Original subtitles

and warm, dry summers wouldn't work for wine.

a single alpaca produces $400 worth of high-quality fleece.

renewable resource. they're the perfect

nearby, another imported species is thriving.

these are the dundee hills, home to rich, red soils

that have proved to be invaluable to winemakers.

the rich flavor and complexity of willamette grapes

is due to a distinctive mix of slope, soil and climate

that impart a sense of place deep within the wine.

in 1965, when pioneering young winemaker david lett

came to the dundee hills from california

with 3,000 starter vines,

many were convinced he was crazy.

cool, wet winters they thought oregon's

eat a tenth of what a horse does, and each year,

but when his pinot wines took top honors in france in 1979,

connoisseurs were forced to admit

that oregon was a superior setting for growing wine.

in the number of vineyards here, and it's led to an explosion

from just five in the 1960s to more than 300 today.

this vineyard covers more than 1,000 acres,

growing certified organic grapes.

clearly, wine does just fine in oregon.

but not all industries here are so popular.

this giant pulp mill lies near the banks

of the willamette river.

huge amounts of fresh water and chemicals are needed

to her eighth child,

trail pioneers were after. it wasn't timber that the oregon

their promised land was a fertile river valley

called the willamette.

it stretches from portland, south to eugene and beyond.

it lies between the cascades to the east,

and the pacific ocean to the west.

the willamette is the most populated area of oregon.

for centuries, its fertile land has been luring thousands

with the promise of prosperity.

on september 13, 1853, after traveling for five months

and 2,000 miles, the knight family finally found

a suitable spot for a farm.

four days later, after amelia knight had given birth

to turn wood chips into paper.

her husband traded their team of oxen

for "a half-acre planted with potatoes

and a small log cabin with no windows."

farmers and ranchers continue to tap this fertile valley

with all kinds of new crops and creatures.

it seemed like a long shot in 1990 when the campbell family

decided to experiment with raising

south american alpaca here.

but today, their ranch, called "alpacas of oregon,"

is one of ten of its kind in the area.

one reason alpacas are preferred by today's eco-ranchers

highly resistant to disease, is that they're

lance armstrong, mia hamm, and john mcenroe.

nike founders bill bowerman and phil knight

started with an order for 300 shoes

that they sold from the trunk of a plymouth valiant.

the swoosh and the air jordans came later.

nike shoes are now manufactured overseas,

headquarters in beaverton, but here at the company's

produce better runners. they've been trying to

top athletes have been invited to train here

and improve their skills in cutting-edge labs

that can simulate high-altitude conditions.

the campus' 17 buildings

are named for sports legends the company has sponsored,

including michael jordan,

the most successful sportswear company of all time.

the six-acre lake in the middle is home to migratory ducks,

since nike was started and that's appropriate,

by a couple of ducks from the university of oregon.

when oregon finally became a state in 1859,

the town of salem, which lies in the heart of the willamette,

was a logical choice for its capital.

its state house was built in 1938,

reflecting the art deco style

similar to rockefeller center in new york city.

rather than a traditional dome,

the architects, trowbridge and livingston,

designed a rotunda 160 feet high.

in the national lampoon movie animal house.

but toxic waste from plants like this one

has been seeping back into the river

and causing genetic defects in salmon and other fish.

the willamette valley has been

agricultural heartland oregon's industrial and

ever since it was settled.

the university of oregon, it's also home to

which began offering classes near the city of eugene in 1872.

locals call it the u of o.

its cheer is "go ducks," after its beloved web-footed mascot.

fame can be found across campus one of the u of o's claims to

at the omega fraternity, which was featured

once harvested, the timber is hauled to mills for processing.

sadly, there are no longer toga parties at delta house--

it was torn down in 1986.

but the campus still enjoys a reputation for a liberal,

question-authority approach to higher education.

the campus is also home to hayward field,

nicknamed "track town, usa."

track and field stars, it's produced many olympic

remarkable steve prefontaine, including oregon's own

who set 15 american records.

