Aerial.America.S02E02.Oregon
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00:00Oregon. It's a land of surprising contrasts. In the west, a primeval landscape at the edge
00:07of the world. To the east, miles of high-altitude desert. Too desolate for life to thrive. But
00:17everywhere, evidence of a rich volcanic past. A lava flow where Apollo 11 astronauts trained
00:24to walk on the moon. A vast crater with the deepest lake in North America. And painted
00:32hills that hold the fossils of amazing ancient creatures. Oregon has always been known for
00:39the hopeful spirit of its pioneers and the success of its entrepreneurs. It was here
00:46where a college athlete and his coach turned a simple idea for a running shoe into the
00:51best-known sportswear brand of all time. And where a young winemaker surprised the
00:56world by growing award-winning Oregon grapes. It's a place where adrenaline junkies take
01:02to the air on one of the greatest rivers in the west. Even the energy here is alternative.
01:12So proud is this state of its innovative spirit, it coined the motto, she flies with her own
01:18wings. This is Oregon.
01:48Our journey across Oregon begins in a place that defies a simple description. The city
02:03of Portland can't be easily pinned down. Individuality, eccentricity, and being different deliberately.
02:13A unique mix that's intrinsically made in Oregon. It's a place with a non-conformist
02:19streak. The birthplace of the Simpsons creator Matt Groening. And the childhood home of grunge
02:25rocker Courtney Love. Here pubs don't just serve beer, they're likely to brew it. It's
02:32the unofficial capital of the craft beer craze. And home to more tattoo shops per capita than
02:39any other city. But only from the air is it possible to discover how Portland truly
02:46turns things upside down. Gardens grow on 27 acres of rooftop. They're surprising but
02:54sensible, capturing rainfall that would otherwise be wasted as runoff, reducing pollution and
03:01saving energy. Reinventing green spaces is just one way Oregonians think outside the
03:08box. And keep alive the adventurous spirit of the state's original pioneers. To understand
03:15how one of America's quirkiest cities got this way requires traveling back in time.
03:22Starting at one of Oregon's wildest places. At the center of this state is an unusual
03:29gathering place in the foothills of the Ochoco Mountains. One that seems to breathe the air
03:35of Oregon's pioneering spirit. The appropriately named Crooked River twists and turns through
03:42steep slopes to the towering spires of Smith Rock. This castle of craggy peaks dates back
03:51to a catastrophic eruption nearly 20 million years ago. Hot ash, lava and chunks of rock
03:58surge like an ancient oil gusher, eventually cooling in place and over time weathering
04:05into great stone pinnacles. In some cultures, places like this attract mystics. In Oregon,
04:14it's a haven for adventurers. Welcome to one of the hottest spots for sport climbing in
04:19North America, challenging the best in the world to find new routes up its most demanding
04:25surfaces. The toughest one of all is a 300 foot high pillar that looms above the valley.
04:33It's called Monkey Face. For these hardcore sport climbers, it isn't just about reaching
04:40the top, it's about finding the toughest possible route up and down the peak. Scaling near vertical
04:48walls, suspending from a single rope and rappelling into the abyss. The ultimate achievement,
04:58to be the first to take on a newer, harder route and earn the privilege of naming it.
05:06In 1992, Monkey Face became an international icon when French climber Jean-Baptiste Trubaud
05:13made the first ascent up the overhanging East Wall. It instantly eclipsed even the
05:18toughest climbs in North America. He named the route, Just Do It. Once climbers reach
05:27the top of Smith Rock, many take a moment to savor the view of one of America's most
05:33remarkable landscapes. More than two centuries ago, a couple of adventurers were taking in
05:44their first views of this territory. In 1805, Lewis and Clark traveled down the Columbia
05:51River and finally laid eyes on the Pacific Ocean. It was November, and with winter coming
05:59on, they started building a camp here in a stand of evergreens, naming it Fort Clatsop,
06:05after one of the local Native American tribes. William Clark set off with a party down the
06:11coast to search for provisions. In the fall, this coast is now a popular place to spot
06:19gray whales on their annual migration between the Bering Sea and Mexico. A little further
06:25on, Clark clambered up the steep bluffs of Tillamook Head, which he described in his
06:30journal as the steepest, worst, and highest mountain I ever ascended. He also came upon
06:38the skeleton of a blue whale that he and his party measured to be over 100 feet long, and
06:44the explorers were able to procure 300 pounds of whale blubber from members of the Tillamook
06:49tribe. They'd been eating dried elk for weeks, and Clark wrote,
06:54Thank Providence for directing the whale to us.
