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1 Introduction On May 18, 2008, then-­ presidential candidate Barack Obama stood be­ fore 75,000 wildly cheering, dancing, and waving Oregonians at Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park and declared the overwhelming sentiment of the largest rally of the campaign to that date: “Wow! Wow! Wow!” said Obama. Defying regional climatic stereotypes, it was a brilliantly sunny, shirtsleeve-­ warm day. Some supporters had waited for hours in kayaks on the nearby Willamette River. The president-­ to-­ be, weary from a historically long and difficult primary campaign, was visibly reenergized and uplifted by the enormous, impassioned welcome. On the banks of Oregon’s second largest river, looking toward majestic Mount Hood in the distance, Obama went on to observe, “I think it is fair to say that this is the most spectacular setting for the most spectacular crowd we have had in this entire campaign—this is unbelievable!”1 The candidate may have been genuinely surprised, but to Oregonians, Obama’s praise for this “spectacular crowd” and the “spectacular setting ” in which they live was merely to be expected. Being special and different is part of Oregon’s political culture and history, very much a part of the state’s sense of identity. Whether or not Obama fully appreciated the significance of making such an observation to this particular crowd while standing in Tom McCall Waterfront Park (named after Oregon’s iconic pro-­ environmental former governor), his observance of their unique political culture and its ties to the natural environment was enthusiastically greeted by the crowd as an affirmation of how things are and should be in Oregon. Indeed, for 200 years Oregon has held a special, almost mythic place in the American imagination—a place not uncommonly described as “paradise.” As Portland Oregonian newspaper columnist Brian Meehan has stated, “Before Oregon was a territory or even a destination on a long 4 Planning Paradise trail, it was an idea. And the idea—an Eden where people prospected not for gold but for a better life—became the lifeblood that nurtured the . . . state to the beginning of the 21st century” (quoted in Arrieta-­ Walden, Rasmussen, and Harrah 2000: 9). Lest this sound overstated, consider Oregon through the eyes of early Euro-­ American migrants. After struggling westward over unimaginably high mountains and through what to them seemed shockingly desolate, dry, hostile terrain in the intermountain West (so unlike the green, moist eastern states and Europe from which most had come), arriving in cool, wet, green, and fertile western Oregon must indeed have seemed much like finding paradise (Robbins 1997: 124–125). Lewis and Clark (despite spending a soggy and miserable winter in what is today the coastal city of Astoria, Oregon) returned in 1806 with news that inspired an empire. Ideas of manifest destiny, the westward course of empire (Figure 1), and the pioneer spirit of the nation were directly tied to a place called the Oregon Country.2 To get there, pioneers followed the Oregon Trail—the only practical route to many western states, including California, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. Though the transcontinental railroad largely displaced the functional role of the Oregon Trail in 1869, Oregon remained the literal, geographical place tied to the symbolism of the new bicoastal American empire. The word “Oregon” was linked to ideas of boldness, difference, even greatness. The voyage of discovery leading to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest has repeated several times in American history, with the theme of discovering “paradise” repeated as well. The Great Depression and the ecological and human catastrophe of the 1930s Dust Bowl spurred the largest concentrated internal migration in American history, with 2.5 million people fleeing Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, and surrounding plains states. Most came to the Pacific coast. The majority of Dust Bowl refugees came to California, and the history of “Okie” migration to California is well known. Less well known are the migrants who came to Oregon and Washington—some of whom first went to California, only to find few opportunities (not the last time erstwhile Californians would head north in large numbers). What they found astonished many of them. Possibly the most famous “Okie” of all, songwriter Woody Guthrie, came to Introduction 5 Figure 1 Oregon capitol, Salem—the inscription reads: “Westward the star of empire takes its way” (P. Walker 2009) 6 Planning Paradise Oregon in 1941. On seeing the verdant, moist, and fertile Pacific Northwest for the first time, the rain-­ starved Dust Bowl poet declared, “I couldn’t believe it...

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