and it was at hayward in 1964

that a talented college runner and his coach

had the idea that launched

know how to turn the kite especially if the surfer doesn't

when it opened in 1916,

the illustrated london news called it "the king of roads."

the high walls that tower above this highway

help funnel powerful winds through the gorge.

are luring kite surfers and it's these winds that

to the columbia river from around the world

to catch its waves.

regular surfers rely on the power of waves.

but these adrenaline junkies are tethered to kites

and fly with the wind.

speed and direction a kite surfer's

all depend on how he or she controls the kite.

in strong winds like these, it can be a dangerously fast sport,

hugging every twist and turn.

against the wind to slow down.

and giant geological events it's taken millions of years

to create the conditions that make the columbia river

perfect for this sport.

starting 17 million years ago, a series of lava flows

pushed through here, cooling to form layers of basalt.

much later, the columbia river started to carve its way

through those layers, creating walls hundreds of feet high.

from these rock walls, 77 waterfalls cascade

into the gorge on the oregon side alone.

but the granddaddy of them all is multnomah falls.

it drops a total of 620 feet.

but the best is chinook, or king salmon.

to the columbia basin tribes.

this morning, fishers are pulling up their long gillnets,

which have filled with hundreds of chinook salmon overnight.

the roots of their expertise are in the fishing practices

that were established long before europeans arrived.

traditionally, men have worked the gillnet lines.

but these days, men with no sons

often teach their daughters to fish.

native americans have the exclusive

commercial fishing rights on this stretch of river.

and not all the salmon they catch are equal.

coho, sockeye, chum are all salmon,

to witness it's the perfect place

and firm, red flesh, it's prized for its size

the oregon state fish. and it's also

to view this majestic river there's no better place

than from here...

vista point.

one engineer called it

"an observatory from which the columbia could be viewed

in silent communion with the infinite."

vista point was built in 1916,

as part of the columbia river highway project--

the first planned scenic highway in the united states.

it travels for 40 miles along the river,

"we traveled over the worst road that was ever made,

are the cascade mountains--

jagged monuments to the power of molten lava.

range of peaks they're part of a stunning

that extends from canada to california.

many are easily recognized from afar.

among them, the three sisters.

and the sharpest peak of them all--mount thielsen.

rising more than 9,000 feet,

lightning rod of the cascades. it's been called the

150 years ago, these mountains were the last great hurdle

on their journey west. for oregon's early pioneers

one, amelia knight, described this leg of the trip

in her diary:

rising high above oregon's western valleys

winding round stumps, logs and fallen trees.

the handsomest timber in the world

must be here in these cascade mountains."

logging prospectors agreed.

the massive conifers were unlike anything they'd seen back east.

the first logging operations in oregon were set up

in the mid 19th century, but it wasn't until 1938

that the state surpassed its neighbor washington

top timber producer, as the nation's

a position it holds to this day.

ancient forests of douglas fir and sitka spruce

have been replaced by a patchwork of clear-cuts.

down the columbia river.

oregon's geological history.

five different lava flows are exposed

in the face of the falls.

many visitors travel the columbia river highway

just to catch a glimpse of this amazing site.

volcanic events may have helped create this gorge,

but during the last ice age,

it was inundated by a series of unimaginable torrents--

the mother of all gushers, known as the missoula floods.

a massive glacial lake in montana

broke through a dam of ice,

and sent a wall of water in biblical proportions

looking like a paint can-- it's been criticized as

geologists think it filled the entire gorge to overflowing,

and it kept going.

toward the end of its 1,000-mile journey,

the wall of water spread out into the willamette valley,

dumping not only water,

but tens of millions of tons of rich sediment.

farmers working these oregon fields today

are actually plowing montana soil.

reports of this fertile land lured settlers

as far back as the early 19th century.

but for many, getting here meant having to cross on foot

one of the greatest mountain ranges in america.

