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Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States bordering the Pacific Ocean, California, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada. Its northern border lies along the Columbia River and the east along the Snake River. Two north-south mountain ranges - the Coastal Range and the Cascade Mountain Range - form the two boundaries of the Willamette Valley, one of the most fertile and agriculturally productive regions in the world.

Oregon has some of the most diverse landscapes of the fifty states. It is well known for its forests and its Pacific coastline. Less well known are the semiarid scrublands, prairies, and deserts that cover approximately half the state in eastern and north-central Oregon.

The state's name is properly pronounced span title="Pronunciation in IPA" is also common, but considered incorrect by residents, who have been known to sport T-shirts and bumper stickers spelling the name "Orygun" in order to educate visitors.

Its population in 2000 was 3,421,399, a 20.4% increase over 1990. The Census Bureau estimated Oregon's population to have reached 3,594,586 by 2004.

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Oregon's earliest residents were several Native American tribes, including the Bannock, Chinook, Klamath, and Nez Percé. James Cook explored the coast in 1778 in search of the Northwest Passage. The Lewis and 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 and Clark (1805-1806) and Britain's David Thompson (1811) publicized the abundance of fur in the area. In 1811, New York financier John Jacob Astor established Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River with the intention of starting a chain of Pacific Fur Company trading posts along the river. Fort Astoria was the first permanent white settlement in Oregon. In the War of 1812, the British gained control of all of the Pacific Fur Company posts.

By the 1820s and 1830s, the British Hudson's Bay Company dominated the Pacific Northwest. John McLoughlin, who was appointed the Company's Chief Factor of the Columbia District, built Fort Vancouver in 1825.

In 1841 the master trapper and entrepreneur Ewing Young died with considerable wealth, no apparent heir, and 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 Lees Mission and Oregon City, to discuss wolves and other vermin. These meetings were precursors to an all citizen meeting in 1843, which instituted a provisional government headed by an executive council - made up of David Hill, Alanson Beers, and Joseph Gale.

The Oregon Trail infused the region with new settlers, starting in 1842–43, after the U.S. agreed to jointly settle the Oregon Country with the United Kingdom. The border was resolved in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty after a period where it seemed that the United States and the United Kingdom would go to war for a third time in 75 years. Cooler heads prevailed, and the Oregon boundary dispute between the United States and British North America was set at the 49th parallel. The Oregon Territory was officially organized in 1848.

Settlement increased due to 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 troops were withdrawn and sent east. Volunteer cavalry were recruited in California and were sent north to Oregon to keep peace and protect the populace. The First Oregon Cavalry served until June 1865.

In the 1880s, railroads enabled marketing of the state's lumber and wheat as well as the more rapid growth of its cities.

Industrial expansion began in earnest following the construction of the Bonneville Dam in 1943 on the Columbia River. The power, food, and lumber provided by Oregon have helped fuel the development of the west, and 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, supporters of social spending vs. anti-tax activists, and native Oregonians vs. Californians (or outsiders in general). Oregonians also have a long history of secessionist ideas, ranging from varying parts of the population on all sides of the political spectrum attempting to form other states and even other countries. (See: State of Jefferson, State of Klamath, State of Shasta and Cascadia.) 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.

The origin of the state's name is something of a mystery. The earliest known use of this proper noun was in a 1765 petition by Major Robert Rogers to the Kingdom of Great Britain. The petition referred to and asked for money to finance an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage.

Why Rogers used the name has led to many theories, which include:

During the time of the Hudsons Bay Company and the voyages of Robert Gray, the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest referred to the Columbia River as the great "Ouragon" Since the Columbia River is perhaps the most significant geographic feature of the region, it is plausible that the name was anglicized to Oregon and thence became known as such. that the name came from an engraver's error in a French map published in the early 1700s, naming the prevalence of the term, not as an indigenous word, but to the French Canadian word "ouragan" meaning "storm" or "hurricane." Refering to the tumultuous The term *Ouragon" *In 2001, Scott Byram, (currently the archaeologist for the Coquille Indian Tribe), and David G. Lewis published an article in the , referring to grease made from fish, which the Native Americans of the region traded in. Those trade routes brought the term eastward. [1], Professor Thomas Love and Smithsonian linguist Ives Goddard argue that Rogers chose the word based on exposure to either of the Algonquian words was one of the early names for the Ohio River, shown on a 1680s map of the explorations of René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. Rogers is likely to have heard the terms because of his frequent encounters with Mohegans in the late 1750s.

