An old joke has long circulated on the plains and mountains of the American Northwest. After the Oregon Trail was inaugurated, opening a passage through the Rocky Mountains, immigrants from the New World were faced with a curious dilemma when an (imaginary) sign appeared: to the left, California, with its promise of gold and sunshine; to the right, Oregon, with its more austere lands and rather humid climate. Legend has it that at this moment, only those who could not read turned right.
As is often the case, this quip has a grain of truth: The people of the American Northwest have an inferiority complex toward their great neighbors in the South, the inhabitants of the Golden State. Indeed, few states have such tourist attractions as the beaches of Monterey, the giant redwoods of Yosemite National Park and the misty atmosphere of San Francisco Bay.
Yet who needs these beauties when your state is home to natural treasures like Crater Lake, a stunning volcanic lake; Mount Hood, the snow-capped jewel of the Cascade Range; or Portland, a city often referred to as one of the most livable in the United States? Which state has more and better to offer than a coastline that has remained wild along the Pacific Ocean, from the rocks of Cannon Beach in the north to those of Gold Beach near the California border and to the stunning dune strip that stretches south from Florence?
Getting lost in the great outdoors
It was while visiting Dunes City, a massive tangle of wetlands and sandy hills, that Frank Herbert (1920-1986) was inspired to write his famous science fiction novel, Dune, published in 1965 in the United States and 1970 in France, before giving birth to two blockbuster films.
Born in Tacoma, Washington, the future novelist spent part of his youth in Salem, Oregon's capital, and then in Portland. In 1957, the young journalist had come to the Florence area to study the movement of the dunes and the region's herbaceous plants. The article was never published, but his observations, research and also, it seems, his repeated experiments with "magic mushrooms" led to one of science fiction literature's most celebrated creations.
The dunes "could swallow whole cities, lakes, rivers, highways," Frank Herbert is said to have written to a friend after his visit, impressed by the traces of the battle that he imagined having taken place there between men and nature, in what became the Oregon National Dunes Recreation Area.
Before the arrival of European settlers, the Siuslaw, Coquille and Umpqua tribes had long lived here in the middle of Douglas fir forests, the great pride of Oregon, by adapting to these shifting dunes and the water that seeps in everywhere. Since then, these bodies of water have been channeled wherever possible. Large-scale fishing and logging have altered the landscapes, transformed the customs and caused the near disappearance of the beavers (another pride of Oregon, nicknamed the Beaver State) and salmons to stay away.
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