as if suddenly brought before some superior being

greatest promoters. and one of the city's

pittock was also an avid outdoorsman,

and was in the first party to climb

most iconic mountain. oregon's highest and

it lies 50 miles from downtown portland, but its presence

in the lives and minds of many oregonians is profound--

mount hood.

this monolith looms over the columbia river gorge

and all the rest of oregon's cascade peaks.

after first setting eyes on the mountain,

the naturalist john muir wrote,

"there stood mount hood in all the glory.

and so impressive that one was overawed,

publisher of the oregonian newspaper,

newly arrived from the sky."

the mountain was named for british admiral samuel hood

in 1792.

manage to conquer but climbers didn't

its nearly vertical upper slopes to reach the summit

for another 50 years.

about 10,000 people attempt to climb mount hood each year.

130 have died trying.

eruption for close to 200 years, the mountain hasn't had a major

and scientists say there's a slim chance

it will awaken over the next few decades.

mount hood is just one of the 16 volcanic peaks

portland the nickname, an event that's earned

diverted federal funds designated for a freeway

to build a light rail called max--

metropolitan area express.

use of public transportation today, the portland area's

is one of the highest in the nation.

and high above street level, rooftop gardens abound.

some buildings are even powered by their own windmills.

portland quite like this one. but there's no green space in

the international rose test garden

in the hills above downtown

is an experimental garden for growing hybrid varieties.

more than 400 types of roses are grown here.

the annual rose festival, it's the site of

that lie in oregon's cascades.

"the city of roses."

the garden is a legacy of georgiana burton pittock,

whose love of roses led her to host an annual garden party

for her friends to show off their flowers.

once a year, rose experts come here from around the world

to bestow the city's annual award for portland's best rose.

georgiana and her husband henry pittock

lived just up the hill in this mansion.

both were pioneers who came here via the oregon trail.

when henry pittock landed in portland in 1852,

he was 17 years old and penniless.

50 years later, he was a wealthy businessman,

efforts that helped pave the way for president theodore roosevelt

and to visit that lake and to go down to the water."

at first, the lake was believed to be bottomless,

and that its walls were too steep to climb down.

of the lake is 1,943 feet, it's now known that the depth

making it the deepest lake in america.

it sits in a volcanic basin created 7,700 years ago,

when the top of the mount mazama volcano

collapsed after erupting.

on august 15, 1885, william steel managed to get

a small canoe out on the lake, and named the cinder cone

that rises some 767 feet above the surface wizard island,

thinking it looked like a wizard's hat.

steel made protecting the lake his life's work,

"and then and there i determined to go to oregon

to establish the site as a national park in 1902.

steel was made the park's commissioner,

a position he held up until the day he died in 1932.

as the father of crater lake. he's been known ever since

conservationists, adventurers, pioneers--

these are the people who forged the oregon story.

the native american tribes who fish its great river,

the hope-filled settlers who crossed its peaks

fertile plains, to reach willamette's

the hardworking farmers who still till its soil,

and the thrill seekers

of adventure alive. who keep oregon's spirit

suitable only for shaman and chiefs.

these peaks stretch south

with washington. from oregon's northern border

five of these 16 mountains

remain potentially active volcanoes, including mount hood,

mount jefferson, the three sisters,

and the newbury crater.

southernmost volcanic peak but oregon's fifth and

its towering heights, isn't known for

but rather its awe-inspiring depths.

this is crater lake.

for thousands of years, the region's native peoples

regarded this place with reverence,

when a coalition of young urban planners

the klamath indians called it tum-sum-ne,

"mountain with the top cut off," indicating a familiarity

with the catastrophic eruption that had taken place here.

in the mid 1800s, gold prospectors

and american explorers found their way here

and got a look over the crater's rim.

that the great sunken lake but it wasn't until the 1870s

made national news which changed the course of one man's life.

william steel was just 15 and living in ohio

when he read about crater lake

in a newspaper in which his lunch was wrapped.

he later wrote of the hold the story had on him,

comes here to portland to be shipped out

are now mechanized, and the gains in yield remarkable.

in 1850, oregon farms produced some 280,000 bushels of wheat.

