Oregon

See also: Oregon (homonymy)

The Oregon is a State of the North-West of the the United States, on the coast Pacifique. It is separated from the State of Washington in north by the Columbia, and has for other adjacent states in the east the Idaho, the south the Nevada and the California. The western border of this state is consisted the Pacific Ocean. Its name is supposed being a deformation of French “hurricane”, and it is called The Beaver State (the State of the Beaver).

History

See also: History of Oregon

History précolombienne

The first inhabitants of Oregon were the Amerindian S organized in tribes: Bannock, Chinook, Klamath and Nose Bored.

The time of the explorers

James Cook skirts the coast in 1778 to the research of the famous passage of the North-West between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. In 1792, the area is explored at the same time by the British George Vancouver and the American Robert Gray: it is the beginning of the competition of the two countries for Oregon.

Little time after the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the US president Thomas Jefferson sends Lewis and Clark to explore the new territories. The Forwarding Lewis and Clark passes by Celilo Falls and the site of Portland. Lewis could observe the Mont Hood. The explorers spend the winter on southern bank of Columbia and build the Fort Clatsop close to the mouth of the Columbia. In 1811, the New Yorkean financier John Jacob Astor establishes there Fort Astoria, the first white camping of the area. Its intention was to found a network of stations of Traite furs which would compete with the Anglo-French trappers of the Compagnie of Hudson Bay. It is also necessary to take into account the presence of the Russian counters . A few years later, John McLoughlin, built Strong Vancouver in 1825.

Colonization

In the years 1830, missionaries come from the east coast of the United States as of the Jésuite S French try évangéliser the Amerindians. Thus, Marcus Whitman settles at the Cayuse S which end up killing it in 1847.

In 1842 - 1846, the opening of the Piste of Oregon then the treaty with the United Kingdom (Treated of Oregon) caused the massive surge of new colonists. This treaty regulates the dispute which opposed the two countries on the layout of the border of the territories of the North-West. The limit is fixed at the 49e parallel north. The Territoire of Oregon is officially organized in 1848 and is recognized by Great Britain. Oregon is set up in State the February 14th 1859.

The arrival of the railroad in the years 1880 contributed to develop the export of wood and corn. The Bonneville dam, built in 1943 on Columbia, reinforced the industrialization of the State.

Language

Geography

In the year 2000, it counted 3.421.399 inhabitants, which corresponds to a population growth of more than 20% in ten years.

The state can be divided into six principal areas: Coast Arranges, the Vallée of Willamette, the Chaîne of the Cascades, the Klamath Mountains, the Plateau of Columbia and the Basin and Range Area.

Remarkable site: Crater Lake (national park)

The climate of Oregon is described of “oceanic soft” or as “Breton”.

Subdivisions

The State of Oregon is currently divided into 36 counties ( counties ).
See the list of the Counties of the State of Oregon

Main cities

See also: List of the cities of Oregon

  • Portland cement : Located at the north of Oregon, it is more the big city of the State, and its principal port. The populated agglomeration of 2.100.000 inhabitants concentrates an important economic activity. With Portland cement, the cities belonging to the agglomeration are Beaverton, Gresham, Hillsboro, Clackamas, Damascus, Gladstone, King City, Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, Oregon City, Sherwood, Tigard, Tualatin, West Linn, Wilsonville more other cities located in the State of Washington.
  • Salem : Located in the Valley of Willamette, it is the capital of the State and the second city in term of population. The agglomeration is populated of almost 400.000 inhabitants and comprises, with Salem, the town of Keizer.
  • Eugene : Located at the center of Oregon, it is the third city of the State in term of population. The agglomeration is populated of 350.000 and includes/understands the towns of Eugene and Springfield.
  • Medford : Located at the south of Oregon, close to the border California, the agglomeration comprises nearly 200.000 inhabitants.
  • Albany - Corvallis - Lebanon : Located in the valley of Willamette, these three cities form an urban surface of almost 200.000 inhabitants.
  • Bend - Prineville : Located at the center of Oregon, these two cities form a populated agglomeration of 170.000 inhabitants.

