Mountains, roses, and dreams at the terminus of a famous trail.
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Nobody knows for sure where the name came from. Oregon, I mean. There are a couple dozen theories. Maybe those sounds started as something in one of the many Native languages, or Spanish, or Portuguese, or maybe it was a mistake on a French map. Maybe it’s from “Ouragan,” the mythic river of the West, or maybe it’s something about the wind, or the waterfalls, or oregano (yes, the herb), which the conquistadors found in the south as they traveled up the coastline trying to stick flags in stuff.
Paul J. Pastor is executive editor of Nelson Books, a widely published writer, and author of several books, most recently, The Locust Years: Poems. He lives in Oregon.