Less supported theories are based on it having a Spanish etymology. The theory that it comes from . He wrote that it was "a mere conjecture absolutely without support. More than this, it is completely disproved by all that is known of the name." Others have speculated that the name is related to the kingdom of Aragon.

In 1778, Jonathan Carver used . The poet William Cullen Bryant took the name from Carver's book and used it in his poem "Thanatopsis" to refer to the recent discoveries of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; this use helped establish it in modern use.

See also: List of Oregon counties,Oregon Geographic Names,List of Oregon rivers,List of Oregon mountain ranges,andList of Oregon state parks

The state varies from rain forest in the Columbia Gorge to barren desert in the southeast, which still meets the technical definition of a frontier.

Oregon is 295 miles (475 km) north to south at longest distance, and 395 miles (475 km) east to west at longest distance. In terms of land and water area, Oregon is the ninth largest state, covering 97,073 square miles (254,418 km²).

Its highest point is the summit of Mount Hood, at 11,239 ft (3,428 m). As a West Coast state, its lowest point is sea level. Its mean elevation is 3,300 ft (1 km).

Crater Lake National Park is Oregon's only national park, and home to Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the U.S. at 1,932 ft. Similar federally-owned, protected recreation areas that are entirely in Oregon include: John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Newberry National Volcanic Monument, and Oregon Caves National Monument.

Areas that are partly in Oregon and partly in neighboring states include: California National Historic Trail, Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Lewis Clark National Historic Trail, Lewis and Clark National Historical Parks, Nez Perce National Historical Park, Oregon National Historic Trail.

Oregon state government has a separation of powers similar to the federal government. It has three branches, called departments by the state's constitution:

an executive department which includes an "administrative department" and has Oregon's governor serving as chief executive, and

Governors in Oregon serve four-year terms and are term limited to two consecutive terms, but an unlimited number of total terms. The Secretary of State serves as Lieutenant Governor for statutory purposes. The other constitutional officers are Treasurer, Attorney General, Superintendent of Public Instruction and Labor Commissioner. The Legislative Assembly consists of a thirty-member Senate and sixty-member House. Senators serve four-year terms, and Representatives two. The state supreme court has seven elected justices, including the only openly gay state supreme court justice in the nation, Rives Kistler. They choose one of their own to serve a six-year term as Chief Justice. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the United States Supreme Court.

Oregon is one of the few states whose legislature is biennial. The debate over whether to move to annual sessions is a long-standing battle in Oregon politics, but the voters have resisted the move from citizen legislators to professional lawmakers. Because Oregon's state budget is written in two year increments and its revenue is based largely on income taxes, it is often significantly over- or under-budget. Recent legislatures have had to be called into special session repeatedly to address revenue shortfalls resulting from eceonomic downturns, bringing to a head the need for more frequent legislative sessions.

The state maintains formal relationships with the nine federally-recognized tribal governments in Oregon:

Oregon adopted many electoral reforms proposed during the Progressive Era, due to the efforts of William S. U'Ren and his Direct Legislation League. Under his leadership, the state overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in 1902 that created the initiative and referendum processes for citizens to directly introduce or approve proposed laws or amendments to the state constitution. In following years, the primary election to select party candidates was adopted in 1904, and in 1908 the Oregon Constitution was amended to include recall of public officials. More recent progressive innovations include the nation's only doctor-assisted suicide law, called the Death with Dignity law (which was challenged in 2005 by the Bush administration in the U.S. Supreme Court, in contrast to the Republicans' traditional support of states' rights), legalization of medical marijuana, and among the nation's strongest anti-sprawl and pro-environment laws.

Of the measures placed on the ballot since 1902, the people have passed 99 of the 288 initiatives and 25 of the 61 referenda on the ballot, though not all of them survived challenges in courts (see , for example). During the same period, the legislature has referred 363 measures to the people, of which 206 have passed.

