Oregon has been home to many indigenous nations for thousands of years. The first European traders, explorers, and settlers began exploring what is now Oregon's Pacific coast in the early to mid-16th century. As early as 1564, the Spanish began sending vessels northeast from the Philippines, riding the Kuroshio Current in a sweeping circular route across the northern part of the Pacific. In 1592, Juan de Fuca undertook detailed mapping and studies of ocean currents in the Pacific Northwest, including the Oregon coast as well as the strait now bearing his name. The Lewis and Clark Expedition traversed Oregon in the early 1800s, and the first permanent European settlements in Oregon were established by fur trappers and traders. In 1843, an autonomous government was formed in the Oregon Country, and the Oregon Territory was created in 1848. Oregon became the 33rd state of the U.S. on February 14, 1859.
Today, with 4.2 million people over 98,000 square miles (250,000 km2), Oregon is the ninth largest and 27th most populous U.S. state. The capital, Salem, is the third-most populous city in Oregon, with 175,535 residents. Portland, with 652,503, ranks as the 26th among U.S. cities. The Portland metropolitan area, which includes neighboring counties in Washington, is the 25th largest metro area in the nation, with a population of 2,512,859. Oregon is also one of the most geographically diverse states in the U.S., marked by volcanoes, abundant bodies of water, dense evergreen and mixed forests, as well as high deserts and semi-arid shrublands. At 11,249 feet (3,429 m), Mount Hood is the state's highest point. Oregon's only national park, Crater Lake National Park, comprises the caldera surrounding Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the U.S. The state is also home to the single largest organism in the world, Armillaria ostoyae, a fungus that runs beneath 2,200 acres (8.9 km2) of the Malheur National Forest. (Full article...)
The Oregon Supreme Court is the highest state court in the U.S. state of Oregon. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the Supreme Court of the United States. The OSC holds court at the Supreme Court building in Salem, Oregon, near the capitol building on State Street. Justices of the court serve six-year terms upon election; however, vacancies are filled by appointments of the Governor of Oregon until the next general election, when any qualified candidate may run for the position including the appointee. Tracing its beginnings back to 1841, when Oregon pioneers selected a supreme judge with probate powers, the court has grown from a single judge to its current make up of seven justices. These seven justices then select one member to serve a six-year term as Chief Justice. The court's Chief Justice is not only responsible for assigning cases to the other justices to write the court's opinions, but is also the chief executive of the Oregon Judicial Department. Primarily an appeals court, it is also the court of last resort in Oregon. Although most oral arguments before the court are held in the Oregon Supreme Court Building (built in 1914), the court does travel around the state, holding sessions in various schools.
John Albert Kitzhaber (born March 5, 1947) is a physician, member of the Democratic Party and a former Governor of Oregon, who resigned early in his fourth term. He graduated from South Eugene High School in 1965, Dartmouth College in 1969, and then Oregon Health & Science University with a medical degree in 1973. Kitzhaber practiced medicine from 1973 to 1986 in Roseburg, Oregon as an Emergency RoomPhysician. Kitzhaber began his political career serving in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1979 to 1981. In 1980, he was elected to the Oregon State Senate, where he served three terms from 1981 to 1993, and as President of the Senate from 1985 until 1993. Kitzhaber was elected governor in November 1994, defeating Denny Smith, and becoming the 35th Governor of Oregon, and was re-elected in 1998. Much of Kitzhaber's eight-year first tenure as governor was spent on the defensive with a Republican-controlled legislature. While Oregon's constitution prohibited Kitzhaber from seeking a third consecutive term in 2002, he was elected to a non-consecutive third term in 2010 and was reelected in 2014, becoming the first person in Oregon history to be elected to four terms as governor. Kitzhaber married Sharon LaCroix in 1995 and the couple had one son, Logan, born in October 1997. They divorced in 2003. From 2003 to 2010, Kitzhaber served as President of the Estes Park Institute, a Colorado-based education organization for community hospital and healthcare leaders. During the same period, he served as the Director for the Center for Evidence-Based Policy at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon. Cylvia Hayes, with whom Kitzhaber became romantically involved soon after his 2002 campaign, became his live-in girlfriend. In 2011, when he again became Governor, Hayes became Oregon's first lady, although they remain unmarried.
... that the only remaining artifact in the ghost town of Fremont, Oregon, is a juniper stump notched with steps that women travelers used to mount horses in a modest fashion?
... that while George C. Brownell played no part in the Oregon land fraud scandal, a published cartoon showed him as the "Pretty Moth" that flew too close to the land fraud limelight?
This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk·contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Oregon}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.
