Recreation and Places of Interest

Oregon offers the vacationer a panorama of sandy beaches broken by rocky cliffs, lofty snow-clad peaks towering over broad river valleys, narrow canyons, rushing streams, peaceful lakes, and dense forests. It also provides ideal opportunities for outdoor activities. Dominated by Mount Hood, the most popular recreation area, the spectacular mountain terrain challenges skiers in winter and hikers and climbers in summer. An abundance of wildlife in the vast forests include deer, elk, small animals, and birds. Trout, salmon, bass, perch, and other game fish are plentiful in Oregon’s lakes and streams. Along the coast are sheltered coves for swimming and clam digging, vast stretches of sand dunes, and forbidding cliffs with huge caves formed by the crashing breakers.

National Parks and Forests

Oregon’s only national park, Crater Lake National Park, surrounds an extinct volcano, Mount Mazama, on the crest of the Cascade Range. The deep crater, rimmed with high jagged cliffs, encloses one of the world’s most beautiful and deepest lakes. Crater Lake, which is 10 km (6 mi) across and 589 m (1,932 ft) deep, is renowned for its unique setting and its brilliant blue color. On Mount Elijah in the Siskiyou Mountains is Oregon Caves National Monument, where pillars and stalactites of calcite line passageways and hang from vaulted domes. The world-renowned John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in central Oregon is home to a well-preserved fossil record of plants and animals that spans more than 40 million of the 65 million years of the Cenozoic Era, or Age of Mammals.

The rich history of the region can be witnessed at the Nez Perce National Historical Park, devoted to the Nez Perce people, while Fort Clatsop National Memorial re-creates a winter camp of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 to 1806. The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center at Flagstaff Hill documents the history of the Western pioneer experience and the impact of the Oregon Trail.

The federal government also acts to preserve the Columbia River Gorge, a spectacular river canyon that cuts through the Cascade Mountains and is especially popular with windsurfers. The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is on the coast between the Siuslaw River and Coos Bay in the Siuslaw National Forest, one of only two national forests that border the Pacific Ocean.

Oregon’s 13 national forests cover more than 6 million hectares (15 million acres) and offer camping and many recreational facilities. There are 36 wilderness areas. The largest national forest is Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in the northeastern part of the state. The largest unbroken area of national forests runs in a continuous chain throughout most of the Cascade Range. The Wallowa-Whitman shares with Idaho one of the deepest gorges in the world, Hells Canyon. Crooked River National Grassland is in north central Oregon.

The Siuslaw National Forest extends from Tillamook to Coos County in three separate units and contains some of the most productive tree-growing land in the United States. The Deschutes National Forest, located on the eastern flank of the Cascade Mountains in central Oregon, is one of the most popular forests in the Pacific Northwest because of its wide variety of recreational opportunities, besides providing commodities ranging from timber to mushrooms. The Rogue River National Forest consists of two separate units of land. The western unit of the forest includes the headwaters of the Applegate River in the Siskiyou Mountains. To the east, the forest includes the upper reaches of the Rogue River, in the Cascade Mountains. Other national forests in Oregon include the Fremont, Malheur, Mount Hood, Ochoco, Siskiyou, Umatilla, Umpqua, Willamette, and Winema.

State Parks

Oregon’s state park system has about 240 sites, with recreational, scenic, or historic interest. Southward from Ecola State Park, which skirts the ocean for 10 km (6 mi), many state parks line the unspoiled seashore. Among the most popular are Sunset Bay, Battle Rock, and Umpqua Lighthouse state parks. A number of parks have lake or reservoir frontage, and a number are located along the picturesque Columbia River. Smith Rock lies in a colorful canyon cut by the Crooked River, which also flows through The Cove Palisades State Park on the great lava plateau. Spectacular waterfalls are features of several parks, including Silver Falls, east of Salem, which has 14 cataracts. Among the historic sites in the state is the house in Oregon City of John McLoughlin, who was the chief agent for the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1824 to 1846 and who virtually ruled the territory. A monument in Champoeg State Park marks the formation of Oregon’s provisional government in 1843.

Museums

In addition to the library, the Oregon Historical Society houses exhibits relating to the history of the Far West. In 1892, the Portland Art Association, a group of the city's civic leaders, founded the Portland Art Museum, and then later established a school of fine arts. The University of Oregon in Eugene has a museum of art. The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is a privately funded science center in Portland. Several museums, such as Fort Dalles Museum and the Heritage Museum in Independence, have displays of local history. The Columbia Gorge Discovery Center/Wasco County Historical Museum, opened in 1997 and located in The Dalles, houses exhibits on regional as well as natural history. The Tamastslikt Cultural Institute, which opened in 1998 on the Umatilla Reservation, documents the tribal history and contemporary life of the Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Cayuse. The institute is one of five museums and interpretive centers located along the route of the historic Oregon Trail through the state of Oregon.

Interesting sights near Portland include the fish ladders, which help salmon swim over the Bonneville Dam, and Multnomah Falls, which plunge 189 m (620 ft) into the Columbia River. A gallery of trees and displays relating to forestry industries are exhibited in the World Forestry Center in Portland, a huge log structure built in 1905 for the Lewis and Clark Exposition. The courthouse in Jacksonville, a gold rush city, is now a historical museum. The three largest telescopes in the Northwest are at the Pine Mountain Observatory near Bend.

Source: MSN Encarta: Online Encyclopedia