"Pacific Northwest" term

[PS90]

Originally Posted by DBM

A great book on the topic of our regional self-identification is Timothy Egan's, "The Good Rain" (The Good Rain: Across Time & Terrain in the Pacific Northwest by Timothy Egan). It's a quick read and I'd suggest it to anyone.

Here's what Egan says: "The Pacific Northwest is simply this: wherever the salmon can get to. Rivers without salmon have lost the life source of the area."

I tend to agree with him. Defining Colorado and Arizona by a common fish wouldn't make any sense at all, but salmon have been interwoven into the fabric of this region from time immemorial, and remain so. They reflect our history, our cool climate, our natural environment, and they are central to many of our environmental and economic challenges. Can't think of a better definition.

Great quote.

Originally Posted by CanuckInPortland

The stereotypical Pacific Northwest of the imagination basically ends at the crest of the Cascades in Oregon and Washington. Wenatchee or Spokane or Pendleton or Bend isn't really what people outside the area think of when they hear Pacific Northwest--maybe not even Southern Oregon which looks and feels different from NW Oregon. But Western Oregon and Western Washington is really a pretty modest-sized region--maybe smaller than New England.

Though considering the Columbia Basin region is fairly tied together economically(and in terms of power networks with the Bonneville Power Administration), I don't think it's that big a deal to interchangeably use Pacific Northwest or Northwest to describe the region. Outside of the Puget Sound area most of the population in Oregon and Washington doesn't live on Pacific Ocean connected bodies of salt water as it is.

Yes. Agreed. This was the point that i had made earlier - many inland towns in Western Washington are no more connected (or possibly less-so via trade routes such as the Columbia River) to the Pacific Ocean than towns in Central or Eastern Washington. So defining the Pacific Northwest as limited to Western Washington makes no sense, other than some people's arbitrary assumption of how they think it should be defined.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by Seacove

CrazyDonkey, I totally get it and FWIW, I think you are a great poster.

Seacove, thanks for the very kind word. The trouble with being the wise man is that you can never be sure if you are being the fool or not.

[Glenview94602]

Originally Posted by PS90

Ummm, I don't get it. So, do we define the PACIFIC Northwest as just the towns of Grey's Harbor, Westport, and the other towns right on the coast? How is Issaquah or Puyallup connected to the Pacific, but Yakima isn't? Because of a mountain range? - I don't think any definition of regional nomenclature is strictly limited to mountain borders.

And, there are probably some towns in Eastern Washington, like Wenatchee - that constantly relies on the Columbia to haul fruit to the Pacific, that are more connected to the Pacific Ocean than some of the inland towns in Western Washington.

I recently read a book about territory of Washington prior to statehood. The author found that western Washington was connected to San Francisco and east of the cascades was dominated by Portland-yes the PDX rivalry started long ago. The O&C rail and steam company basically monopolized everything so all traffic had to go through the columbia river (benefiting Portland at the sound's expense).

[509]

The Oregonian considered Yakima part of their news area up until the early 1990's. You could buy the paper in Yakima and they made recommendations on politicians!!

Wenatchee is far less tied to Portland. It use to be part of eastern Washington, but now is really part of western Washington with the change starting in the early 1990's with the mass migration. It was complete in 2012 when we lost our representation in Congress.

Hell, even the local feed store is now called COASTAL FARM and FEED!!

[CrazyDonkey]

I remember growing up in Aberdeen in the 1950s, that subscriptions to the Oregonian were as or more common than to the Times and P-I. (Outside of town, anyway, you could tell from their cylindrical newspaper boxes what they were reading.) You could get Portland radio stations, but not Seattle ones, with the Olympics standing in the way. Prior to cable coming to Grays Harbor, if they had any TV reception, it was from Portland (with a really good antenna). They had one of the first cable systems in the country, starting in the 1950s. While the cable had mostly Seattle and Tacoma stations, it did have a Portland station, as well.

* Did some checking and found that the first cable system in the country was in Astoria in 1948. A cable system was established in Aberdeen in 1950. By the time we had a TV (1955), we had a grand total of eight stations, which was more than Seattle had.

[PS90]

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