Oregon has been a pioneer in the use of vote-by-mail:

2000 Oregon becomes the first state in the nation to conduct a presidential election entirely by mail. About 80% of registered voters participated.

Oregon is currently seen as a moderate Democratic-leaning Blue State which has voted for the party in every election since 1988. The politics of the state are largely similar to those of neighboring Washington.

The distribution, sales and consumption of alcoholic beverages are regulated in the state by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Thus, Oregon is an Alcoholic beverage control state.

Entering the Union at a time when the status of "Negroes" was very much in question, and wishing to stay out of the looming conflict between the so-called "Union" and "Confederate" States, Oregon banned Negroes from moving into the State in the vote to adopt its Constitution (1858). This ban was not officially lifted until 1925; in 2002, additional language now considered racist was struck from the Oregon Constitution by the voters of Oregon.

Oregon is represented at the federal level by two senators and five representatives, which translates into seven electoral votes.

Overall, Oregon leans toward the Democratic Party. It has supported Democratic candidates in the last five elections. John Kerry narrowly won the state in 2004 by a margin of 4 percentage points with 51.4% of the vote. Republicans dominate the eastern, central, and southern regions of the state, as well as the southwest and the southern outer suburbs of Portland. Essentially the Willamette Valley is dominated by Democrats while the rest of Oregon is dominated by Republicans. This divide is due to very real cultural and economic differences often with ties to land use issues. The Democratic Party of Oregon is pro-environmental and seen as supportive of urban opinions, while the Republican Party of Oregon is seen as pro-rancher and pro-logger and supportive of rural opinions.

The Willamette Valley is very fertile and, coupled with Oregon's famous rain, gives the state a wealth of agricultural products. Apples and other fruits, cattle, dairy products, potatoes, and peppermint are all valuable products. Oregon is also one of four major world hazelnut growing regions, and produces 95% of the domestic hazelnuts in the United States. While the history of the wine production in Oregon can be traced to before Prohibition, it became a significant industry beginning in the 1970s and Oregon is home to at least four wine appellations. Due to regional similarities of climate and soil, the grapes planted in Oregon are often the same varieties found in the French region of Alsace.

Vast forests have historically made Oregon one of the nation's major champagne production and states, but forest fires (such as the Tillamook Burn), over-harvesting, and lawsuits over the proper management of the extensive federal forest holdings have reduced the amount of timber produced. According to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, timber harvested from federal lands dropped some 96% from 1989 from 4,333 million to 173 million board feet (10,000,000 to 408,000 m³) in 2001. While the 1980s saw an unsustainable amount of timber harvested, the drop in timber harvested is still significant, as the total amount of timber harvested in 2001 is less than half of that in the late 1970s. Even the shift in recent years towards finished goods such as paper and building materials has not slowed the decline of the timber industry. Examples include Weyerhaeuser's acquisition of Willamette Industries in January, 2002, the announcement by Louisiana Pacific in September, 2003 that they will relocate their corporate headquarters from Portland to Nashville, and the experiences of small lumber towns like Gilchrist. Despite these changes, Oregon still leads the United States in softwood lumber production; in 2001, according to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, 6,056 million board feet (14,000,001 and the food;) was produced in Oregon, against 4,5257 mbf. in Washington, 2,731 in California, 2,413 in Georgia, and 2,327 in Mississippi. The effect of the forest industry crunch is still massive unemployment in rural Oregon and is a bone of contention between rural and urban Oregon.

High technology industries and services have been a major employer since the 1970s. Tektronix was the largest private employer in Oregon until the late 1980s. Intel's creation and expansion of several plants in eastern Washington County continued the growth that Tektronix had started. The spinoffs and startups that were produced by these two companies led to the establishment of the Portland metropolitan area as the Silicon Forest. The recession and dot-com bust of 2001 in the Silicon Valley has led to similar results in the Silicon Forest; many high technology employers have either reduced the number of their employees or gone out of business. OSDL made news in 2004 when they hired Linus Torvalds, developer of the Linux kernel. Oregon also is the home of non-technology-based companies such as shoemaker Nike, whose world headquarters is located in Beaverton.

