Portal:Pacific Northwest

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The Pacific Northwest Portal

P:PNW

The Pacific Northwest (PNW), sometimes referred to as Cascadia, is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common conception includes the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington, northern Idaho, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Some broader conceptions reach north into Alaska and Yukon, south into northern California, and east into western Montana. Other conceptions may be limited to the coastal areas west of the Cascade and Coast mountains.

The Northwest Coast is the coastal region of the Pacific Northwest, and the Northwest Plateau (also commonly known as "the Interior" in British Columbia), is the inland region. The term "Pacific Northwest" should not be confused with the Northwest Territory (also known as the Great Northwest, a historical term in the United States) or the Northwest Territories of Canada. The region is sometimes referred to as Cascadia, which, depending on the borders, may or may not be the same thing as the Pacific Northwest.

The region's largest metropolitan areas are Greater Seattle, Washington, with 4 million people; Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, with 2.84 million people; and Greater Portland, Oregon, with 2.5 million people.

The culture of the Pacific Northwest is influenced by the Canada–United States border, which the United States and the United Kingdom established at a time when the region's inhabitants were composed mostly of indigenous peoples. Two sections of the border—one along the 49th parallel south of British Columbia and one between the Alaska Panhandle and northern British Columbia—have left a great impact on the region. According to Canadian historian Ken Coates, the border has not merely influenced the Pacific Northwest—rather, "the region's history and character have been determined by the boundary". (Full article...)

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Flagship store and headquarters in Downtown Seattle in 2016

Nordstrom, Inc. (/ˈnɔːrdstrəm/) is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and a second Nordstrom's shoe store opened in 1923. The growing Nordstrom Best chain began selling clothing in 1963, and became the Nordstrom full-line retailer that presently exists by 1971. The company founded its off-price Nordstrom Rack division in 1973, and grew both full-line and off-price divisions throughout the United States in the following years. The full-line division competes with department stores including Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue, while the off-price division competes with retailers including the TJX Companies and Ross Stores. Previous expansions beyond the contiguous United States include Puerto Rico (2015–2020) and Canada (2014–2023). (Full article...)

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Official portrait, 2009

Gary Faye Locke (born January 21, 1950) is an American politician, attorney, and former diplomat from the state of Washington. Locke served as the 21st governor of Washington from 1997 to 2005, where he was the first Chinese-American governor as well as the first Asian American governor in the continental U.S. During the Obama administration, Locke served as Secretary of Commerce from 2009 to 2011, and as Ambassador to China from 2011 to 2014, the first Chinese American to serve in the role.

First elected to the Washington House of Representatives in 1982, Locke went on to become King County executive in 1993 before being elected governor in the 1996 election. A former prosecutor by profession, Locke staked out a reputation as a moderate Democrat during his tenure. Reelected in the 2000 gubernatorial election, Locke was chosen by national Democrats to give the party's response to president George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address. Locke declined to run for reelection in 2004. (Full article...)

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Largest cities of the Pacific Northwest

City	State/Province	Population	Metropolitan Area	Urban Area
Seattle	Washington	704,000^[1]	3,905,026^[2]	3,059,393^[3]
Portland	Oregon	658,347^[2]	2,753,168^[2]	1,849,898^[3]
Vancouver	British Columbia	631,486^[4]	2,737,698^[5]	2,264,823^[6]
Surrey	British Columbia	598,530^[4]	^{[n 1]}	^{[n 1]}
Burnaby	British Columbia	257,926^[4]	^{[n 1]}	^{[n 1]}
Boise	Idaho	226,570^[7]	691,423^[2]	349,684^[3]
Spokane	Washington	222,081^[1]	573,493 ^[8]^[9]	486,225^[3]
Richmond	British Columbia	216,046^[4]	^{[n 1]}	^{[n 1]}
Tacoma	Washington	198,397^[1]	^{[n 2]}	^{[n 2]}
Vancouver	Washington	175,673^[1]	^{[n 3]}	^{[n 3]}

