing, and the city is home to the corporate headquarters of employee-owned Bi-Mart.
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The Hallie Ford Museum of Art (HFMA) is the museum of Willamette University in Salem. The museum is named after philanthropist Hallie Ford (1905-2007) who donated millions of dollars to the school. When it opened the museum was the second largest art museum in the state after the Portland Art Museum, and it is currently the state's third largest. Opened in 1998, the facility is across the street from the Oregon State Capital in downtown Salem, on the western edge of the Willamette University campus. Hallie Ford exhibits collections of both art and historical artifacts with a focus on Oregon related pieces of art and artists in the 27,000 square feet (2,500 m2) facility. The museum also hosts various traveling exhibits in two of its six galleries. The museum is in a three story, International Style building constructed in 1965 for the local phone company. Past exhibits have included traveling exhibits on Egyptian art in 2002, Maori artwork, a collection of ancient glass work in 2007, and an exhibit on ancient Roman and Greek artifacts. Artists featured include painter Michael Spafford, Michael Brophy, Amanda Snyderis, Rick Bartow, Jacob Lawrence, David Giese, Fay Jones, David Gilhooly, Mary Lou Zeek, and Robert Hess among others. Hallie Ford Museum of Art is a member of both the American Association for State and Local History, and the American Association of Museums
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Yasui v. United States, 320 U.S. 115 (1943) was a United States Supreme Court case regarding the constitutionality of curfews used during World War II as applied to citizens of the United States. The case arose out of the implementation of Executive Order 9066 by the U.S. military to create zones of exclusion along the West Coast of the United States where Japanese-Americans were subjected to curfews and eventual removal to relocation centers. This Presidential order followed the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 that brought American in to World War II and inflamed the existing anti-Japanese sentiment in the country. In their decision, the Supreme Court held that the application of curfews against citizens is constitutional. As a companion case to Hirabayashi v. United States, both decided on June 21, 1943, the court affirmed the conviction of Oregon-born Minoru Yasui who had violated curfew in Portland. The court remanded the case back to the United States District Court for the District of Oregon for sentencing as this lower court had determined the curfew was not valid against citizens, but Yasui had forfeited his citizenship by working for the Japanese consulate. The Yasui and Hirabayashi decisions, along with the later Ex parte Endo and Korematsu v. United States decisions determined the legality of the curfews and relocations during the war. In the 1980s new information was used to vacate the conviction of Minoru Yasui.
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The Hood to Coast Relay is a unique long-distance relay race held in the U.S. state of Oregon, annually in late August, traditionally on the Friday and Saturday of the weekend before the Labor Day weekend. It is the longest major relay in North America and the largest in the world in terms of total participation (12,000 participants annually). The course runs 197 miles (317 km) from Timberline Lodge on the slopes of Mount Hood, the tallest peak in Oregon, through the Portland metropolitan area, and across the Oregon Coast Range to the city of Seaside on the Oregon Coast. The first relay was held in 1982 and drew eight teams, but due to growth is now limited to 1,000 twelve-person teams. Teams in Hood to Coast must complete the course within a 31 hour time limit (an average of 9 minutes 30 seconds a mile). Walkers and high school teams may choose to compete in the Portland to Coast Walk or Portland to Coast High School Challenge respectively, both of which are held in conjunction with the main relay and start in downtown Portland instead of Mount Hood. Portland to Coast Walk and High School Challenge are limited to 400 and 50 teams respectively; entries are accepted on a first-come-first-served basis until all spaces are filled.
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The Northern Oregon Coast Range is the northern section of the Oregon Coast Range located in the northwest portion of the state. This section of the mountain range, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, contains peaks as high as 3,661 feet (1,116 m) for Rogers Peak. Forests in these mountains are considered to be some of the most productive timber land in the world. The Central Oregon Coast Range is directly south of this section with the Southern Oregon Coast Range beyond the central range. Approximately 40 million years ago the mountain building processes began during the Eocene age. During this time sandstone and siltstone were formed and basalt flows invaded the area from what is now Eastern Oregon. These rock formations were then lifted as part of the fore-arc basin that runs along the Oregon Coast. Heavy precipitation in the range has further shaped the mountains through erosional forces. The moist and mild climate has helped to create a temperate forest with large stands of Douglas-fir, Sitka spruce, western redcedar, and western hemlock.
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Intel Corporation is the world's largest semiconductor company and the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers. Founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation and based in Santa Clara, California, USA, Intel also makes motherboard chipsets, network cards and ICs, flash memory, graphic chips, embedded processors, and other devices related to communications and computing. Founded by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, Intel combines advanced chip design capability with a leading-edge manufacturing capability. Originally known primarily to engineers and technologists, Intel's successful "Intel Inside" advertising campaign of the 1990s made it and its Pentium processor household names. While Intel created the first commercial microprocessor chip in 1971, it was not until the creation of the personal computer (PC) that this became their primary business. During the 1990s, Intel invested heavily in new microprocessor designs and in fostering the rapid growth of the PC industry. During this period Intel became the dominant supplier of microprocessors for PCs, and was known for aggressive and sometimes controversial tactics in defense of its market position, as well as a struggle with Microsoft for control over the direction of the PC industry. The 2007 rankings of the world's 100 most powerful brands published by Millward Brown Optimor showed the company's brand value falling 10 places – from number 15 to number 25. Intel is the largest employer in Oregon, with facilities mainly in Hillsboro where it employs over 16,000 at three main locations.
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Waller Hall is the oldest building on the campus of Willamette University in Salem. Built in 1867 as University Hall, the five-story, brick structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The building has been gutted twice by fires with the interior rebuilt each time, and went through renovations in 1987–1989 and 2005. From 1872 when the Oregon Institute building burned down until 1906 the building was the only permanent structure on campus. Built in the Renaissance style of architecture, it is currently used for administration offices and is the oldest university building west of the Mississippi River in the U.S. still in use. Waller Hall is located on the north end of campus opposite the Oregon State Capitol building across State Street. All of the bricks used in the construction were fired on campus using clay excavated from the construction site in order to build the foundation. The school renamed the building in 1912 to Waller Hall in honor of longtime university trustee Alvin F. Waller. Waller is used for administrative functions, including housing the office of the university's president (as of 2008 M. Lee Pelton), and contains the Cone Chapel.
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The Provisional Government of Oregon was a popularly-elected government created in the Oregon Country, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It existed from May 2, 1843 until March 3, 1849. Created at a time when no country had sovereignty over the region, this independent government provided a legal system and a common defense for pioneers settling the region. As laid out in Section 1 of the preamble to the Organic Laws of Oregon, which were adopted in 1843 to serve as a constitution, settlers only agreed to the laws “until such time as the United States of America extend their jurisdiction over us.” The government had three branches that included a legislature, judiciary, and executive branch. The executive branch was first the Executive Committee, consisting of three members, in effect from 1843 to 1845; in 1845, a single governor position was created. The judicial branch had a single supreme judge along with several lower courts, and a legislative committee of nine served as a legislature until 1845 when the Oregon House of Representatives was established. The government was superseded when the United States created the Oregon Territory in 1848. Once the territorial government arrived in 1849, the Provisional Government was dissolved, though all but one law continued in effect in the territory.
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The Portland Aerial Tram is an aerial tramway in Portland, Oregon carrying commuters between the city's South Waterfront district and the main Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) campus, located in the Marquam Hill neighborhood. It is the second commuter aerial tramway in the United States (after New York City's Roosevelt Island Tramway). The tram travels a horizontal distance of 3,300 feet (5/8 mi, 1 km) and a vertical distance of 500 feet (150 m) in a ride that lasts three minutes. The tram was jointly funded by OHSU, the City of Portland, and by South Waterfront property owners, with the bulk of the funding coming from OHSU. It is owned by the city and operated by OHSU. While the majority of passengers are affiliated with OHSU, it is open to the public and operated as part of Portland's public transportation network that includes the Portland Streetcar, MAX Light Rail, and TriMet buses. After opening in December 2006, the tram carried its one millionth passenger on October 17, 2007. The tram cost $57 million to build—a nearly fourfold increase over initial cost estimates, which was one of several sources of controversy concerning the project. A round-trip tram ticket costs $4.50; the tram is free for OHSU employees, patients, students, and visitors.
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The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. Running it a north-south direction, it includes both non-volcanic mountains, including the rugged spires of the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades. The Cascades are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the ring of volcanoes and associated mountains around the Pacific Ocean. All of the known historic eruptions in the contiguous United States have been from Cascade volcanoes. The two most recent were Lassen Peak in 1914 to 1921 and a major eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. Minor eruptions of Mount St. Helens have also occurred, most recently in 2006. In Oregon, the range divides the state between the drier Eastern Oregon section that has a rain-shadow effect and the moister western portion of the state that includes the Willamette Valley and Portland area. Mount Hood, the tallest peak in Oregon at 11,249 feet (3,429 m), is the northernmost volcano in the Oregon section of the Cascades. Other Oregon peaks in the range include Mount Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, Mount Washington, Three Sisters, Mount Bachelor, Mount Thielsen, Mount Mazama, and Mount McLoughlin among others. The Pacific Crest Trail runs the length of the range, while Oregon's lone national park, Crater Lake National Park, and several national forests and wilderness areas occupy large tracts of land in the mountains.
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The 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack refers to the salmonella food poisoning of over seven hundred and fifty individuals in Oregon, USA through the contamination of salad bars at ten local restaurants. Followers of Osho, then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, hoped to incapacitate the voting population of the town so that their own candidates would win county elections. The attack is one of only two confirmed terrorist uses of biological weapons to harm humans. Having previously gained political control of Antelope, Oregon, Osho followers based in nearby Rajneeshpuram sought election to two of the three seats on the Wasco County Court which were up for election in November 1984. After other tactics to gain political control failed, Rajneeshpuram officials decided to incapacitate voters in The Dalles, the most populated city in the county. The biological agent used was Salmonella enterica Typhimurium, which was first delivered through glasses of water to two county commissioners, and then delivered on a larger scale at salad bars and in salad dressing. A total of 751 people were sickened with salmonellosis, and 45 were hospitalized, but no fatalities. An initial investigation by the Oregon Public Health Division and the Centers for Disease Control did not rule out deliberate contamination, the source of the biological agent was only discovered one year later. At a press conference in 1985, Osho accused several of his followers of involvement in this and other crimes, including an aborted plan to assassinate a United States attorney. The Oregon Attorney General set up an inter agency task force between the Oregon State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and executed search warrants in Rajneeshpuram. A contaminant matching the bacteria that sickened the town residents was found in a Rajneeshpuram medical laboratory. Two leading Rajneeshpuram officials served twenty-nine months in a minimum-security federal prison.
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The Provisional Legislature of Oregon was the single-chamber legislative body of the Provisional Government of Oregon. It served the Oregon Country of the Pacific Northwest of North America from 1843 until early 1849 at a time when no country had sovereignty over the region. This democratically elected legislature became the Oregon Territorial Legislature when the territorial authorities arrived after the creation of the Oregon Territory by the United States in 1848. The body was first termed the Legislative Committee and later renamed the House of Representatives. Over the course of its six-year history the legislature passed laws, including taxation and liquor regulation, and created an army to deal with conflicts with Native Americans. Many of the legislators would become prominent figures during the territorial years of Oregon. At first a small committee of nine, the group was altered when the Organic Laws of Oregon were revised in 1845 and became the Oregon House of Representatives with a minimum of 13 members. Once the government was dissolved, all the laws remained in effect, except for the one that authorized the minting of coins. Governor Joseph Lane nullified that law ending production of the Beaver Coins.
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Portland is a city located near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. With a population of 583,776 (as of the 2010 census), it is Oregon's most populous city, and the third most populous city in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle, and Vancouver. Approximately 2.3 million people live in the Portland metropolitan area (MSA), the 19th most populous in the United States as of July 2012. Portland was incorporated in 1851 and is the seat of Multnomah County. The city extends slightly into Washington County to the west and Clackamas County to the south. It is governed by a commission-based government headed by a mayor and four other commissioners. Portland's first mayor was Hugh O'Bryant, who served for one year. The city and region are noted for strong land-use planning and investment in public transit, supported by Metro, a distinctive regional-government scheme. Portland lies in the Marine West Coast climate region, which is marked by warm summers and rainy but temperate winters. This climate is ideal for growing roses, and for more than a century Portland has been known as "The City of Roses," with many rose gardens – most prominently the International Rose Test Garden. Portland is also known for its large number of microbreweries, and as the home of the Trail Blazers NBA basketball team.
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The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806), was headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. It was the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back. In 1804, the Louisiana Purchase sparked interest in expansion to the west coast. A few weeks after the purchase, President Thomas Jefferson, an advocate of western expansion, had the Congress appropriate $2,500 for an expedition. The American expedition to the Pacific northwest was intended to study the Indian tribes, botany, geology, Western terrain and wildlife in the region, as well as evaluate the potential interference of British and French Canadian hunters and trappers who were already well established in the area. Jefferson selected Captain Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition, afterwards known as the Corps of Discovery. Lewis selected William Clark as his partner, with 31 others rounding out the group. After beginning the expedition in Spring 1804, they traveled up the Missouri River and built Fort Mandan in present day North Dakota for the first winter. The Corps of Discovery then crossed the Rocky Mountains and journeyed down the Columbia River to the Oregon Coast, arriving at the Pacific Ocean in November 1805. The second winter was spent at Fort Clatsop in present day Oregon where they prepared for the journey home. Leaving Fort Clatsop in April 1806, they reached St. Louis on September 23, 1806, ending the expedition.
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The Hillsboro Civic Center is a government-built, mixed-use development in downtown Hillsboro. The development includes the city hall of Hillsboro, which is the county seat of Washington County, located west of Portland. Covering six acres, the Civic Center has a total of over 165,000 square feet (15,300 m2) in the complex. The total of six stories for the main structure makes the building the tallest in the city, tied with Tuality Community Hospital. In addition to government offices, the Civic Center includes retail space, public plazas, and residential housing. The complex was built to centralize city government functions under one roof, allowing the city to move many offices from leased space in the county's Public Services Building. Design of the complex began in 2002, with construction beginning in 2003. After completion in 2005, the building was awarded the LEED Gold certification for sustainability, the second city hall in the United States to earn that distinction. Environmentally friendly technologies used include occupancy sensors, ventilation that monitors carbon dioxide levels to determine when to activate, high performance exterior glass to reduce heat loss, and solar panels to generate electricity. Other features of the complex include conference space, public plazas, outdoor fountains, and an auditorium used for city council meetings, among other items.
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The Oregon Coast is a geographical term that is used to describe the coast of Oregon along the Pacific Ocean. Stretching 362 miles from Astoria to the California border, the beaches along the Oregon Coast are considered public land. Oregon law prohibits private ownership of beaches. The Oregon Coast is often divided into three regions: The North Coast - from the Washington border at Astoria to Lincoln City; The Central Coast - from Lincoln City to Reedsport; The Southern Coast - from Reedsport to the California border, just south of Brookings. There are no large cities on the coast, mainly due to the lack of deep harbors with access to the inland agricultural areas. The largest metro area is Coos Bay/North Bend on the South Coast, which together make up a population of 25,000. The relative isolation of the coast from nearby large population centers has given the coast a reputation for being somewhat rustic, being a mixture of old logging towns, fishing villages, seasonal resorts, and artists' colonies. Tourism and logging are the major industries on the coast. The coastal region's popularity, combined with the fact that there is only one continuous highway along the coastline (U.S. Route 101) contributes to traffic along the coast being named the worst tourist traffic in the United States. Features along the coast include the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Sea Lion Caves, Yaquina Bay, many bridges, more than ten lighthouses, and part of the Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks at Fort Stevens at the northernmost portion where the coast meets the Columbia River.
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U.S. Route 199 is a U.S. Highway in the states of California and Oregon, numbered as a spur of U.S. Route 99, which no longer exists. It stretches 80 miles (129 km) from Interstate 5 in Grants Pass, Oregon southwest to U.S. Route 101 near Crescent City, California, and is the northern part of the Redwood Highway. In Oregon, US 199 is officially known as the Redwood Highway No. 25 (see Oregon highways and routes). The entire length in California is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System (although it is almost completely a two-lane road), is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System, and is defined by Streets and Highways Code section 499. US 199 leaves California at the Elk Valley where it leaves the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and descends into the Illinois Valley. After passing O'Brien and the west end of Oregon Route 46 in Cave Junction, the highway leaves the Illinois River north of Cave Junction, with the river then curving west towards the ocean. US 199 then and follows several small creeks past Selma to Hayes Hill Summit (elevation about 1700 feet/500 m). The highway descends from the summit alongside Slate Creek past Wonder and Wilderville and ends up in the Rogue River Valley, where it enters Grants Pass and terminates at Interstate 5.
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The Barlow Road (at inception, Mount Hood Road) is a historic road over and around Mount Hood. It was built in 1846 by Sam Barlow and Philip Foster, with authorization of the Provisional Legislature of Oregon, and served as the last overland segment of the Oregon Trail. Its construction allowed covered wagons to cross the Cascade Range and reach the Willamette Valley, which had previously been nearly impossible. Even so, it was by far the most harrowing 100 miles (160 km) of the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200 km) Oregon Trail. Before the opening of the Barlow Road, pioneers traveling by land from the east followed the Oregon Trail to Wascopam Mission (now The Dalles) and floated down the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver, then a perilous and expensive journey. It was also possible to drive livestock over Lolo Pass on the north side of Mount Hood, but that trail was too rugged for vehicles and so unsuitable for wagons. The Barlow Road begins at The Dalles and heads south to Tygh Valley (some consider Tygh Valley to be the beginning), then turns west and roughly parallels the White River on the north and then west, crosses the south shoulder of Mount Hood at Barlow Pass, follows Camp Creek and the Sandy River for some way, and finally leads to Oregon City. The road was rendered largely irrelevant in the early 1900s by the construction of the Mount Hood Highway. It still exists as a dirt road in some places, while most other parts have been paved over by modern streets and highways.
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Johnson Creek is a tributary, about 25 miles (40 km) long, of the Willamette River in the Portland metropolitan area. Part of the drainage basin of the Columbia River, its watershed consists of 54 square miles (140 km2) of mostly urban land occupied by about 175,000 people as of 2006. Passing through the cities of Gresham, Portland, and Milwaukie, the creek flows generally west from the foothills of the Cascade Range through sediments deposited by glacial floods on a substrate of basalt. Though polluted, it is free-flowing along its main stem and provides habitat for salmon and other migrating fish. Prior to European settlement, the watershed was covered with Oregon ash, alder, and western redcedar forests and scattered black cottonwood groves in riparian areas; Douglas-fir and Oregon white oak grew in the uplands. Native Americans of the Chinook band fished and hunted in this area, and they used fire to maintain prairie openings for native plant foods such as camas. In the 19th century, the watershed was taken over by white settlers who altered the landscape. The stream is named for one of these newcomers, William Johnson, who in 1846 built a water-powered sawmill in what later became the Lents neighborhood of Portland. Data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) show that the creek reached or exceeded flood stage 37 times between 1941 and 2006. The creek's watershed includes the subwatersheds of Badger Creek, Sunshine Creek, Kelley Creek, Mitchell Creek, Veterans Creek, Crystal Springs Creek, and smaller streams. Parks along the creek and its tributaries include natural areas, a wildlife refuge, a rhododendron garden, a botanical garden, and a 21-mile (34 km) bicycle and pedestrian rail trail that follows the creek for much of its length.
