Western Oregon is a geographical term that is generally taken to mean the part of Oregon within 120 miles of the Oregon Coast, on the west side of the crest of the Cascade Range. The term is applied somewhat loosely however, and is sometimes taken to exclude the southwestern areas of the state, which are often referred to as "Southern Oregon". In that case, "Western Oregon" means only the counties west of the Cascades and north of and including Lane County.
Western Oregon, being 120 by 250 miles in area, is about the same size as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire put together. Unlike the climate of Eastern Oregon, which is primarily dry and continental, the climate of Western Oregon is generally a moderate rain forest climate.
Famous quotes containing the words western and/or oregon:
“We hold on to hopes for next year every year in western Dakota: hoping that droughts will end; hoping that our crops won’t be hailed out in the few rainstorms that come; hoping that it won’t be too windy on the day we harvest, blowing away five bushels an acre; hoping ... that if we get a fair crop, we’ll be able to get a fair price for it. Sometimes survival is the only blessing that the terrifying angel of the Plains bestows.”
—Kathleen Norris (b. 1947)
“When Paul Bunyan’s loggers roofed an Oregon bunkhouse with shakes, fog was so thick that they shingled forty feet into space before discovering they had passed the last rafter.”
—State of Oregon, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)