150 years later, with machines doing the plowing, planting,

harvesting, and threshing,

the annual yield is over 50 million bushels--

enough to make more than two billion loaves of bread.

and most of it is bound for portland

and international markets beyond.

portland harbor is the largest wheat export hub in the u.s.

the massive holds of an ocean-going bulk carrier

can accommodate some 50,000 tons of soft white wheat,

just the kind japan needs to make noodles and crackers.

today, wheat produced all across the western u.s.

most of the backbreaking jobs of growing wheat

to the countries of the pacific rim.

to handle the enormous flow, a rapid-handling grain elevator

was built along 40 acres of the port at terminal 5.

grain is brought here by trains,

cleaned and funneled into loading spouts,

filling another ship with nearly two million bushels of wheat.

while wheat is departing from portland,

quite a different product is entering.

if you drive a japanese car,

chances are its odometer began spinning here.

the most automobiles of any port portland's terminal 4 handles

and ranks third nationally, on north america's west coast,

however, the rain here often falls

when it's noticed at all--

underneath the crowning 22-foot gilded statue

earliest settlers. representing the state's

this anonymous oregon pioneer holds an axe in one hand,

a tarp for shelter in the other, and he's alone.

of course, most of the oregon trail pioneers were not.

they included families like that of amelia knight,

and neighbors who banded together

to survive their harsh life in this new land.

many today associate the pacific northwest with fog and rain.

but compared to other states, rainfall in western oregon

is just about average for the u.s.

conveying more than 240,000 cars in a year.

more gently than elsewhere, and for longer periods,

which means that it can feel more rainy than it actually is.

the cascades help hold this moisture

in the willamette valley,

which has been good for oregon's farmers.

when white settlers arrived here,

native americans had already started clearing it of trees

to make it easier to hunt animals for food.

but the settlers used the cleared land to plant wheat,

which is still grown in great volume today.

heavy tractors have long since replaced the oxen and horses

used by 19th century farmers.

requiring counterweights totaling nine million pounds.

on one side of the river was portland itself,

and on the other side, the communities of albina

and east portland.

before portland could compete with seattle

as a regional power, it had to find a way to unite itself.

in 1887, a drawbridge was constructed at morrison street,

the first of portland's bridges.

a year later, the union pacific railroad

built the first steel bridge on the entire pacific coast.

the original bridge was replaced with this one in 1912.

double-lift bridge it's a double-decker,

that can be raised to a height of 163 feet

for river traffic to pass underneath,

actually, it was still three separate towns.

it carries cars and light rail above,

and trains, pedestrians and bikes below.

by the early 1900s, the advent of structural steel

enabled engineers to build longer, higher,

and lighter spans across rivers.

thanks in part to that,

portland became a single city united by bridges.

today, these bridges are popular commuting routes

for many of the portland metro area's two million residents.

with any on the west coast, the city's downtown competes

the greenest cities in america. and it's known as one of

that started in the 1970s,

to corrosive, salty ocean air.

the first load of cars to portland was in 1956--

a shipment of volkswagen beetles.

a toyota, scion or lexus. today, it's more likely to be

three quarters of the cars arriving here

are bound for dealerships

in states outside of the pacific northwest.

but it begs the question, why would car companies

choose a port more than 100 miles from the ocean

to off-load their vehicles?

the answer?

salt.

location is much less exposed the port of portland's inland

salmon continue to be of great economic and cultural importance

the port was first established here in 1850,

because this was the closest that sailing ships could get

to the farmlands of the willamette.

in those days, this area was not much more

than a cluster of cabins.

a vibrant city now, it's portland,

of nearly 600,000 straddling the willamette river.

it's nickname?

bridgetown.

