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Oregon Trivia: Oregon Oddities
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| Some of the earliest rhinocerous fossils in the world were found in the John Day fossil beds. | Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States at 1,943 feet maximum depth. (Photo courtesy Travis C. Peterson) | A coin toss decided the name of Portland in 1845. The losing name was Boston. (Image by James Cloutier) | Eastern Oregon's Harney County is larger in area than ten different states in the United States yet its population is less than 8,000. | |
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| As early as 1899 the beaches in Clatsop County were declared a public highway, and in 1913 similar rights of public access to all Oregon beaches were established. Many beaches in other states are private and access is restricted. | The Tillamook Air Museum is housed in an old blimp hangar from World War II that is the largest wooden clear-span building in the world. The blimps patrolled the coast looking for signs of a Japanese attack. | Scenic Silver Falls State Park has the highest concentration of waterfalls in the United States. (Photo courtesy Thomas Chamberlin) | The groundbreaking Oregon Bottle Bill in 1971 required a five-cent refund for bottles and cans. After all these years, the refund is still a nickel. | |
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| Oregon's first capital punishment came in 1850 when five Cayuse Indians were hanged in Oregon City after being convicted for the Whitman Massacre. | The John Day River has more miles of scenic waterway than any river in the United States. The river's total length is 281 miles. | Oregon enacted prohibition of liquor in 1916, three years before the national ban. | Haystack Rock near Cannon Beach is the third largest coastal monolith in the world. It rises 235 feet. |