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The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex on the Columbia River in south-central Washington operated by the United States government. Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, it was home to the B-Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the first nuclear bomb, tested at the Trinity site, and in Fat Man, the bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan. During the Cold War, the project was expanded to include nine nuclear reactors and five massive plutonium processing complexes, which produced plutonium for most of the 60,000 weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Government documents have since confirmed that Hanford's operations released significant amounts of radioactive materials to the air and to the Columbia River, which threatened the health of residents and ecosystems. The weapons production reactors were decommissioned at the end of the Cold War, but the manufacturing process left behind 53 million U.S. gallons (204,000 m³) of high-level radioactive waste that remains at the site. This represents two-thirds of the nation's high-level radioactive waste by volume. Today, Hanford is the most contaminated nuclear site in the U.S. and is the focus of the nation's largest environmental cleanup. While most of the current activity at the site is related to the cleanup project, Hanford also hosts a commercial nuclear power plant, the Columbia Generating Station, and various centers for scientific research and development, such as the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the LIGO Hanford Observatory.
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The Hatfield Government Center station is a light rail station on the MAX Blue Line in downtown Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. The station is the 20th stop westbound on the Westside MAX, and the western terminus of the MAX Blue Line route. Opened in 1998, it is located on the same block as the Hillsboro Post Office and adjacent to the Washington County Courthouse and the Hillsboro Civic Center. The block is bounded by First and Adams streets on the east and west and between Washington and Main streets on the south and north. The station is named in honor of Mark O. Hatfield, a former United States Senator from Oregon and light rail proponent. Amenities include rider shelters, a brick station house, three tracks, a park and ride lot, and public artwork. Artwork at the station reflects the gathering and dispersal of people and the harvest.
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Portland City Hall is the headquarters of city government of Portland, Oregon, United States. The four-story Italian Renaissance-style building houses the offices of the City Council, which consists of the mayor and four commissioners, and several other offices. City Hall is also home to the City Council chambers, located in the rotunda on the east side of the structure. Completed in 1895, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 21, 1974. City Hall has gone through several renovations, with the most recent overhaul gutting the interior to upgrade it to modern seismic and safety standards. The original was built for $600,000, while the 1996 to 1998 renovation cost $29 million. Located in downtown Portland, City Hall sits on an entire city block along Fourth and Fifth avenues at Madison and Jefferson Streets. To the south is the Wells Fargo Center, and to the north is the Portland Building. Terry Schrunk Plaza (named for a former mayor) is across Fourth Avenue to the east. In addition to more than 87,000 square feet (8,100 m2) of interior space, the exterior consists of landscaped grounds. The main entrance is located on Fourth Avenue, though for a time it was located on the Fifth Avenue side.
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Celilo Falls (Wyam, meaning "echo of falling water" or "sound of water upon the rocks," in several native languages) was a tribal fishing area on the Columbia River, just east of the Cascade Mountains, on what is today the border between the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. The name refers to a series of cascades and waterfalls on the river, as well as to the native settlements and trading villages that existed there in various configurations for 11,000 years. Celilo was the oldest continuously inhabited community on the North American continent until 1957, when the falls and nearby settlements were submerged by the construction of The Dalles Dam. The main waterfall, known variously as Celilo Falls, The Chutes, Great Falls, or Columbia Falls, consisted of three sections: a cataract, called Horseshoe Falls or Tumwater Falls; a deep eddy, the Cul-de-Sac; and the main channel. These features were formed by the Columbia River's relentless push through basalt narrows on the final leg of its journey to the Pacific Ocean. For 11,000 years, native peoples gathered at Wyam to fish and exchange goods. They built wooden platforms out over the water and caught salmon with dipnets and long spears on poles as the fish swam up through the rapids and jumped over the falls. Historically, an estimated fifteen to twenty million salmon passed through the falls every year, making it one of the greatest fishing sites in North America.
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The Portland Trail Blazers, commonly known as the Blazers, are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Trail Blazers originally played their home games in the Memorial Coliseum, before moving to the Rose Garden Arena (now the Moda Center) in 1995. Based in Portland throughout its existence, the franchise entered the league in 1970. For more than 40 years, until 2011, it was the only major league franchise in Oregon, and remains one of only two (with the Portland Timbers). The franchise has also enjoyed a strong following; from 1977 through 1995, the team sold out 814 consecutive home games, the longest such streak in American professional sports at the time. The team has advanced to the NBA Finals three times, winning the NBA Championship once, in 1977. The other NBA Finals appearances were in 1990 and 1992. The team has qualified for the playoffs during 31 seasons of their 45-season existence, including a streak of 21 straight appearances from 1983 through 2003. Six Hall of Fame players have played for the Trail Blazers (Lenny Wilkens, Bill Walton, Clyde Drexler, Drazen Petrovic, Arvydas Sabonis, and Scottie Pippen). Bill Walton is the franchise's most decorated player; he was the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player in 1977, and the regular season MVP the following year. Four Blazer rookies (Geoff Petrie, Sidney Wicks, Brandon Roy, and Damian Lillard) have won the NBA Rookie of the Year award. Two Hall of Fame coaches, Lenny Wilkens and Jack Ramsay, have patrolled the sidelines for the Blazers, and two others—Mike Schuler and Mike Dunleavy—have won the NBA Coach of the Year award with the team.
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Balch Creek is a tributary of the Willamette River originating in Portland's West Hills. The creek flows generally east down a canyon along Northwest Cornell Road in unincorporated Multnomah County and through the Macleay Park section of Forest Park. At the lower end of the park, the stream enters a pipe and remains underground until reaching the river. The creek is about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long. Danford Balch, from whom the creek takes its name, settled a land claim along the creek in the mid-19th century. After murdering his son-in-law, he became the first person legally hanged in Oregon. Basalt, mostly covered by silt in the uplands and sediment in the lowlands, underlies the Balch Creek watershed. The upper part of the watershed includes private residential land, an Audubon Society nature sanctuary, and part of Forest Park. Mixed conifer forest of Coast Douglas-fir, western redcedar, and western hemlock with a well-developed understory of shrubs and flowering plants is the natural vegetation. Sixty-two species of mammals and more than 112 species of birds use Forest Park. A small population of cutthroat trout resides in the stream, which in 2005 was the only major water body in Portland that met state standards for bacteria, temperature, and dissolved oxygen. Although nature reserves cover much of the upper and middle parts of the watershed, industrial sites dominate the lower part. Historic Guild's Lake occupied part of the lower watershed through the 19th century, and in 1905 city officials held the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition there on an artificial island. After the exposition, developers converted the lake and its surrounds to industrial use, and in 2001 the Portland City Council declared the site to be an "industrial sanctuary".
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The Hillsboro Central/3rd Avenue Transit Center station is an American light rail station and transit center on the MAX Blue Line in Hillsboro, Oregon. Opened in 1998, the red-brick station is the 19th stop westbound on the Westside MAX, one stop from the western terminus of the line at the Hatfield Government Center. Physically the largest station on the westside line, it is located at a former stop of the Oregon Electric Railway and includes artwork honoring the history of the community. Located on Southwest Washington Street between Third and Fourth avenues in downtown Hillsboro, the transit center is served by four bus lines. At opening the Hillsboro Public Library operated a small branch at the station called Books by Rail, but the branch library was closed in 2003. Artwork at the stop includes a weather vane, historic photographs, and a cast bronze burden basket among other items. Inspiration and materials for the artwork were collected from the Washington County Museum, the Washington County Fair, and the Oregon Historical Society.
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Interstate 82 (I-82) is a 143.58-mile (231.07 km) Interstate Highway that extends from I-84 in Hermiston, Oregon, to I-90 in Ellensburg, Washington. In Oregon, it serves the cities of Umatilla, and Hermiston. It is the major northernly route towards the Tri-Cities and I-90 from Eastern Oregon. I-82's designation is a violation of the Interstate system's numbering rules, as it is located north of I-84. I-84 was originally designated I-80N, but received its current number in 1980 as part of a mandate to eliminate suffixed routes. I-82 passes over Selah Creek on the Fred G. Redmon Bridge, which was the longest concrete arch at the time of its opening on November 2, 1971. The bridge spans 549 feet (167 m) long across the creek. In 1999, a plan surfaced to extend the Interstate down south through Oregon. Three routes were proposed but all were rejected. I-82 is least busiest Interstate in Oregon, with an estimated 8,160 motorists utilizing the road daily.
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Fanno Creek is a 15-mile (24 km) tributary of the Tualatin River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Part of the drainage basin of the Columbia River, its watershed covers about 32 square miles (83 km2) in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties, including about 7 square miles (18 km2) within the Portland city limits. From its headwaters in the Tualatin Mountains (West Hills) in southwest Portland, the creek flows generally west and south through the cities of Portland, Beaverton, Tigard and Durham, and unincorporated areas of Washington County. It enters the Tualatin River about 9 miles (14 km) above the Tualatin's confluence with the Willamette River at West Linn. For thousands of years, the Atfalati (Tualatin) tribe of the Kalapuya inhabited the watershed. The first settler of European descent, Augustus Fanno, for whom the creek is named, arrived in the mid-19th century. He established an onion farm in what became Beaverton. Fanno Farmhouse, the restored family home, is a Century Farm on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of 14 urban parks in a narrow corridor along the creek. Although heavily polluted, the creek supports aquatic life, including cutthroat trout in its upper reaches. Watershed councils such as the Friends of Fanno Creek and government agencies have worked to limit pollution and to restore native vegetation in riparian zones.
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Portland Center Stage (PCS) is a theater company based in Portland, Oregon, United States. Theater productions are presented at the Gerding Theater in the historic Portland Armory building in Portland. PCS was founded in 1988 as the northern sibling of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. It became an independent theater in 1993 and in 1994 Elizabeth Huddle became producing artistic director. Chris Coleman took over in 2000 as the company's fourth artistic director, and hired design firm Sandstrom Design to help refocus the marketing strategy of PCS. He also increased the variety of productions, and brought in talented actors. The company began a capital campaign in 2004, and in 2006 moved in to its current location at the Portland Armory, which includes two theaters, production facilities and office space. PCS puts on seven productions annually between September and May, and productions include classical, contemporary and premiere pieces. PCS has received positive commentary in regional guidebooks including Best Places Northwest, Best Places Portland, and Moon Handbooks Oregon.
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National Lampoon's Animal House is a 1978 comedy film directed by John Landis and adapted by Douglas Kenney, Chris Miller and Harold Ramis from stories written by Miller and published in National Lampoon magazine based on his experiences in the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity at Dartmouth College, as well as Ramis's experiences in the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Washington University in St. Louis. The film is about a misfit group of fraternity boys that takes on the system at their college. It is considered to be the movie that launched the gross-out genre, although it was predated by several films now also included in the genre. Produced on a small $2.7 million budget, the film has turned out to be one of the most profitable movies of all time. Since its initial release, Animal House has garnered an estimated return of more than $141 million in the form of video and DVDs, not including merchandising. In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. This film is first on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies." It was #36 on AFI's "100 Years, 100 Laughs" list of the 100 best American comedies.
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Unforgiven was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on September 12, 2004 at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. It was the sixth annual (seventh overall) Unforgiven event. Professional wrestling is a type of sports entertainment in which theatrical events are combined with a competitive sport. The buildup to the matches and the scenarios that took place before, during, and after the event were planned by WWE's script writers. The event starred wrestlers from the Raw brand: storyline expansions of the promotion where employees are assigned to wrestling brands under the WWE banner. The main event was Randy Orton versus Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship, which Triple H won by pinfall after executing a Pedigree onto a steel chair. One of the predominant matches on the card was Shawn Michaels versus Kane in a No Disqualification match, which Michaels won after performing Sweet Chin Music. Another primary match on the undercard was Chris Jericho versus Christian in a ladder match for the vacant WWE Intercontinental Championship, which Jericho won by retrieving the suspended belt.
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Roxy Ann Peak is a 3,576-foot-tall (1,090 m) mountain in the Western Cascade Range at the eastern edge of Medford, Oregon. Composed of several geologic layers, the majority of the peak is of volcanic origin and dates to the early Oligocene. It is primarily covered by oak savanna and open grassland on its lower slopes, and mixed coniferous forest on its upper slopes and summit. Despite the peak's relatively small topographic prominence of 753 feet (230 m), it rises 2,200 feet (670 m) above Medford and is visible from most of the Rogue Valley. The mountain is Medford's most important viewshed, open space reserve, and recreational resource, and is protected by the 1,740-acre (704 ha) Prescott Park. Roxy Ann Peak was originally settled 8,000 to 10,000 years ago by ancestors of the Latgawa Native American tribe. A sudden influx of non-indigenous settlers arrived in the early 1850s, and most of the Native Americans were forced away from the region onto Indian reservations after the resulting Rogue River Wars. The peak was named in the late 1850s after one of its early residents, Roxy Ann Bowen. In 1883, the city of Medford was established to the west of the mountain, and became incorporated two years later. After acquiring a large amount of land from the Lions Club and the federal government between 1930 and 1933, the city created Prescott Park in 1937. The park protects much of the upper slopes and summit of the peak and remains largely undeveloped. However, the peak's southern foothills are home to a number of quickly expanding single-family residential subdivisions.
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Cannabis in Oregon relates to a number of legislative, legal, and cultural events surrounding use of cannabis (marijuana and hashish). Oregon was the first U.S. state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of cannabis, and among the first to legalize its use for medical purposes. An attempt to recriminalize possession of small amounts of cannabis was turned down by Oregon voters in 1997. From 1999 through 2005, the ratio of Oregonians using cannabis outpaced the general United States population by 32–45%. In 2003–2004, Oregon ranked among the top five states for cannabis usage of people 12 and older. Oregon is also one of the largest cannabis producing states, ranking fourth in indoor production, and 10th overall in 2006. In surveys conducted in 1974 and 1975—one and two years after decriminalization—it was found that 2% of respondents said they didn't use marijuana or cannabis because they were unavailable, 4% for legal or law enforcement reasons, 53% reported lack of interest, and 23% cited health dangers. The remaining 19% were using or had used it at one time. In 1998, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act was passed by citizens' initiative; Oregon remains one of only a few U.S. states to permit marijuana use for medical purposes.
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Alcohol in Oregon relates to the consumption, production, and legislative history of alcohol in the U.S. state of Oregon. Alcoholic beverages may be purchased in the state between 7 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. Oregonians consume an average amount of beer and distilled spirits, and an above average amount of wine. As of 2007, the consumption of spirits is on the rise, while beer consumption is holding steady. Also, 11% of beer sold in Oregon was brewed in-state, the highest figure in the United States. Oregon wine production began in the mid-1800s, before it was a state. By 1919, the industry had collapsed due to prohibition, and after prohibition ended fruit wines dominated the industry. The modern era of Oregon wine began in 1961, and the industry cemented its reputation in 1975 by winning a French award. In 2007, wine making was a $207.8 million business. Beer production began in 1862 with Henry Weinhard's Portland brewery. The company is now a part of the Miller Brewing Company, but it helped Portland to become the microbrewing capital of the world. Portland hosts North America's largest beerfest, and Oregon has produced a number of national and international award winning beers. In 1844, the Oregon territories voted to prohibit alcoholic beverages. This was repealed in 1845, but prohibition was reinstated in a 1915, four years before the national alcohol prohibition. When national prohibition was repealed in 1933, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) was created. Unlike states that allow liquor sales in grocery stores, liquor in Oregon is sold only in OLCC run liquor stores and establishments that have liquor licenses. Alcohol and alcoholism are also studied by the state at the Portland Alcohol Research Center.
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Cave Junction, incorporated in 1948, is a city in Josephine County. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 1,363, with an estimated population of 1,685 in 2007. Its motto is the "Gateway to the Oregon Caves," and the city got its name by virtue of its location at the junction of Redwood Highway (U.S. Route 199) and Caves Highway (Oregon Route 46). It is 93% white, with 29% of residents living below the poverty line. Cave Junction is located in the Illinois Valley, where, starting in the 1850s, the non-native economy depended on gold mining. After World War II, timber became the main source of income for residents. As timber income has since declined, Cave Junction is attempting to compensate with tourism and as a haven for retirees. Tourists visit the Oregon Caves National Monument, which includes the Oregon Caves Chateau, as well as the Out'n'About treehouse resort and the Great Cats World Park zoo.
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The Wayne L. Morse United States Courthouse is a federal courthouse located in Eugene, Oregon. Completed in 2006, it serves the District of Oregon as part of the Ninth Judicial Circuit. The courthouse is named in honor of former U.S. Senator Wayne Morse who represented Oregon for 24 years in the Senate and was a Eugene area resident. Located in downtown Eugene, the building overlooks the Willamette River. Standing six stories tall, the 266,742-square-foot (24,781.1 m2) building contains six courtrooms as well offices for the courts and other federal agencies such as the United States Marshals Service. The courthouse also has offices for Oregon's two U.S. Senators and for the U.S. Representative in the district. Designed by architect Thom Mayne, the building has won several design awards and earned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification for energy efficiency. The courthouse was the first new federal courthouse to earn a Gold certification.
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The Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals is a non-profit museum in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Located just north of the Sunset Highway on the northern edge of Hillsboro, the earth science museum is in the Portland metropolitan area. Opened in 1997, the museum’s collections date to the 1930s with the museum housed in a home built to display the rock and mineral collections of the museum founders. The ranch style home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the first of its kind listed in Oregon. The museum sits on 23 wooded acres, with the main building containing 7,500 square feet (700 m2) of space. Collections include petrified wood, various fossils, fluorescent rocks, meteorites, and a variety of other minerals. With more than 4,000 specimens, the museum is the largest of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. The facility has around 25,000 visitors each year, many of whom are on school tours.
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Mount Thielsen, or Big Cowhorn is an extinct shield volcano in southern Oregon that has been so deeply eroded by glaciers that there is no summit crater and the upper part of the mountain is more or less a horn. Thielsen is a relatively old Cascade volcano and cone-building eruptions stopped relatively early. Damage caused during the last two or three ice ages remains visible. Thielsen's spire-like top is hit by lightning so often that some rocks on the summit have melted into a rare mineraloid called lechatelierite, a variety of fulgurite. The mountain itself has earned the nickname "the lightning rod of the Cascades." Diamond Lake lies to the west of Mount Thielsen and beyond lies Mount Bailey, a much less eroded and younger stratovolcano. Mount Thielsen is located directly north of Crater Lake. Its sharp peak is a prominent feature of the skyline visible from Crater Lake National Park. Both of the volcanoes are part of the Oregon High Cascades, a range that sections off the stratovolcanoes of Oregon that are younger than 3.5 million years. Climbing routes around the volcano led to tourism. In 2009, Thielsen was selected as Oregon's best hiking trail. Its skiing trails are also tourist attractions.
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The Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge is a 1,358 acres (550 ha) wetlands and lowlands sanctuary in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. Established in 1992 and opened to the public in 2006, it is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Located 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Portland, the refuge is bordered by Sherwood, Tualatin and Tigard. A newer area is located further west near the city of Gaston surrounding the former Wapato Lake. Part of the network of National Wildlife Refuges (NWR), Tualatin River Refuge is one of only ten urban refuges in the United States. Habitats in the refuge include forested areas, wetlands, oak and pine grassland, and meadows, with mixed deciduous and coniferous forests common to Western Oregon. Tualatin River Refuge was established as an urban refuge to provide wetland, riparian, and upland habitats for a variety of migratory birds, threatened and endangered species, fish, other resident wildlife. The refuge is home to nearly 200 bird species and more than 70 other animal species. A visitor center with exhibits and information about the refuge was opened in 2008 off of Oregon Route 99W near Sherwood in the Portland metropolitan area. Next to the center is the refuge's headquarters and an observation deck overlooking seasonal ponds. The refuge has nearly five miles of wildlife interpretive trails open to the public. Up to 50,000 waterfowl can be seen at the refuge during the winter months when officials flood portions of the refuge.