Principal rivers

See also: List of the rivers of Oregon

  • the river Columbia , one of the largest rivers of North America, constitutes a good part of the northern border of Oregon. This river is used as major transportation route for the north of the State.
    • Among the many affluents of the river Columbia, the river Willamette is the river which had the most importance in the development of Oregon. It is in the Vallée of Willamette that the essence of the population of Oregon concentrates. The river was always used as access point to the Californian colonists coming to settle in the State and forms today with the Interstate 5 which skirts the river an important loader-gate of the State.
    • Another affluent important of the Columbia river is the river Deschutes which runs out of north in the south in the east of the Chaine of the Cascades and which is also used as transportation route for the center of the State.
    • the river John Day is a river of the North-East of Oregon.
    • the river Snake , one of the largest affluents of the Columbia river, constitutes part of the border between Oregon and the Idaho.
  • the river Rogue is a river of the south of Oregon which crosses the coastal chain.
  • the river Klamath is a river which takes its source in the center-south of Oregon and which moves then towards the California.

Policy

Oregon is a state politically progressist, although strongly divided between the east and the republican south and the west and the democratic North-West . The state leans nevertheless today towards the democrats, majority in the urban counties of the west coast.

Oregon however entered the Union with a constitution which, in 1858, prohibited the installation of blacks on its territory. This provision had been taken so that the new state is not the object of the political conflict between unionistic northerners and secessionists Southerners. This prohibition was raised only in 1925 and it is only into 2002 that the last racist terms were withdrawn from the constitution.

Since 1988, Oregon continuously voted for the democratic candidates with the presidential election. If in November 2000, the democratic candidate Al Gore carries it only with 7.000 votes in advance (that is to say 46,96%) against the republican candidate George W. Bush (which obtains 46,52, in November 2004 on the other hand, the democratic candidate John Kerry more largely carries the 7 Great Electors of the State by obtaining there 51,35% of the voices compared with 47,19% with George W. Bush.

Since 2003, the governor, elected for four years, is the democrat Ted Kulongoski, re-elected in 2006. All the elected stations of the executive are held by democrats.

Since a law progressist of 1902, the citizens of Oregon have the possibility of making approve private bills and amendments with the constitution by the means of popular Référendum of initiative. In November 2004, the voters of the state massively rejected by Référendum any legalization of the Homosexual marriage.

Oregon also since 1981 a pioneer of the vote by correspondence-mail is extended gradually to all the elections. In 2000, Oregon is the first state where the presidential election was carried out completely by correspondence.

The Legislature of Oregon is composed of a senate of 30 members elected for 4 years and of an assembly of 62 representatives elected for 2 years. At the time of the legislature 2007 - 2008, the room of the representatives is divided between 31 democrats and 29 republicans whereas 17 democrats dominates 11 republicans and 2 independent with the senate.

At the federal level, at the time of the legislature 2007 - 2008, the two senators of the state to the federal Congress are the democrat Ron Wyden and the republican Gordon Smith whereas four of the five deputies to the Chambre of the Representatives of the United States are democrats.

Economy

The head office of Nike is with Beaverton.

The Technopolis of Silicon Forest with Portland cement.

Culture

  • Shakespeare Festival, Ashland

Religion

Religious statistics:

  • Christian - 70%

    • Protestant - 51%
      • Baptists - 5%
      • Lutherans - 5%
      • Méthodistes - 4%
      • Presbytériens - 3%
      • Pentecôtistes - 3%
      • Episcopaliens - 2%
      • Church off Christ - 2%
      • other Protestants - 25%
    • Catholic - 15%
    • Mormon - 4%
  • other religions - 7%
  • without religion - 23%

In Oregon as in the other States of the American West, the percentage of without religion is high.

Universities

Sport

Personalities originating in Portland cement

Personalities originating in Coos Bay

See too

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