06:57Today, the bones of another skeleton lie on this shore, a victim of the perilous seas
07:06off Oregon's coast. This is the steel hull of the Peter Iredale, a four-masted vessel
07:13from England that remains wedged in the breakers, just as it first did that windy day in
07:191906. Wrenched by wind and current, she ran aground, hitting so hard, three of her masts
07:27snapped upon impact. All aboard were rescued, and in thanks, the captain bid his ship farewell,
07:35saying, May God bless you, and may your bones bleach in these sands. Which they have, and
07:45still attract curious beachcombers today.
07:50Before the era of GPS and radar, fishermen sailing along this stretch of coast could
07:55find their way through the fog by listening for the birds on Haystack Rock. This 235-foot
08:02plug of lava is the third tallest intertidal rock formation in the world, and a year-round
08:08nesting spot for seabirds. It's hard to imagine that the cries of birds could save
08:15ships from calamity, but evidence of just how dangerous these waters can be lies further
08:21north. The 17-mile-wide entrance to the Columbia River is an area known as the Graveyard of
08:29the Pacific. Its waters look calm, but beneath their surface, powerful river currents clash
08:36with fierce incoming ocean swells, causing underwater sandbars to shift unpredictably,
08:43and treacherous conditions that can deceive even the most experienced captains. Over the
08:49years, 2,000 ships have gone down here, bringing with them 700 lives. It's why this area is
08:57home to the largest U.S. Coast Guard fleet on the Northwest Coast. But surging currents
09:04haven't been the only threat lurking beneath these waters. Just before midnight on June
09:1021, 1942, a Japanese submarine just eight miles offshore fired 17 shells at American
09:18soil before quickly disappearing back into the sea. Those shells landed here at Fort
09:25Stevens. It was the only attack against a military installation on the U.S. mainland
09:31during World War II. Today's visitors explore the batteries where Fort Stevens soldiers
09:38scrambled in the dark to their posts, ready to repulse the Japanese attack. But before
09:44they could, officers deemed the sub too far out of range. Fort Stevens was decommissioned
09:51in 1947, but still stands guard at the mouth of the Columbia, the gateway for ships headed
09:58to Portland. Ten miles upriver, they pass under the Astoria-Megler Bridge. Stretching
10:08more than four miles, it's the largest continuous truss bridge in America. Designed to exploit
10:14the remarkable stability of triangles of bolted steel, it was an engineering marvel when it
10:20finally opened for traffic in 1966. This is the very northwest corner of Oregon, the town
10:28of Astoria is perched on its edge. It's now home to 10,000, but Astoria began as a small
10:35fur trading post, and not long after Lewis and Clark's arrival, became the first European
10:41settlement in the northwest. When they first arrived at the Pacific in 1805, Lewis and
10:47Clark carved their initials in a tree. That tree is gone, but Astoria is known today for
10:54another set of carvings. The Astoria Column, erected in 1926, celebrates the westward expansion
11:03of Oregon's early settlers, their first contact with Native Americans, and key events in the
11:09journey of Lewis and Clark. As these carvings illustrate, many more followed in their footsteps,
11:16including the Oregon Trail Pioneers. In the early to mid-19th century, more than 10,000
11:23people arrived into the territory via the Oregon Trail. This overland route brought
11:30pioneers into eastern Oregon at today's Idaho border, and through the state's eastern desert
11:37on their journey west. One of the pioneers who made the hard slog through Oregon's dry
11:44scrubland was a woman named Amelia Knight. Amelia, her husband, and seven children had
11:51already traveled 1,250 miles from Iowa. On August 12, 1853, she made an entry into her
12:00diary. We were traveling slowly when our oxen dropped dead in the yoke. I could hardly help
12:07shedding tears. This poor ox, who had helped us all along thus far, and had given us his
12:14very last step. But the Knight family pressed on, driven by a belief that a better life
12:23was just ahead. Soon after crossing into the territory, the Oregon Trail swung north through
12:32scrub woodland, and then followed the Columbia River west. This detour north was critical.
12:43Going straight through central Oregon would have meant confronting some of the most unusual
12:47and inhospitable terrain in America. Imagine trying to drive a covered wagon over this.