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Forest Park is a municipal and public park in the Tualatin Mountains (West Hills) west of downtown Portland, Oregon. Stretching for more than 8 miles (13 km) on hillsides overlooking the Willamette River, it is one of the largest urban forest reserves in the United States. The park, a major component of a regional system of parks and trails, covers more than 5,100 acres (21 km2) of mostly second-growth forest with a few patches of old growth. About 70 miles (110 km) of recreational trails, including the Wildwood Trail segment of the city's 40 Mile Loop system, crisscross the park. As early as the 1860s civic leaders sought to create a natural preserve in the woods near Portland. Their efforts led to the creation of a municipal park commission that in 1903 hired the Olmsted Brothers landscape architectural firm to develop a plan for Portland's parks. Acquiring land through donations, transfers from Multnomah County, and delinquent tax foreclosures, the city eventually combined parcels totaling about 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) to create the reserve. Formally dedicated in 1948, it ranks 19th in size among parks within U.S. cities, according to The Trust for Public Land. More than 112 bird species and 62 mammal species frequent the park and its wide variety of trees and shade-loving plants. About 40 inches (1,000 mm) of rain falls on the forest each year. Many small tributaries of the Willamette River flow northeast through the woods to pipes or culverts under U.S. Route 30 at the edge of the park. One of them, Balch Creek, has a resident trout population, and another, Miller Creek, supports sea-run species including salmon. Threats to the park include overuse, urban traffic, encroaching development, invasive plants, and lack of maintenance money. Occasional serious crimes and more frequent minor crimes occur in the park.
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The Columbia Slough is a narrow waterway, about 19 miles (31 km) long, in the floodplain of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Oregon. From its source in the Portland suburb of Fairview, the Columbia Slough meanders west through Gresham and Portland to the Willamette River, about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Willamette's confluence with the Columbia. It is a remnant of the historic wetlands between the mouths of the Sandy River to the east and the Willamette River to the west. Levees surround much of the main slough as well as many side sloughs, detached sloughs, and nearby lakes. Tidal fluctuations cause reverse flow on the lower slough. The Columbia floodplain, formed by geologic processes including lava flows, volcanic eruptions, and the Missoula Floods, is part of the Portland Basin, which extends across the Columbia River from Multnomah County, Oregon, into Clark County, Washington. Five percent of Oregon's population, about 158,000 people, live in the slough watershed of about 51 square miles (130 km2). Before European Americans explored the region, tribes of Native Americans fished and hunted along the slough. In the mid 19th century large migrations of settlers began arriving from the east who farmed, cut timber, built houses, and by the early 20th century established cities, shipping ports, rail lines, and industries near the slough. Increased investment in the floodplain led to larger losses during floods, and these losses prompted levee building that greatly altered the area. A flood pouring through a levee break in 1948 destroyed the city of Vanport, which was never rebuilt. Portland International Airport lies along the middle slough and marine terminals of the Port of Portland are near the lower slough. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the city's Bureau of Environmental Services deal with environmental issues, many created by its use as a waste repository during the first half of the 20th century, causing the slough became one of Oregon's most polluted waterways. Early attempts to mitigate the pollution were unsuccessful, but in 1952 Portland began sewage treatment, and over the next six decades the federal Clean Water Act and similar legislation mandated further cleanup. The slough is frequented by more than 150 bird species and 26 fish species and animals including otters, beaver, and coyotes.
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Eastern Oregon is the eastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is not an officially recognized geographic entity, thus the boundaries of the region vary according to context. It is sometimes understood to include only the eight easternmost counties in the state; in other contexts, it includes the entire area east of the Cascade Range. Cities in the broadest definition include Baker City, Bend, Burns, Klamath Falls, La Grande, Ontario, Pendleton, and The Dalles. Major industries include timber, agriculture, and tourism, with the main transportation corridors consisting of I-84, U.S. Route 395, U.S. Route 97, U.S. Route 26, U.S. Route 30, and U.S. Route 20. Compared to the climate of Western Oregon, the climate of Eastern Oregon is a drier continental climate, with much greater seasonal variations in temperature. Unlike the Willamette Valley, Eastern Oregon receives a significant amount of snow in the winter. Some parts of Eastern Oregon receive fewer than 10 inches (250 mm) of rain yearly, classifying them as deserts. This desert climate is in part due to a rain shadow effect caused by the Cascade Range. Pine and juniper forests cover 35% of Eastern Oregon, much in the mountains that include the Blue Mountains, Strawberry Mountains, Wallowa Mountains, Trout Creek Mountains, Ochoco Mountains, and Steens Mountain. Basalt flows from the Columbia River Basalt Group covered large sections of Eastern Oregon 6 to 17 million years ago. Other landforms include the Alvord Desert, Owyhee Desert, Warner Valley, Deschutes River, Owyhee River, Grande Ronde River, Joseph Canyon, The Honeycombs, and Malheur Butte.
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The Coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii), a variety of Douglas-fir, is an evergreen conifer native to the coastal regions of western North America, from west-central British Columbia, Canada southward to central California, United States. In Oregon and Washington its range is continuous from the Cascades crest west to the Pacific Ocean. In California, it is found in the Klamath and Coast Ranges as far south as the Santa Cruz Mountains, and in the Sierra Nevada as far south as the Yosemite region. It occurs from near sea level along the coast to 1,800 metres (5,900 ft) in the Sierra Nevada. Further inland, Coast Douglas-fir is replaced by the related Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca). The specific name, menziesii, is after Archibald Menzies, a Scottish physician and rival naturalist to David Douglas, who first documented the tree on Vancouver Island in 1791. Trees 60–75 metres (197–246 ft) or more in height and 1.5–2 metres (4.9–6.6 ft) in diameter are common in old growth stands, and maximum heights of 100–120 metres (330–390 ft) with diameters up to 4.5–6 metres (15–20 ft) have been documented. The tallest living specimen is the "Doerner Fir", (previously known as the Brummit fir), 99.4 m tall, at East Fork Brummit Creek in Coos County, Oregon. In 1939, Oregon made the tree the official state tree.
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Salem /ˈseɪləm/ is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk County, and the city neighborhood of West Salem is in Polk County. Salem had a population of 154,637 at the 2010 census, making it the third-largest city in the state after Portland and Eugene. Salem is the principal city of the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan area that covers Marion and Polk counties and had a combined population of 390,738 at the 2010 census. A 2013 estimate placed the metropolitan population at 400,408, the state's second-largest. Salem was founded in 1842, became the capital of the Oregon Territory in 1851, and was incorporated in 1857. The city is home to Willamette University and Corban University, and the main campus of Chemeketa Community College, and is the main city in the Salem-Keizer School District. Other schools include the Chemawa Indian School, Oregon School for the Blind, and the Oregon School for the Deaf. The state of Oregon is the largest employer in the city, with Salem Hospital as the largest private employer. Transportation includes public transit from Salem-Keizer Transit, Amtrak service, and non-commercial air travel at McNary Field. Major roads include Interstate 5, Oregon Route 99E, and Oregon Route 22 which connects West Salem across the Willamette River via the Marion Street and Center Street bridges.
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The Oregon Trail was one of the main overland migration routes on the North American continent, leading from locations on the Missouri River to the Oregon Territory. The eastern half of the trail was also used by travelers on the California Trail, Bozeman Trail and Mormon Trail which used much of the same trail before turning off to their separate destinations. To complete the journey in one traveling season most travelers left in April to May--as soon as grass was growing enough to support their teams and the trails dried out. To meet the constant needs for water, grass and fuel for campfires the trail followed various rivers and streams across the continent. In addition the network of trails required a minimum of road work to be made passable for wagons. They traveled in wagons, pack trains, on horseback, on foot, by raft and by boat to establish new farms, lives and businesses in the Oregon Territory. This territory in the early 19th century was initially jointly governed by both the United States and Britain. The four to six month journey spanned over half the continent as the wagon trail proceeded about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) west through territories and land later to become six U.S. states: Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. Extensions of the Oregon Trail were the main arteries that fed settlers into six more states: Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, Washington, and Montana. Between 1841 and 1869 the Oregon Trail was used by settlers, ranchers, farmers, miners and business men migrating to the Pacific Northwest of what is now the United States. Once the first transcontinental railroad by the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific was completed in 1869, the use of this trail by long distance travelers rapidly diminished as the railroad traffic replaced most need for it. By 1883 the Northern Pacific Railroad had reached Portland, Oregon and most of the reason for the trail disappeared. Roads were built over or near most of the trail as local travelers traveled to cities originally established along the Oregon Trail.
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The Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, (derived from Russian чавыча), is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. It is a Pacific Ocean salmon and is variously known as the king salmon, tyee salmon, Columbia River salmon, black salmon, chub salmon, hook bill salmon, winter salmon, Spring Salmon, Quinnat Salmon, and the blackmouth. Chinook Salmon are typically divided into "races" with "spring chinook", "summer chinook", and "fall chinook" being most common. Races are determined by the timing of adult entry into fresh water. A "winter chinook" run is recognized in the Sacramento River. Chinook salmon are highly valued, due in part to their scarcity relative to other Pacific salmon along most of the Pacific coast. Described and enthusiastically eaten by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Chinook salmon is spiritually and culturally prized among certain Native American tribes. Many celebrate the first spring Chinook caught each year with "First Salmon Ceremonies". While salmon fishing is still important economically for many tribal communities, the Chinook harvest is typically the most valuable. In Oregon, the fish were often traded at The Dalles between those tribes on the river and interior tribes who lacked access to the food source. Celilo Falls on the Columbia River were a traditional fishing grounds for Native Americans until Bonneville Dam inundated the falls. Dams on the Columbia and other rivers have been partly responsible for steep declines in salmon runs. The Chinook is the official state fish of Oregon.
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The Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America. There are several partially overlapping definitions but the term Pacific Northwest that span the United States and Canada. The term Northwest Coast is often used when referring only to the coastal regions. The term Northwest Plateau has been used to describe the inland regions, although they are commonly referred to as "the Interior" (which in British Columbia is by convention capitalized and is used as a proper name). The inland portion of the U.S. is called the Inland Empire. The region's biggest metropolitan areas are Seattle, Washington, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Portland, Oregon. The region has an Oceanic climate ("marine west coast climate") in many coastal areas, typically between the ocean and high mountain ranges. Alpine climate dominates in the high mountains. Semi-arid and Arid climate is found east of the higher mountains, especially in rainshadow areas. The Harney Basin of Oregon is an example of arid climate in the Pacific Northwest. A Subarctic climate occurs farther north. The Pacific Northwest was occupied by a diverse array of Native American peoples for millennia, beginning with Paleoindians who explored and colonized the area roughly 15,000 years before Europeans arrived. The Pacific Coast is seen by a growing number of scholars as a major migration route for late Pleistocene peoples moving from northeast Asia into the Americas. Archaeological evidence for these earliest Native Americans is sketchy--in part because heavy glaciation, flooding, and post-glacial sea level rise have radically changed the landscape--but fluted Clovis-like points found in the region were probably left by Paleoindians at least 13,000 years ago. Even earlier evidence for human occupation dating back as much as 14,500 years ago is emerging from Paisley Caves in Central Oregon. European exploration began as early as 1579 with Francis Drake possibly landing along the coast, but exploration began in earnest in the 1700s. The first permanent non-Native settlement in the American portion came at Fort Astoria in 1811.
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Mount Mazama is a destroyed stratovolcano in the Oregon part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the Cascade Range. The volcano's collapsed caldera holds Crater Lake, and the entire mountain is located within Crater Lake National Park. Mazama is most famous for a catastrophic volcanic eruption that occurred around 5,677 (± 150) BC. The eruption, estimated to have been 42 times more powerful than Mount St. Helens' 1980 blast, reduced Mazama's approximate 11,000-foot (3,400 m) height by around half a mile (800 m) when much of the volcano fell into the volcano's partially emptied neck and magma chamber. At 8,159 feet (2,487 m), Hillman Peak is now the highest point on the rim. The Klamath tribe of the area believed that the mountain was inhabited by their god of the underworld. After the mountain destroyed itself the Klamaths recounted the events as a great battle between this god and his rival the sky god. Mount Mazama was given its name in 1896 when a climbing club from Portland, The Mazamas, organized a visit to Crater Lake, and named the lost peak Mount Mazama after their own club.
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The Common Hazel (Corylus avellana) is a species of hazel native to Europe and western Asia, from the British Isles south to Iberia, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, north to central Scandinavia, and east to the central Ural Mountains, the Caucasus, and northwestern Iran. The scientific name avellana derives from the town of Avella in Italy, and was selected by Linnaeus from Leonhart Fuchs's De historia stirpium commentarii insignes (1542), where the species was described as "Avellana nux sylvestris" ("wild nut of Avella"). Common hazel is typically a shrub reaching 3-8 m tall, but can reach 15 m. The leaves are deciduous, rounded, 6-12 cm long and across, softly hairy on both surfaces, and with a double-serrate margin. The flowers are produced very early in spring, before the leaves, and are monoecious with single-sex wind-pollinated catkins. Hazelnuts are rich in protein and unsaturated fat. Moreover, they contain significant amounts of thiamine and vitamin B6, as well as smaller amounts of other B vitamins. Hazelnuts are extensively used in confectionery to make praline and also used in combination with chocolate for chocolate truffles and products such as Nutella. In the United States, hazelnut production is concentrated in two states, Oregon and Washington in the Pacific Northwest, with Oregon responsible for 99% of domestic production. In as of 1996[update] the in-shell production in Oregon was about 19,900 tons (18,000 tonnes) compared to 100 tons (91 tonnes) in Washington.
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Rail transportation is an important element of the transportation network in the state of Oregon. Rail has existed in the state in some form since 1855, and the state was a pioneer in development of electric railway systems. While the automobile has displaced many uses of rail in the state (as elsewhere), rail remains a key means of moving passengers and freight, both within the state and to points beyond its borders. As of 2004, the state of Oregon has over 2,400 route-miles (3,900 km) of track, and 170 miles (274 km) of railroad right-of-way after peaking in the 1930s at about 4,350 miles (7,001 km) of track. Oregon is served by two Class 1 railroads (BNSF Railway & Union Pacific Railroad), which account for over 1100 miles (1,770 km) of trackage, and over twenty Class 2 and Class 3 operators. Three Amtrak routes serve the state, primarily through the Willamette Valley and south-central Oregon. Rail is a key element of the mass transit system in the city of Portland and surrounding communities. These include MAX Light Rail, the Westside Express Service commuter rail, and the Portland Streetcar. There are also numerous tourist railways operated in the state.
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The University of Oregon (UO) is a public, coeducational research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. The second oldest public university in the state, UO was founded in 1876, and graduated its first class two years later. The University of Oregon is one of 60 members of the Association of American Universities. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Oregon as a "high research activity" university. The University of Oregon receives much of its funding from the UO Foundation, an independent not-for-profit organization. UO has an endowment of $566 million. The university has six professional schools including a law school and one in architecture. Enrollment at UO totals 20,393, with 16,475 of those as undergraduates. Athletic teams are known as the Ducks and compete at the NCAA Division I level. Oregon is a founding member of the Pacific-10 Conference and fields 15 teams at the varsity level.
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Oregon State University (OSU) is a coeducational, public research university located in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees and a multitude of research opportunities. There are over 200 academic degree programs offered through the university. OSU's programs in nuclear engineering, ecology, forestry, public health, biochemistry, zoology, oceanography, food science and pharmacy are recognized nationally as top tier programs. In recent years, OSU's liberal arts programs have also grown significantly. The College of Liberal Arts is now one of the largest programs on campus. Over 200,000 people have attended OSU since its founding. The Carnegie Foundation classifies Oregon State University as a "very high research activity" university. Oregon State is one of 73 land-grant universities currently operating throughout the world. The school is also recognized as a sea-grant, space-grant and sun-grant institution, making it one of only two US institutions to retain all four designations and the only public university to do so (Cornell is the only other with similar designations). In addition to Oregon State's many federally designated areas of research, the university receives more funding for research, annually, than all other public higher education institutions in Oregon combined. Athletic teams are known as the Beavers and compete at the NCAA Division I level. Oregon State is a founding member of the Pacific-10 Conference and fields 17 teams at the varsity level.
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The United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management was a select committee created by the United States Senate on January 30, 1957, and dissolved on March 31, 1960. The select committee was directed to study the extent of criminal or other improper practices in the field of labor-management relations or in groups of employees or employers, and to suggest changes in the laws of the United States that would provide protection against such practices or activities. It conducted 253 active investigations, served 8,000 subpoenas for witnesses and documents, held 270 days of hearings, took testimony from 1,526 witnesses (343 of whom invoked the Fifth Amendment), and compiled almost 150,000 pages of testimony. At the peak of its activity in 1958, 104 persons worked for the committee. The select committee's work led directly to the enactment of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (Public Law 86-257, also known as the Landrum-Griffin Act) on September 14, 1959. As part of its investigations into Mafia activities, the Teamsters, and organized labor in general, evidence was unearthed of a mob-sponsored plot in which Oregon Teamsters unions would seize control of the state legislature, state police, and state attorney general's office through bribery, extortion and blackmail. The committee was chaired by Senator John Little McClellan, a Democrat from Arkansas.
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Wilsonville is a city primarily in Clackamas County, with a portion of the northern section in Washington County. Originally founded as Boones Landing due to the Boones Ferry which crossed the Willamette River at the location, the community became Wilsonville in 1880. The city was incorporated in 1969 with a population of around 1,000. The population was 19,509 at the 2010 census. Around 85% of residents at the 2010 census were White, with Hispanics as the largest minority group. Located within the Portland metropolitan area, the city also includes the planned community of Charbonneau on the south side of the river. The city is bisected by Interstate 5 and includes I-5's Boone Bridge over the Willamette. Public transportation is provided primarily by the city's South Metro Area Regional Transit, but additionally includes Wilsonville Station on the WES Commuter Rail operated by TriMet. Students in public schools attend schools in the West Linn-Wilsonville and Canby school districts, including the only traditional high school, Wilsonville High School. Clackamas Community College and Pioneer Pacific College both have campuses in the city. Wilsonville has a council-manager form of government and operates its own library, public works, and parks department. Fire and police protection are contracted out to other regional government agencies. The city is home to several technology companies including Mentor Graphics, the largest employer in the city. Wilsonville contains many distribution and manufacturing buildings adjacent to Interstate 5 such as regional distribution facilities for Coca Cola and Rite Aid. Retail centers include Argyle Square on the north and the Town Center Shopping Center to the south. Media in Wilsonville consists of the Portland-area broadcast stations, regional newspapers, and the local Wilsonville Spokesman newspaper.
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The Mark O. Hatfield Library is the main library at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, United States. Opened in 1986, it is a member of the Hatfield Library Consortium along with several library lending networks and is a designated Federal depository library. Willamette's original library was established in 1844, two years after the school was founded. The library was housed in Waller Hall before moving to its own building (now Smullin Hall) designed by Pietro Belluschi in 1938. The Hatfield library building stands two-stories tall and is located near the center of the campus. The library contains over 350,000 volumes overall in its collections, and includes the school's archives. Designed by MDWR Architects, the red-brick building has glass edifices on two sides and a clocktower outside the main entrance. The building also includes a 24-hour study area, private study rooms, and a classroom. The academic library is named in honor of former Senator Mark O. Hatfield, a 1943 graduate of Willamette and former member of the faculty, and the library houses his personal papers and a collection of his books.
