Bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by Washington, on the south by California, on the east by Idaho, and on the southeast by Nevada, Oregon, nicknamed Beaver State, has as capital city Salem, founded alongside the Willamette River in 1842. Its largest city is Portland, located near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. Oregon's landscape is diverse, with a windswept Pacific coastline; a volcano-studded Cascade Range; abundant bodies of water in and west of the Cascades; dense evergreen, mixed, and deciduous forests at lower elevations; and a high desert sprawling across much of its east all the way to the Great Basin.
By the 16th century, Oregon was home to many Native American groups, including the Coquille (Ko-Kwell), Bannock, Chasta, Chinook, Kalapuya, Klamath, Molalla, Nez Perce, Takelma, Tillamook and Umpqua. The first Europeans to visit Oregon were Spanish explorers led by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo who sighted southern Oregon off the Pacific Coast in 1543. Exploration was retaken routinely in 1774, starting with the expedition of the frigate Santiago by Juan José Pérez Hernández, and the coast of Oregon became a valuable trading route to Asia.
French Canadian and metis trappers and missionaries arrived in the eastern part of the state in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Some stayed permanently, including Étienne Lussier, believed to be the first European farmer in the state of Oregon. In 1811, John Jacob Astor financed the establishment of Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River as a western outpost to his Pacific Fur Company; this was the first permanent European settlement in Oregon, and also the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast.
The Treaty of 1818 established joint British and American occupancy of the region west of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. An autonomous government was formed in the Oregon Country in 1843, the Oregon Territory was created in 1848, and Oregon became the 33rd state on February 14, 1859. Beginning in the 1880s, the growth of railroads expanded the state's lumber, wheat, and other agricultural markets, and the rapid growth of its cities. Oregon is one of four major world hazelnut growing regions, and produces 95% of the domestic hazelnuts in the United States.
About the stamps
About the first stamp, featuring a portrait of George Washington, I wrote here. The second stamp, Neon Celebrate!, was issued on March 6, 2011. The last stamp, depicting Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005), is part of the series Black Heritage Series, about which I wrote here.
References
Oregon - Wikipedia
Sender: Denise
Sent from Greenvale (New York / United States), on 10.03.2014
No comments:
Post a Comment