Oregon had one of the largest salmon-fishing industries in the world, although ocean fisheries have reduced the river fisheries in recent years. Tourism is also strong in the state; Oregon's evergreen mountain forests, waterfalls, pristine lakes (including Crater Lake National Park), and scenic beaches draw visitors year round. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, held in Ashland, is a tourist draw near its Californian border which complements the area's scenic beauty and opportunity for outdoor activities.

Oregon is home to a number of smaller breweries.

As of 2005, Oregon has an estimated population of 3,641,056, which is an increase of 49,693, or 1.4%, from the prior year and an increase of 219,620, or 6.4%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 75,196 people (that is 236,557 births minus 161,361 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 150,084 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 72,263 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 77,821 people.

As of 2004, Oregon's population included 309,700 foreign-born (accounting for 8.7% of the state population) and an estimated 90,000 illegal aliens (2.5% of the state population).

The largest reported ancestry groups in Oregon are: German (20.5%), English (13.2%), Irish (11.9%), American (6.2%), and Mexican (5.5%).

Most Oregon counties are inhabited principally by residents of British ancestry, with a high proportion of German-Americans in the northwest. There are large numbers of Mexicans in Malheur and Jefferson counties.

6.5% of Oregon's population were reported as under 5, 24.7% under 18, and 12.8% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 50.4% of the population.

Although most people from Oregon still identify themselves (at least nominally) as Christians, Oregon has the lowest church membership of all 50 states. While some parts of the USA have church membership rates as high as 80%, it runs only about 12% in Oregon. Nearly one in four Oregonians identify themselves as non-religious, giving Oregon one of the highest percentages of non-religious people in the nation. "Non-religious" is an umbrella term which is sometimes synonymous with or includes elements of atheism, agnosticism, skepticism, freethought, humanism, secular humanism, heresy, logical positivism, and even apathy.

Estimates released September 2004 show double-digit growth in Latino and Asian American populations since the 2000 Census. About 60% of the 138,197 new residents come from ethnic and racial minorities. Asian growth is located mostly in the metropolitan areas of Portland, Salem, and Eugene; Hispanic population growth is across the state.

Further information: List of cities in Oregon

The capital is Salem and the largest city is Portland. Eugene, home of the University of Oregon has recently become the third largest city, surpassed by Salem.

Oregon City was the first incorporated city west of the Rockies and later, the first capital of the Oregon Territory, from 1848 to 1852, when the territory capital was moved to Salem, Oregon. It was also the end of the Oregon Trail and the site of the first public library established west of the Rocky Mountains, stocked with only 300 volumes.

, Latin for “She Flies With Her Own Wings” (since 1987; This was the orignal motto of Oregon, but had been changed to “The Union” in 1957.[2])Before Oregon officially became a U.S. territory in 1848, the provisional government briefly encouraged the minting of $5 and $10 dollar "Beaver Coins" in order to make up for the lack of U.S. currency. Thus Oregon has the distinction of being one of the few U.S. areas to mint its own currency.Oregon is the only state in the United States with a flag that features a different obverse and reverse. It is one of the few official flags in the world that do so. The "front" of the flag shows the state seal, while the "back" features a small beaver, in honor of the official state animal.Oregon is one of two states that prohibits self service at its gas stations. The other is New Jersey.Oregon claims the D River is the shortest river in the world, while the American state of Montana makes the same claim of the Roe River. The Guinness Book of Records officially declared that the two rivers are the same length and can both claim the honor.In 1970 the Oregon Highway Division (now Oregon Department of Transportation) exploded a dead beached whale on a beach just outside Lane County. The results were not as expected and KATU news reporter Paul Linnman captured the results on film of the exploding whale. The footage has since become an internet meme.Simpsons creator Matt Groening grew up in Portland's affluent Northwest district and attended Lincoln High School. Portland references from the show include character names Flanders, Lovejoy, Powell, Quimby, and Terwilliger (all streets in Portland), as well as the proximity of a scenic gorge (presumably the Columbia River Gorge) and nuclear power plant (Trojan Nuclear Power Plant).Napoleon Dynamite star Jon Heder grew up in Salem and attended South Salem High School and graduated in 1995.