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The Oregon Civic Justice Center is a three-story former library building on the campus of Willamette University in downtown Salem, Oregon, United States. Built in 1912 as a Carnegie library for the city of Salem, the building now houses several programs of Willamette University College of Law. Prior to the law school's moving into the facility in 2008, the building was used by the adjacent Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) from 1971 to 2006. Willamette purchased the old library in 2003 and later selected the College of Law as the program at the school to gain use of the building. The university began renovations in 2007 to restore part of the original layout and modernize the facility to accommodate the needs of modern education. After the brick-faced, Beaux Arts style structure was remodeled, community oriented programs from the law school relocated to the renamed Oregon Civic Justice Center. This center houses programs such as a legal clinic and the school's law review journal.
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The Register-Guard is a daily newspaper published in Eugene, Oregon, United States. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the Eugene Daily Guard and the Morning Register. The two papers were the Eugene Guard, founded in 1867 as a weekly Democratic paper, and the Morning Register. Alton F. Baker purchased the Guard in 1927 and then the Morning Register in 1930 and merged the two papers. The newspaper is still owned by the Baker family, with Alton F. Baker III serving as publisher and editor. Other members of the family are in charge of nearly all departments within the paper. It is Oregon's second-largest daily newspaper, behind The Oregonian, and one of the few medium-sized family newspapers left in the United States. The paper serves the Eugene-Springfield area, as well as the Oregon Coast, Umpqua River Valley, and surrounding areas. It has a circulation of 68,727 Monday through Friday, 74,507 on Saturday, and 72,415 on Sunday. Company headquarters are in northeast Eugene near Interstate 5 where it interchanges with Interstate 105.
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Upper Table Rock and Lower Table Rock are two prominent volcanic plateaus located just north of the Rogue River in Jackson County, Oregon. They are approximately seven million years old. The land is jointly owned; The Nature Conservancy is responsible for 3,591 acres (14.53 km2), while the Bureau of Land Management is responsible for 1,280 acres (5.2 km2). An abandoned airstrip is located on Lower Table Rock, and a very high frequency omni-directional range (VOR) aviation tower is located on Upper Table Rock. The rocks are home to over 70 species of animals, 140 species of plants, and 200 species of wildflowers, in four distinct habitats. The Table Rocks have been listed as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern since 1984. They are presently one of the most popular hiking locations in the Rogue Valley, featuring two trails: the Lower Table Rock Trail and the Upper Table Rock Trail. They lead to the flat tops of the plateaus. The plateaus are named for their location along the Rogue River, not for their height. Upper Table Rock, 2,091 feet (637 m) above sea level at its highest point, is located upstream, while Lower Table Rock is farther downstream, with an elevation of 2,049 feet (625 m).
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Tryon Creek is a 4.85-mile (7.81 km) tributary of the Willamette River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Part of the drainage basin of the Columbia River, its watershed covers about 6.5 square miles (16.8 km2) in Multnomah and Clackamas counties. The stream flows southeast from the Tualatin Mountains (West Hills) through the Multnomah Village neighborhood of Portland and the Tryon Creek State Natural Area to the Willamette in the city of Lake Oswego. Parks and open spaces cover about 21 percent of the watershed, while single-family homes dominate most of the remainder. The largest of the parks is the state natural area, which straddles the border between the two cities and counties. The bedrock under the watershed includes part of the last exotic terrane, a chain of seamounts, acquired by the North American Plate as it moved west during the Eocene. Known as the Waverly Hills Formation, it lies buried under ash and lava from later volcanic eruptions, sediments from flooding and erosion, and layers of wind-blown silt. Two dormant volcanoes from the Boring Lava Field are in the Tryon Creek watershed. Named for mid-19th century settler, Socrates Hotchkiss Tryon, Sr., the creek ran through forests of cedar and fir that were later logged by the Oregon Iron Company and others through the mid-20th century. Efforts to establish a large park in the watershed began in the 1950s and succeeded in 1975 when the state park was formally established. As of 2005, about 37 percent of the watershed was wooded and supported more than 60 species of birds as well as small mammals, amphibians, and fish. At the same time, the human population was about 18,000.
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Mount Bailey is a relatively young tephra cone and shield volcano in the Cascade Range, located on the opposite side of Diamond Lake from Mount Thielsen in southern Oregon, United States. Bailey consists of a 2,000 feet (610 m) high main cone on top of an old basaltic andesite shield volcano. With a volume of 8 to 9 km3 (1.9 to 2.2 cu mi), Mount Bailey is slightly smaller than its neighbor Diamond Peak. Mount Bailey is a popular destination for recreational activities. Well known in the Pacific Northwest region as a haven for skiing in the winter months, the mountain's transportation, instead of a conventional chairlift, is provided by snowcats—treaded, tractor-like vehicles that can ascend Bailey's steep, snow-covered slopes—carry skiers to the higher reaches of the mountain. In the summer months, a 5-mile (8 km) hiking trail gives foot access to Bailey's summit. Native Americans are credited with the first ascents of Bailey. Their spiritual leaders held feasts and prayer vigils on the summit.
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Little Butte Creek is a 17-mile (27 km) long tributary of the Rogue River located in the U.S. state of Oregon. Its drainage basin consists of approximately 354 square miles (920 km2) of Jackson County, and another 19 square miles (49 km2) in Klamath County. The north fork of the creek begins at Fish Lake, while the south fork begins near Brown Mountain. The two forks flow generally west until they meet near Lake Creek. The creek then flows through the communities of Brownsboro, Eagle Point, and White City, finally emptying into the Rogue River about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Eagle Point. Little Butte Creek's watershed was originally settled by the Takelma, and possibly the Shasta tribes of Native Americans. In the Rogue River Wars of the 1850s, most of the Native Americans were either killed or forced onto Indian reservations. Early settlers named Little Butte Creek due to its close proximity to Mount McLoughlin, formerly known as Snowy Butte. In the late 19th century, the watershed was primarily used for agriculture and lumber. Large amounts of water are diverted from Little Butte Creek to aid in irrigation and water storage. Systems of canals deliver the water to nearby Howard Prairie Lake and the Klamath River watershed, Agate Lake, and the Rogue Valley. Despite being moderately polluted, the creek is known to be one of the best salmon producing tributaries of the Rogue River. Several dams hinder their travel upstream, with one fish ladder built in 2005 to help fish swim past a dam in Eagle Point. Flooding destroyed the ladder three months later, but it was rebuilt in 2008.
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Big Butte Creek is a 12-mile (19 km) long tributary of the Rogue River located in the U.S. state of Oregon. It drains approximately 245 square miles (630 km2) of Jackson County. The north fork of the creek begins on Rustler Peak and the south fork's headwaters are near Mount McLoughlin. They meet near Butte Falls, and Big Butte Creek flows generally northwest until it empties into the Rogue River about 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of Lost Creek Dam. Big Butte Creek's watershed was originally settled over 8,000 years ago by Native Americans. In the Rogue River Wars of the 1850s, most of the Native Americans were either killed or forced onto Indian reservations. The first European American settlers arrived in the 1860s, and the area was quickly developed. The creek was named after Snowy Butte, an early name for Mount McLoughlin. In the late 19th century, the watershed was primarily used for agriculture and logging. Big Butte Springs, located in the watershed, provides clean drinking water to over 115,000 residents of the Rogue Valley. It emits over 26,000,000 US gallons (98,000,000 L) of water per day. Water from Big Butte Creek also is diverted for irrigation in several other places. The water quality of the Big Butte Creek watershed is generally high, and supports several species of trout and salmon. The watershed is also home to over 152 species of birds, 63 species of mammals, 19 species of reptiles, and numerous plants. The Poverty Flats region was designated an Area of Critical Environmental Concern by the Bureau of Land Management in 1995 to protect several rare species of plants.
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The Snake is a major river in the greater Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is the largest and longest tributary of the Columbia River, which is the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. Rising in western Wyoming, the river flows westwards through the Snake River Plain, and turns north to empty into the Columbia at the Tri-Cities area of the state of Washington, draining 108,000 square miles (280,000 km2) in parts of six U.S. states. Steep mountains, low hills, deep canyons and predominantly, the flat alluvium of the Snake River Plain characterize the geologically diverse and active watershed of the Snake River. The plain originates from a large volcanic hotspot below the North American Plate, with the Missoula Floods carving out Hells Canyon and other features along the middle and lower Snake. As far back as 11,000 years, tribes of prehistoric Native Americans lived along the length of the Snake. Salmon from the Pacific Ocean traveled up the Columbia and into the Snake, which were central to the lives of those along the Snake below Shoshone Falls. Contact with Europeans introduced horses to these tribes, reshaping their lifestyles before American settlement of the area. Later American explorers, and British fur trappers from the Hudson's Bay Company, further changed and utilized the resources of the Snake River basin. At one point, a hand sign made by the Shoshones representing fish was misinterpreted to represent a snake, giving the Snake River its name. Steamboats and later railroads moved agricultural products and minerals along the lower Snake throughout the 19th century and early 20th century. The powerful flow and steep gradient of the Snake has been utilized since the early 20th century to generate hydroelectricity, enhance navigation and provide irrigation water from fifteen major dams that have transformed the lower river into a series of reservoirs, several of which have been proposed for removal to restore some of the river's once tremendous salmon runs.
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The South Park Blocks form a city park in downtown Portland, Oregon. The Oregonian has called it Portland's "extended family room", as Pioneer Courthouse Square is known as Portland's "living room". Twelve blocks in length, it is intersected by the Portland Streetcar and forms the Portland Cultural District and the greenspace at the center of Portland State University. The New York Times stated the blocks are "literally at the heart of the city's cultural life." Every block contains public art, such as the 1926 Joseph Shemanski Fountain, "Rebecca at the Well", designed by Carl L. Linde, with drinking wells, including special drinking wells for dogs. Other art includes Paul Sutinen's "The Shadow of the Elm" (built into the pavement), and three large blocks of granite titled "Peace Chant". Two large statues are in the block: a $40,000, 18 feet (5.5 m) bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt on a horse, designed by Alexander Phimister Proctor, commissioned by Roosevelt's personal friend and Portlander Henry Waldo Coe and added in 1922, and one of Abraham Lincoln, "facing north, slump-shouldered and pensive", added in 1928, commissioned by Coe in 1926, sculpted by George Fife Waters. The park also contains approximately 337 elm, oak, and maple trees valued at $3.4 million, as well as roses. A plaque from the Lang Syne Society was placed in the South Park Blocks at Jefferson Street in 1991, commemorating the Great Plank Road.
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Yamsay Mountain is a large shield volcano in the Cascade Range of south-central Oregon, located about 35 miles (56 km) east of Crater Lake on the border between Klamath County and Lake County. It is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc located 30 to 50 miles (50 to 80 km) behind the main Cascade volcanic front. The best known members of this enigmatic arc are the massive shields of Newberry Volcano, about 55 miles (89 km) farther north in Oregon, and Medicine Lake Volcano, about 80 miles (130 km) south in northern California. Yamsay is the highest volcano in the eastern arc, almost 300 feet (90 m) higher than Newberry and Medicine Lake. A central part of Klamath mythology, the mountain offers activities such as hiking and horseback riding. The area near it has been inhabited by Native American tribes and settlers. Until the 1970s a fire lookout tower sat on the summit of the mountain, and its foundation remains to this day. Life in the Cascades is quite diverse. The western half of the range features lush vegetation, but the eastern portion is more dry. The range supports many animal species, including both endemic and endangered.
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The Chetco River is a 56-mile (90 km) long river located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Oregon. It drains approximately 352 square miles (910 km2) of Curry County. Flowing through a rugged and isolated coastal region, it descends rapidly from 3,200 feet (980 m) to sea level at the Pacific Ocean. Except for the lowermost 5 miles (8 km), the river is located in the Rogue River – Siskiyou National Forest. The river rises in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, northwest of Chetco Peak at the junction of the Oregon Coast Range and the Klamath Mountains. It flows generally north, west, and then southwest, before emptying into the Pacific Ocean between Brookings and Harbor, approximately 6 miles (10 km) north of the California state line. The Chetco River's watershed was originally settled one to three thousand years ago by the Chetco and other Native American tribes. European American settlers arrived soon after gold and other precious metals were discovered in the 1840s and 50s. The town of Brookings was created in the early 1900s, and incorporated in 1951. The watershed remains largely undeveloped, protected by the Rogue River – Siskiyou National Forest and the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. The upper 45 miles (72 km) of the river have been designated Wild and Scenic since 1988. The water quality of the Chetco River is very high, supporting a large population of salmon and trout. The watershed is home to many other species, including several that are endemic to the Siskiyou Mountains area. The northernmost grove of redwoods—the tallest trees on Earth—grow in the southern region of the Chetco's drainage basin.
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The Maritime Fur Trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States. The maritime fur trade was pioneered by the Russians, working east from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Islands to the southern coast of Alaska. British and Americans entered during the 1780s, focusing on what is now the coast of British Columbia. The trade boomed around the turn of the 19th century. A long period of decline began in the 1810s. As the sea otter population was depleted, the maritime fur trade diversified and transformed, tapping new markets and commodities while continuing to focus on the Northwest Coast and China. It lasted until the middle to late 19th century. Russians controlled most of the coast of what is now Alaska during the entire era. The coast south of Alaska saw fierce competition between, and among, British and American trading vessels. The British were the first to operate in the southern sector, but were unable to compete against the Americans who dominated from the 1790s to the 1830s. The British Hudson's Bay Company entered the coast trade in the 1820s with the intention of driving the Americans away. This was accomplished by about 1840. In its late period the maritime fur trade was largely conducted by the British Hudson's Bay Company and the Russian-American Company. The maritime fur trade brought the Pacific Northwest coast into a vast, new international trade network, centered on the north Pacific Ocean, global in scope, and based on capitalism but not, for the most part, on colonialism. A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China, the Hawaiian Islands, Britain, and the United States. The trade had a major effect on the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coast, especially the Aleut, Tlingit, Haida, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Chinook peoples. There was a rapid increase of wealth among the Northwest Coast natives, along with increased warfare, potlatching, slaving, depopulation due to epidemic disease, and enhanced importance of totems and traditional nobility crests. The indigenous culture was not overwhelmed however but rather flourished, while simultaneously undergoing rapid change. The use of Chinook Jargon arose during the maritime fur trading era and remains a distinctive aspect of Pacific Northwest culture. The most profitable furs were those of sea otters, especially the northern sea otter. After the northern sea otter was hunted to local extinction, maritime fur traders shifted to California until the southern sea otter was likewise nearly extinct. The British and American maritime fur traders took their furs to the Chinese port of Canton, where they worked within the established Canton System.
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The Bull Run River is a 21.9-mile (35.2 km) tributary of the Sandy River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Beginning at the lower end of Bull Run Lake in the Cascade Range, it flows generally west through the Bull Run Watershed Management Unit (BRWMU), a restricted area meant to protect the river and its tributaries from contamination. The river, impounded by two artificial storage reservoirs as well as the lake, is the primary source of drinking water for the city of Portland, Oregon. It is likely that Native Americans living along the Columbia River as early as 10,000 years ago visited the Bull Run watershed in search of food. By the mid-19th century, pioneers used these trails to cross the mountains from east to west to reach the fertile Willamette Valley. In the 1890s, the City of Portland, searching for sources of clean drinking water, chose the Bull Run River. Dam-building, road construction, and legal action to protect the watershed began shortly thereafter, and Bull Run water began to flow through a large pipe to the city in 1895. Erosion-resistant basalt underlies much of the watershed, and streams passing over it are relatively free of sediments. Despite legal protections, about 22 percent of the protected zone was logged during the second half of the 20th century, and erosion increased. For a time in 1996, Portland had to shut down the Bull Run supply because of turbidity and switch to water from wells. A law passed later that year prohibited most logging in or near the watershed. Mature trees, most of them more than 500 years old and more than 21 inches (53 cm) in diameter, cover about half of the watershed, and the rest of the watershed is also heavily forested. Annual precipitation ranges from 80 inches (2,000 mm) near the water supply intake to as much as 170 inches (4,300 mm) near the headwaters. More than 250 wildlife species, including the protected Northern Spotted Owl, inhabit this forest. In the late 19th century, an unincorporated community, Bull Run, became established near the river in conjunction with a hydroelectric project and a related railroad line.
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The Valley Library is the primary library of Oregon State University and is located at the school's main campus in Corvallis in the U.S. state of Oregon. Established in 1887, the school built its first library building in 1918, what is now Kidder Hall. The current building opened in 1963 as the William Jasper Kerr Library and was expanded and renamed in 1999 as The Valley Library. The library is named for philanthropist F. Wayne Valley, who played football for Oregon State. One of three libraries for Oregon State, The Valley Library stores more than 1.4 million volumes, 14,000 serials, and more than 500,000 maps and government documents. It is designated as a Federal Depository Library and is also a repository for state documents. The six-story library building is of a contemporary, neoclassical style with a red-brick exterior highlighted by white sections along the top and on part of the eastern side. The eastern side includes a white-faced rotunda that includes a two-story atrium on the main floor.
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The Spruce Production Division was a unit of the United States Army established in 1917 to supply the army with high quality spruce and other wood products needed for the production of combat aircraft and ships for the United States war effort in World War I. The division was part of the Army's Signal Corps. Its headquarters were in Portland, Oregon, and its main operations center was at Vancouver Barracks in Vancouver, Washington. Workers in the division were members of the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen, a union specifically established to support the Army's wood production operations. Originally, the Spruce Production Division was authorized to induct 10,317 troops, including both officers and enlisted men, but in May 1918, the division was authorized to grow to 28,825 personnel. The armistice that ended World War I was signed on November 11, 1918, and the next day all Spruce Production Division logging ended. The impact of the Spruce Production Division continued long after the unit was deactivated. Not only did the division dramatically increase the production of forest products for the war effort, the transportation network it built helped open up Pacific Northwest forests to greater use in the decades that followed. In addition, the division's work rules became the standard for logging and sawmill operations throughout the Pacific Northwest well into the 1930s.
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The Oregon Ducks Track and Field program is the intercollegiate track and field team for the University of Oregon. The team competes at the NCAA Division I level and is a member of the Pacific-10 Conference. The team participates in indoor and outdoor track and field as well as cross country. Known as the Ducks, Oregon's first track and field team was fielded in 1895. The team holds its home meets at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. Vin Lananna is the current head coach and since the program's inception in 1895, there have only been seven permanent head coaches. The Ducks claim 28 NCAA National Championships among the three disciplines. Due to its rich heritage, the home of the Ducks is popularly dubbed as Tracktown, USA. Four of the head coaches in Oregon's history have been inducted into the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame. Several people involved with the program have developed innovative coaching strategies and helped restructure amateur athletics. Alumni of the program have continued to the Olympics and professional ranks while some others have founded athletic corporations like Nike and SPARQ. Oregon's track and field history has been documented in two major motion films Without Limits and Prefontaine as well as the books Bowerman and the Men of Oregon and Pre: The Story of America's Greatest Running Legend. Former coaches and alumni have also written a number of books on running instruction for both top end athletes and hobbyists.
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The Touchet Formation or Touchet beds consist of large quantities of gravel and fine sediment which overlay almost a thousand meters (several thousand feet) of volcanic basalt of the Columbia River Basalt Group in south-central Washington and north-central Oregon. The beds consist of between 6 to 40 distinct rhythmites - horizontal layers of sediment, each clearly demarcated from the layer below. These Touchet beds are often covered by windblown loess soils which were deposited later; the number of layers varies with location. The beds vary in depth from 330 feet (100 m) at lower elevations where a number of layers can be found to a few extremely thin layers at the maximum elevation where they are observed (1,150 feet (350 m)). The Touchet beds are one element in a chain of evidence which helped identify and define the progression of the Missoula Floods, which occurred around 16,450 to 13,750 years BCE. During the floods, flow through the Wallula Gap was slow enough such that water pooled in a temporary lake, Lake Lewis. Lake Lewis back-flooded up the Yakima, Walla Walla, Touchet and Tucannon River Valleys. In these relatively calm arms of the lake, the slack waters deposited the suspended materials eroded from the scabland regions north of Lake Lewis, and redeposited them in pronounced layers before receding.