12:57Encountering the painted hills in north-central Oregon can make one feel like they've been
13:02transported to Mars. In fact, this scenic marvel is an extraordinary record of the past
13:1240 million years, a logbook of changes in climate, plant, and animal life. It's the
13:20story of Oregon's ancient past told in colored soils. Red, from the residue of wet primeval
13:30forests of sequoia and oak. Yellow, from a time when the climate turned dry. And everything
13:38preserved in a dusting of volcanic ash, tens of millions of years old, that's kept these
13:44hills free of vegetation for all to see. Prehistoric beasts once walked here, too.
13:53Three-toed horses, pigs the size of bison, and rhinos. Many thousands of their fossils
14:02have been recovered. Volcanic activity has dramatically changed the face of Oregon. Molten
14:10magma has built many of its mountains, and fresh lava flows blanket hundreds of square
14:16miles. These are Oregon's high lava plains, home to some of the youngest and most dramatic
14:24volcanic sites in the state. Rising 500 feet from a tree-covered plain stands Lava Butte,
14:31a type of volcano called a cinder cone that formed 7,000 years ago. A fire station stands
14:38on its rim, looking out over the field of lava that seeped from the butte. Giant lava
14:44flows are everywhere in Oregon, but there's nothing like this one. It's known as the Big
14:52Obsidian Flow.
14:541,300 years ago, a nearby volcano belched 170 million cubic yards of liquid volcanic
15:02glass, enough to pave a road circling the earth three times. In its hardened state,
15:11obsidian is perfect for making tools. The cutting edge of an obsidian knife is sharper
15:17than steel. It's not exactly easy terrain. In the 1960s, NASA discovered that the moon's
15:26surface looked a lot like this lava flow. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz
15:34Aldrin, and Michael Collins came here to practice walking across jagged, unpredictable terrain
15:40so they wouldn't tear their spacesuits on the moon.
15:49Oregonians have made themselves quite at home on these lava lands. The city of Bend is one
15:55of only a few in the U.S. that actually has a volcano within the city limits. Pilot Butte
16:02was a guiding landmark to Native Americans and early white explorers traveling across
16:07the central Oregon Plateau. Today, the Butte is a popular lookout spot. With 300 days a
16:15year of sunshine, Bend is a center of outdoor activity and a staging place for skiers heading
16:21to nearby peaks.
16:25Paddleboarding is the latest sport to catch on here, imported to Oregon from Hawaii by
16:30a couple of North Shore surfers in 2001. Bend may be a recreation hub today, but these
16:38rising silver smokestacks broadcast the city's roots as a hard-working lumber town. Beginning
16:45in the late 1910s, this old mill district was home to some of the largest pine sawmills
16:51in the world, at their peak producing some 500 million board feet of lumber a year. The
16:59fuel for this industrial engine? Ponderosa pine. These giants thrive in the dry volcanic
17:08soil of central Oregon. Their long roots can reach deep to moist soil below, and their
17:14straight lightweight hardwood was in heavy demand for shipbuilding during World War I.
17:23Oregon's earliest pioneers steered clear of this part of the state. But in the early 20th
17:30century, developers tried to settle an area called Fort Rock. This giant ring formed about
17:37a half a million years ago, when lava bubbled up in the middle of an ancient lake that once
17:42covered these deserts. Explosive ash may have built these walls of rock, but it was wind-driven
17:50waves that scoured them down day after day. Nearby, a series of ramshackle buildings are
17:57all that remain of a turn-of-the-century scam. Developers sold a promise of underground water
18:05and a potential branch spur to the railroad line. Neither happened, leaving a ghost town
18:13of broken dreams. Vast stretches of this state remain remote and practically uninhabitable.
18:21But to some, that's also been Oregon's appeal. Today, the town of Antelope is home to a Christian
18:30youth camp. But in the early 1980s, a guru from India named Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh tried
18:37to take over the town. His 64,000-acre ranch, called Rajneeshpuram, was the center of operations
18:44for his thousands of followers, known as Rajneeshis. They cleared 3,000 acres of land on the ranch
18:52to grow their own food and built a 10-megawatt power station. Joining the commune meant donating
18:59everything you own, including your bank account. Perhaps that is what allowed Rajneesh to have
19:05his own fleet of Rolls Royces. It's also been reported that the group amassed so many weapons,
19:12they had more firepower than all the Oregon State Police east of the Cascades. But in 1985,
19:20one of the community's leaders tried to rig the county election with an outrageous attack,
19:25planting salmonella in salad bars at 10 local restaurants. It was the first act of bioterrorism
19:34in the U.S. One year later, the dream was over, and Rajneeshpuram lay abandoned.
