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Home > Oregon
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Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest section of the United States. It entered the Union on 14th February, 1859 as the 33rd state. Formerly, the section was part of the Oregon region that was founded in 1848 after American settlement start in the 1840s. The state rests on the Pacific coast sandwiched between Washington on the north and Nevada and California on the south; Idaho lies towards the east. The Snake and Columbia rivers shape much of its eastern and northern boundaries, correspondingly. Salem, the state's third most crowded city, is the state capital, while the most packed city is Portland.
The valley of the Willamette River within western Oregon is the most densely occupied and agriculturally prolific region of the state and is resident to 8 of the 10 most heavily populated cities. Oregon's population in 2000 was around 3.5 million, a 20.3% rise over 1990; it is expected to have reached 3.7 million by 2006. Oregon's principal private company is Intel, sited in the Silicon Forest area in Portland's west side. Precision Castparts and Nike are the lone Fortune 500 companies based in the state. The state contains 199 public school districts, with Portland Public Schools as the biggest. Oregon Health & Science University, the state's solitary medical school, is affiliated among the system. Oregon the University of Oregon in Eugene and State University in Corvallis are the two flagship universities of the state, whereas Portland State University boasts the largest enrollment. Willamette University in Salem is the oldest university in Oregon as well as the west coast.
Major highways contain Interstate 5 which runs the whole north-south expanse of the state, Interstate 84 that flows east-west, U.S. Route 97 that crosses the center of the state, U.S. Route 101 that traverses the full coastline, and U.S. Route 26 and U.S. Route 20 that run east-west, along with many other highways. The busiest commercial airport in the state is Portland International Airport, headed by the Port of Portland, the busiest docks in Oregon. Rail service contains BNSF Railway freight service and Union Pacific Railroad, Amtrak passenger service, as well as street car and light rail routes in the Portland metro area.
Oregon enjoys a broadly varied landscape. From its accessible and scenic Pacific coastline, east to the volcanoes of its ruggedly glaciated Cascade Range, thick evergreen forests tower above a third of Northern Oregon and almost half of Southern Oregon. East of the Cascades, lesser density pine forests crop up in the northeast while juniper forests, deserts, prairies, and semi-arid scrublands, comprising just about half the state, spread out across north Eastern and Central Oregon. Mount Hood is the highest peak in the state at 11,239 feet above sea-level. Crater Lake National Park is the single National Park in Oregon.
Many Oregonians, even the former Oregon Ducks quarterback Joey Harrington, articulate the state as "ORYGUN." After being picked by the Detroit Lions in 2002, Harrington scattered "ORYGUN" stickers to the members of the media as a token of how to say his home state.
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