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The Glenn & Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center is a multi-use arts and performance venue in downtown Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Opened in 2004, it is housed in a red-colored stone building completed in 1949 as a Lutheran church. Hillsboro, a city on the west side of Portland, owns the three-level facility and operates it through their Parks and Recreation Department. Walters Cultural Arts Center includes gallery space, classroom space, and a 200 seat performance hall. With two above ground floors and one below ground level, the center has a total of 15,664 square feet (1,455.2 m2) of space. Located on East Main Street, the Washington County Courthouse and the Hillsboro Civic Center are just to the west and the Edward Schulmerich House one block to the east on Main. The center is named in honor of a local couple who donated $1 million towards the project which included purchasing the property and US$2.4 million worth of renovations.
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Paranoid Park is a 2007 American drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Blake Nelson and takes place in Portland, Oregon. It stars Gabe Nevins as a teenage skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard. Van Sant wrote the draft script in two days after reading and deciding to adapt Nelson's novel. To cast the film's youths, Van Sant posted an opening casting call on social networking website MySpace inviting teenagers to audition for speaking roles, as well as experienced skateboarders to act as extras. Filming began in October 2005 and took place at various locations in and around Portland. Scenes at the fictional Eastside Skatepark were filmed at Burnside Skatepark which was, like Eastside, built illegally by skateboarders. Paranoid Park premiered on May 21, at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and was given a limited release on March 7, 2008. It grossed over US$4,481,000 from its $3 million budget. The film received mostly positive reviews; some praised the direction and cinematography in particular, though others believed the film to be overly stylized and slow paced. It won one Independent Spirit Award, two Boston Society of Film Critics awards and the Cannes Film Festival's special 60th anniversary prize.
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Suillus quiescens is a pored mushroom of the genus Suillus in the family Suillaceae. First collected in 2002 on Santa Cruz Island off the coast of California, in association with Bishop Pine (Pinus muricata), the species was scientifically described and named in 2010. In addition to its distribution in coastal California, it was also found forming ectomycorrhizae with the roots of pine seedlings in the eastern Sierra Nevada, coastal Oregon, and the southern Cascade Mountains. It resembles Suillus brevipes, but can be distinguished from that species by its paler-colored immature cap and by the tiny colored glands on the stem that darken with age.
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The Little Applegate River is a 21-mile (34 km) long tributary of the Applegate River located in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is part of the Rogue River watershed, draining approximately 113 square miles (293 km2) of Jackson County. Rising in the Siskiyou Mountains, the river flows generally northwest to meet the Applegate about 2 miles (3 km) northwest of Buncom and 2 miles (3 km) south of Ruch. The Little Applegate River's watershed was originally settled about 11,000 years ago by the Latgawa, Shasta, and Dakubetede Native American tribes. The first European Americans arrived in the early 19th century. Two boomtowns—Sterlingville and Buncom—were founded in the 1850s and grew rapidly as gold and other precious metals were discovered. They slowly declined in population as the supply of gold was exhausted; only three buildings remain in Buncom, while Sterlingville was abandoned and later destroyed. Despite low water quality, the Little Applegate watershed supports populations of Coho and Chinook salmon, along with 138 known and 134 suspected species of other vertebrates. Sixty-four percent of the watershed is forested, although its health is slowly declining due to fire suppression.
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The Willow Creek/Southwest 185th Avenue Transit Center is a light rail station and transit center on the MAX Blue Line in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Located near the intersection of Baseline Road and 185th Avenue on the eastern edge of the city, it is the twelfth stop westbound on TriMet's Westside MAX, in the Portland metropolitan area. For 2006 to 2007, the station saw nearly 950,000 passengers. Opened in 1998, the station was originally conceived as the western terminus of the Westside MAX, but the line was extended further west into Hillsboro, due to population growth occurring at the time the line was being planned. Artwork at the stop represents a reading motif, as a library was planned for the station, but never built. Willow Creek is near the Oregon National Primate Research Center and the rest of the Oregon Health & Science University's West Campus in the Tanasbourne neighborhood. It includes a nearly 600-space park and ride lot and Portland Community College's Willow Creek Center.
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Director Park (officially Simon and Helen Director Park) is a city park in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Opened in 2009 at a cost of $9.5 million, it covers a 700-space underground parking garage, which connects underground to the Fox Tower and the incomplete Park Avenue West Tower. Located in downtown on Southwest Park Avenue, the nearly half-acre urban park lacks any natural areas and contains little vegetation. Features at the park include a fountain, artworks, a cafe, and a distinctive glass canopy. Director Park was designed by Laurie Olin of the Olin Partnership, Philadelphia, and the Portland-based architectural firm ZGF Partnership. It contains a water fountain and a distinctive class canopy. The park is part of what had originally been planned as a corridor of consecutive public parks stretching across downtown Portland. This plan included what are today the South Park Blocks and the North Park Blocks. Proposals to connect the two sets of park blocks arose in the 1970s, and in 1998 businessman Tom Moyer made a proposal for what became Director Park. Planning began in the mid-2000s, and construction began in 2008. A cafe is also operated in the park.
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Tuber oregonense, commonly known as the Oregon white truffle, is a species of edible truffle in the genus Tuber. Described as new to science in 2010, the North American species is found on the western coast of the United States, from northern California to southern British Columbia west of the Cascade Range. A mycorrhizal fungus, it grows a symbiotic association with Douglas fir. It overlaps in distribution with the closely related T. gibbosum, but they have different growing seasons: T. oregonense typically appears from October through March, while T. gibbosum grows from January to June. The fruit bodies of the fungus are roughly spherical to irregular in shape, and resemble small potatoes up to 5 cm (2.0 in) in diameter. Inside the truffle is the gleba, which is initially white before it becomes a marbled tan color. The large, often thick-walled, and strongly ornamented spores are produced in large spherical asci. The truffle is highly prized for its taste and aroma. Attempts to cultivate the truffles in Christmas tree farms have been successful.
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Temple Beth Israel (Hebrew: בית ישראל) is a Reconstructionist synagogue located in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in the early 1930s as a Conservative congregation, Beth Israel was for many decades the only synagogue in Eugene. The congregation initially worshiped in a converted house on West Eighth Street. It constructed its first building on Portland Street in 1952, and occupied its current LEED-compliant facilities in 2008. In the early 1990s conflict between feminist and traditional members led to the latter leaving Beth Israel, and forming the Orthodox Congregation Ahavas Torah. Beth Israel came under attack from neo-Nazi members of the Volksfront twice, in 1994 and again in 2002. In both cases the perpetrators were caught and convicted. Services were lay-led for decades. Marcus Simmons was hired as the congregation's first rabbi in 1959, but left in 1961. After a gap of two years, Louis Neimand became rabbi in 1963, and served until his death in 1976. He was followed by Myron Kinberg, who served from 1977 to 1994, and Kinberg in turn was succeeded by Yitzhak Husbands-Hankin. As of 2011[update], led by rabbis Yitzhak Husbands-Hankin and Maurice Harris, Beth Israel had approximately 400 member households, and was the largest synagogue in Eugene.
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The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River. Its main stem is 187 miles (301 km) long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward between the Oregon Coast Range and the Cascade Range, the river and its tributaries form the Willamette Valley, a basin that contains two-thirds of Oregon's population, including the state capital, Salem, and the state's largest city, Portland. Portland surrounds the Willamette near the river's mouth at the Columbia. Formed originally by plate tectonics about 35 million years ago and subsequently altered by volcanism and erosion, the river basin was significantly modified by the Missoula Floods at the end of the most recent ice age. Humans began living in the watershed at least 10,000 years ago. Many tribal villages once lay along the lower river and the area around its confluence with the Columbia, and some indigenous peoples were spread throughout the upper reaches of the basin as well. Rich with sediments deposited by flooding and fed by prolific rainfall on the western side of the Cascades, the Willamette Valley is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of North America, and was thus the destination of many 19th-century pioneers traveling west along the Oregon Trail. The river was an important transportation route during this time, although Willamette Falls, just above Portland, was a major barrier to boat traffic. In the 21st century, major highways follow the river or cross it on one of more than 50 bridges. Since 1900, more than 15 major dams and many smaller ones have been built in the Willamette's drainage basin, and 13 of them are managed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The dams are used primarily to produce hydropower, to store water for irrigation, and to divert water into deeper, narrower channels in order to prevent flooding. Despite the dams, other alterations, and pollution (especially on its lower reaches), the river and its tributaries support 60 fish species, including salmon and trout. Part of the river's floodplain (the Willamette Floodplain) was established as a National Natural Landmark in 1987; 10 years later the river was named as one of 10 national American Heritage Rivers.
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The Klamath River (Karuk: Ishkêesh, Klamath: Koke) is an American river that flows 263 miles (423 km) southwest through Oregon and northern California, cutting through the Cascade Range to empty into the Pacific Ocean. The river drains an extensive watershed of almost 16,000 square miles (41,000 km2) that stretches from the high desert country of the Great Basin to the temperate rainforest of the Pacific coast. It is known for its basin's peculiar geography—most of its upper basin is developed, but the lower remains wild—and has been called "a river upside down" by the National Geographic Society. As one of the most important rivers for fish migration on the west coast of North America south of the Columbia River, the Klamath River basin has been inhabited by humans for at least 7,000 years. At one time, the river supported abundant wildlife. Vast freshwater marshes in the upper basin provided habitat for thousands of migratory birds. The first Europeans to visit the region were fur trappers for the Hudson's Bay Company who came in the 1820s and established the Siskiyou Trail along the Klamath and Trinity Rivers into the Sacramento Valley. The latter days of the California Gold Rush saw increasing numbers of miners working streams in the Klamath River region in search of gold. Steamboats operated briefly on the large lakes in the upper watershed before the establishment of agriculture in the 19th and 20th centuries. The growing industry in the upper basin led to the construction of many dams on the river, which have since caused water quality issues for the lower river. Environmentalists have raised petitions against the construction of more dams, and in support of removing the existing ones. Because the Klamath includes many of the longest free-flowing stretches of river in California as well as some of its better whitewater runs, it has become a popular recreational river. Its watershed includes large swathes of the Klamath National Forest and Six Rivers National Forest. For now, the lower Klamath remains undeveloped, although massive diversions were once proposed to reroute the river into the Central Valley in order to supplement the region's water supply.
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The North Bank Depot Buildings, located in central Portland, Oregon, United States, are a pair of buildings formerly used as a freight warehouse and passenger terminal for the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway (SP&S). Formed in 1905, the SP&S was commonly known as the North Bank Road (or North Bank road, "road" being short for railroad) during the period in which these buildings were in use. The Portland buildings' passenger facilities were also used by the Oregon Electric Railway after that railway was acquired by the SP&S. Located in what is now known as the Pearl District, the buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. They were in use by the SP&S and its successor, Burlington Northern Railroad, from 1908 until the 1980s. The structures are two matching, two-story brick buildings that face one another on opposite sides of NW 11th Avenue at Hoyt Street. Only the east building was used as a passenger station, and this usage lasted from 1908 until 1931. The two former-SP&S freighthouses were renovated in the late 1990s, and converted for residential use.
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The Oregon High Desert is a region of the U.S. state of Oregon, located east of the Cascade Range and south of the Blue Mountains, in the central and eastern parts of the state. Divided into a southern region and a northern region, the desert covers most of five Oregon counties and averages 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above sea level. The southern region is part of the Great Basin. The northern region is part of the Columbia Plateau, where somewhat more rainfall allows the largest industry on private land to be the cultivation of alfalfa and hay. Public land within the region is owned primarily by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages more than 30,000 square miles (78,000 km2), including five rivers designated as Wild and Scenic. While the High Desert is somewhat dry, it is only arid relative to Western Oregon. The region averages 15 inches (380 mm) of annual rainfall; the Alvord Desert, however, gets only 7 inches (180 mm) of rain each year. Contrary to its name, most of the High Desert is not dry enough to truly qualify as desert, and biologically, most of the region is classified as scrubland or steppe. At an elevation of 9,733 feet (2,967 m), the summit of Steens Mountain is the highest point in the High Desert. This fault-block mountain was created along with the plate tectonics that formed the rest of the region. About 16 million years ago, during the early Miocene epoch, lava flows from volcanic eruptions covered about half the surface area of Oregon. The Earth's crust then began stretching, giving way to further volcanic activity from 15 million to 2 million years ago. Several ice ages over this time formed the large lakes in the High Desert. The climate of the High Desert provides habitat for mammals such as pronghorn, coyote, mule deer, black-tailed jackrabbit, and cougar. Birds common in the region include Sage Grouse, California Quail, and Prairie Falcon. The Western juniper is the most common tree in the region, and big sagebrush and Common Woolly Sunflower are the region's most widespread plants.
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The Yale Union Laundry Building, also known as the Yale Laundry Building, the City Linen Supply Co. Building, Perfect Fit Manufacturing and the YU Contemporary Arts Center, in southeast Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon is a two-story commercial structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built largely of brick in 1908 and embellished with Italian Revival and Egyptian Revival decorations, it was added to the register in 2007. Two-story additions in 1927 and 1929 changed the original building into an L-shaped structure that shares a party wall with a commercial building to the east. Preservation of elements of Portland's industrial laundry era and its relation to the women’s labor movement and the rise of the middle class in the United States are factors in the building's listing on the National Register. Built and first operated by Charles F. Brown, an individual businessman, the building was bought in 1927 by Home Services Company, a power-laundry consortium. American Linen Supply and then Perfect Fit Manufacturing, a maker of automotive fabrics, used the building after Home Services sold it in 1950. Acquired by Alter LLC in 2008, the building is home to YU, a contemporary arts center.
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Keller Fountain Park is a city park in downtown Portland, Oregon. Originally named Forecourt Fountain or Auditorium Forecourt, the 0.92-acre (0.37 ha) park opened in 1970 across Third Avenue from what was then Civic Auditorium. In 1978, the park was renamed after Ira Keller, head of the Portland Development Commission (PDC) from 1958–1972. Civic Auditorium was renamed as Keller Auditorium in 2000, but is named in honor of Richard B. Keller. The central feature of the park is the concrete water fountain. Keller Fountain is often noted as a memorable feature of the public landscape in downtown Portland, and in 1999 was awarded a medallion from the American Society of Landscape Architects. The fountain was designed by Angela Danadjieva using inspiration from waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge located east of Portland. While the park is named Keller Fountain Park, the fountain itself is named Ira Keller Fountain. The fountain's pools hold 75,000 US gallons (280,000 L; 62,000 imp gal) of water, while the waterfalls pump 13,000 US gallons (49,000 L; 11,000 imp gal) per minute over the cascade.
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The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII) to the United States Constitution established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote. The amendment supersedes Article I, § 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution, under which senators were elected by state legislatures. It also alters the procedure for filling vacancies in the Senate, allowing for state legislatures to permit their governors to make temporary appointments until a special election can be held. Under the original provisions of the Constitution, senators were elected by state legislatures; this was intended to ensure that the Federal government contained representatives of the states, and also to provide a body not dependent on popular support that could afford to "take a more detached view of issues coming before Congress." Over time, however, various perceived issues with these provisions, such as the risk of corruption and the potential for electoral deadlocks or a lack of representation should a seat become vacant, led to a campaign for reform. Reformers tabled constitutional amendments in 1828, 1829 and 1855, with the issues finally reaching a head during the 1890s and 1900s. Progressives, such as William Jennings Bryan, called for reform to the way senators were chosen. Elihu Root and George F. Hoar were prominent figures in the campaign to maintain the state legislative selection of senators. By 1910, 31 state legislatures had passed motions calling for reform. By 1912, 239 political parties at both the state and national level had pledged some form of direct election, and 33 states had introduced the use of direct primaries. With a campaign for a state-led constitutional amendment gaining strength, and a fear that this could result in a "runaway convention", the proposal to mandate direct elections for the Senate was finally introduced in the Congress; it was passed on May 13, 1912, ratified by the states within a year and formally declared an amendment to the Constitution on May 31, 1913 by Bryan, in his role as Secretary of State, becoming the Seventeenth Amendment.
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John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is a U.S. National Monument in Wheeler and Grant counties in east-central Oregon. Located within the John Day River basin and managed by the National Park Service, the park is known for its well-preserved layers of fossil plants and mammals that lived in the region between the late Eocene, about 44 million years ago, and the late Miocene, about 7 million years ago. The monument consists of three geographically separate units: Sheep Rock, Painted Hills, and Clarno. The units cover a total of 13,944 acres (5,643 ha) of semi-desert shrublands, riparian zones, and colorful badlands. About 125,000 people visit the park each year for outdoor activities such as hiking and sightseeing or to visit the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center or the James Cant Ranch Historic District. Before the arrival of Euro-Americans in the 19th century, the John Day basin was frequented by Sahaptin people who hunted, fished, and gathered roots and berries in the region. After road-building made the valley more accessible, settlers established farms, ranches, and a few small towns along the river and its tributaries. Paleontologists have been unearthing and studying the fossils in the region since 1864, when Thomas Condon, a missionary and amateur geologist, recognized their importance and made them known globally. Parts of the basin became a National Monument in 1975.
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Canterbury Castle, also known as Arlington Castle, was a private house located in southwest Portland, Oregon listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Constructed during 1929–1931, the house was designed by Jeter O. Frye to resemble England's Canterbury Castle on the exterior and to evoke the Art Deco styling of Hollywood of the 1920s on the interior. The house included castle features such as a moat, drawbridge and turret and attracted paying tourists immediately following its completion. Canterbury Castle, Portland's only 1930s castle structure, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The house underwent major renovation efforts in the 2000s without completion and was demolished in 2009 after failing to meet municipal safety codes. The razing of Canterbury made Piggott's Castle the city's only remaining castle. Canterbury Castle was removed from the National Register of Historic Places in October 2010. The property was also designated as a Portland Historic Landmark.
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The Oregon and California Railroad Revested Lands (commonly known as O&C Lands), are approximately 2,600,000 acres (1,100,000 ha) of land located in eighteen counties of western Oregon. Originally granted to the Oregon & California Railroad to build a railroad between Portland, Oregon and San Francisco, California, the land was reconveyed to the United States government by act of Congress in 1916 and is currently managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management. Since 1916, the 18 counties where the O&C lands are located have received payments from the United States government as compensation for the loss of timber and tax revenue, beginning as a 50% share of timber revenue on those lands but changing over the years as timber production decreased. The governments of several of the counties have come to depend upon the O&C land revenue as an important source of income for schools and county services. The most recent source of income from the lands, an extension of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, expired in early 2012, leaving some counties scrambling to find new sources of funding.
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The Oregon Iron Company was an iron smelting company located in what is now Lake Oswego, Oregon. The company was established in 1865, and in 1867 became the first company west of the Rocky Mountains in the United States to smelt iron. The company failed after a few years, but was reorganized as the Oswego Iron Company in 1878, and again as the Oregon Iron and Steel Company in 1883. With the addition of a larger furnace, the last incarnation of the company prospered, reaching peak production in 1890. By 1894, however, pressure from cheaper imported iron combined with the effects of the Panic of 1893 forced the company to close its smelter. The company continued to operate a pipe foundry until 1928, and until the early 1960s, existed as a land management company, selling its real estate holdings which expanded the city of Lake Oswego.