19:44Throughout its history, Oregon has lured many seeking alternative ways of life,
19:50from hardscrabble pioneers to sport climbers scaling its volcanic peaks. But these days,
19:57it's also home to alternative energy and a fast-growing forest of giant machines that run
20:04on the wind. It looks like a garden of giant pinwheels sprouting across the landscape,
20:18dominating the horizon above the wheat farms of Oregon's Wasco County.
20:23This is the heart of Oregon's wind energy industry. The pylons tower 65 feet in the air.
20:30The arc of their blades spans more than 200 feet. Each of these turbines generates up to 2.4 megawatts,
20:39enough to power 420 homes. Wind power currently provides more than 6% of Oregon's total
20:49electricity supply. The wind is free, but the turbine technology isn't.
20:57Towers, rotors, and blades are built internationally and then shipped to Oregon.
21:03The state now has nearly 1,200 wind turbines on more than a dozen wind farms.
21:10As these towers multiply, so do their critics. Incessant noise, ruined vistas,
21:17threats to birds. The complaints are mounting, but there's no question that wind is providing
21:23an important alternative to Oregon's traditional sources of electricity. And the demand for power
21:29is increasing in the state, especially from Oregon's recently developing digital economy.
21:39You'd never know by looking at them, but these unmarked buildings
21:43are the true heart of the internet. When you google Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, or Tsunami Japan,
21:50chances are your search is routed through this facility, along with millions of other search
21:56requests and emails. It's known as the Google Server Farm, and its location here near the
22:03Columbia River is no accident. The server farm's cooling towers require as much as 100 megawatts,
22:12enough to power more than 40 million iPads.
22:18And it's the nearby Dahls Hydroelectric Station, with its half-mile-long powerhouse,
22:23that supplies Google with a steady source of cheap, renewable power. The basic technology
22:30of hydropower has been around since ancient times. Back up water behind a dam, then funnel
22:37the pressurized stream past a spinning turbine. The promise of the Columbia as a source of
22:43renewable power has transformed this mighty river. The Dahls Dam is one of many hydroelectric
22:50projects here. Completed in 1938, the Bonneville Dam was the first. Since then, 14 more hydroelectric
22:59projects have been built on the Columbia. But their power has come with a price.
23:07The dams made life for Oregon's salmon next to impossible. They've also flooded and destroyed
23:13traditional Native American fishing grounds. One of these was a legendary series of waterfalls
23:20Native Americans called Celilo. The falls are gone, and so are the fish drying huts that once
23:28lined the river. But the rise of a new tribal longhouse marks a revival of one Celilo village.
23:35Built with help from the Army Corps of Engineers, it's a place where members of Columbia Basin
23:40Native American tribes gather. When Lewis and Clark journeyed down the river in 1805,
23:48they estimated there could be as many as 10,000 Native Americans here,
23:53twice the population of Washington, D.C. at the time. Historians think this region held some of
23:59the highest concentrations of Native Americans on the continent, and much of their economic and
24:05social life centered on Columbia River salmon. Just like the state's early pioneers, salmon
24:12are another of Oregon's tenacious travelers. From their birth on the Columbia, they head
24:18downstream to the Pacific, where they spend four to five years. Then their natural instinct
24:24is to return upstream to lay eggs in the place they were born. But these dams make that journey
24:31difficult. To try and mitigate the dam's effect, fish ladders were built so that salmon could leap
24:37from pool to pool and find their way up and over a dam to reach their spawning grounds.
24:43Some of the ladders have exhausted and killed more fish than they've conveyed, but a million
24:50salmon still manage to make it upstream each year. Once, hydropower on the Columbia was hailed as a
24:58great source of renewable energy. But recently, critics have charged that this once mighty river
25:05has become merely a series of reservoirs between dams.
