Page 601 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

INTRODUCING THE P A CIFIC NOR THWEST  599

THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

Some of North America’s most rugged and spectacular terrain unfolds across
the Pacific Northwest. Native cultures have lived here for thousands of years,
while European settlement is as recent as the early 19th century. The region is
now home to two of North America’s most sophisticated cities, Portland and
Seattle, surrounded by soaring mountains, dense forests, and sparkling water.

The call of the wild is what draws visitors mountain region, inland deserts usually
to Oregon and Washington, the states experience harsh winters with frequent
that comprise the Pacific Northwest. road closures and dry hot summers.
This region’s vast landscapes bear the
imprint of the geological forces that History
carved deep gorges and thrust up soaring The region’s Native peoples have lived in
mountain peaks. Despite urban devel op­ harmony with the land since their ancestors
ment, the wilderness areas retain a certain migrated here almost 15,000 years ago.
pristine quality, especially when one The abundance of food and resources,
encounters the 800­year­old Sitka spruce west of the Cascade Mountains and along
trees in a coastal rainforest or the lava the coast, enabled many tribes to live in
fields flanking Mount St. Helens, formed well­established settlements hunting and
during the volcano’s eruption in 1980. fishing. Those tribes, living in the harsher
The weather in this region is as varied as landscapes east of the mountains, pursued
its topography. West of the mountains, the more nomadic lifestyles, migrating across
north Pacific Ocean currents ensure the high­desert hunting grounds in search
pleasant summers and wet, mild winters. of bison and deer. In spring and summer,
On the eastern plateaus, however, temp­ they moved up the mountain slopes to
eratures dip to well below freezing in the pick berries and dig roots. The lives of
winter, often accompanied by heavy snow, Native people were abruptly changed by
and in the summer they soar. In the central the arrival of European traders and settlers.

Mount Rainier towering above Tacoma’s Commencement Bay and its industrial tideflats, Washington
The Space Needle, star of the Seattle skyline

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