Five Things You May Not Know About Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon is one of the signature urban areas in the Pacific Northwest. The city was founded and developed because of its location on the Columbia River and proximity to the Pacific Ocean. What started as a frontier trading post has developed into an international city that has earned a reputation as a great destination. One of the biggest strengths of the Portland area as a destination for travelers is its location close to the mountains, the Columbia River gorge and the Pacific coastline. There is a great deal known about the city, but here are five things you may not know about Portland, Oregon.

1. Portland’s two founders came from Boston, Massachusetts and Portland, Maine. Both men wished to name the new city after their home towns and chose to decide who would get naming honors by flipping a penny. The Oregon Historical Society is in possession of this penny, now referred to as the Portland Penny, and displayed proudly in their headquarters.

2. Portland has been known as The City of Roses for more than one hundred years. The most famous, and possibly most remarkable rose garden in the city is the International Rose Test Garden. The garden is home to well over 500 different varieties of roses and includes a total of more than 7,000 rose plants.

3. The city of Portland now sits on the site of three former communities. Prior to 1891, when they were all consolidated into one city, the area’s three separate towns were Portland, East Portland and Albina.

4. A section of roadway called the Mount Hood Freeway was a proposed east-west freeway intended to run through southeast Portland. that was never constructed. The citizens of Portland came out strongly against this plan and the project was cancelled in the early 1970s. One lone feature still exists pointing to this abandoned project. The most traveled bridge in the state of Oregon is Portland’s double decked Marquam Bridge and on the eastern end is an unfinished ramp stub that was to have lead to the Mount Hood Freeway.

5. One of the big attractions at the very popular Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is the USS Blueback submarine that is open for public tours and is docked right outside the museum. This submarine was used in the 1990 Sean Connery film, The Hunt For Red October.

Portland is a great place to visit for a wide variety of reasons, but the overall best reason is that it offers a great deal of diverse things to do that should interest and occupy any visitor lucky enough to head that way. From the wealth of outdoor recreational opportunities available in the area to the many historical sites, the city has the ability to cater specifically to the very broad range of visitors that travel its way every year. Portland has had a long and interesting history and has proven itself to be a great destination throughout its existence. It remains to be one of the best places to go to in the Pacific Northwest each and every year.

Visiting Oregon’s Beautiful Crater Lake

Different people have different priorities and wishes when planning their vacations or extended weekends. Some people prefer to head towards tourist attractions that although they are crowded, are always action packed. Other people seek out exotic tropical locations either nearby or halfway around the world. Still others like to immerse themselves in an urban area they have always dreamed about visiting and experiencing as much about the city as possible. When searching for a beautiful and secluded place to visit though, few vacationers could match the scenery and surroundings of Oregon’s Crater Lake.

Located in southern Oregon, Crater Lake formed in the crater of Mount Mazama after the mountain erupted and collapsed inward on itself. The water inside the lake comes almost exclusively from natural rain and snow melt, making it some of the purest water that can be found any where in North America. There are no rivers or streams that flow into or out of Crater Lake. Crater Lake is approximately five by six miles across and has an amazing average depth of 1,148 feet. The deepest point ever measured in the lake is at a depth of 1,949 feet, which makes Crater Lake not only the deepest lake in the state of Oregon, but the deepest lake in the entire United States. There have been several smaller eruptions over the years, although none in modern times, that have resulted in a smaller cone being built up in the middle of the lake. This new cone was named Wizard Island as it now extends above the surface of the water and somewhat resembles a wizard’s hat.

Though the lake and its surroundings are now part of Crater Lake National Park, there are a number of developed areas within an easy drive that provide food and lodging to the many visitors that make the trek there every year. Along the rim of the lake is the Crater Lake lodge building which houses a gift shop and cafe and is a nice place to get a bite to eat when visiting there. Rim Drive is a road that circumnavigates the entire mountain top lake and is a wonderful way of seeing all aspects of this amazing natural wonder, due to heavy snow the drive is closed during certain parts of the winter months. There are also boat tours that take visitors out on the water of Crater Lake, including the opportunity to depart the boat for a short visit on Wizard Island. This can provide some of the most memorable times of a visit to the lake, but it also requires a bit of a hike down to the boat dock.

There are a number of other things to do in and around Crater Lake too. To the west is the beautiful Oregon Coast which caters to anyone interested in boating, fishing, beach recreation and more including visiting the world famous Oregon Dunes. To the south of Crater Lake is Northern California and all that that region supplies to visitors that travel there every year. Bend, Oregon is a wonderful Eastern Oregon community that sits a couple hours northwest of the lake. Though the lake is somewhat remote, it is also easy to get to from a number of urban areas. The lake itself is only 119 miles from Bend, 250 miles from Portland, 422 miles from Seattle and 450 miles from San Francisco.

For hundreds of years before its discovery by settlers from Europe, Crater Lake had been a very sacred site for many of the Native Americans that lived in the area. A legend from the Klamath tribe says that there was a battle between the sky god and god of the underworld and during the mayhem Mount Mazama was destroyed, and left in its place was Crater Lake. The magnitude of the beauty and uniqueness of Crater Lake has played a large role in the history of this area of Oregon for centuries.

A visit to Crater Lake is awe-inspiring and it is quite common that travelers will be mesmerized by the beauty of the water as well as the realization that they are looking at a lake that is sitting on top of a mountain in what was once an active volcano crater. The beauty of the area doesn’t stop with the water though as the surrounding Cascade Mountains almost equal the visual splendor that the lake provides. For hundreds of years, and possibly even longer, men have made the journey to see this fascinating piece of scenery. Any visitor lucky enough to make the journey today is sure to leave with memories that will last them a lifetime.