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Wildwood: The Wildwood Chronicles, Book 1 is a 2011 children's fantasy novel by American singer-songwriter Colin Meloy, illustrated by his wife Carson Ellis. Meloy is better known for his role with the group The Decemberists, while Ellis has produced artwork for the band amongst other projects. The novel tells the story of seventh-grader Prue McKeel whose baby brother is kidnapped by crows. With the help of her friend and schoolmate Curtis, they journey together into a magical forest to find Prue's brother. Inspired by classic fantasy novels and folk tales, Meloy's story features supernatural elements set against the scenic backdrop and culture of Portland, Oregon, specifically the St. Johns neighborhood. Ellis collaborated closely with Meloy throughout the writing phase to produce 85 illustrations. The novel received mostly positive reviews and was praised for its illustrations and vintage book design. Wildwood was on the New York Times Best Seller list of Children's Chapter Books for two weeks and tied for the 2012 E.B. White Read Aloud Award. Hillsboro, Oregon-based animation studio Laika has optioned the novel for a future film adaptation, and the author-illustrator team plan to produce at least two more books in the series.
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The Clinton Street Theater is a theater located in southeast Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is believed to be one of the oldest continually operating cinemas in the United States. The theater was built in 1914 and opened as The Clinton in 1915. The venue became known as the 26th Avenue Theatre in 1945 and the Encore in 1969, before reverting to a resemblance of its original name in 1976. The Clinton often screens grindhouse, cult and experimental films, and has become known for hosting regular screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (since 1978, marking one of the film's longest-running showings) and Repo! The Genetic Opera. The venue also hosts the annual Filmed by Bike festival, the Faux Film Festival and the Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival.
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Kvinneakt ("female nude" or "nude woman" in Norwegian) is an abstract bronze sculpture located on the Transit Mall of downtown Portland, Oregon. Designed and created by Norman J. Taylor between 1973 and 1975, the work was funded by TriMet and the United States Department of Transportation and was installed on the Transit Mall in 1977. The following year Kvinneakt appeared in the "Expose Yourself to Art" poster, which featured future Mayor of Portland Bud Clark flashing the sculpture. It remained in place until November 2006, when it was temporarily removed during renovation of the Transit Mall and installation of the MAX Light Rail on the mall. Originally located on Fifth Avenue, the sculpture was reinstalled on the mall in 2009 at a different location, on SW Sixth Avenue between Alder and Morrison, where it remains. According to TriMet, Kvinneakt is one of 40 public art sculptures in the Transit Mall's art collection. The sculpture is part of the City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection courtesy of the Regional Arts & Culture Council and is administered by the City of Portland Metropolitan Arts Commission.
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Horse rings, remnants of a time when horses and horse-drawn vehicles provided the primary mode of transportation, can be found throughout Portland, Oregon. They were removed from curbs and sidewalks for safety purposes until the late 1970s, when one Portland resident complained about the rings disappearing. Today, the city of Portland helps to preserve the rings by requiring them to be replaced following sidewalk construction or repair. In recent years Portland residents have started tethering model horses to the rings, sparking interaction and drawing attention to part of the city's history. The Horse Project, started by one resident of the Woodstock neighborhood in 2005, encourages participation in the urban art movement. The rings and art installations have become a tourist attraction.
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Kalapuya brunnea is a species of truffle in the monotypic fungal genus Kalapuya. The truffle occurs only in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, in western Oregon and northern California. Known locally as the Oregon brown truffle, it was formerly thought to be an undescribed species of Leucangium until molecular analysis demonstrated that it was distinct from that genus. The species was first described scientifically in 2010, based on specimens collected in February 2009 from Benton County, Oregon. The truffle is reddish brown with a rough and warty outer skin, while the interior spore-producing gleba is initially whitish before developing greyish-brown mottling as it matures. Mature truffles have an odor resembling garlicky cheese, similar to mature Camembert. The species has been harvested for culinary purposes in Oregon.
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Pod is the name of a 2002 modern sculpture by American artist Pete Beeman, currently installed at Southwest 10th Avenue and West Burnside Street in downtown Portland, Oregon. The 30-foot sculpture, intended to represent the "infrastructure, energy, and vibrancy of Portland", is supported by its static tripod base with a 15-foot diameter. It is constructed from stainless steel, galvanized steel, bronze, titanium, lead and other materials. Pod was fabricated by Beeman and David Bermudez, and engineered by Beeman and Peterson Structural Engineers. It is considered interactive and kinetic, with a central, vertical pendulum that swings back and forth when pushed. The sculpture cost as much as $50,000 and was funded by the Portland Streetcar Project and BBC Steel. Pod is part of the City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection courtesy of the Regional Arts & Culture Council.
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The city of Portland, Oregon is ideal for growing roses outdoors due to its location within the marine west coast climate region, its warm, dry summers and rainy but mild winters, and its heavy clay soils. Portland has been known as the "City of Roses", or "Rose City", since 1888, after Madame Caroline Testout, a large pink variety of hybrid tea rose bred in France, was introduced to the city. Thousands of rose bushes were planted, eventually lining 20 miles (32 km) of Portland's streets in preparation for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in 1905. The Rose City Park neighborhood in northeast Portland was formed in 1907, the same year of the first annual Portland Rose Festival. During World War I, nursery owners in Portland began planning a large rose garden to protect European rose species from the war. The garden was established in Washington Park as the International Rose Test Garden in 1917. Today, the Portland Rose Festival occurs each June with a carnival, parades, and navy ships docked along the Tom McCall Waterfront Park to promote the city. The International Rose Test Garden is currently one of the oldest public rose test gardens in the United States, covering 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) with over 8,000 rose plants and more than 550 different species. In 2003, Portland adopted the "City of Roses" as its official nickname.
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Trogloraptor is a genus of large spiders found in the caves of southwestern Oregon. It is the sole genus in the family Trogloraptoridae, and includes only one species, Trogloraptor marchingtoni. These spiders are predominantly yellow-brown in color with a maximum leg span of 3 in (7.6 cm). They are remarkable for having hook-like claws on the raptorial last segments of their legs. Trogloraptor belongs to one of only three new spider families described since 1990. The specific name is in honor of the amateur cave biologist Neil Marchington. The spiders were first collected in 2010 by Geo Graening, Neil Marchington, Ron Davis and Daniel Snyder, cave conservationists from the Western Cave Conservancy. They were described in 2012 by a research team consisting of arachnologists Charles Griswold, Tracy Audisio and Joel Ledford of the California Academy of Sciences. The male holotype was recovered from the M2 cave near Grants Pass, Oregon on July 29, 2010. The female holotype was recovered from a cave in Josephine County, Oregon on September 16, 2010.
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The Woodstock Library is a branch of the Multnomah County Library in southeast Portland, Oregon, United States. The library's origins date back to 1908, when the people of the Woodstock neighborhood established a reading room at the Woodstock Fire Station, which soon became one of fifteen "deposit stations" (packing crates that turned into two-shelf bookcases and could hold up to 50 books each). The Woodstock collection began as an assemblage of children's books and was housed within a public school. In 1911, the station was replaced by a "sub-branch" library offering more books for adults and children, but without the reference works and services available at regular branches. The collection moved into a larger facility in 1914, which became a full branch in 1917, offering additional resources and services. The library occupied a series of temporary locations during the 1920s–'40s. Construction began on Woodstock's permanent library building in 1959. It was dedicated on June 1 the following year, the fourth community library built by Multnomah County. Until the mid-1990s the library was maintained as-is with only regular maintenance, though capacity strained as public use grew and new technologies demanded additional shelf space. In 1995, the City of Portland's Bureau of Planning released the "Adopted Woodstock Neighborhood Plan", which included a policy to improve the branch and its services. In 1996, the county adopted a $28 million bond measure to renovate some branches and upgrade technology throughout the system. Given multiple issues with the existing building, including structural problems and non-compliance with building codes, Multnomah County Library determined reconstruction was necessary. The library was demolished in January 1999. The current 7,500-square-foot (700 m2) Woodstock Library building was completed in 2000. It has a "lantern-like" quality and has received multiple awards for its design. In addition to offering the Multnomah County Library catalog, which contains two million books, periodicals and other materials, the library houses collections in Chinese and Spanish and employs Chinese-speaking staff.
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Country Bill's Restaurant was a family-owned American-style steakhouse and seafood restaurant located in the Woodstock neighborhood of southeast Portland, Oregon, United States. Adjacent to the restaurant was a bar known as CB's Lounge. The restaurant opened in 1964 when ownership transferred from Bill Blake to Ron Thomas' family. Though Thomas was not particularly fond of the business' name, established by Blake in 1960, he was unable to afford new signage and kept the lounge's title. Over time the restaurant grew from a hamburger stand into a family dining restaurant, expanding from one space to four. In 1978, the family purchased the building and property following the landlord's death. Eventually, Thomas transferred the business to one of his two sons, Craig. Craig and his wife decided to retire in 2011 and none of their children wanted to continue operating the restaurant. The business and the 5,300-square-foot (490 m2) building were listed for sale in February 2011. Country Bill's closed in September 2012 after 48 years of operation. The restaurant had low staff turnover and dedicated patrons, hundreds of whom visited during its final days. Country Bill's was also known for its Brat Pack era decor, including red clamshell booths, mood lighting supplied by electric candles, metallic wallpaper and wood paneling. Following closure, the building underwent interior and exterior renovation to make spaces available for new tenants.
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Oregon Caves National Monument is a National Monument in the northern Siskiyou Mountains of southwestern Oregon in the United States. The main part of the 488-acre (197 ha) park, including the marble cave and a visitor center, is located 20 miles (32 km) east of Cave Junction, on Oregon Route 46. A separate visitor center in Cave Junction occupies 4 acres (1.6 ha) of the total. Both parts of the monument, managed by the National Park Service, are in southwestern Josephine County, near the Oregon–California border. The climate is generally mild even at the cave's elevation of about 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above sea level, but icicles can form at the cave entrance, and winter snow sometimes blocks the park highway. Elijah Davidson, a resident of nearby Williams, discovered the cave in 1874. Over the next two decades, private investors failed in efforts to run successful tourist ventures at the publicly owned site. After passage of the Antiquities Act by the United States Congress, President William Howard Taft established Oregon Caves National Monument, to be managed by the United States Forest Service, in 1909. The popularity of the automobile, construction of paved highways, and promotion of tourism by boosters from Grants Pass led to large increases in cave visitation during the late 1920s and thereafter. Among the attractions at the remote monument is the Oregon Caves Chateau, a six-story hotel built in a rustic style in 1934. It is a National Historic Landmark and is part of the Oregon Caves Historic District within the monument. The Park Service, which assumed control of the monument in 1933, offers tours of the cave from mid-April through early November. Oregon Caves is a solutional cave, with passages totaling about 15,000 feet (4,600 m), that formed in marble. The parent rock was originally limestone that metamorphosed to marble during the geologic processes that created the Klamath Mountains, including the Siskiyous. Although the limestone formed about 190 million years ago, the cave itself is no older than a few million years. Valued as a tourist cave, the cavern also has scientific value; sections of the cave that are not on tour routes contain fossils of national importance. In addition to cave touring, activities at the park include hiking, photography, and wildlife viewing. One of the park trails leads through the forest to Big Tree, which at 13 feet (4.0 m) is the largest diameter Douglas-fir known in Oregon. Lodging and food are available at The Chateau and in Cave Junction. Camping is available at Forest Service campgrounds and private sites in the area.
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The Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar was a fifty-cent piece struck intermittently by the United States Bureau of the Mint between 1926 and 1939. The coin was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser and James Earle Fraser, and commemorates those who traveled the Oregon Trail and settled the Pacific Coast of the United States in the mid-19th century. Struck over a lengthy period in small numbers per year, the many varieties produced came to be considered a collector ripoff, and led to the end, for the time, of the commemorative coin series. Ohio-born Ezra Meeker had traveled the Trail with his family in 1852 and spent the final two decades of his long life before his death in 1928 publicizing the Oregon Trail, that it should not be forgotten. In 1926, at age 95, he appeared before a Senate committee, requesting that the government issue a commemorative coin that could be sold to raise money for markers to show where the Trail had been. Congress authorized six million half dollars, and placed no restriction on when or at what mint the coins would be struck. Meeker's Oregon Trail Memorial Association had tens of thousands of pieces struck in 1926 and 1928, and did not sell them all. Nevertheless, most years between 1933 and 1939, it had small quantities of the half dollar coined, in some years from all three operating mints to produce mintmarked varieties, and raised prices considerably. Many of the issues were controlled by coin dealers and speculators, and individual collectors had to pay high prices on the secondary market to obtain specimens. Public protests followed, and in 1939 Congress ended the series. Just over 260,000 of the 6,000,000 authorized coins were struck, of which about 60,000 were melted. The US commemorative coin that was struck over the longest period, the Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar has been widely praised for its design, but the Native American's intended gesture of peace has often been misunderstood as a demand that westbound settlers halt.
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Held every August since 1992, the Skeptic's Toolbox was formed by psychologist and now-retired University of Oregon professor Ray Hyman. The workshop, held over four days, focuses on making people into better critical thinkers by investigating a central theme. The attendees are broken up into groups and given tasks that they must work on together and present in front of the entire group on the last day. The Skeptic's Toolbox is sponsored by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Started in 1989, the workshop is held in Eugene, Oregon.
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The Astoria Riverfront Trolley is a 3-mile (4.8 km) heritage streetcar line that operates in Astoria, Oregon, United States, using former freight railroad tracks along or near the south bank of the Columbia River, with no overhead line. The service began operating in 1999, using a 1913-built streetcar from San Antonio, Texas. As of 2012, the service was reported as carrying 35,000 to 40,000 passengers per year and has been called a "symbol" and "icon" of Astoria. The line's operation is seasonal, normally during spring break and from May through September. Volunteers from the non-profit Astoria Riverfront Trolley Association (ARTA) operate the service and maintain the streetcar and tracks, but the city of Astoria has provided some funds for certain purchases, including a new carbarn in 2001 and a contribution to the cost of purchasing the streetcar. The car was on loan from San Antonio for the first seven years, but was purchased by ARTA in August 2005. By 2004, the Trolley had become "one of Astoria's most popular features" and "a main attraction in the city of Astoria".
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Music for a Time of War is the 2011 concert program and subsequent album by the Oregon Symphony under the artistic direction of Carlos Kalmar. The program consists of four compositions inspired by war: Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question (1906), John Adams' The Wound-Dresser (1989), Benjamin Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem (1940) and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 4 (1935). The program was performed on May 7, 2011, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon, and again the following day. Both concerts were recorded. On May 12, the Symphony debuted at Carnegie Hall, repeating the program at the inaugural Spring for Music Festival. The performance was broadcast live by KQAC and WQXR-FM, the classical radio stations serving Portland and the New York City metropolitan area, respectively. The concerts marked the Oregon Symphony's first performances of The Wound-Dresser as well as guest baritone Sanford Sylvan's debut with the company. In October 2011 the recording was released on CD by Dutch record label PentaTone Classics. The album marked the orchestra's first recording in eight years and Kalmar's first with the Oregon Symphony. The live performances and album received favorable reviews; the recording debuted at number 31 on Billboard's Classical Albums chart, and made several lists of the best classical recordings of 2011. The album earned three recognitions from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for the 2013 Grammy Awards. Kalmar and the Oregon Symphony were nominated in the categories Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Album, Classical (along with engineers Jesse Lewis and John Newton, and mastering engineer Jesse Brayman). Producer Blanton Alspaugh received the award for Producer of the Year, Classical for his contributions to Music for a Time of War, among other recordings.
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This England is the classical music album by the Oregon Symphony under the artistic direction of Carlos Kalmar, released by Dutch record label PentaTone Classics in November 2012. The album was recorded at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon at five performances in February and May 2012. It contains works by three English 20th-century composers: Edward Elgar's Cockaigne (In London Town), Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 5, and "Four Sea Interludes" and "Passacaglia" from Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes. The recording marked the orchestra's second under Kalmar's leadership, following the highly successful Music for a Time of War (2011), which also included works by Britten and Vaughan Williams and received Grammy Award nominations for Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Album, Classical. This England received positive critical reception but failed to chart.
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U.S. Route 197 (US 197) is a north–south United States Highway, of which all but 2.76 miles of its 69.93 miles (4.44 of 112.54 km) are within the state of Oregon. The highway starts in rural Wasco County in Central Oregon at an intersection with US 97. US 197 travels north as a continuation of The Dalles-California Highway No. 4 through the cities of Maupin, Tygh Valley, and Dufur to The Dalles. Within The Dalles, the highway becomes concurrent with US 30 and intersects Interstate 84 (I-84) before it crosses over the Columbia River on the The Dalles Bridge into Washington. The highway continues through the neighboring city of Dallesport in Klickitat County and terminates at a junction with State Route 14 (SR 14). US 197 was established in 1952 using the existing The Dalles-California Highway, itself created as a part of the initial named Oregon highways in 1917. US 197 traveled from its current northern terminus at Dallesport to US 97 in Maryhill along Primary State Highway 8 (PSH 8) and US 830, successors to the original State Road 8 designated along the corridor in 1907. The Dallesport–Maryhill section was transferred to SR 14 in 1979, but was not recognized by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) until 2006.
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U.S. Route 730 (US 730) is an east–west United States Highway, of which all but 6.08 miles of its 41.78 miles (9.78 of 67.24 km) are within the state of Oregon. The highway starts in rural Morrow County in Eastern Oregon at an interchange with Interstate 84 (I-84) and US 30, located east of the city of Boardman. US 730 travels east along the Columbia River as a continuation of Columbia River Highway No. 2 into Umatilla County, intersecting I-82 and US 395 in the city of Umatilla. US 730 and US 395 form a short concurrency within the city before the highways part, with US 730 continuing northeast into Washington. The highway travels through rural Walla Walla County and ends at an intersection with US 12 south of Wallula. US 730 was created with the original United States Highways on November 11, 1926, traveling on the existing Columbia River Highway, established in 1917, from US 30 in Umatilla to US 410 south of Wallula. The Washington section of US 730 was added to the state highway system in 1923 as a branch of State Road 3, later becoming a branch of Primary State Highway 3 (PSH 3) in 1937. The highway was concurrent with US 395 from 1937 until 1985, traveling from Cold Springs Junction to US 410. US 30 was moved to a new route bypassing Umatilla and Irrigon in 1946, allowing for US 730 to be extended southwest to Boardman, later to an interchange with I-84.
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Allow Me, also known as Umbrella Man, is an iconic 1983 bronze sculpture by John Seward Johnson II, located in Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon, United States. The sculpture was donated anonymously to the City of Portland in 1984 for display in the Square. It depicts a life-sized man dressed in a business suit, hailing a cab and holding an umbrella. Constructed from bronze, aluminum and stainless steel, the sculpture stands six feet, ten inches tall and weighs 460 pounds. The sculpture is one of many works of art generated by the city's Percent for Art program, and is considered part of the City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection courtesy of the Regional Arts & Culture Council. After ten years, in 1995, the sculpture was removed from its pedestal and transferred to California for its first major restoration. To maintain its shine, Allow Me receives cold wax coatings every year. It is a popular tourist attraction and local landmark which serves as a reference point for gatherings, or political rallies. Allow Me has received a positive reception and is renowned for its realistic appearance; the 'Umbrella Man' has been called the "most photographed man in Portland", and serves as a symbol of the city and its residents.
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Weather Machine is a kinetic sculpture and columnar machine that displays a weather prediction each day at noon. Designed and constructed by Omen Design Group Inc., the approximately 30 feet (9.1 m) tall bronze sculpture was installed in 1988 in the northwest corner of Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. 2,000 people attended its dedication, which was broadcast live nationally from the Square by Today weatherman Willard Scott. The machine cost $60,000. During its daily two-minute sequence, which includes a trumpet fanfare, mist, and flashing lights, the machine displays one of three metal symbols as a prediction of the weather for the following 24-hour period: a sun for clear, sunny weather; a blue heron for drizzle and transitional weather; or a dragon and mist for rainy or stormy weather. The sculpture includes two bronze wind scoops and displays the temperature via vertical colored lights along its stem. The air quality index is also displayed by a light system below the stainless steel globe. Weather predictions are made based on information obtained by Square employees from the National Weather Service and Department of Environmental Quality. Considered a tourist attraction, Weather Machine has been called "bizarre", "eccentric", "playful", "unique", "wacky", "whimsical", "zany" and a "piece of wizardry", and has been compared to a giant scepter.
