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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Snow-covered Mount Hood in the Mount Hood National Forest

The Mount Hood National Forest is a U.S. National Forest in the U.S. state of Oregon, located 62 miles (100 km) east of the city of Portland and the northern Willamette River valley. The Forest extends south from the Columbia River Gorge across more than 60 miles (97 km) of forested mountains, lakes and streams to the Olallie Scenic Area, a high lake basin under the slopes of Mount Jefferson. The Forest includes and is named after Mount Hood, a stratovolcano and the highest mountain in the state.

The Forest encompasses some 1,067,043 acres (4,318.17 km²). Forest headquarters are located in Sandy, Oregon. (Full article...)

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Dirk Arthur Kempthorne (born October 29, 1951) is an American politician who served as the 49th United States Secretary of the Interior from 2006 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a United States Senator from Idaho from 1993 to 1999 and the 30th governor of Idaho from 1999 to 2006.

Kempthorne was first elected to public office as Mayor of Boise in 1985, where he served for seven years. He serves as a co-chair of the Democracy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. In November 2010, he was appointed president and CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers. (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 1The Pacific Northwest from outer space. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 2West side view of Mount Shuksan in summer as seen from Artist Point in Washington (from Cascade Range)
Image 3Mount Edziza, a large shield volcano in northwestern British Columbia (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 4A man in Portland, Oregon with Cascadian flag on International Workers' Day, 2012 (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 5Lassen Peak in the California Cascades. Southernmost volcano in the Cascade Range and part of Lassen Volcanic National Park (from Cascade Range)
Image 6Oval-leaf blueberry on Mount Pilchuck (from Cascade Range)
Image 7Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail overview map (from Pacific Northwest Trail)
Image 8The Columbia Gorge marks where the Columbia River splits the Cascade Range between the states of Washington and Oregon. (from Cascade Range)
Image 9Map of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt centers. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 10A map of the Snake River Plain, showing its smooth topography (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 11The Golden Hinde on Vancouver Island was formed by erosion carving into basalt. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 12Map of the Anahim Volcanic Belt centers. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 13Public 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 14HMS Discovery was the lead ship used by George Vancouver (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 15Pacific Northwest Trail at Blanchard Mountain in Washington (from Pacific Northwest Trail)
Image 16Magnetic 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 17The immense floods created channels that are presently dry, such as the Drumheller Channels (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 18U.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 19The North Cascades are heavily eroded by glaciers (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 20The Columbia River basalts cover portions of three states (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 21Mount Hood is the tallest point in the U.S. state of Oregon. (from Cascade Range)
Image 22Mount St. Helens erupts on May 18, 1980 (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 23Lava Butte, Oregon, erupted roughly 5000 years BCE (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 24Lumen Field, home of Seattle Seahawks and Sounders FC (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 25The Cascades range (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 26The Boundary Trail section of the PNT in Horseshoe Basin, Pasayten Wilderness (from Pacific Northwest Trail)
Image 27The Coast Mountains are heavily eroded by glaciers, including Mount Waddington (far background, center). (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 28State Route 302 after the Nisqually earthquake (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 29The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (from Cascade Range)
Image 30Map 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 31Geology of the Cascade Range-related plate tectonics. (from Cascade Range)
Image 32The Pacific Northwest from space (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 33Mountain goat on Wallaby Peak in the North Cascades (from Cascade Range)
Image 34None 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 35Image 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 36The Coquihalla River in the Canadian Cascades (from Cascade Range)
Image 37May 1915 Lassen Peak eruption column (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)

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... 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 after serving as the speaker of the Oregon Territory House of Representatives, Lafayette Cartee moved to the Idaho Territory where he became a well-known horticulturalist?
... 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 Joan Phillip offered to give any MLAs who were rude to her a whack with her Saskatoon berry stick?
... that Linn County clerk Del Riley established Oregon's vote-by-mail system, now used as the only voting method in the state?
... that the only remaining artifact in the ghost town of Fremont, Oregon, is a juniper stump notched with steps that women travelers used to mount horses in a modest fashion?