Oregonians! Lend me your knowledge

[Aunt Spiker]

What would Oregonians want to share, tell, complain about, point out, make fun of, or show about the state?

Why I'm asking:
I'm now 1/2 way through one of my fictional stories. It's a murder-mystery novel set in South-west Oregon (mainly Roseburg, but also Eugene and Lookingglass - maybe later on my characters will go to the coastline. Lookingglass was chosen for symbolism in the name - I've read up on it's history so I know it's an unincorporated town with a journeymen history and considered a suburb of Roseburg)

Why Oregon:
When I first began to write this story (a year ago) I was a poor writer and had the plot concept in mind, but my fictional skills weren't up to par for how complicated the story was. I spent time improving my general writing abilities, defining my characters, and researching facts for my books (most of my time was spent in this area). I've never been involved in crime, law enforcement, questioning suspects, etc, so I had a long way to go in that department. I also read up on criminal psychology and so forth so my criminal could be realistic.

When I first started writing I didn't know where to set it - I had the season (winter) and left things like local plantlife, weather, and street names generic. I never gave it a place. In my mind I wrote it based on Texarkana, AR. The only place I've lived recently that had certain demographics which matched (Diverse population, small-scale, not a sprawling city, plentiful wildlife, and a growing business-hub in the town, as well as a main through-way interstate)

After a considerable amount of time I finally decided to set it in Oregon. I've always liked Oregon, though I've never been there. Photos of the coast are beautiful and it seems quite a few intelligent people on this forum are from there - so it sounded appealing.

 

[Gardener]

What would Oregonians want to share, tell, complain about, point out, make fun of, or show about the state?

Why I'm asking:
I'm now 1/2 way through one of my fictional stories. It's a murder-mystery novel set in South-west Oregon (mainly Roseburg, but also Eugene and Lookingglass - maybe later on my characters will go to the coastline. Lookingglass was chosen for symbolism in the name - I've read up on it's history so I know it's an unincorporated town with a journeymen history and considered a suburb of Roseburg)

Why Oregon:
When I first began to write this story (a year ago) I was a poor writer and had the plot concept in mind, but my fictional skills weren't up to par for how complicated the story was. I spent time improving my general writing abilities, defining my characters, and researching facts for my books (most of my time was spent in this area). I've never been involved in crime, law enforcement, questioning suspects, etc, so I had a long way to go in that department. I also read up on criminal psychology and so forth so my criminal could be realistic.

When I first started writing I didn't know where to set it - I had the season (winter) and left things like local plantlife, weather, and street names generic. I never gave it a place. In my mind I wrote it based on Texarkana, AR. The only place I've lived recently that had certain demographics which matched (Diverse population, small-scale, not a sprawling city, plentiful wildlife, and a growing business-hub in the town, as well as a main through-way interstate)

After a considerable amount of time I finally decided to set it in Oregon. I've always liked Oregon, though I've never been there. Photos of the coast are beautiful and it seems quite a few intelligent people on this forum are from there - so it sounded appealing.

I live in Eugene.

Anything you want to know, just shoot me a P.M., k?

For starters, though, it's microbrews and coffee.

 

[Lord of Planar]

What would Oregonians want to share, tell, complain about, point out, make fun of, or show about the state?

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After a considerable amount of time I finally decided to set it in Oregon. I've always liked Oregon, though I've never been there. Photos of the coast are beautiful and it seems quite a few intelligent people on this forum are from there - so it sounded appealing.

No idea what setting are area or time you want to portray, but there is little known history surrounding Vanport City, Oregon. It was public hosing set up and used for housing the shipyard workers during WWII. 40% were black, and one of the interesting thing is, people started integrating well. New white workers would come in with their racist attitudes to quickly be stopped by the whites. Children went to the same schools. It was the 2nd largest city in Oregon at about 40k people.

In 1948, a 200 ft section of the dike gave way and the city was flooded. Some say it was worse than Katrina. It is now the site of Delta Park. The city was never rebuilt.

From our earlier history, we have hundreds if not thousands of underground tunnel that might make an interesting story around the Portland area. In our more recent history, we have both more strip clubs and more breweries, per capita, than any other city in the world... unless someone one-upped us... over recent years.

The Oregon trail. Lewis and Clark...

Captain Cook's third voyage took him to Oregon.

It is said that our largest non taxed revenue comes from Oregon grown marijuana.

We are probably the hops capital of the world. If not, we sure grow a lot of them still.

We have in Oregon, many climates. The ocean to the west, three mountain ranges, deserts, valleys...

Ever watch Portlandia? Portland is the capital of the North-Left coast!

The Portland area has three nude beaches.

Rooster's Rock, Collin's Beach, and Sauvie island.

Maybe I'll come back to this. That's just off the top of my head.

 

[Lord of Planar]

Oh...

The Dechutes Brewery Brew Pub in Downtown Portland! Also the first one in Bend, OR. For anyone that likes Guinness, try their Obsidian Stout on Nitro tap...