Geologic history
Mount Mazama erupted several millennia BC, leading to the formation of Crater
Lake.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 700,000 years ago), the Columbia River broke
through Cascade Range, forming the Columbia River Gorge.
The Columbia & 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 1,250 feet (381 m) at the Wallula Gap (in present-day Washington), 830 feet (253 m) at Bonneville Dam, & 400 feet (122 m) over current day Portland, Oregon. The floods' periodic inundation of the lower Columbia River Plateau deposited rich lake sediments, establishing the fertility that supports extensive agriculture in the modern era. 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 11,000 feet, had a massive volcanic eruption approximately 5.5 millenia B.C.
The eruption, estimated to have been 42 times more powerful than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, reduced Mazama's approximate 11,000 foot (c.3,350 m) height by around half a mile (about 1 km) when much of the volcano fell into the volcano's partially emptied neck & magma chamber. Mazama's collapsed caldera, in present-day southern Oregon, holds Crater Lake, & the entire mountain is located in Crater Lake National Park (Oregon's only such 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 & his rival Skell, their sky god.
Hundreds of square kilometres of the surrounding countryside were destroyed by material ejected from the collapse & associated eruptions. One pyroclastic flow traveled 40 miles (64 km) from Mazama down Rogue River Valley while another moved north in-between Mount Bailey & Mount Thielsen, moving over Diamond Lake (it finally came to rest in North Umpqua River valley). Winds carried tephra (ash & pumice) from Mazama northeast, where it covered over 500,000 square miles including nearly all of Oregon, Washington, northern California, Idaho, western Montana, & parts of Nevada, Wyoming, Alberta, British Columbia, & Saskatchewan.
Geologists know the exact chemical composition of this tephra (which they call Mazama ash) & both geologists & archeologists use the distinctive layer it formed in relative dating. As with all tephra layers, Mazama ash is thickest near its source (20 feet (6 m)) & becomes thinner with increasing distance from its source (70 miles, 110 km northwest it is 1 foot (0.3 m) thick).
Pyroclastic
flow material near Mazama remained extremely hot for months, & in some places
they were more than 250 feet (76 m) deep. Hot gases escaping from the cooling
deposits tended to follow vertical channels & emerged at the surface as fumaroles.
Over time these gases cemented the channels, which are now exposed as very tall
vertical columns & spires of tuff (good examples are along the upper walls
of Sand Creek Canyon & Annie Canyon).
Native peoples history
Although there is considerable evidence that humans lived in the Pacific Northwest
15,000 years ago, the first record of human activity in present day Oregon came
from archaeologist Luther Cressman's 1938 discovery of sage bark sandals near
Fort Rock Cave that places human habitation in Oregon as early as 13,200 years
ago. By 8000 B.C. there were settlements across the state, with the majority concentrated
along the lower Columbia River, in the western valleys, & around coastal estuaries.
By the 16th century Oregon was home to many Native American groups, including the Bannock, Chasta, Chinook, Kalapuya, Klamath, Molalla, Nez Perce, Takelma, & Umpqua.
James Cook explored the coast in 1778 in search of the Northwest Passage. The Lewis & 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 River. Exploration by Lewis & Clark (1805–1806) & the United Kingdom's David Thompson (1811) publicized the abundance of fur-bearing animals in the area. In 1811, New York financier John Jacob Astor established Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River as a western outpost to his Pacific Fur Company. Fort Astoria was the first permanent white settlement in Oregon.
Pioneer history
Main article: Oregon pioneer
history
In the War of 1812, the British gained control of all of the Pacific
Fur Company posts. By the 1820s & 1830s, their Hudson's Bay Company dominated
the Pacific Northwest from its Columbia District headquarters at Fort Vancouver
(built in 1825 by the District's Chief Factor John McLoughlin across the Columbia
from present-day Portland).
Map of Oregon in dispute. Resolved by the
Oregon Treaty.In 1841, the master trapper & entrepreneur Ewing Young died
with considerable wealth, with no apparent heir, & no system to probate his
estate. A meeting followed Young's funeral at which a probate government was proposed.
