2187, 2188 UNITED STATES (Washington / Oregon / California) - Pacific coast lighthouses

The Pacific Coast, stretching some 1,300 miles from Mexico’s border with California up to the Canadian border, was a dark and daunting line to mariners in the 1800s. The earth’s geology had given the West Coast a dramatically different contour from the Atlantic Coast: jagged, irregular, high cliffs, and, worse, a sudden, steep drop off the continental shelf that allowed prevailing winds from the west to drive waves onto the shore with incredible speed and power.

In 1848, the U.S. Congress created the Oregon Territory, and with the same act, appropriated funds for the U.S. Light House Establishment to construct the first two lights on the far northwest coast: the first at Cape Disappointment, and the second on New Dungeness spit, south of the new busy port of Nootka, on Vancouver Island. Thus began the history of lighthouses on the West Coast of the United States. I will present below, in short, fourteen of them. 

1831 UNITED STATES (Oregon) - Oregon map

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.

0056 UNITED STATES (Oregon) – The Fairy Falls

Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, became the 33rd state of the union on February 14, 1859 (and the 3rd in my collection in November 25, 2011, thanks to Reggie). The capital is Salem, and Portland is the most populous city. I will write about these cities when I will receive postcards from there, which certainly will happen. But I must say that I love Portland, because it's the hometown of one of my favorite bands, Agalloch, which I had the happyness to see it on stage in Bucharest. Also of Oregon are Pinto Colvig (the voice of Disney's Goofy) and Matt Groening (creator of the Simpsons), so that in any case can't be said that the oregonians lack humor.

Columbia River, the fourth largest river in the U.S.A., originates in two lakes that lie between the Continental Divide and Selkirk mountain ranges in British Columbia (Canada), flows northwest and then south into the state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between the states of Washington and Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. It first appeared on European maps in the early 17th century as "River of the West", when a Spanish maritime explorer Martin de Auguilar located a major river near the 42nd parallel.

An especially dramatically scenic portion of the river cuts through the Cascade Mountain Range, creating the 100-mile-long and 3,000-foot-deep Columbia River Gorge, holds federally protected status as a National Scenic Area. The wide range of elevation and precipitation in the gorge creates a diverse collection of ecosystems, a large variety of endemic wildflowers thriving there.

The gorge also contains many waterfalls (over 90 only on the Oregon side), including the notable 190 m high Multnomah Falls. Fairy Falls, the one from the image, a veil type cataract along an unnamed spring-fed side-creek, is located upstream from the much larger Wahkeena Falls and is rather beautiful than spectacular, being a destination for photographers because of the scenic view.

“For some hikers too eager to turn around at Lemmon's Viewpoint, but perhaps too unsure to travel too much further uphill, Fairy Falls makes for a nice compromise as a spot to about-face”, say a travel guide. “But don't return before resting on the nearby bench, snapping some photos, and taking in the splendor of the lush landscape all around.”

About the stamp, which shows The Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming), I wrote here.

sender: Reggie (walltype)