25:09Despite the dams and loss of traditional fishing spots, salmon continue to be of great economic
25:15and cultural importance to the Columbia Basin tribes. This morning, fishers are pulling up
25:22their long gill nets, which have filled with hundreds of Chinook salmon overnight. The roots
25:28of their expertise are in the fishing practices that were established long before Europeans
25:33arrived. Traditionally, men have worked the gill net lines. But these days, men with no sons often
25:40teach their daughters to fish. Native Americans have the exclusive commercial fishing rights on
25:47this stretch of river. And not all the salmon they catch are equal. Coho, sockeye, chum are all
25:56Coho, sockeye, chum are all salmon, but the best is Chinook, or king salmon.
26:04It's prized for its size and firm red flesh, and it's also the Oregon state fish.
26:13There's no better place to view this majestic river than from here,
26:19Vista Point.
26:20One engineer called it an observatory from which the Columbia could be viewed in silent communion
26:26with the infinite. Vista Point was built in 1916 as part of the Columbia River Highway Project,
26:35the first planned scenic highway in the United States.
26:41It travels for 40 miles along the river, hugging every twist and turn.
26:46When it opened in 1916, the Illustrated London News called it the King of Roads.
26:55The high walls that tower above this highway help funnel powerful winds through the gorge.
27:02And it's these winds that are lowering kite surfers to the Columbia River from around the world
27:07to catch its waves.
27:09Regular surfers rely on the power of waves,
27:11but these adrenaline junkies are tethered to kites and fly with the wind.
27:18A kite surfer's speed and direction all depend on how he or she controls the kite.
27:24In strong winds like these, it can be a dangerously fast sport,
27:30especially when the wind is so strong that you can't even see the kite.
27:34It's taken millions of years and giant geological events
27:38to create the conditions that make the Columbia River perfect for this sport.
27:48Starting 17 million years ago, a series of lava flows were used to create the Columbia River.
27:55Starting 17 million years ago, a series of lava flows pushed through here,
28:01cooling to form layers of basalt.
28:04Much later, the Columbia River started to carve its way through those layers,
28:08creating walls hundreds of feet high.
28:11From these rock walls, 77 waterfalls cascade into the gorge on the Oregon side alone.
28:19But the granddaddy of the gorge, the Columbia River,
28:22is Multnomah Falls.
28:25It drops a total of 620 feet.
28:29It's the perfect place to witness Oregon's geological history.
28:33Five different lava flows are exposed in the face of the falls.
28:38Many visitors travel the Columbia River Highway just to catch a glimpse of this amazing sight.
28:47Volcanic events may have helped create this beautiful landscape.
28:50Volcanic events may have helped create this gorge.
28:53But during the last ice age, it was inundated by a series of unimaginable torrents.
29:00The mother of all gushers, known as the Missoula Floods.
29:06A massive glacial lake in Montana broke through a dam of ice
29:10and sent a wall of water in biblical proportions down the Columbia River.
29:16Geologists think it filled the entire gorge to overflowing.
29:21And it kept going.
29:23Toward the end of its thousand-mile journey, the wall of water spread out into the Willamette Valley,
29:30dumping not only water, but tens of millions of tons of rich sediment.
29:37Farmers working these Oregon fields today are actually plowing Montana soil.
29:45Reports of this fertile land lured settlers as far back as the early 19th century.
29:50But for many, getting here meant having to cross on foot one of the greatest mountain ranges in America.
30:02Rising high above Oregon's western valleys are the Cascade Mountains,
30:07jagged monuments to the power of molten lava.
30:13They're part of a stunning range of peaks that extends from Canada to California.
30:19Many are easily recognized from afar.
30:22Among them, the Three Sisters and the sharpest peak of them all, Mount Teelson.
30:29Rising more than 9,000 feet, it's been called the lightning rod of the Cascades.
30:36150 years ago, these mountains were the last great hurdle for Oregon's early pioneers on their journey west.
30:43One, Emelia Knight, described this leg of the trip in her diary.
30:48We traveled over the worst road that was ever made, winding round stumps, logs, and fallen trees.
30:56The handsomest timber in the world must be here in these Cascade Mountains.
31:02Logging prospectors agreed. The massive conifers were unlike anything they'd seen back east.
31:08The first logging operations in Oregon were set up in the mid-19th century, but it wasn't until 1938 that the state surpassed its neighbor, Washington, as the nation's top timber producer, a position it holds to this day.
31:24Ancient forests of Douglas fir and Sitka spruce have been replaced by a patchwork of clear cuts.
31:32Once harvested, the timber is hauled to mills for processing.
31:38It wasn't timber that the Oregon Trail pioneers were after. Their promised land was a fertile river valley called the Willamette.