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Burns is a city in and the county seat of Harney County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. According to the 2010 census, the population was 2,806. Burns and the nearby city of Hines are home to about 60 percent of the people in the sparsely populated county, the largest in Oregon and the ninth largest in the United States. The Burns–Hines region has a high-desert climate but was much wetter in the recent geologic past. The Harney Basin was the largest of many depressions in which lakes formed in southeastern Oregon during the late Pleistocene. Remnants of an ancient lake that reached as far north as Burns are at the center of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, south of the city. Northern Paiutes or their ancestors, who were hunter-gatherers, have lived in the region for thousands of years. Since the arrival of Euro-Americans in the 19th century, cattle ranching and other forms of agriculture have dominated land use in the area. In 1930, logging in the mountains north of Burns led to the creation of Hines, a lumber company town, and the timber industry remained important to the local economy until the 1990s. In addition to ranching, a variety of private and public enterprises support the Burns–Hines economy in the 21st century. Annual events include a migratory bird festival, the county fair, and a country music jamboree.
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Joseph Schwantner: New Morning for the World; Nicolas Flagello: The Passion of Martin Luther King is a classical music album by the Oregon Symphony under the artistic direction of James DePreist, released by Koch International Classics in 1995. Recorded at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon, in September 1994, the album is a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. and was released in his honor on the following holiday in his name. The album features two works by American composers, each with text from speeches by King: Joseph Schwantner's New Morning for the World ("Daybreak of Freedom") and Nicolas Flagello's cantata The Passion of Martin Luther King. Both works include performances by Raymond Bazemore, who serves as narrator on the former and provides bass vocals on the latter. On the album's release date, more than 30 United States radio stations broadcast the album version of Schwantner's composition to commemorate the civil rights leader. Proceeds from the album's sale benefited the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Produced by Michael Fine and engineered by Fred Vogler, the recording reached a peak position of number three on Billboard's Classical Albums chart and remains the Oregon Symphony's best-selling album as of 2013.
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Petersen Rock Garden, formerly Petersen's Rock Garden and also known as the Petersen Rock Gardens, is a rock garden and museum on 4 acres (1.6 ha), located between the cities of Bend and Redmond in Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. Rasmus Petersen, a Danish immigrant who settled in Central Oregon in the early 1900s, began constructing the garden in 1935 using rocks he found within an 85-mile (137 km) radius of his family home. Petersen constructed detailed miniature castles, churches and other small buildings and monuments from a variety of rock types. He incorporated other design elements such as bridges, water features and natural landscaping. Petersen worked on the garden until his death in 1952; the garden has remained in his family's care since then. The garden, considered a roadside attraction with novelty architecture, includes roaming peafowl and a museum with a gift shop that sells rocks. In 2011, Petersen Rock Garden was named one of Oregon's Most Endangered Places by the Historic Preservation League of Oregon. In 2012, accidental damage to one of the stone bridges by a contractor catalyzed an effort to document the garden using laser scanning and other technologies. The garden was closed temporarily in 2013 to undergo repair and review for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Petersen has been praised for his creative work, and the garden has received a positive reception for its uniqueness and local significance.
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Shemanski Fountain, also known as Rebecca at the Well, is an outdoor fountain with a bronze sculpture, located in the South Park Blocks of downtown Portland, Oregon in the United States. The sandstone fountain, designed in 1925 and completed in 1926, is named after Joseph Shemanski, a Polish immigrant and businessman who gifted the structure to the city. Carl L. Linde designed the trefoil, which features a statue designed by Oliver Laurence Barrett. The sculpture, added to the fountain in 1928, depicts the Biblical persona Rebecca. Shemanski Fountain includes two drinking platforms with three basins each, with one platform intended for dog use. The fountain underwent major renovations during 1987–88 and in 2004. It has been vandalized multiple times and has also been used as a reference point for gatherings. In addition, it has been included in public art guides and walking tours of Portland. According to "cultureNOW", the statue Rebecca at the Well is part of the City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection courtesy of the Regional Arts & Culture Council, the agency that maintains the sculpture. The fountain surrounding the statue, often considered part of the artwork, is maintained by the Portland Water Bureau with assistance from the Regional Arts & Culture Council.
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Hart Lake is a shallow lake in the Warner Valley of eastern Lake County, Oregon, United States. The lake covers 7,324 acres (29.64 km2) and has the most stable water level within the valley's Warner Lakes chain. The entire lake has an average depth of 5 feet (1.5 m) and a maximum depth of 11 feet (3.4 m) at a normal water level. The deepest part of the lake is at its north end, while the south half is comparatively shallow. Hart Lake not only gets the overflow from Crump Lake, but also receives a steady flow of fresh water from Honey Creek. The lake is named for the heart-shaped brand used by the pioneer Wilson and Alexander cattle ranch established near the lake. Much of the land around Hart Lake is administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The lake and the surrounding wetlands support a wide variety of birds and other wildlife. Recreational opportunities on and near Hart Lake include hunting, fishing, bird watching, and boating.
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The Quest, sometimes referred to as Saturday Night at the Y or Three Groins in the Fountain, is an outdoor marble sculpture and fountain designed by Count Alexander von Svoboda, located in Portland, Oregon in the United States. The sculpture, carved in Italy from a single 200-ton block of white Pentelic marble quarried in Greece, was commissioned by Georgia-Pacific in 1967 and installed in front of the Georgia-Pacific Building (now Standard Insurance Center, pictured) in 1970. It depicts five nude figures, including three females, one male and one child. According to the artist, the subjects represent man's eternal search for brotherhood and enlightenment. As of 1990, The Quest was considered Portland's largest single piece of white sculptured marble. The abstract, figurative sculpture was surveyed by the Smithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture!" program in 1994 and underwent minor repairs. It has received mixed reviews. One critic appreciated how its flowing lines contrasted with the "stark" pillars of the adjacent building, and called the marble "impressive". Another writer for The Oregonian wrote of her and others' dislike for the sculpture, saying it serves as a "free sex-education lesson" for schoolchildren.
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Morchella frustrata is a species of fungus in the family Morchellaceae native to North America, commonly referred to as the mountain blond or western blond morel. It has conical, yellowish to tan fruit bodies that grow up to 6 cm (2.4 in) tall and 4 cm (1.6 in) wide. Described as new to science in 2012, it has been collected from California and Oregon, where it occurs in mixed forests. It has also been collected in Turkey, although it is unknown if its presence there is a result of an accidental introduction. The fruit bodies are 6–9 cm (2.4–3.5 in) high. The conical cap is 4–6 cm (1.6–2.4 in) high and 2.5–4 cm (1.0–1.6 in) wide at the widest point. The cap surface features pits and ridges, which are formed from the intersection of 16–22 primary vertical ridges and few shorter, secondary vertical ridges, with frequent, sunken, horizontal ridges. The cap is attached to the stipe with a distinct sinus about 2–4 mm deep and 2–4 mm wide. The smooth ridges are initially colored pale yellowish to nearly whitish when young, but turn pale tan in age.
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Siletzia is the massive formation of early to middle Eocene epoch marine basalts and interbedded sediments in the forearc of the Cascadia subduction zone; this forms the basement rock under western Oregon and Washington and the southern tip of Vancouver Island. It is now fragmented into the Siletz and Crescent terranes. Siletzia corresponds geographically to the Coast Range Volcanic Province (or Coast Range basalts), but is distinguished from slightly younger basalts that erupted after Siletzia accreted to the continent and differ in chemical composition. The Siletzia basalts are tholeiitic, a characteristic of mantle-derived magma erupted from a spreading ridge between plates of oceanic crust. The younger basalts are alkalic or calc-alkaline, characteristic of magmas derived from a subduction zone. This change of composition reflects a change from marine to continental volcanism that becomes evident around 48 to 42 Ma (millions of years ago), and is attributed to the accretion of Siletzia against the North American continent. Various theories have been proposed to account for the volume and diversity of Siletzian magmatism, as well as the approximately 75° of rotation, but the evidence is insufficient to determine Siletzia's origin; the question remains open. The accretion of Siletzia against the North American continent approximately 50 million years ago (contemporaneous with the initiation of the bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain) was a major tectonic event associated with a reorganization of the earth's tectonic plates. This is believed to have a caused a shift in the subduction zone, termination of the Laramide orogeny that was uplifting the Rocky Mountains, and major changes in tectonic and volcanic activity across much of western North America.
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Ashland is a city in Jackson County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. It lies along Interstate 5 slightly north of the California border and near the south end of the Bear Creek Valley, an arm of the Rogue Valley. As of July 1, 2013, the city's population was estimated to be 20,295. The city is the home of Southern Oregon University (SOU) and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF). These are important to Ashland's economy, which also depends on restaurants, galleries, and retail stores that cater to playgoers and other visitors. Lithia Park along Ashland Creek, historic buildings, and a paved intercity bike trail provide additional tourist attractions. Ashland, originally called Ashland Mills, was named after Ashland County, Ohio, the original home of founder Abel Helman, and secondarily for Ashland, Kentucky, where other founders had family connections. Ashland has a mayor-council government assisted by citizen committees. Historically, its liberal politics have differed, often sharply, with much of the rest of southwest Oregon.
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Morchella populiphila is a species of morel fungus (family Morchellaceae) native to northwestern North America. Described as new to science in 2012, its specific epithet refers to its association with black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa). The morel used to be referred to as Morchella semilibera in western North American field guides until molecular analysis established that to be a strictly European species. M. populiphila occurs in California, Nevada and Oregon. Its fruit bodies grow up to 15 cm (6 in) tall with a ridged and pitted conical cap that attaches about halfway down the stipe. The cap ridges are dark brown to black in maturity, while the pits are yellowish to brownish. The fungus is edible, although not as highly valued as other morels. Morchella populiphila is one of three species of fungi commonly referred to as "half-free" morels, the others being Morchella punctipes in eastern North America and Morchella semilibera in Europe.
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The Kiger Mustang is a substrain of Mustang horse located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. Originally feral horses with specific conformation traits discovered in 1977, the name also applies to their bred-in-captivity progeny. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administers two herd management areas for Kiger Mustangs in the Burns District—Kiger and Riddle Mountain, in the Steens Mountain area. DNA testing has shown that Kiger Mustangs are descended largely from Spanish horses brought to North America in the 17th century, a bloodline thought to have largely disappeared from mustang herds before the Kiger horses were found. Kiger Mustangs are most often dun in color, although they are found in other solid colors. Compact and well-muscled in appearance, their coloration and phenotype make them some of the most desired by private buyers when horses are removed from the feral herds. The BLM rounds up the horses from the two herd management areas every three to four years, and auctions excess horses to the public, returning horses to public lands that meet the desired coloration and phenotype and sometimes exchanging horses between the two herds to maintain genetic diversity. Horses in private ownership may be registered in several breed associations, the largest and oldest being the Kiger Mesteño Association, established in 1988.
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Rimsky-Korsakoffee House, located in the Buckman neighborhood of southeast Portland, Oregon, in the United States, is one of the city's oldest coffeehouses. Named after Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the classical music-themed coffeehouse serves coffee and desserts, operating from the former living room of a reportedly haunted 1902 Craftsman-style house. Goody Cable started the business in 1980, having hosted classical music events in her home for years prior. Rimsky-Korsakoffee has a casual, communal atmosphere and sometimes features live classical music. The house is decorated with knickknacks, art and hanging objects. Tables are named for various composers; some of them are "haunted" (animated), at times elevating, rotating or vibrating. The coffeehouse has received a generally positive reception and is known mostly for its desserts and for offering a unique experience to guests. Rimsky-Korsakoffee has been called "eclectic", "quirky" and "spooky", and has been recognized by several publications for its coffee and desserts.
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The cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki) is a species of salmonid native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains and Great Basin in North America. As a member of the genus Oncorhynchus, it is one of the Pacific trout, a group that includes the widely distributed rainbow trout. Cutthroat trout are popular gamefish, especially among anglers who enjoy fly fishing. The common name "cutthroat" refers to the distinctive red coloration on the underside of the lower jaw. The specific name clarki was given to honor explorer William Clark, coleader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Cutthroat trout usually inhabit and spawn in small to moderately large, clear, well-oxygenated, shallow rivers with gravel bottoms and clear, cold, moderately deep lakes. They are native to the alluvial or freestone streams that are typical tributaries of the Pacific basin, Great Basin and Rocky Mountains. They are spring spawners and naturally hybridize with rainbow trout to produce fertile cutbows. Some populations of the coastal cutthroat trout (O. c. clarki) are semianadromous. Several subspecies of cutthroat are currently listed as threatened in their native ranges due to habitat loss and introduction of non-native species. Two subspecies, O. c. alvordensis and O. c. macdonaldi, are considered extinct. Cutthroat trout are raised in hatcheries to restore native populations, as well as stock non-native lake environments to support angling. The cutthroat trout type species and several subspecies are the state fish in seven western U.S. states. Subspecies in Oregon include the Alvord cutthroat trout, Whitehorse Basin cutthroat trout, and the Humboldt cutthroat trout.
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The Roseland Theater, sometimes Roseland Theater and Grill, is a music venue located at 8 Northwest Sixth Avenue in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The building was originally a church, constructed by the Apostolic Faith Church in 1922. In 1982, Larry Hurwitz converted the building to a music venue called Starry Night. In 1990, the club's 21-year-old publicity agent was murdered in one of the theater's hallways. Hurwitz sold the club in 1991, claiming he had lost support from the local music industry; in 2000, he was convicted of the murder of Timothy Moreau. The venue was given its current name during the 1991 ownership transfer in an attempt to disassociate from Hurwitz's business and reputation. During the 1990s, Double Tee acquired control of the hall's operations, then purchased and renovated the building. The theater features a standing-only main floor and an upstairs balcony with an adjacent bar. Peter's Room, an intimate showcase venue with a 400-person capacity, includes a restaurant and bar. Roseland has been named "Best Haunted Venue" by one local publication, referring to the murder of a young publicity agent by Hurwitz within the hall. The venue is known for hosting a variety of music acts and for offering quality acoustics.
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Act-On is a software-as-a-service product for marketing automation developed by Act-On, a company based in Beaverton, Oregon. It is used mostly by small to medium-sized businesses as a lower-cost alternative to enterprise software. The company was founded in 2008 by Raghu Raghavan and initially sold its software exclusively through Cisco, which provided $2 million in funding. It developed its own sales team to market the software directly to users and raised a total of $74 million in funding. Act-On has received positive reviews for use by small to medium-sized business due to its ease-of-use, simplicity and cost. However, product reviews have noted that Act-On does not have many of the sophisticated features needed for larger enterprises. Most users are small to medium-sized companies, though there are some larger companies using it, such as IBM, Motorola and Siemens.
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Mary's Club is the oldest strip club in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. In 1954, Roy Keller bought the business from Mary Duerst Hemming, who owned and operated Mary's as a piano bar beginning in the 1930s. Keller initially hired go-go dancers as entertainment during the piano player's breaks, then quickly hired them full-time due to their popularity. Topless dancers wearing pasties were introduced in 1955. The club also featured comics, musicians, singers and other acts. All-nude dancing began immediately following a judge's 1985 ruling against City of Portland ordinances that forbid it in places that served alcohol. Former strippers include Courtney Love and Christine Jorgensen, though the club is known for featuring long-term dancers who are loyal to the family business. Since Keller's death in 2006, Mary's Club is owned and operated by his daughter Vicki. Mary's has become a Portland institution, having been included in several "best of" lists for strip clubs, and its neon sign is considered a landmark. The club has appeared in several films, including Bongwater (1997) and Brainsmasher... A Love Story (1993), and has been included in walking tours of the city.
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Angkor I is an outdoor stainless steel sculpture by Lee Kelly, located at Millennium Plaza Park in Lake Oswego, Oregon, in the United States. The 1994 sculpture stands 14 feet (4.3 m) tall and weighs 1,000 pounds (450 kg), and was influenced by his visit to Southeast Asia one year prior. In 2010, Angkor I appeared in an exhibition of Kelly's work at the Portland Art Museum. In 2011, it was installed at Millennium Plaza Park on loan from the Portland-based Elizabeth Leach Gallery. The Arts Council of Lake Oswego began soliciting donations in 2013 in an attempt to keep the sculpture as part of the city's permanent public art collection, Gallery Without Walls. The fundraising campaign was successful; donations from more than 40 patrons, including major contributions from the Ford Family Foundation and the Oregon Arts Commission, made purchase of the sculpture possible. Angkor I has been called a "recognizable icon" and a "gateway" to the park's lake.
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The Lewis and Clark Exposition dollar was a commemorative gold coin struck in 1904 and 1905 as part of the United States Government's participation in the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, held in the latter year in Portland, Oregon. Designed by United States Bureau of the Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber, the coin did not sell well and less than a tenth of the authorized mintage of 250,000 was issued. The Lewis and Clark Expedition, the first American overland exploring party to reach the Pacific Coast, was led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Between 1804 and 1806, its members journeyed from St. Louis to the Oregon coast and back, providing information and dispelling myths about the large area obtained by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The Portland fair commemorated the centennial of that trip. The coins were, for the most part, sold to the public by numismatic promoter Farran Zerbe, who had also vended the Louisiana Purchase Exposition dollar. As he was unable to sell much of the issue, surplus coins were melted by the Mint. The coins have continued to increase in value, and today are worth between hundreds and thousands of dollars, depending on condition. The Lewis and Clark Exposition dollar is the only American coin to be "two-headed", with a portrait of one of the expedition leaders on each side.
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The Three Sisters are a complex volcano of three volcanic peaks of the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Oregon. Each exceeding 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in elevation, they are the third, fourth, and fifth highest peaks in the state of Oregon, and are located in the Three Sisters Wilderness, about 10 miles (16 km) south of the nearest town of Sisters. Diverse species of flora and fauna inhabit the area on and around the mountains, which is subject to frequent snowfall, occasional rain, and extreme temperature differences between seasons. The mountains, particularly South Sister, are popular for climbing and scrambling. Although they are often grouped together and seen as one unit, the three mountains evolved under differing geologic situations, and the petrologic composition of each mountain can vary significantly. Whereas North Sister is extinct and Middle Sister is inactive, South Sister last erupted about 2,000 years ago and still could erupt, threatening life within the region. After satellite imagery detected uplift near South Sister in 2000, the United States Geological Survey made plans to improve monitoring in the immediate area.
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The Camas pocket gopher (Thomomys bulbivorus), also known as the Camas rat or Willamette Valley gopher, is a rodent in the genus Thomomys of the family Geomyidae. First collected in 1829, it is endemic to the Willamette Valley in the northwest part of Oregon in the northwestern United States. It is the largest member of the genus, commonly known as smooth-toothed or western pocket gophers. The herbivorous gopher forages for vegetable and plant matter collected in large, fur-lined, external cheek pouches. Surplus food is hoarded in an extensive system of underground tunnels. The dull brown to lead-gray coat, changes color and texture over the year. The mammal's characteristically large, protuberant incisors are well adapted for use in tunnel construction, particularly in the hard clay soils of the Willamette Valley. The young are born toothless, blind, and hairless. They grow rapidly and are weaned around six weeks of age. The females have four mammary glands. The gophers make chattering sounds with their teeth. Males and females make purring or crooning sounds when together, while the young may make twittering sounds. The Camas pocket gopher is fiercely defensive when cornered, yet may become tame in captivity. While population trends are generally stable, threats to the species' survival include urbanization, habitat conversion for agricultural uses, and active attempts at eradication through trapping and poisons. In addition, it may fall prey to raptors or carnivorous mammals, or become host to a number of parasitic arthropods and worms. Scientists believe that the evolutionary history of the animal was disrupted when the cataclysmic Bretz floods washed over the Willamette Valley at the end of the last ice age. The floods nearly entirely covered the gopher's geographic range, which may have caused a genetic bottleneck as survivors repopulated the region after the waters receded.
