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About Salem and the Central Willamette Valley |
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Bon Jour, Goedendag, Buenos Dias, Ciao, Päivää and G’Day !!!
Salem is located in the central Willamette Valley of Oregon. See below... |
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1085 Broadway Street NE, Salem, OR 97301 (503) 581-3803 Fax: (503) 581-3331 email: mail@salemclock.com |
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Salem’s Bush House Museum & Springtime Tulips —More excellent photos at oregonlink.com |
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Salem is the Capital of Oregon, and home to Willamette University, the oldest university west of the Mississippi River. It is located 50 miles south of Portland and sits astride the Willamette River from which the valley takes its name.
The original name of Salem was “Chemeketa”, an Indian word meaning “meeting place”.
Salem is 171 feet above sea level and has a population of 137,000 people. It has a picturesque train station, a bus station and a small airport. |
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The Oregon State Capitol in bloom |
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Salem from the tower of the Capitol |
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Salem is also the Seat of Marion County. Marion County is 1,200 square miles in area and has a population of 284,000 in 20 cities and towns. Of this area most is either farmland or forest. Trees consist largely of California Oak at lower elevations and Douglas Fir away from the Valley floor.
The forerunner of Marion County in the 19th century was called “The Champooick District”. It was huge and extended as far as the California border to the south and the Rocky Mountains to the east. |
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Rural Marion County |
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Willamette Valley marionberries |
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The Willamette Valley was originally home to the Kalapooya Indians who were decimated by the introduction of malaria early in the 19th century.
Salem began with the founding of a Methodist mission to the Kalapooya by Jason Lee and the early Christian pioneers. Within 8 years (1842), the Oregon Institute, now Willamette University, was in operation. First graduate: Emily J. York
Salem never really went through a frontier period and other religious groups, some fleeing persecution, arrived to farm and build small towns. |
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Although State government is the largest industry in Marion County, it is followed closely by agriculture. The Willamette Valley is a sort-of temperate Eden where everything grows like wildfire (including the grass and weeds).
Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and marionberries (developed at Oregon State University) abound. Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris grapes are grown and made into world-class wines. There are apple, cherry, pear and filbert orchards and countless fields of green beans, onions, hops and, lately, nursery stock. |