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The following are images from various Pacific Northwest-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Geology of the Cascade Range-related plate tectonics. (from Cascade Range)
Image 2State Route 302 after the Nisqually earthquake (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 3West side view of Mount Shuksan in summer as seen from Artist Point in Washington (from Cascade Range)
Image 4U.S. Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes' 1841 Map of the Oregon Territory from "Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition". Philadelphia: 1845 (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 5The Cascades range (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 6Oval-leaf blueberry on Mount Pilchuck (from Cascade Range)
Image 7Lava Butte, Oregon, erupted roughly 5000 years BCE (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 8The Columbia Gorge marks where the Columbia River splits the Cascade Range between the states of Washington and Oregon. (from Cascade Range)
Image 9Mount St. Helens erupts on May 18, 1980 (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 10Map of "megacity", showing population density (shades of yellow/brown), highways (red), and major railways (black). Public land shown in shades of green. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 11Lumen Field, home of Seattle Seahawks and Sounders FC (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 12None of the multiple possible definitions of the Pacific Northwest is universally accepted. This map shows three possibilities: (1) The shaded area shows the historical Oregon Country. (2) The green line shows the Cascadia bioregion. (3) The labeled states and provinces include Washington, Idaho, Oregon and British Columbia. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 13A man in Portland, Oregon with Cascadian flag on International Workers' Day, 2012 (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 14The North Cascades are heavily eroded by glaciers (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 15Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail overview map (from Pacific Northwest Trail)
Image 16The Golden Hinde on Vancouver Island was formed by erosion carving into basalt. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 17A map of the Snake River Plain, showing its smooth topography (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 18The immense floods created channels that are presently dry, such as the Drumheller Channels (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 19The Coast Mountains are heavily eroded by glaciers, including Mount Waddington (far background, center). (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 20May 1915 Lassen Peak eruption column (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 21Lassen Peak in the California Cascades. Southernmost volcano in the Cascade Range and part of Lassen Volcanic National Park (from Cascade Range)
Image 22HMS Discovery was the lead ship used by George Vancouver (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 23The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (from Cascade Range)
Image 24Pacific Northwest Trail at Blanchard Mountain in Washington (from Pacific Northwest Trail)
Image 25The Coquihalla River in the Canadian Cascades (from Cascade Range)
Image 26The Pacific Northwest from outer space. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 27Public transportation is used in the Pacific Northwest region. Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system achieves daily ridership of over 500,000 passengers per day on weekdays and the overall transit ridership levels in the Metro Vancouver area rank third in North America per capita. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 28The Pacific Northwest from space (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 29Magnetic anomalies around the Juan de Fuca and Gorda Ridges, off the west coast of North America, color coded by age. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 30The Columbia River basalts cover portions of three states (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 31Map of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt centers. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 32Map of the Anahim Volcanic Belt centers. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 33The Boundary Trail section of the PNT in Horseshoe Basin, Pasayten Wilderness (from Pacific Northwest Trail)
Image 34Mountain goat on Wallaby Peak in the North Cascades (from Cascade Range)
Image 35Mount Hood is the tallest point in the U.S. state of Oregon. (from Cascade Range)
Image 36Mount Edziza, a large shield volcano in northwestern British Columbia (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 37Image of the Juan de Fuca Plate that produced the magnitude 8.7–9.2 Cascadia earthquake in 1700. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)

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... that future state senator William T. Vinton was sent to jail for contempt of court when he refused to sign a city paving contract, but was later vindicated by an Oregon Supreme Court decision?
... that after serving as the speaker of the Oregon Territory House of Representatives, Lafayette Cartee moved to the Idaho Territory where he became a well-known horticulturalist?
... that in the 1951 court case Kuzych v White, on appeal from the British Columbia Court of Appeal, five law lords of the British Judicial Committee ruled in favour of a Communist-led trade union?
... that former Oregon legislator William Massingill died while attending a boxing match?
... that the bishop of Oregon's residence in Portland once had a private chapel, a ballroom, and a wine cellar?
... that a Washington state radio station turned to "professional bikini watchers"—military recruiters—to report on crowds at local beaches?