US and Oregon Flags on Our Flagpole

Oregon – The Beaver State

Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland
Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland

Oregon has also historically been a popular region for film shoots due to its diverse landscapes, as well as its proximity to Hollywood.  Oregon native Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, has incorporated many references from his hometown of Portland into the TV series.  The Oregon Film Museum is located in the old Clatsop County Jail in Astoria.

Technology:

High technology industries located in Silicon Forest have been a major employer since the 1970s.  Tektronix was the largest private employer in Oregon until the late 1980s.  Intel’s creation and expansion of several facilities in eastern Washington County continued the growth that Tektronix had started.  Intel, the state’s largest for-profit private employer, operates four large facilities.

Intel
Intel

The spinoffs and startups that were produced by these two companies led to the establishment in that area of the so-called Silicon Forest.  The recession and dot-com bust of 2001 hit the region hard; many high technology employers reduced the number of their employees or went out of business.  Oregon is home to several large datacenters that take advantage of cheap power and a climate conducive to reducing cooling costs.  Google operates a large datacenter in The Dalles, and Facebook built a large datacenter near Prineville in 2010.  Amazon opened a datacenter near Boardman in 2011, and a fulfillment center in Troutdale in 2018.

Corporate Headquarters:

The largest public corporations headquartered in Oregon are:

 

Oregon is also the home of large corporations in other industries.  Medford is home to Harry and David, which sells gift items under several brands.  Portland is home to one of the West’s largest trade book publishing houses, Graphic Arts Center Publishing.  Oregon is also home to Mentor Graphics Corporation, a world leader in electronic design automation located in Wilsonville and employs roughly 4,500 people worldwide.

Nike Headquarters
Nike Headquarters

Adidas Corporations American Headquarters is located in Portland and employs roughly 900 full-time workers at its Portland campus.  Intel Corporation employs 18,600 in Oregon.  Intel has been a top employer in Oregon since 1974.

The U.S. Federal Government and Providence Health systems are respective contenders for top employers in Oregon with roughly 12,000 federal workers and 14,000 Providence Health workers.

In 2015, a total of seven companies headquartered in Oregon landed in the Fortune 1000: Nike, at 106; Precision Castparts Corp. at 302; Lithia Motors at 482; StanCorp Financial Group at 804; Schnitzer Steel Industries at 853; The Greenbrier Companies at 948; and Columbia Sportswear at 982.[136]

Transportation:

Mass Transit:

Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) is a light rail system in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon.  It is operated by TriMet and currently has five lines: Blue, Green, Red, Yellow, and Orange.

MAX LightRail
MAX LightRail

WES Commuter Rail is a 14.7-mile diesel-powered commuter rail service which began operating in early 2009 and runs between the cities of Beaverton and Wilsonville on existing freight tracks.  It has three intermediate stops, two of which serve the cities of Tigard and Tualatin, and connects with MAX at the Beaverton Transit Center.

Rail:

Three Amtrak routes serve the state, primarily through the Willamette Valley and south-central Oregon.

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