Doctor Ira Babcock of Jason Lee's Methodist Mission was elected Supreme Judge.
Babcock chaired two meetings in 1842 at Champoeg (half way between Lee's mission
& Oregon City) to discuss wolves & other animals of contemporary concern.
These meetings were precursors to an all-citizen meeting in 1843, which instituted
a provisional government headed by an executive committee made up of David Hill,
Alanson Beers, & Joseph Gale. This government was the first acting public
government of the Oregon Country before American annexation.
The Oregon Trail brought many new settlers to the region, starting in 1842–1843, after the United States agreed to jointly settle the Oregon Country with the United Kingdom. For some time, it seemed the United States & the United Kingdom would go to war for a third time in 75 years (see Oregon boundary dispute), but the border was defined peacefully in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty. The border between the United States & British North America was set at the 49th parallel. The Oregon Territory was officially organized in 1848.
Settlement increased because of the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, in conjunction with the forced relocation of the native population to Indian reservations in Oregon. The state was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1859.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, regular U.S. troops were withdrawn & sent east. Volunteer cavalry were recruited in California & were sent north to Oregon to keep peace & protect the populace. The First Oregon Cavalry served until June 1865.
In the 1880s, the proliferation of railroads assisted in marketing of the state's lumber & wheat, as well as the more rapid growth of its cities.
Modern history
Engineer Conde McCullough designed many of Oregon's bridges,
including the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport.
The construction of The Dalles
Dam would flood Celilo Falls, sacrificing a vital economic hub of local Native
Americans, while contributing to the development of new economies with benefits
such as hydroelectric power, improved river navigation, & flood control.Industrial
expansion began in earnest following the construction of the Bonneville Dam in
1943 on the Columbia River. The power, food, & lumber provided by Oregon helped
fuel the development of the West, although the periodic fluctuations in the nation's
building industry have hurt the state's economy on multiple occasions.
The state has a long history of polarizing conflicts: Native Americans vs. British fur trappers, British vs. settlers from the U.S., ranchers vs. farmers, wealthy growing cities vs. established but poor rural areas, loggers vs. environmentalists, white supremacists vs. anti-racists, social progressivism vs. small-government conservatism, supporters of social spending vs. anti-tax activists, & native Oregonians vs. Californians (or outsiders in general). Oregonians also have a long history of secessionist ideas, with people in various regions & on all sides of the political spectrum attempting to form other states & even other countries. ( See: State of Jefferson, Cascadia & Ecotopia.) Oregon state ballots often include politically conservative proposals (e.g. anti-gay, pro-religious measures) side-by-side with politically liberal ones (e.g. drug decriminalization), illustrating the wide spectrum of political thought in the state.
In 1980 A ballot ended the opening of nuclear power stations in Orgeon
Oregon has voted Democrat for the past decade in Presidential Elections, but at times only narrowly.
In his 1981 book Nine Nations of North America, author Joel Garreau named one of his nations Ecotopia after Callenbach's book. Garreau's Ecotopia consists of Northern California, Western Oregon, Western Washington, coastal British Columbia, and southeastern Alaska and is one of the nine economic-cultural nations into which Garreau believed North America should be divided to correctly understand the true regional dynamics of the continent. This Ecotopia, like Callenbach's, is characterized culturally by its environmental sensibilities and focus on 'quality of life', and economically by its focus on renewable resources such as hydropower and forestry.
Outside of the written word, Callenbach's "Ecotopia" novels have also inspired real change in its influence on the Cascadia movement.
Cascadia is a proposed name for the independent sovereign state that would be formed by the union of the Canadian province of British Columbia and the states of Washington and Oregon (and sometimes all or parts of Idaho and Northern California) in the United States, were they ever to successfully secede from their respective federal governments in Ottawa and Washington D.C.. The boundaries of this Cascadia would incorporate those of the existing province and states.[2]Cascadia is home to more than 15 million people and boasts an economy that generates more than $450 billion worth of goods and services annually, which would place Cascadia in the top 20 economies of the world.
