Portal:Oregon
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Oregon has one of the most diverse landscapes of any state in the U.S. It is well known for its tall, dense forests; its accessible and scenic Pacific coastline; and its rugged, glaciated Cascade volcanoes. Other areas include semiarid scrublands, prairies, and deserts that cover approximately half the state in eastern and north-central Oregon. Oregon's population in 2000 was about 3.5 million, a 20.3% increase over 1990. It is estimated to have reached 3.7 million by 2006. Oregon's population is largely concentrated in the Willamette Valley, which stretches from Eugene through Salem and Corvallis to Portland, Oregon's largest city. The origin of the name Oregon is unknown. One account, advanced by George R. Stewart in a 1944 article in American Speech, was endorsed as the "most plausible explanation" in the book Oregon Geographic Names. According to Stewart, the name came from an engraver's error in a French map published in the early 1700s, on which the Ouisiconsink (Wisconsin) River was spelled "Ouaricon-sint", broken on two lines with the -sint below, so that there appeared to be a river flowing to the west named "Ouaricon".
Selected pictureMultnomah Falls is a waterfall on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, located east of Troutdale, between Corbett and Dodson, along the Historic Columbia River Highway. The falls drops in two major steps, split into an upper falls of 542 feet (165 m) and a lower falls of 69 feet (21 m), with a gradual 9 foot (3 m) drop in elevation between the two, so the total height of the waterfall is conventionally given as 620 feet (189 m). Multnomah Falls is the second tallest year-round waterfall in the United States after Yosemite Falls. Selected biography
Dr. John McLoughlin (October 19, 1784 – September 3, 1857) was the Chief Factor of the Columbia Fur District of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. In 1798, he began 4½ years of medical training and was granted a license to practice medicine in 1803. He was hired as a physician at Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay, Ontario), a fur-gathering post of the North West Company on Lake Superior. In 1814, he became a partner in the company, and in 1816 he was arrested for the murder of Robert Semple, the governor of the Red River Colony, after the Battle of Seven Oaks (1816). McLoughlin was tried on October 301818, and the charges were dismissed. McLoughlin was instrumental in the negotiations leading to the North West Company's 1821 merger with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), and became Chief Factor of the Columbia District in 1824. McLoughlin was involved with the debate over the future of the Oregon Country. After retiring from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1846, McLoughlin moved his family back south to Oregon City in the Willamette Valley. In 1847, McLoughlin was given the Knighthood of St. Gregory, bestowed on him by Pope Gregory XVI. He became a U.S. citizen in 1849. He served as mayor of Oregon City in 1851, and died of natural causes in 1857. His grave is on a bluff above Willamette Falls. In 1953, the state of Oregon donated a statue of McLoughlin to the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection. The title "Father of Oregon" was officially bestowed on him by the Oregon Legislative Assembly in 1957.
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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 did away with 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.
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Featured articles: 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens • 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack • Balch Creek • Frank Black • Columbia River • Columbia Slough • D. B. Cooper • Elliott Smith • Exploding whale • Fanno Creek • Forest Park (Portland, Oregon) • Hanford Site • Hillsboro, Oregon • Johnson Creek • New Carissa • Oregon State Capitol • Tryon Creek • Upper and Lower Table Rock Featured lists: • List of areas in the National Park System of the United States • List of Portland Trail Blazers head coaches • List of tallest buildings in Portland, Oregon • List of U.S. states by date of statehood • List of U.S. states by elevation
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