Portal:Pacific Northwest

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The Pacific Northwest Portal

P:PNW

The Pacific Northwest (PNW; French: Nord-Ouest Pacifique), 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, 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 and Idaho. 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...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada. With an annual research budget of $893 million, UBC funds 9,992 projects annually in various fields of study within the industrial sector, as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The Vancouver campus is situated on the Point Grey campus lands, an unincorporated area next to the City of Vancouver and the University Endowment Lands. The university is located 10 km (6 mi) west of Downtown Vancouver. UBC is also home to TRIUMF, Canada's national particle and nuclear physics laboratory, which boasts the world's largest cyclotron. In addition to the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and the Stuart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute, UBC and the Max Planck Society collectively established the first Max Planck Institute in North America, specializing in quantum mechanics. Green College is UBC's transdisciplinary semi-independent post-graduate live-in college and is situated on the north-eastern tip of campus adjacent to Burrard Inlet. One of Canada's largest research libraries, the UBC Library system has over 8.3 million items (including print and electronic) among its 21 branches. It is visited annually by 3.1 million people or 9.7 million virtually. The Okanagan campus, acquired in 2005, is located in Kelowna, British Columbia. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Selected biography - show another

Barbara Kay Roberts (née Hughey; born December 21, 1936) is an American politician from the state of Oregon. A native of the state, she served as the 34th Governor of Oregon from 1991 to 1995. She was the first woman elected to serve as Oregon governor, and the only woman elected to that office until 2016. A Democrat, Roberts was also the first woman to serve as majority leader in the Oregon House of Representatives. She also won two terms as Oregon Secretary of State, and served in local and county government in Portland. Roberts was married to Oregon state Sen. Frank L. Roberts from 1974 until his death in 1993. From February 2011 until January 2013, she served on the council of Metro, the regional government in the Portland metropolitan area. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies

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]}

General images - load new batch

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

Image 1The Coquihalla River in the Canadian Cascades (from Cascade Range)
Image 2State Route 302 after the Nisqually earthquake (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 3Public 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 4The Columbia River basalts cover portions of three states (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 5The Coast Mountains are heavily eroded by glaciers, including Mount Waddington (far background, center). (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 6Notable volcanoes in the US portion of the Cascades (from Cascade Range)
Image 7West side view of Mount Shuksan in summer as seen from Artist Point in Washington (from Cascade Range)
Image 8Magnetic 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 9The North Cascades are heavily eroded by glaciers (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 10A map of the Snake River Plain, showing its smooth topography (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 11HMS Discovery was the lead ship used by George Vancouver (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 12The Columbia Gorge marks where the Columbia River splits the Cascade Range between the states of Washington and Oregon. (from Cascade Range)
Image 13Map of the Anahim Volcanic Belt centers. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 14The Boundary Trail section of the PNT in Horseshoe Basin, Pasayten Wilderness (from Pacific Northwest Trail)
Image 15Mount St. Helens erupts on May 18, 1980 (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 16The immense floods created channels that are presently dry, such as the Drumheller Channels (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 17None 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, Oregon and British Columbia. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 18The Pacific Northwest from space (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 19Mount Hood is the tallest point in the U.S. state of Oregon. (from Cascade Range)
Image 20Lumen Field, home of Seattle Seahawks and Sounders FC (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 21A man in Portland, Oregon with Cascadian flag on International Workers' Day, 2012 (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 22Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail overview map (from Pacific Northwest Trail)
Image 23The Golden Hinde on Vancouver Island was formed by erosion carving into basalt. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 24Lassen Peak in the California Cascades. Southernmost volcano in the Cascade Range and part of Lassen Volcanic National Park (from Cascade Range)
Image 25Geology of the Cascade Range-related plate tectonics. (from Cascade Range)
Image 26The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (from Cascade Range)
Image 27The Cascades range (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 28Mount Edziza, a large shield volcano in northwestern British Columbia (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 29Map of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt centers. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 30May 1915 Lassen Peak eruption column (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 31Lava Butte, Oregon, erupted roughly 5000 years BCE (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 32U.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 33Map 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 34The Pacific Northwest from outer space. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 35Image of the Juan de Fuca Plate that produced the magnitude 8.7–9.2 Cascadia earthquake in 1700. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 36Mountain goat on Wallaby Peak in the North Cascades (from Cascade Range)
Image 37Oval-leaf blueberry on Mount Pilchuck (from Cascade Range)
Image 38Pacific Northwest Trail at Blanchard Mountain in Washington (from Pacific Northwest Trail)

Did you know - load new batch

... that the closest modern fern relatives to Dennstaedtia christophelii of the Pacific Northwest are tropical species from South America?
... that women- and minority-owned businesses built the Frequent Express high-capacity bus line in Portland, Oregon?
... that while George C. Brownell played no part in the Oregon land fraud scandal, a published cartoon showed him as the "Pretty Moth" that flew too close to the land fraud limelight?
... that Cathy Whims has opened several restaurants in Portland, Oregon, including the Nostrana, which has been described as "Portland's capital of the Negroni"?
... 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 a Washington state radio station turned to "professional bikini watchers"—military recruiters—to report on crowds at local beaches?