Geography and Industry

Oregon has three major mountain ranges crossing it: the low-lying Coastal Range, which runs along the shore of the Pacific Ocean; the rugged Cascade Range (including the gorgeous Mount Hood and the picturesque Mount Batchelor), which goes north to south through the west-central part of the state; and the Blue and Wallowa Mountains, which run from northeastern Oregon into neighboring Washington and Idaho.

Nestled between the Coastal Range and the Cascades is the incredibly fertile Willamette River Valley. The eastern and central parts of the state are arid plateau land, which receives very little rainfall but under irrigation has become very productive farmland in many places. This part of Oregon is ideal grazing land, and the state has a huge cattle industry.

Oregon's major agricultural products include beans, broccoli, cherries, hay, onions, pears, peppermint, strawberries, and wheat. Oregon has also begun to produce wine locally during the past couple of decades, made from grapes grown in the state's arid central region.

Oregon has been called a sportsperson's paradise for many good reasons, including skiing in the Cascades; fishing, kayaking, and boating on the ocean and in the state's many lakes, streams, and rivers; and hiking in and around Oregon's many mountain ranges.

Because there is so much to see and do in Oregon, tourism has become a major industry in the state. The state's beaches are some of the most beautiful in the world, and every inch of them is public land, which by law cannot be sold. In southeastern Oregon, the Sea Lion Caves are popular with tourists, as is Crater Lake, which is at the center of Crater Lake National Park.

History

Before the first Europeans began visiting the region during the sixteenth century, there were many different tribes of Native Americans living in what is now Oregon. The Nez Perce lived in eastern Oregon, in the Wallowa Valley. The Modoc lived in dry lava beds of southern Oregon. The Cayuse and Umatilla lived in eastern and northern Oregon. And the Chinook lived and traded along the Columbia River all the way from its mouth up to the present-day site of Portland, Oregon's largest city.

After Captain Robert Gray of Boston, Massachusetts, located the mouth of the Columbia (which he named after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva) in 1792, other ships began to visit the region. The Chinooks began to act as middlemen who traded furs from tribes living farther up the river for the trade goods (blankets, glass beads, guns, and so on) that these ships brought.

The first permanent settlement in what is now Oregon was the establishment in 1811 of the fur-trading post of Astoria on the present site of the city of Astoria, Oregon. The post was founded by members of the American Fur Company, and they named the post after the company's owner, New York's John Jacob Astor. During the War of 1812, the post was seized by the British, and for the next thirty years Americans competed with British subjects for control of the Oregon Country.

Oregon at the time ran from California in the south up the west coast nearly to Alaska in the north, and from the Continental Divide in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. Parts of the present-day states of Wyoming and Montana, as well as all of the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and the entire Canadian province of British Columbia were included in this vast territory.

In 1818, and again in 1842, Great Britain and the United States agreed to a joint occupation of the Oregon Country by their citizens, and to no active military units in the area. In the 1830s, American settlers began to cross the continent by wagon train, coming all the way to the Willamette Valley to settle and establish farms. These early settlers established the Oregon Trail, which thousands followed afterward.

In 1846 the United States and Great Britain split the Oregon Country along the Forty-Ninth Parallel. They did so peacefully, without a shot being fired. The American side became the Oregon Territory, and remained so until Oregon became a state in 1859.

WORDS TO KNOW

The Oregon Trail

Established in the early 1830s, the Oregon Trail began in Independence, Missouri, crossed the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, and finally the Cascade Range, ending in the farmland of the Willamette Valley. Although it is no longer used today, there are places along the trail where the wagon ruts made over 150 years ago can still be seen!

Scared Silly

These two old miners are trying to tell you a joke. The answer is the name of a kind of town found in many western states. In fact, the state of Oregon has more than 1,000 of them! Figure out the miners' secret language so you can laugh along with them.

HINT: Look for a common word that is repeated over and over.