31:48It stretches from Portland south to Eugene and beyond.
31:54It lies between the Cascades to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.
32:00The Willamette is the most populated area of Oregon. For centuries, its fertile land has been luring thousands with the promise of prosperity.
32:10On September 13, 1853, after traveling for five months and 2,000 miles, the Knight family finally found a suitable spot for a farm.
32:22Four days later, after Amelia Knight had given birth to her eighth child, her husband traded their team of oxen for a half-acre planted with potatoes and a small log cabin with no windows.
32:38Farmers and ranchers continue to tap this fertile valley with all kinds of new crops and creatures.
32:46It seemed like a long shot in 1990 when the Campbell family decided to experiment with raising South American alpaca here.
32:56But today, their ranch, called Alpacas of Oregon, is one of ten of its kind in the area.
33:02One reason alpacas are preferred by today's eco-ranchers is that they're highly resistant to disease, eat a tenth of what a horse does,
33:11and each year, a single alpaca produces $400 worth of high-quality fleece. They're the perfect renewable resource.
33:23Nearby, another imported species is thriving. These are the Dundee Hills, home to rich red soils that have proved to be invaluable to winemakers.
33:39The rich flavor and complexity of Willamette grapes is due to a distinctive mix of slope, soil, and climate that impart a sense of place deep within the wine.
33:51In 1965, when pioneering young winemaker David Lett came to the Dundee Hills from California with 3,000 starter vines, many were convinced he was crazy.
34:04They thought Oregon's cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers wouldn't work for wine.
34:10But when Espino Wines took top honors in France in 1979, connoisseurs were forced to admit that Oregon was a superior setting for growing wine.
34:21And it's led to an explosion in the number of vineyards here, from just five in the 1960s to more than 300 today.
34:30This vineyard covers more than 1,000 acres, growing certified organic grapes. Clearly, wine does just fine in Oregon.
34:40But not all industries here are so popular. This giant pulp mill lies near the banks of the Willamette River.
34:48Huge amounts of fresh water and chemicals are needed to turn wood chips into paper.
34:54But toxic waste from plants like this one has been seeping back into the river and causing genetic defects in salmon and other fish.
35:03The Willamette Valley has been Oregon's industrial and agricultural heartland ever since it was settled.
35:13It's also home to the University of Oregon, which began offering classes near the city of Eugene in 1872.
35:21Locals call it the U of O. Its cheer is Go Ducks, after its beloved web-footed mascot.
35:29One of the U of O's claims to fame can be found across campus at the Omega Fraternity, which was featured in the National Lampoon movie Animal House.
35:39Sadly, there are no longer toga parties at Delta House. It was torn down in 1986.
35:45But the campus still enjoys a reputation for a liberal, question-authority approach to higher education.
35:52The campus is also home to Hayward Field, nicknamed Tracktown USA.
35:58It's produced many Olympic track and field stars, including Oregon's own remarkable Steve Prefontaine, who set 15 American records.
36:08And it was at Hayward in 1964 that a talented college runner and his coach had the idea that launched the most successful sportswear company of all time.
36:18Nike founders Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight started with an order for 300 shoes that they sold from the trunk of a Plymouth Valiant.
36:28The Swoosh and the Air Jordans came later.
36:32Nike shoes are now manufactured overseas, but here at the company's headquarters in Beaverton, they've been trying to produce better runners.
36:42Top athletes have been invited to train here and improve their skills in cutting-edge labs that can simulate high-altitude conditions.
36:52The campus' 17 buildings are named for sports legends the company has sponsored, including Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Mia Hamm, and John McEnroe.
37:04The six-acre lake in the middle is home to migratory ducks, and that's appropriate since Nike was started by a couple of ducks from the University of Oregon.
37:14When Oregon finally became a state in 1859, the town of Salem, which lies in the heart of the Willamette, was a logical choice for its capital.
37:29Its statehouse was built in 1938, reflecting the Art Deco style similar to Rockefeller Center in New York City.
37:39Rather than a traditional dome, the architects, Trowbridge and Livingston, designed a rotunda 160 feet high.
37:48It's been criticized as looking like a paint can when it's noticed at all, underneath the crowning 22-foot gilded statue representing the state's earliest settlers.
38:00This anonymous Oregon pioneer holds an axe in one hand, a tarp for shelter in the other, and he's alone.
