Geography

The western side of North America is laid out on a large scale, a land of the “Jotuns,” a region of magnificent distances. It fronts the largest ocean; it has the most ample harbors, it is built out of the most continuous mountain ranges, and is watered by great rivers. It has large valleys and immense plateaus. Its geographical sections, the portions naturally connected by a coast, river, or mountain system, are wide and long, but the points which command natural ingress and egress to and from any one such section are comparatively few. Thus, on the whole of California’s … Read more

Although of a different order, the history of the modern city should be no less interesting than that of an ancient metropolis like Jerusalem or Athens. It treats no less of human endeavor, and no less segregates and epitomizes human life. If that in which men busy themselves, and that which they produce is anywhere, or at any time, calculated to attract attention and demand investigation and analysis, why not here in Oregon, on the banks of the Willamette, as well as five to ten thousand miles away, in Spain or in Turkey? Unlike the ancient or medieval city, it … Read more

To define her position in more particular terms, she is located in latitude forty-five degrees and thirty minutes north; longitude one hundred and twenty-two degrees and twenty-seven minutes west on the left bank of the Willamette River, twelve miles below the Falls of that stream at Oregon City, and ten miles above its confluence with the Columbia. It is one hundred and ten miles from the city by the Willamette and Columbia Rivers to the debouchure of the latter stream into the Pacific. As for distance to other well known points, it is about seven hundred miles to San Francisco … Read more