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The Gypsy Restaurant and Velvet Lounge was a restaurant and nightclub established in 1947 and located along Northwest 21st Avenue in the Northwest District neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, in the United States. Popular with young adults, the restaurant was known for serving fishbowl alcoholic beverages, for its 1950s furnishings, and for hosting karaoke, trivia competitions and goldfish racing tournaments. The restaurant is said to have influenced local alcohol policies; noise complaints and signs of drunken behavior by patrons made the business a target for curfews and closure. Concept Entertainment owned the restaurant from 1992 until 2014, when it was closed unexpectedly.
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Oregon Route 120 (OR 120) is a 2.71-mile-long (4.36 km) unsigned state highway in the U.S. state of Oregon. The highway is internally known by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) as Swift Highway No. 120. OR 120 runs from a Union Pacific railroad crossing near North Columbia Boulevard north and eastward to an interchange with Interstate 5 (I-5) and OR 99E in North Portland near the Columbia River and the border between Oregon and Washington. The Swift Highway No. 120 was created in 1931, while the OR 120 designation was created in 2002. The "L" shaped route primarily travels through an industrial area and passes the Portland Metropolitan Exposition Center.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/157
The Trout Creek Mountains are a semi-arid, remote, Great Basin mountain range mostly in southeastern Oregon and partially in northern Nevada in the United States. Its highest point is Orevada View Benchmark in Nevada, which is 8,506 feet (2,593 m) above sea level. Disaster Peak, 7,781 feet (2,372 m) above sea level, is another prominent summit in the Nevada portion of the range. The Trout Creek Mountains are characteristic of the Great Basin's topography of mostly parallel mountain ranges alternating with flat valleys. These mountains consist primarily of fault blocks of basalt, which came from ancient shield volcanoes, on top of older metamorphic rocks. The southern end of the range, however, features many granitic outcrops. Overall, the mountainous, faulted terrain has escarpments and canyons along with rolling hills and ridges. Most of the range is public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. There is very little human development in the remote region, and the mountains are available for recreation but see few visitors. Wildlife include various bushes, grasses, birds and mammals. Despite the area's dry climate, a few year-round streams provide habitat for the rare Lahontan cutthroat trout. However, grazing allotments and their effects on riparian zones led to environmental concerns in the 1980s. The Trout Creek Mountain Working Group was formed in 1988 to help resolve conflict between livestock owners and environmentalists.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/158
The gray-tailed vole, Microtus canicaudus, also known as the gray-tailed meadow vole and the gray-tailed meadow mouse, is a rodent in the genus Microtus, which are small eared "meadow voles" of the family Cricetidae. First collected in 1895, it is endemic to the Willamette Valley, Oregon and Clark County, Washington in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Voles are small mammals and the gray-tailed vole is considered medium sized among voles. Historically, they were found among the prairies of the valley. They remain common, while much of these areas have been converted for agricultural purposes. For unclear reasons, populations densities of voles in an area may widely fluctuate from season to season and year to year. They are preyed upon by owls, hawks, and carnivorous mammals. Parasites include fleas and ticks. They build underground burrows and complex tunnel networks, sometimes shared with other burrowing animals in their area. Relatively little is known about their behavior in the wild, because they are elusive and unlikely to enter traps.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/159
Gladstone is a city located in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. Gladstone was founded by Judge Harvey Cross in 1889, and formally incorporated on January 10, 1911. It was named after the British statesman William Ewart Gladstone. The population was 11,497 at the 2010 census. Gladstone is an approximately four-square-mile (10 km²) suburban community, twelve miles (19 km) south of Portland, the largest city in Oregon, and located at the confluence of the Clackamas and Willamette rivers. The city has a single high school, Gladstone High School, and a single library that is part of the Library Information Network of Clackamas County. Gladstone has held several important cultural and social events, hosting both the inaugural Clackamas County Fair and the Oregon State Fair, before both were moved to more spacious locations. Both Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan and presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt have given public speeches in the city.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/160
The Chiming Fountain, also known as Cupid's Fountain, the John Staehli Fountain, Portland's City Park Fountain and Washington Park Fountain, is an outdoor cast iron fountain and sculpture built in 1891 by John "Hans" Staehli. It is installed in Washington Park in Portland, Oregon, United States. The fountain's name derives from the sound made when water drips from the upper basin. Staehli designed the fountain to serve as a watering trough for horses pulling carriages into the park. Based on a Renaissance fountain, it was originally painted white and included a statuette of a boy, possibly depicting Cupid, though the figure was damaged and permanently removed from the sculpture before or during the 1940s. The fountain was restored in 1960, but no longer functioned. Its condition was deemed "treatment urgent" by the Smithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture!" program in February 1994. Since then, its water-pumping function has also been restored. Chiming Fountain has been included in published biking and walking tours of Portland and has been mentioned as a highlight of Washington Park in guides recommending family-friendly activities in the city.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/161
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The Oregon Theatre, or Oregon Theater, is an adult movie theater in the Richmond neighborhood of southeast Portland, Oregon. The theater was completed in 1925 and originally housed a Wurlitzer pipe organ and vaudeville stage. It would later screen Hollywood, art-house, and Spanish-language films. The building was acquired by the Maizels family in 1967 and became an adult cinema in the 1970s. It continues to operate as the city's longest running pornographic cinema and remains owned by a member of the Maizels family. The cinema has been described as "less creepy than most of its kind" and "out of place" along the newly developed Southeast Division Street. It has also been called "the last holdout of an era", referring to both the prominence of adult film screenings in the city during the 1970s and its status as the last property owned by the Maizels family. In 2004, the building was identified as an "Investment and Identity Site" and commended for having attributes valued by the community, such as quality architecture, local ownership, and orientation to the street.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/162
The marsh shrew (Sorex bendirii), also known as the Pacific water shrew, Bendire's water shrew, and Bendire's shrew, is the largest North American member of the genus Sorex, known as the long-tailed shrews. It is covered in primarily dark brown fur and found near aquatic habitats along the Pacific coast from southern British Columbia in Canada to northern California in the United States. The first specimen was obtained 18 mi (29 km) southeast of Fort Klamath in Klamath County, Oregon, at a location 1 mi (1.6 km) from the Williamson River. Air trapped in the fur provides buoyancy and marsh shrews are able to run for as long as 3 to 5 seconds along the top of the water. The shrew measures about 16 cm (6.3 in) in length including a 7 cm (2.8 in) long tail. Marsh shrews weigh on average 14.5–16 g (0.51–0.56 oz). They eat primarily invertebrate animals, which they hunt both on land and in the water. Marsh shrews are rare, and populations are thought to be in decline. They are listed as endangered in parts of their range. Their range in Oregon is limited to the western portion of the state.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/163
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The Dream, also known as the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Sculpture, is an outdoor bronze sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. by Michael Florin Dente, located outside the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. The 8-foot (2.4 m) memorial statue was dedicated on August 28, 1998, the 35th anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech. It depicts King plus three allegorical sculptures: a man who symbolizes the American worker, a woman who represents immigration, and a young girl shown releasing King's coattail, who represents, according to Dente, the "letting go" that occurs when people sacrifice time and energy fighting a struggle. It is part of the City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection courtesy of the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Lee P. Brown and Vera Katz, mayors of Houston and Portland, were present at the dedication ceremony. The memorial is considered a black heritage site and has been used as a reference point for gatherings. It has also appeared in public art guides and walking tours. Seventy-five bronze replicas of the work exist, and Dente planned to send pieces of the original mold to each of their owners once all were sold.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/164
Bridgeoporus is a fungal genus in the family Polyporaceae. A monotypic genus, it contains the single polypore species Bridgeoporus nobilissimus, first described to science in 1949. Commonly known both as the noble polypore and the fuzzy Sandozi, this fungus produces large fruit bodies (or conks) that have been found to weigh up to 130 kilograms (290 lb). The upper surface of the fruit body has a fuzzy or fibrous texture that often supports the growth of algae, bryophytes, or vascular plants. This species is found in the Pacific Northwest region of North America where it grows on large (at least 1 m diameter) specimens of noble fir (Abies procera), Pacific silver fir (Abies amabilis), or western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla). Bridgeoporus nobilissimus causes a brown rot in its tree hosts. Genetic analysis shows that the fungus is more prevalent than fruit body distribution indicates. The fungus was discovered in Clackamas County, Oregon, in 1943 by brothers Ali and Fred Sandoz.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/165
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The "Burnside Burn" was an event held on the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon, starting at midnight on July 1, 2015, the day recreational marijuana became legal in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was organized by Portland NORML, the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, having originated from its executive director, who wanted to photograph himself in front of the White Stag sign in the moments after Oregon Ballot Measure 91 took effect. The crowd, larger than anticipated, numbered in the thousands and at times blocked traffic lanes on the bridge. Some attendees wanted to commemorate the moment, while others were motivated by announcements of free marijuana and seeds. No fines were issued for consumption in public. The event was covered by cannabis publications, local and national news outlets, and the HBO television series Vice.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/166
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Orchestral Works by Tomas Svoboda (sometimes abridged as Orchestral Works) is a classical music album by the Oregon Symphony under the artistic direction of James DePreist, released by the record label Albany in 2003. The album was recorded at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon during three performances in January and June 2000. It contains three works by Tomáš Svoboda, a Czech-American composer who taught at Portland State University for more than 25 years: Overture of the Season, Op. 89; Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra, Op. 148; and Symphony No. 1 (of Nature), Op. 20. The album's executive producers were Peter Kermani, Susan Bush, and Mark B. Rulison; Blanton Alspaugh served as the recording producer. Overture of the Season and Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra were commissioned by the Oregon Symphony. The latter was dedicated to principal percussionist Niel DePonte, who encouraged Svoboda to compose the work and who is featured on marimba; it was the first concerto commissioned by the orchestra for one of its musicians. Though the album received a mixed critical reception, DePonte's performance earned him a Grammy Award nomination for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra. Selected tracks from the album have been broadcast by classical music radio stations throughout the United States.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/167
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The Dougy Center, The National Center for Grieving Children & Families is a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon that offers support groups and services to grieving children and young adults. Its peer support program and network of children's grief services make the organization the first of its kind in the United States. 500 independent programs around the world are based on its model, more than 300 of which have staff who were trained by the organization's staff. The Dougy Center serves 400 children and 250 adults from the Portland metropolitan area each month, free of charge. Its main building is located in the Creston-Kenilworth neighborhood, and its satellite locations in Canby and Hillsboro are called The Dougy Center Walker's House and The Dougy Center Linklater Commons, respectively. The organization was founded in 1982 by Beverly Chappell, in tribute to Dougy Turno, who died of a brain tumor at age thirteen. In August 1981, Dougy wrote a letter to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a pioneer in near-death studies, on the subject of his own death. This prompted Kübler-Ross to connect Chappell with Dougy and his family, and Chappell to create support groups for grieving children. Since its establishment, more than 20,000 children and their family members have received support from the organization. In 2009, an unidentified arsonist destroyed the center. Construction on a new building began in April 2012, but in the interim, the center operated in Northeast Portland. Following $4.5 million in construction costs, the current 11,750-square-foot facility opened in February 2013 in its original location.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/168
NuScale Power is a private limited liability company headquartered in Tigard, Oregon that designs and markets small modular reactors (SMRs). As of 2014, the Department of Energy projected its technology would be commercially available around the year 2025. NuScale was founded based on research funded by the Department of Energy from 2000 to 2003. After funding was cut, scientists with the program obtained related patents in 2007 and started NuScale to commercialize the technology. In 2011, the company's largest investor had its assets frozen due to an investigation by the Securities Exchange Commission. The company experienced financial hardship until new funding was obtained from Fluor Corporation and later from the Department of Energy. NuScale is currently planning the first NuScale power plant in Idaho. NuScale's SMR designs are for 9 feet (2.7 m) by 65 feet (20 m) reactor vessels that use conventional light water cooling methods. Each module is intended to be kept in an underground pool and is expected to produce about 50 megawatts of electricity. It uses passive water-circulation that can operate without powered pumps or circulatory equipment.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/169
Pendleton is a city in and the county seat of Umatilla County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. The population was 16,612 at the time of the 2010 Census, which includes approximately 1,600 people who are incarcerated at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. Pendleton is the smaller of the two principal cities of the Hermiston-Pendleton Micropolitan Statistical Area. This micropolitan area covers Morrow and Umatilla counties and had a combined population of 87,602 at the 2010 census. Pendleton is the original home of Pendleton Woolen Mills, a maker of wool blankets, shirts, and an assortment of other woolen goods. In addition to the woolen mills, Pendleton is also famous for its annual rodeo, the Pendleton Round-Up, a part of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA)-sanctioned rodeo circuit. The town is the cultural center of Eastern Oregon. Pendleton's "Old Town" is listed as a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/170
Lakeview is a town in and the county seat of Lake County, Oregon. The population was 2,294 at the 2010 census. The city bills itself as the "Tallest Town in Oregon" because of its elevation, 4802 ft above sea level. Lakeview is situated in the Goose Lake Valley at the foot of the Warner Mountains and at the edge of Oregon's high desert country. Its economy is based on agriculture, lumber production, and government activities. In addition, tourism is an increasingly important part of the city's economy. Oregon's Outback Scenic Byway passes through Lakeview.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/171
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Coos Bay is a city in Coos County, Oregon, where the Coos River enters Coos Bay on the Pacific Ocean. The city borders the city of North Bend, and together they are often referred to as one entity called either Coos Bay-North Bend or Oregon's Bay Area. Coos Bay's population as of the 2010 census was 15,967 residents, making it the largest city on the Oregon Coast. Oregon's Bay Area is estimated to be home to 32,107. The city was founded in 1853 as Marshfield after the Massachusetts hometown of its founder, but was renamed Coos Bay in 1944. The Port of Coos Bay is the largest deep-draft coastal harbor between San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound, and held the title of "world's largest lumber shipping port" during the mid-1900s. The city is also known for being the hometown of Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine. Nearby outdoor recreation opportunities include the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, Sunset Bay State Park, Shore Acres State Park, Cape Arago State Park, and the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/172
Gravity Falls is an American mystery-comedy animated television series created by Alex Hirsch for Disney Channel and Disney XD. The series ran from June 15, 2012, to February 15, 2016. The series follows the adventures of Dipper Pines (voiced by Jason Ritter) and his twin sister Mabel (voiced by Kristen Schaal) who are sent to spend the summer with their great uncle (or "Grunkle") Stan (voiced by Hirsch) in Gravity Falls, Oregon, a mysterious town full of paranormal incidents and supernatural creatures. The kids help Stan run "The Mystery Shack," the tourist trap that he owns, while also investigating the local mysteries. Gravity Falls received critical acclaim with praise directed at its writing, characters, humor, and multi-generational appeal. Additionally, the series won two Emmy Awards, three Annie Awards, and a BAFTA Children's Award, among various other wins and nominations. The series has attracted a broad and passionate fandom and has been considered to be an influence for many animated shows that followed it. The series has also inspired a variety of official merchandise including books, toys, and a video game.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/173
The North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is one of two extant beaver species, along with the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber). It is native to North America and introduced in South America (Patagonia) and Europe (primarily Finland and Karelia). In the United States and Canada, the species is often referred to simply as "beaver", though this causes some confusion because another distantly related rodent, Aplodontia rufa, is often called the "mountain beaver". Other vernacular names, including American beaver and Canadian beaver, distinguish this species from the other extant beaver species, Castor fiber, which is native to Eurasia. The North American beaver is one of the official national wildlife of Canada symbols and is the official state mammal of Oregon and New York.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/174
Bear Camp Road is a rugged mountain road traversing the Klamath Mountains in Josephine and Curry counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. Bear Camp Road is a combination of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Road 34-8-36 (also known as Galice Road) starting just south of Galice and United States Forest Service (FS) Road 23, which continues from the 12-mile (19 km) point on 34-8-36 to Agness. The road is named for a camp and viewpoint at the 4,600-foot (1,400 m) summit near the Josephine-Curry county line. The road is a common route to recreational opportunities, including hunting and rafting, and is also the only route to the Oregon Coast between the California-Oregon border and the Rogue River. It is a paved, one-lane road with infrequent turnouts and a few gravel sections. At both ends, the road quickly climbs up to the crest of the Coast Range, and the majority of the road is at high elevation on top of a long ridge. Bear Camp Road is a rugged, narrow, crooked road, which is not suitable for travel in the winter. Numerous motorists have been stranded for days or weeks on Bear Camp Road or one of the many gravel roads that branch off from it. Dewitt Finley and James Kim both died after being stranded on the road in winter.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/175
The Rogue River Ranch is a pioneer farm complex in Curry County in southwestern Oregon, United States. The ranch is located on the north shore of the Rogue River just outside the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. The original ranch buildings were constructed by George Billings. Later the ranch was sold to Stanley Anderson, who increased the size of the property and built additional farm buildings. The Bureau of Land Management bought the ranch in 1970. Today, the main ranch house is a museum. The Bureau of Land Management also maintains a campground on the property. The Rogue River Ranch is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/176
The Klamath Mountains are a rugged and lightly populated mountain range in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the western United States. As a mountain system with both the greater Pacific Coast Ranges and the California Coast Ranges, the Klamath Mountains have a varied geology, with substantial areas of serpentine and marble, and a climate characterized by moderately cold winters with very heavy snowfall and warm, very dry summers with limited rainfall, especially in the south. As a consequence of the geology and soil types, the mountains harbor several endemic or near-endemic trees, forming one of the largest collections of conifers in the world. The mountains are also home to a diverse array of fish and animal species, including black bears, large cats, owls, eagles, and several species of Pacific salmon. Millions of acres in the mountains are managed by the United States Forest Service. The northernmost and largest sub-range of the Klamath Mountains are the Siskiyou Mountains.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/177
Albany is the county seat of Linn County, and the 11th largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Albany is located in the Willamette Valley at the confluence of the Calapooia River and the Willamette River in both Linn and Benton counties, just east of Corvallis and south of Salem. It is predominately a farming and manufacturing city that settlers founded around 1848. As of the 2020 United States census, the population of Albany was 56,472. Albany has a home rule charter, a council-manager government, and a full-time unelected city manager. The city provides the population with access to over 30 parks and trails, a senior center, and many cultural events such as the Northwest Art and Air Festival, River Rhythms, and Movies at Monteith. In addition to farming and manufacturing, the city's economy depends on retail trade, health care, and social assistance. In recent years the city has worked to revive the downtown shopping area, with help from the Central Albany Revitalization Area.
Portal:Oregon/Selected article/178
Autzen Stadium is an outdoor football stadium in the northwest United States, in Eugene, Oregon. It serves as the home field of the Oregon Ducks of the Pac-12 Conference. The stadium is located just north of the Willamette River, next to Alton Baker Park. Students typically walk to the stadium from the University of Oregon campus over the Autzen Footbridge, which passes over the Willamette, then through Alton Baker Park. Opened 54 years ago in 1967, the stadium has undergone several expansions. The stadium is the largest sports arena in the state of Oregon with an official seating capacity of 54,000, however, the actual attendance regularly exceeds that figure.
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