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10 Crazy Things That Happened In The History Of Oregon - {dialog-heading}

 

This giant tree, among other conifers in the Scone Palace Gardens , is still growing to this day! Weighing up to 50 pounds, Chinook Salmon are the largest species of salmon in the Pacific Northwest!

Chinook Salmon play a significant role in tribal culture and history in the region, especially in the Columbia River Gorge and Basin where the fish has historically been bountiful.

Due to the historic abundance of the beaver in Oregon, the beaver was declared the state animal of Oregon in The emblematic beaver is also the mascot of Oregon State University! Go Beavs! Salem is situated within the Willamette Valley , which is one of the most agriculturally productive and fertile agriculture regions in the world!

Oregon is the 27th most populous state in the United States and the 9th largest state by area in the United States! Nevada is the seventh-largest of the 50 states but is one of the most sparsely populated. Carson City, in the western part of the state, is the capital. Kansas, situated on the American Great Plains, became the 34th state on January 29, Its path to statehood was long and bloody: After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of opened the two territories to settlement and allowed the new settlers to determine whether the states would Bordered by the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north and the U.

With an abundance of Until , anyone in Oregon could buy or make dynamite. There were plenty of practical ways the dynamite was used for farming, construction, etc. Speaking of jails, in a small jail house was surprisingly found standing conspicuously in the middle of Canyon City. As it turned out, an unidentified group of people had stolen the entire jail from the nearby ghost town of Greenhorn and brought it to Canyon City for unknown reasons. In , 70 pairs of sandals were found in a Central Oregon cave preserved beneath a layer of volcanic ash from the same eruption that created Crater Lake.

The shoes turned out to be more than 10, years old, making them the oldest shoes in the world. Other local mammals include Roosevelt elk, gray wolves , and wolverines. Reptiles such as western pond turtles and Oregon alligator lizards creep through the state. Oregon is also known for hemlock, red alder, bigleaf maple, and ponderosa pine. Oregon provides the most softwood lumber in the United States. Sunstone the official state gem , opal, agate, and jade are also mined here.

All rights reserved. Personality Quizzes. The term "Oregon" may refer to:. The history of Oregon, and of the Pacific Northwest , has received little attention from historians, as compared to other regions of the American far west.

Volcanic activity in the region has been traced to 40 million years ago, in the Eocene era, forming much of the region's landscape. In the Pleistocene era the last ice age, two million to , years ago , the Columbia River broke through Cascade Range , forming the Columbia River Gorge.

The Columbia River and its drainage basin experienced some of the world's greatest known floods toward the end of the last ice age. The periodic rupturing of ice dams at Glacial Lake Missoula resulted in discharge rates ten times the combined flow of all the rivers of the world, as many as forty times over a thousand-year period. Water levels during the Missoula Floods have been estimated at 1, feet m at the Wallula Gap in present-day Washington , feet m at Bonneville Dam , and feet m over current day Portland , Oregon.

They also formed many unusual geological features, such as the channeled scablands of eastern Washington. Mount Mazama , once the tallest mountain in the region at 11, feet, had a massive volcanic eruption approximately B. Helens , reduced Mazama's approximate 11, foot c. Mazama's collapsed caldera , in today's southern Oregon , contains Crater Lake , and the entire mountain is located in Crater Lake National Park.

The Klamath Native Americans of the area thought that the mountain was inhabited by Llao , their god of the underworld. After the mountain destroyed itself the Klamaths recounted the events as a great battle between Llao and his rival Skell, their sky god. The Cascadia earthquake resulted from a rupture at the Cascadia subduction zone along the coast of the Pacific Northwest.

Celilo Falls , a series of rapids on the Columbia River just upstream of present-day The Dalles, Oregon , was a fishing site for natives for several millennia. Native people traveled to Celilo Village from all over the Pacific Northwest and beyond to trade.

The rapids were submerged in with the construction of The Dalles Dam. In , Mount St. Helens in nearby Washington erupted violently, temporarily reducing the Columbia River 's depth to as little as 13 feet, and disrupting Portland's economy.

The eruption deposited ash as far into Oregon as Bend. Although there is considerable evidence that Paleo-Indians lived in the Pacific Northwest 15, years ago, the first record of human activity within the boundaries of present-day Oregon came from archaeologist Luther Cressman 's discovery of sage bark sandals near Fort Rock Cave that places human habitation in Oregon as early as 13, years ago. The Natives generally welcomed the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century, for the increased trading opportunities; however, the introduction of foreign diseases would prove devastating to local populations.

The perception of Oregon by early European explorers and settlers varied according to the purpose and method of exploration. Official explorers came, at first, primarily by sea, in many cases seeking the Northwest Passage , and later over land, but missed many areas of the state now known as Oregon. Fur traders and trappers, initially from the Hudson's Bay Company , explored the land more thoroughly, documenting encounters with most of the local Indian tribes.

Christian missionaries, and later immigrants planning to settle permanently in Oregon, sent glowing reports back to their families in the east. In , Juan de Fuca undertook detailed mapping and studies of ocean currents. Stops along these trips included Oregon as well as the strait now bearing his name. Soon the coast of Oregon became a valuable trading route to Asia. Spanish explorers found a way to explore the Pacific coast as early as , sending vessels northeast from the Philippines , riding the Kuroshio Current in a sweeping circular route across the northern part of the Pacific.

These ships — in as many years — would typically not land before reaching Cape Mendocino in California , but some landed or wrecked in what is now Oregon.

Nehalem Indian tales recount strangers and the discovery of items like chunks of beeswax and a lidded silver vase, likely connected to the wreck of the San Francisco Xavier.

While returning south Heceta found the mouth of the Columbia River , but was unable to enter. Beginning in the late s many ships from Britain, America, and other countries sailed to the Pacific Northwest to engage in the region's emerging Maritime Fur Trade business.

American sea captain Robert Gray entered the Columbia in , and was soon followed by a ship under the command of George Vancouver , a British captain, who also explored Puget Sound and claimed it for Britain.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled through the region during their expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase. They built their winter fort at Fort Clatsop , near the mouth of the Columbia. Exploration by Lewis and Clark — and the United Kingdom's David Thompson , who extensively explored the Columbia River from to , publicized the abundance of fur-bearing animals in the area.

Great Britain and the U.