Portal:Pacific Northwest

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The Pacific Northwest Portal

P:PNW

The Pacific Northwest (PNW), sometimes referred to as Cascadia, is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common conception includes the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington, northern Idaho, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Some broader conceptions reach north into Alaska and Yukon, south into northern California, and east into western Montana. Other conceptions may be limited to the coastal areas west of the Cascade and Coast mountains.

The Northwest Coast is the coastal region of the Pacific Northwest, and the Northwest Plateau (also commonly known as "the Interior" in British Columbia), is the inland region. The term "Pacific Northwest" should not be confused with the Northwest Territory (also known as the Great Northwest, a historical term in the United States) or the Northwest Territories of Canada. The region is sometimes referred to as Cascadia, which, depending on the borders, may or may not be the same thing as the Pacific Northwest.

The region's largest metropolitan areas are Greater Seattle, Washington, with 4 million people; Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, with 2.84 million people; and Greater Portland, Oregon, with 2.5 million people.

The culture of the Pacific Northwest is influenced by the Canada–United States border, which the United States and the United Kingdom established at a time when the region's inhabitants were composed mostly of indigenous peoples. Two sections of the border—one along the 49th parallel south of British Columbia and one between the Alaska Panhandle and northern British Columbia—have left a great impact on the region. According to Canadian historian Ken Coates, the border has not merely influenced the Pacific Northwest—rather, "the region's history and character have been determined by the boundary". (Full article...)

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Thousands of years prior to European settlement of the Pacific Northwest of the United States the native oyster species Ostrea lurida had been established as a valuable dietary resource for indigenous people living on the coastal waters. European settlers who began to colonize the Pacific Northwest developed an acquired taste for shellfish, especially oysters, a delicacy that were considered to be a symbol of wealth. In the early history of the Pacific Northwest, people satisfied their hunger for shellfish by harvesting naturally occurring oyster beds. It was initially believed that the populations of indigenous oysters were sufficient to supply both tribal and commercial harvest. A marketable industry was created on the export of oysters and soon exploitation of harvesting had depleted the natural oyster beds in California and Oregon. As a result, Washington state became the main supplier to areas along the coast which had failed to establish any conservation practices. Noticing the economic value and decline of natural availability, farmers began efforts to cultivate oysters to try to satisfy demand. Over the years the oyster industry of the Pacific Northwest has gone from extremely lucrative to completely nonexistent, but still the industry has been able to adapt and survive. (Full article...)

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Farmer in 1938

Frances Elena Farmer (September 19, 1913 – August 1, 1970) was an American actress. She appeared in over a dozen feature films over the course of her career, though she garnered notoriety for sensationalized accounts of her life, especially her involuntary commitment to psychiatric hospitals and subsequent mental health struggles.

A native of Seattle, Washington, Farmer began acting in stage productions while a student at the University of Washington. After graduating, she began performing in stock theater before signing a film contract with Paramount Pictures on her 22nd birthday in September 1935. She made her film debut in the B film Too Many Parents (1936), followed by another B picture, Border Flight, before being given the lead role opposite Bing Crosby in the musical Western Rhythm on the Range (1936). Unhappy with the opportunities the studio gave her, Farmer returned to stock theater in 1937 before being cast in the original Broadway production of Clifford Odets's Golden Boy, staged by New York City's Group Theatre. She followed this with two Broadway productions directed by Elia Kazan in 1939, but a battle with depression and binge drinking caused her to drop out of a subsequent Ernest Hemingway stage adaptation. (Full article...)

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Largest cities of the Pacific Northwest

City	State/Province	Population	Metropolitan Area	Urban Area
Seattle	Washington	704,000^[1]	3,905,026^[2]	3,059,393^[3]
Portland	Oregon	658,347^[2]	2,753,168^[2]	1,849,898^[3]
Vancouver	British Columbia	631,486^[4]	2,737,698^[5]	2,264,823^[6]
Surrey	British Columbia	598,530^[4]	^{[n 1]}	^{[n 1]}
Burnaby	British Columbia	257,926^[4]	^{[n 1]}	^{[n 1]}
Boise	Idaho	226,570^[7]	691,423^[2]	349,684^[3]
Spokane	Washington	222,081^[1]	573,493 ^[8]^[9]	486,225^[3]
Richmond	British Columbia	216,046^[4]	^{[n 1]}	^{[n 1]}
Tacoma	Washington	198,397^[1]	^{[n 2]}	^{[n 2]}
Vancouver	Washington	175,673^[1]	^{[n 3]}	^{[n 3]}

