My Oregon, Jane Kirkpatrick

“Oregon, My Oregon” is my state’s song but it’s also how native Oregonians and converts like me feel about our great Northwest home. Despite what you may have heard about Oregon — that it rains all the time, that we’re all moldy and that we want visitors but not new residents— Oregon is an all season, all weather, all welcoming state. She welcomed me 43 years ago (from my native state of Wisconsin) and I’ve become a true convert meeting my husband here and beginning my writing life here. 

The Emerald State is bordered to the south by California and the north by the Columbia River. For twenty-seven years, my husband and I “homesteaded” not far from the Columbia River on a remote ranch. There my writing career began with my memoir Homestead the story of pursuing a dream. Very Oregonian as thousands crossed the plains seeking a dream.  Our homestead, seven miles from the mailbox and 11 miles from a paved road. www.jkbooks.com 

My state was once a territory that ran from the Pacific Ocean to the Western slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Noted historically for its many indigenous people who welcomed Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery in 1804-06, the first settlement of Astoria wasn’t formed until 1811. One woman, an Iowa Indian woman named Marie Dorion, made that journey west to establish that fort with 60 men, her husband and two little boys. (She inspired my three books called The Tender Ties series and fed my own interest in writing novels based on the lives of historical women). https://www.nps.gov/lewi/index.htm. The pioneering spirit of strength, innovation, neighborliness and endurance shown by early settlers continues today. 

Emigrants arrived here on the now famous Oregon Trail from the 1840s onward.  This Road We Traveled is one of my Oregon Trail stories about a 66 year-old woman traveling west from Missouri who was later named the Mother of Oregon by the legislature. Free land meant homesteaders made their way into the lush Willamette Valley where, honestly it does rain a lot.  

But the state boasts several unique landscapes. The Oregon coast has both rugged and serene beaches that lure kite flyers http://www.oregoncoast.org/lincoln-city-summer-kite-festival/  and surfers. We celebrated our 50th year of Oregon’s Beach Bill allowing public access to all of Oregon’s beaches, a unique and rare law. Travel east over the coast range and you’re in the Willamette Valley (that captures the University of Oregon Ducks in Eugene and the Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis. Such gentle water-related mascots we have!) The state capital Salem, and the largest city in the state, Portland (home of National Book Award Winner Ursula LeGuin), and most of Oregon’s population, is in that valley between the coastal mountain range and the Cascades. Southern Oregon brings us the Shakespeare Festival https://www.osfashland.org/ in beautiful Ashland, OR. Not Game of Thrones; better. Our one National park is in southern Oregon as well: Crater Lake. 

The Cascade mountains like a string of beads graces our state from north to south. (Remember the volcano Mt. St. Helen’s? Not in Oregon, but close and part of the same mountain range). Residents and visitors pursue- skiing on Mt. Hood and Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Thielson along with mountain climbing, mountain biking — the longest mountain bike trail of more than 600 miles just opened in Oregon— hiking, hunting, camping and fishing. The Pacific Coast trail goes through the entire state as well. Three Sisters Mountains The view on the way to my favorite Independent Book Store, Paulina Springs, in Sisters, Oregon.

What many people don’t know is that the largest land mass of Oregon is high desert with less than 13 inches of rainfall a year. Big wheat ranches and orchards frame the Columbia River region to the north. Small farms dot the area east of the Cascade mountains where the largest city is Bend (where I live). https://bendchamber.org/ Bend was chosen as Dog City USA a few years ago by Dog Fancy magazine. Bend sits in the 4th fastest growing county in the US and has more microbreweries than dogs. Well, maybe not.

The largest demographic of our growth in Central Oregon is for people between the ages of 20-35. I came here first in 1974 (in that demographic). Met and married my husband next to the Deschutes River, directed the mental health program, stayed ten years then left for 27 years to homestead and write. We returned a few years ago. It’s a different place but I love the vibrancy, energy and young people and families drawn to our “green lifestyle” and the great landscapes. The region blends old ranching and logging lives mixed with University students, high tech and clean energy jobs. Oh, we also have a lot of retirees here who love the sunshine and being 15 minutes from the airport and the many golf courses.

Our Central Oregon region boasts over 300 days of sunshine so no web feet here! Today’s newspaper reported that outdoor recreation brought in $16 billion dollars to our state last year. Reporters had stories about biking with dogs, fishing in the high lakes and the results of the Cascade Cycling Classic.  We have nearly 200 State Parks to enjoy the many landscapes of this state, too.

As a historical novelist, I love Oregon’s commitment to history. Local historical societies keep that history alive. I find dozens of story ideas in this state including in those parks like Shore Acres, five acres of formal garden on the Southern Oregon Coast.

My latest historical novel, All She Left Behind, is an Oregon story based on the life of one of the first women physicians in the state. Readers will meet Jennie Pickett Parrish who reflects many of the state’s pioneering values: people who learned to put their past behind them in order to move forward and to accept the help of others in tough times, then pass the goodness on. Maybe it’s my mental health background…but I find these historical women have much to teach us as they touch us with their lives.  

Jane Kirkpatrick me and my dogs Caesar (l) and Bodacious Bo (r). 

So if you haven’t taken the modern Oregon Trail by plane, train or automobile, this might be the year to do it. You’ll find rest and relaxation, history and inspiration for whatever kind of writing life you’ve chosen. And you’ll be welcomed — with or without your dog. Don’t forget to comment to be eligible to win a signed copy of All She Left Behind. Thanks for making room in your life for these stories!   Don’t forget to comment in order to win a prize! Please leave a form of contact. 

More about Jane Kirkpatrick and her extensive talent of fiction, short fiction and nonfiction right here at her site: http://jkbooks.com