🌲Oregon

The Beaver State

Oregon sits in the Pacific Northwest, stretching from a rugged 363-mile coastline across the forested Cascade Range to the high desert of the Great Basin. It was the destination of the Oregon Trail and the site of some of the earliest American settlement west of the Rockies. The state is known for its forests, its craft industries, and for being the only state with an official two-sided flag.

The Oregon Trail

Between roughly 1840 and 1869, an estimated 400,000 settlers migrated west along the Oregon Trail, a 2,170-mile wagon road that began in Independence, Missouri and ended in the Willamette Valley. The journey took four to six months. The trail crossed the plains, the Rocky Mountains at South Pass, and the Blue Mountains before dropping into the valley where most emigrants settled. The Oregon Country — covering what is now Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming — was jointly claimed by the United States and Britain until 1846, when the Oregon Treaty set the boundary at the 49th parallel.

From Territory to Statehood

The Provisional Government of Oregon was organized by American settlers in 1843, the first civil government on the Pacific Coast of the United States. Congress created the Oregon Territory in 1848, and Oregon was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state on February 14, 1859 — making it the only state with a Valentine's Day statehood anniversary.

Geography of Contrast

Few states have as much geographic variety in as small a space as Oregon. The Willamette Valley, a broad and fertile lowland between the Coast Range and the Cascades, contains most of the state's population — Portland, Salem, Eugene, Corvallis. To the east of the Cascades, the land changes abruptly. The rain shadow of the mountains produces high desert, juniper forests, and wide open rangeland. Central Oregon, the Oregon Outback, and the Wallowa Mountains in the northeast feel like entirely different states.

Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States at 1,943 feet, formed when the volcano Mount Mazama collapsed about 7,700 years ago. Mount Hood (11,249 ft), northeast of Portland, is Oregon's highest peak and one of the most climbed glaciated mountains in North America.

Timber, Tech, and Small Business

For most of the 20th century, timber was the foundation of Oregon's economy — the state still leads the nation in softwood lumber production. Beginning in the 1980s and 90s, the economy diversified. The Silicon Forest in Washington County (west of Portland) hosts major operations for Intel, Nike, and other technology and athletic-apparel firms. Oregon is also home to a dense ecosystem of craft breweries, coffee roasters, and small specialty manufacturers — a pattern reinforced by the state's well-known Bottle Bill, no sales tax, and strong tradition of small-scale, independent business.

Quick Oregon Facts

• Oregon and Pennsylvania are the only two U.S. states whose names begin with "O."
• The state flag is the only U.S. flag with different designs on its two sides — the seal on the front and a beaver on the back.
• Oregon has 363 miles of public coastline. A 1967 state law declared the entire beach public, the only state to do so.
• Hell's Canyon on the Snake River, along the Oregon-Idaho border, is the deepest river gorge in North America — deeper than the Grand Canyon.
• The University of Oregon in Eugene is the birthplace of Nike — the original waffle sole was made on a waffle iron by track coach Bill Bowerman in 1971.

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