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MODERN OREGON FOR EVERYONE

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Oregon Gold via goldmapsonline.com

Move Here And You Won’t Miss Where You Came From. Oregon For Everyone.

Oregon is more than Portland, much more, so much more that people who’ve lived here all their lives haven’t seen it all.

There’s that much going on, too much really. Visitors have no chance of experiencing the Oregon-ness of Oregon, but they’ll try.

Think of it like this: If the west coast was like the east coast, America would have about fourteen more states. Well, eleven if you broke California, Oregon, and Washington into little bit and pieces like Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

People got smarter for the westward movement, so you’ve got that to look forward to, living among smart folks.

What else is there for new arrivals to find?

Suburban hells with strip malls renamed PLAZAS to welcome all of our new SoCal neighbors.

Strip mall sounds too dirty, like strip club, which we’ll get to shortly.

Strip Plaza? Never work. Just call it a Plaza when you pull into a Plaid Pantry next to a hooka bar and burrito shop. Sounds like home already.

Oregon for everyone means everyone.

A block of urban shadow loading docks downtown.

Nothing makes an eastie feel more at home than urban wreckage. Where would you expect someone from Detroit to go if they feel homesick?

Either find a deserted saw mill, or the block behind downtown Macy’s showcase windows. It’s dark on the brightest days and the workers look like they just came off an assembly line.

Now it’s a happy block.

Oregon for everyone won’t discriminate against Chicago.

A Superfund river.

The Willamette doesn’t catch on fire…yet. It’s industrialized, but not like Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River.

After you’ve poured enough sludge into a river it might light up, but we don’t need more wild fire around here. The woods blaze up every year.

While we may not have the massive die-offs associated with other polluted waterways, we do have an occasional body wash up on the banks.

Oregon for everyone means dead or alive.

Oregon hunting and fishing.

Duck hunting is the real deal in Oregon.

Ten miles out of Portland you’ll find Sauvie Island and some of the best duck hunting in the country according to state officials and actual hunters.

But there’s more to it than stepping out the back door and blasting away.

License Requirements

  • Valid hunting license
  • State waterfowl validation
  • Hunter Information Program (HIP) validation
  • Federal waterfowl stamp
  • Sauvie Island Wildlife Area Parking Permit
  • Sauvie Island Wildlife Area Hunting Unit Permit
  • Goose hunters need a Northwest Goose Permit, except during the September season

Keep Oregon safe.

Keep yourself safe by avoiding fish deemed unfit for human consumption.

Mercury and PCBs are the threat. Check it out.

Remember the smart part at the top? Don’t poison yourself by accident.

Treasure hunting in Oregon.

Let’s say you’re a romantic who dreams of days long gone where men set out to find their fortune.

It can still happen in Oregon for everyone.

“Eastern Oregon was the other major gold producer in Oregon, with nearly 2/3 of the total production coming from a few counties in the northeastern section. A gold belt covers an area roughly 100 miles long and 50 miles wide, covering much of Baker, Grant, and Union Counties. The area is covered with old gold mines, hydraulic and hand placer areas, and valleys churned up by bucket line dredging.”

Come to Oregon and live the life of Oregon for everyone, just remember others who’ve been here.

Richard Brautigan liked it well enough to stick around.

Ken Kesey liked Oregon, too, and did stick around.

Cheryl Strayed could live anywhere, but chooses Oregon.

C.B. Bernard calls Oregon home. From a CHASING ALASKA review:

“The stories are gripping in the way the best adventure writing is, with enough danger and discovery to keep the reader turning pages way past bedtime. … It’s much to his credit that he realizes, ‘I love it here—the patience of the glaciers, the endless miles of forest, the stubbornness of the mountains, the forgiving rain—but I don’t belong here.’ Indeed, the real protagonist is Alaska itself, which ‘makes everything ordinary impossible to bear.’ Thanks to C.B. Bernard’s assured storytelling and vibrant prose style, we understand that sentiment very well. I do believe Jack London would approve.”

Peter Geye, reviewing CHASING ALASKA in the Minneapolis Star Tribune

Some states you have to pretend to like. Not Oregon. Why? Because Oregon is every state, and it’s for everyone.

Look for a future post on C.B. Bernard in Portland.

Until then, consider Marshall Tucker’s Oregon Trail gold song Fire On The Mountain:

Took my fam’ly away from our Carolina home
Had dreams about the west and started to roam
Six long months on a dust covered trail
They say heaven’s at the end
But so far it’s been hell
And there’s fire on the mountain
Lightening in the air
Gold in them hills and it’s waiting for me there

 

About David Gillaspie

I am a writer. This is my blog story day by day.