38:08Of course, most of the Oregon Trail pioneers were not.
38:13They included families like that of Amelia Knight and neighbors who banded together to survive their harsh life in this new land.
38:24Many today associate the Pacific Northwest with fog and rain, but compared to other states, rainfall in western Oregon is just about average for the U.S.
38:41However, the rain here often falls more gently than elsewhere, and for longer periods, which means that it can feel more rainy than it actually is.
38:52The Cascades help hold this moisture in the Willamette Valley, which has been good for Oregon's farmers.
39:00When white settlers arrived here, Native Americans had already started clearing it of trees to make it easier to hunt animals for food.
39:10But the settlers used the cleared land to plant wheat, which is still grown in great volume today.
39:18Heavy tractors have long since replaced the oxen and horses used by 19th century farmers.
39:25Most of the back-breaking jobs of growing wheat are now mechanized, and the gains in yield remarkable.
39:33In 1850, Oregon farms produced some 280,000 bushels of wheat.
39:39150 years later, with machines doing the plowing, planting, harvesting, and threshing, the annual yield is over 50 million bushels, enough to make more than 2 billion loaves of bread.
39:53And most of it is bound for Portland and international markets beyond.
39:58Portland Harbor is the largest wheat export hub in the U.S.
40:03The massive holds of an ocean-going bulk carrier can accommodate some 50,000 tons of soft white wheat, just the kind Japan needs to make noodles and crackers.
40:15Today, wheat produced all across the western U.S. comes here to Portland to be shipped out to the countries of the Pacific Rim.
40:24To handle the enormous flow, a rapid-handling grain elevator was built along 40 acres of the port at Terminal 5.
40:32Grain is brought here by trains, cleaned and funneled into loading spouts, filling another ship with nearly 2 million bushels of wheat.
40:42While wheat is departing from Portland, quite a different product is entering.
40:49If you drive a Japanese car, chances are its odometer began spinning here.
40:55Portland's Terminal 4 handles the most automobiles of any port on North America's west coast and ranks third nationally, conveying more than 240,000 cars in a year.
41:07The first load of cars to Portland was in 1956, a shipment of Volkswagen Beetles.
41:13Today, it's more likely to be a Toyota, Scion, or Lexus.
41:18Three-quarters of the cars arriving here are bound for dealerships in states outside of the Pacific Northwest.
41:25But it begs the question, why would car companies choose a port more than 100 miles from the ocean to offload their vehicles?
41:34The answer? Salt.
41:37The Port of Portland's inland location is much less exposed to corrosive, salty ocean air.
41:45The port was first established here in 1850 because this was the closest that sailing ships could get to the farmlands of the Willamette.
41:54In those days, this area was not much more than a cluster of cabins.
41:59Now, it's Portland, a vibrant city of nearly 600,000, straddling the Willamette River.
42:07Its nickname? Bridgetown.
42:10Eleven bridges span the river, and without them, Portland would not be what it is today.
42:21In the 1880s, Portland, Oregon was a divided city.
42:26Actually, it was still three separate towns.
42:31On one side of the river was Portland itself, and on the other side, the communities of Albina and East Portland.
42:39Before Portland could compete with Seattle as a regional power, it had to find a way to unite itself.
42:46In 1887, a drawbridge was constructed at Morrison Street, the first of Portland's bridges.
42:55A year later, the Union Pacific Railroad built the first steel bridge on the entire Pacific coast.
43:03The original bridge was replaced with this one in 1912.
43:08It's a double-decker, double-lift bridge that can be raised to a height of 163 feet for river traffic to pass underneath, requiring counterweights totaling 9 million pounds.
43:20It carries cars and light rail above, and trains, pedestrians, and bikes below.
43:28By the early 1900s, the advent of structural steel enabled engineers to build longer, higher, and lighter spans across rivers.
43:37Thanks in part to that, Portland became a single city, united by bridges.
43:44Today, these bridges are popular commuting routes for many of the Portland metro area's 2 million residents.
43:51The city's downtown competes with any on the West Coast, and it's known as one of the greenest cities in America.
44:00That started in the 1970s, when a coalition of young urban planners diverted federal funds designated for a freeway to build a light rail called the New Bridge.
44:12They built a light rail called MAX, Metropolitan Area Express.
44:17Today, the Portland area's use of public transportation is one of the highest in the nation.
44:24And high above street level, rooftop gardens abound.
