Battle Rock Beach
Explore Oregon, Trip Planners

Trip Planner: Port Orford Coastal Nirvana

The Pacific beckons: extreme cliffs, ocean paddling, scenic pedaling and rewarding comforts Named in 1792 after George, Earl of Orford, Port Orford had been a quiet Pacific coastal area that was home to the Tututni tribe of the Lower Rogue Athabascan tribes in what would become southwestern Oregon.  As part of a well-known series of events, European explorers encountered the tribe in the eighteenth century and wiped out the majority of Native American populations with small pox and measles. Not long after, white settlers came to town on the Oregon Trail and made land claims under the premise of Manifest Destiny.  Another claim to new statehood came in 1941 from Port Orford mayor Gilbert Gable, a tireless attention seeker who complained of the lack and quality of roads and threatened to secede from Oregon to join California, founding the elusive State of Jefferson movement. The small fishing town with the…

Faultland by Suzy Vitello cover
Art+Culture, Think Oregon

Siblings, Shaken

Portland novelist Suzy Vitello imagines the “big one” and a family united by survival Interview by Cathy Caroll The “big one,” the earthquake which scientists predict could strike the Northwest at any moment, is what Suzy Vitello leverages in her new novel, Faultland, which follows three siblings working together to survive disaster in Portland. If resources don’t run out, if sickness doesn’t overtake them, if alt-right militias don’t converge and if the wet mass of land speeding toward their childhood home and makeshift shelter doesn’t bury them, they’ll have to navigate past traumas and the mistakes of their parents to survive as a family. Literary figures praising the book include Portlander Lidia Yuknavitch, author of the nationally acclaimed and bestselling novel The Book of Joan. She said Faultland “is about our collective resilience and the loyalty that holds us all together in the end.” Oregonians will no doubt savor this…

Cannon Beach Zoom Town
Live Oregon

Oregon’s Top Five Zoom Towns

Oregon’s best places to live when you can work remotely from anywhere written by Cathy Carroll Reflect a moment on how you felt during a favorite Oregon getaway—gliding through fresh powder, hiking among fragrant pines, swimming in a lake reflecting a snow capped peak, paddling on liquid serenity or being rejuvenated by the salt-infused breeze of the Pacific. Remember wishing you didn’t have to leave, vacation over, back to work?  More than ever, work can be wherever you choose. To be certain, the global pandemic has few silver linings, but the shutdown of offices and the rise of remote work allows more choice in where to live. Across America, millions have begun working remotely since last spring, a trend that’s clearly taking hold in Oregon, too.   “Zoom Towns,” idyllic places where you can connect with workplaces virtually, have spurred migrations that appear to be doubling down on existing growth patterns,…

Northwest Wild Products owner Ron Neva pauses while searching for razor clams
Live Oregon

2020 in Photos

Some of our most inspired faves from our amazing photographers this year

Holiday Giveaway for Foodies!
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Holiday Giveaway for Foodies!

Enter for a chance to win our Foodie Package valued at more than $600! Included in our Foodie Package are items from our friends at: One Stripe ChaiSeaBearRevival TeaSalish Lodge & SpaAuthor Karista Bennett The Bitter HousewifeMary’s MixersGround Up (nut butters)Alchemist’s JamSalt BladeDurant (oils and spices)Oomph (spices)Felton & Mary’sMarshall’s Haute SauceHew (woodworking)Jacobsen Salt Co.Raising the Bar (bitters)Allsop Home & Garden

Desert Rain home
Oregon Architecture

Breaking New Ground

A Bend couple builds an extreme green dream home written byMelissa Dalton | photography by Ross Chandler Eight years ago, Tom Elliott and Barbara Scott took a fortuitous road trip. The couple was driving from Bend to Southern Utah to go backpacking when they heard an interesting broadcast on public radio. The program featured Seattle architect Jason McLennan discussing the creation of his new green building standards, called the Living Building Challenge (LBC). His challenge was for people to craft buildings as self-sustaining as plants. At the time, Elliott and Scott were planning their own “uber-green home” in Bend, but McLennan’s message inspired them to go further. “We just looked at each other and said, ‘That’s exactly what we want to do,’” Elliott said. The couple met in Montana, where Elliott was a sustainable cattle rancher and Scott was a school administrator. They bonded over a shared love of the outdoors…

Portland State University
Oregon Architecture

The Greening of Universities

Oregon universities combine high design and sustainability in three new builds written by Melissa Dalton OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY-CASCADES Tykeson Hall When Bora Architects designed the first academic building on Oregon State University’s new Cascades campus in Bend in 2014, the firm drew inspiration from an efficient, and uber-handy, object: the Swiss Army knife. Why? The footprint of the new building, Tykeson Hall, is relatively small–just 45,000 square feet–yet it would accommodate many academic and programming needs on the growing campus. (A dorm and dining hall were built simultaneously.) Requirements included classrooms of all sizes, from science labs to an eighty-person auditorium, a library and computer lab, student council space and administrative offices.  Equally important and ambitious is OSU’s goal to ensure future Cascades campus operations will be net-zero, meaning it produces as much energy as it consumes, balances water supply and demand, and eliminates landfill waste. Toward that end, Bora specified…