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The following are images from various Pacific Northwest-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1U.S. Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes' 1841 Map of the Oregon Territory from "Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition". Philadelphia: 1845 (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 2Pacific Northwest Trail at Blanchard Mountain in Washington (from Pacific Northwest Trail)
Image 3West side view of Mount Shuksan in summer as seen from Artist Point in Washington (from Cascade Range)
Image 4The Pacific Northwest from outer space. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 5Mount Edziza, a large shield volcano in northwestern British Columbia (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 6Map of the Anahim Volcanic Belt centers. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 7Public transportation is used in the Pacific Northwest region. Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system achieves daily ridership of over 500,000 passengers per day on weekdays and the overall transit ridership levels in the Metro Vancouver area rank third in North America per capita. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 8The Pacific Northwest from space (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 9Map of "megacity", showing population density (shades of yellow/brown), highways (red), and major railways (black). Public land shown in shades of green. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 10Mountain goat on Wallaby Peak in the North Cascades (from Cascade Range)
Image 11Oval-leaf blueberry on Mount Pilchuck (from Cascade Range)
Image 12May 1915 Lassen Peak eruption column (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 13HMS Discovery was the lead ship used by George Vancouver (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 14The Boundary Trail section of the PNT in Horseshoe Basin, Pasayten Wilderness (from Pacific Northwest Trail)
Image 15The Coast Mountains are heavily eroded by glaciers, including Mount Waddington (far background, center). (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 16Mount Hood is the tallest point in the U.S. state of Oregon. (from Cascade Range)
Image 17The Coquihalla River in the Canadian Cascades (from Cascade Range)
Image 18The Cascades range (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 19Map of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt centers. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 20Magnetic anomalies around the Juan de Fuca and Gorda Ridges, off the west coast of North America, color coded by age. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 21The Columbia Gorge marks where the Columbia River splits the Cascade Range between the states of Washington and Oregon. (from Cascade Range)
Image 22A man in Portland, Oregon with Cascadian flag on International Workers' Day, 2012 (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 23Lumen Field, home of Seattle Seahawks and Sounders FC (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 24Mount St. Helens erupts on May 18, 1980 (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 25None of the multiple possible definitions of the Pacific Northwest is universally accepted. This map shows three possibilities: (1) The shaded area shows the historical Oregon Country. (2) The green line shows the Cascadia bioregion. (3) The labeled states and provinces include Washington, Idaho, Oregon and British Columbia. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 26Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail overview map (from Pacific Northwest Trail)
Image 27A map of the Snake River Plain, showing its smooth topography (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 28The Columbia River basalts cover portions of three states (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 29The North Cascades are heavily eroded by glaciers (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 30Geology of the Cascade Range-related plate tectonics. (from Cascade Range)
Image 31Lassen Peak in the California Cascades. Southernmost volcano in the Cascade Range and part of Lassen Volcanic National Park (from Cascade Range)
Image 32The Golden Hinde on Vancouver Island was formed by erosion carving into basalt. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 33Image of the Juan de Fuca Plate that produced the magnitude 8.7–9.2 Cascadia earthquake in 1700. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 34The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (from Cascade Range)
Image 35Lava Butte, Oregon, erupted roughly 5000 years BCE (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 36The immense floods created channels that are presently dry, such as the Drumheller Channels (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 37State Route 302 after the Nisqually earthquake (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)

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... that Oregon state senator William Kuykendall was a physician who founded the first hospital in Eugene, Oregon?
... that in 1858, when Congress delayed its decision on Oregon statehood, Nathaniel H. Gates became the last Speaker of Oregon’s Territorial House of Representatives?
... that a mobile production unit served as the first studios of Washington state public TV station KTNW?
... that in 1943, it took the Oregon State Senate 45 ballots to elect William H. Steiwer as president of the senate over fellow Republican Dorothy McCullough Lee?
... that the completion of Interstate 205 in Oregon was delayed to mitigate air and noise pollution for a jail that closed a few months later?
... that the bishop of Oregon's residence in Portland once had a private chapel, a ballroom, and a wine cellar?