History
After Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis
and Clark into the Pacific Northwest in 1803, Jefferson envisioned the establishment
of an independent nation in the Western of the North American continent which
he dubbed the "Republic of the Pacific". Jefferson's original idea has
since been embraced by a number of different groups with generally similar aims.
Elements among the region's population sought to secede from the United States and form their own country from the very beginning of Oregon's statehood.[3] While the Southern states broke away to form the Confederacy, some Oregonians saw it as a perfect opportunity to do the same and give new life to Jefferson's original idea, by trying to establish a country under Jefferson's name: the "Republic of the Pacific". The American government launched a successful propaganda attack to destroy the movement by trying to associate the Pacific movement with a group called the Knights of the Golden Circle, which was a pro-Confederate, pro-slavery organization
At the same time, other movements inside of Cascadia, such as the Klamath, Trinity, and Jackson movements, all sought to wrench certain areas of Cascadia free from U.S. control These too failed, largely by being put down through various uses of force.[
After attempts in the mid 19th Century at forming a State of Jefferson prior to becoming Oregon and then again in the 1930s, citizens attempted what is the best known of such movements in the region. The movement was created to draw attention to the area by proposing that Southern Oregon and Northern California form a separate state. As this is historically a depressed area, many locals placed the blame on the governments of Salem and Sacramento. For that reason, a flag bearing two X's and a gold pan was adopted. The two X's represented the so-called "double crosses" from Sacramento and Salem.
In 1956, groups from Cave Junction, Oregon and Dunsmuir, California threatened to tear Southern Oregon and Northern California from their respective state rulers to form the State of Shasta.
Boundaries
Some groups
have sought to extend the interpretation of "Cascadia" to embrace parts
of Northern California, Idaho and Alaska, while others are more closely aligned
with such related concepts as the State of Jefferson, State of Trinity, State
of Jackson, State of Klamath, State of Shasta and Pacifica.
A further delineation of the proposed Cascadian boundaries would necessarily include the complete watershed of the Columbia river, therefore naturally including the territories of what is now Idaho, western Montana, and part of Wyoming, Utah, and very northern Nevada. Some argue that the inclusion of the Columbia watershed is vital to the integrity of Cascadia and the health of its ecosystem.
Motivation
Political motivations
for the secession and autonomy movements deal mostly with perceived shared Cascadian
political culture, values, language dialect, history and interests, with which
the eastern federal governments are accused of ignoring and being out of touch.
These connections go back to the Oregon Territory, and further to the Oregon Country,
the land most commonly associated with Cascadia were united as a single political
unit, though split between two countries.
The region is already served by several cooperative organizations and interstate or international agencies, especially in forestry and fishery management and emergency preparedness – the whole region being prone to earthquakes (see Cascadia subduction zone). These organizations are thought by some to be precursors of a bioregional democracy, perhaps along the 'Republic' lines.
References in pop culture
"Be
The Evergreen Revolution" bumper sticker, supporting the separation of Cascadia
from the United States and Canada.Two novels by Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia (1975)
and Ecotopia Emerging (1981), are fictional portrayals of the secession of the
region from the United States. Callenbach's novels include Washington, Oregon,
and the northern half of California in the new country (with the dividing line
between northern and southern California drawn roughly through Santa Barbara and
Bakersfield). Seriatim was a short-lived magazine published in El Cerrito, California
in the late 1970s which also promoted the secession of the region along the lines
portrayed by Callenbach.
In the Crimson Skies universe, the nation of Pacifica is formed out of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
The Fish Brewing
Company of Olympia, Washington puts, "Brewed in the Republic of Cascadia"
on their organic ale
Some say a Cascadia would be good, as they oppose
Republican Party election wins, and they think this land would be left wing, but
California is the most Democrat land in the 3 Western US states. With Washington
and Oregon not as much so.
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