44:29Some buildings are even powered by their own windmills.
44:33But there's no green space in Portland quite like this one.
44:39The International Rose Test Garden, in the hills above downtown, is an experimental garden for growing hybrid varieties.
44:48More than 400 types of roses are grown here.
44:52It's the site of the annual Rose Festival, an event that's earned Portland the nickname, The City of Roses.
45:00The garden is a legacy of Georgiana Burton Piddock, whose love of roses led her to host an annual garden party for her friends to show off their flowers.
45:10Once a year, rose experts come here from around the world to bestow the city's annual award for Portland's Best Rose.
45:20Georgiana and her husband Henry Piddock lived just up the hill in this mansion.
45:26Both were pioneers who came here via the Oregon Trail.
45:31When Henry Piddock landed in Portland in 1852, he was 17 years old and penniless.
45:38Fifty years later, he was a wealthy businessman, publisher of the Oregonian newspaper, and one of the city's greatest promoters.
45:48Piddock was also an avid outdoorsman, and was in the first party to climb Oregon's highest and most iconic mountain.
45:57It lies 50 miles from downtown Portland, but its presence in the lives and minds of many Oregonians is profound.
46:06Mount Hood.
46:08This monolith blooms over the Columbia River Gorge and all the rest of Oregon's Cascade Peaks.
46:15After first setting eyes on the mountain, the naturalist John Muir wrote,
46:20There stood Mount Hood in all the glory, and so impressive that one was overawed,
46:26as if suddenly brought before some superior being newly arrived from the sky.
46:33The mountain was named for British Admiral Samuel Hood in 1792,
46:39but climbers didn't manage to conquer its nearly vertical upper slopes to reach the summit for another 50 years.
46:47About 10,000 people attempt to climb Mount Hood each year.
46:52130 have died trying.
46:56The mountain hasn't had a major eruption for close to 200 years,
47:00and scientists say there's a slim chance it will awaken over the next few decades.
47:07Mount Hood is just one of the 16 volcanic peaks that lie in Oregon's Cascades.
47:13These peaks stretch south from Oregon's northern border with Washington.
47:18Five of these 16 mountains remain potentially active volcanoes,
47:23including Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson, the Three Sisters, and the Newberry Crater.
47:30But Oregon's fifth and southernmost volcanic peak isn't known for its towering heights,
47:36but rather its awe-inspiring depths.
47:41This is Crater Lake.
47:44For thousands of years, the region's native peoples regarded this place with reverence,
47:50suitable only for shaman and chiefs.
47:54The Klamath Indians called it Tomsumne, mountain with the top cut off,
47:59indicating a familiarity with the catastrophic eruption that had taken place here.
48:05In the mid-1800s, gold prospectors and American explorers found their way here
48:11and got a look over the crater's rim.
48:14But it wasn't until the 1870s that the great sunken lake made national news,
48:19which changed the course of one man's life.
48:23William Steele was just 15 and living in Ohio
48:27when he read about Crater Lake in a newspaper in which his lunch was wrapped.
48:31He later wrote of the hold the story had on him.
48:34And then and there I determined to go to Oregon and to visit that lake,
48:39and to go down to the water.
48:43At first, the lake was believed to be bottomless and that its walls were too steep to climb down.
48:49It's now known that the depth of the lake is 1,943 feet,
48:56making it the deepest lake in America.
48:59It sits in a volcanic basin created 7,700 years ago
49:03when the top of the Mount Mozama volcano collapsed after erupting.
49:08On August 15, 1885, William Steele managed to get a small canoe out on the lake
49:15and named the cinder cone that rises some 767 feet above the surface Wizard Island,
49:22thinking it looked like a wizard's hat.
49:26Steele made protecting the lake his life's work,
49:29efforts that helped pave the way for President Theodore Roosevelt
49:32to establish the site as a national park in 1902.
49:37Steele was made the park's commissioner, a position he held up until the day he died in 1932.
49:44He's been known ever since as the father of Crater Lake.
49:50Conservationists. Adventurers. Pioneers.
49:55These are the people who forged the Oregon story.
49:59The Native American tribes who fish its great river.
50:04The hope-filled settlers who crossed its peaks to reach Willamette's fertile plains.
50:10The hard-working farmers who still till its soil.
50:15And the thrill-seekers who keep Oregon's spirit of adventure alive.
50:45♪♪♪