11 bridges span the river, and without them,

portland would not be what it is today.

in the 1880s, portland, oregon, was a divided city.

to the largest u.s. coast guard fleet on the northwest coast.

but evidence of just how dangerous these waters can be

lies further north.

the 17-mile-wide entrance to the columbia river

is an area known as the graveyard of the pacific.

its waters look calm, but beneath their surface,

powerful river currents clash

with fierce incoming ocean swells,

causing underwater sandbars to shift unpredictably

and treacherous conditions that can deceive

even the most experienced captains.

over the years, 2,000 ships have gone down here,

bringing with them 700 lives.

it's why this area is home

could save ships from calamity,

been the only threat but surging currents haven't

lurking beneath these waters.

just before midnight on june 21, 1942,

a japanese submarine just 8 miles offshore

fired 17 shells at american soil

before quickly disappearing back into the sea.

those shells landed here at fort stevens.

it was the only attack against a military installation

on the u.s. mainland during world war ii.

explore the batteries today's visitors

scrambled in the dark where fort stevens' soldiers

to their posts, ready to repulse the japanese attack.

all aboard were rescued,

that he and his party measured to be over 100 feet long.

and the explorers were able to procure

300 pounds of whale blubber

from members of the tillamook tribe.

for weeks, and clark wrote, they'd been eating dried elk

"thank providence for directing the whale to us."

today, the bones of another skeleton lie on this shore,

a victim of the perilous seas off oregon's coast.

this is the steel hull peter iredale,

a four-masted vessel from england that remains wedged

in the breakers just as it first did that windy day in 1906.

wrenched by wind and current, she ran aground,

hitting so hard, three of her masts snapped upon impact.

but before they could,

and in thanks, the captain bid his ship farewell, saying,

"may god bless you and may your bones bleach in these sands."

which they have,

and still attract curious beachcombers today.

before the era of gps and radar,

fishermen sailing along this stretch of coast

could find their way through the fog

by listening for the birds on haystack rock.

this 235-foot plug of lava

is the third tallest intertidal rock formation in the world,

and a year-round nesting spot for seabirds.

that the cries of birds it's hard to imagine

"we were traveling slowly

many more followed in their footsteps,

including the oregon trail pioneers.

in the early to mid 19th century,

more than 10,000 people arrived into the territory

via the oregon trail.

this overland route brought pioneers

into eastern oregon at today's idaho border

desert on their journey west. and through the state's eastern

one of the pioneers who made the hard slog

was a woman named amelia knight. through oregon's dry scrubland

amelia, her husband, and seven children

had already traveled 1,250 miles from iowa.

on august 12, 1853, she made an entry into her diary:

as these carvings illustrate,

when our oxen dropped dead in the yoke.

i could hardly help shedding tears.

this poor ox who had helped us all along thus far,

and had given us his very last step."

but the knight family pressed on, driven by a belief

that a better life was just ahead.

soon after crossing into the territory,

the oregon trail swung north through scrub, woodland,

and then followed the columbia river west.

this detour north was critical.

going straight, through central oregon, would have meant

confronting some of the most unusual and inhospitable terrain

it's now home to 10,000,

officers deemed the sub too far out of range.

fort stevens was decommissioned in 1947,

but still stands guard at the mouth of the columbia--

the gateway for ships headed to portland.

10 miles upriver, they pass under the astoria-megler bridge.

stretching more than four miles,

truss bridge in america. it's the largest continuous

designed to exploit the remarkable stability

of triangles of bolted steel, it was an engineering marvel

when it finally opened for traffic in 1966.

this is the very northwest corner of oregon.

the town of astoria is perched on its edge.

he also came upon the skeleton of a blue whale

but astoria began as a small fur-trading post,

and not long after lewis and clark's arrival

became the first european settlement in the northwest.

when they first arrived at the pacific in 1805,

lewis and clark carved their initials in a tree.

that tree is gone, but astoria is known today

for another set of carvings.

the astoria column, erected in 1926,

celebrates the westward expansion

of oregon's early settlers,

their first contact with native americans,

and key events in the journey of lewis and clark.

that would otherwise be wasted as runoff,

be easily pinned down. the city of portland can't

individuality, eccentricity and being different--deliberately--

intrinsically "made in oregon." a unique mix that's

a non-conformist streak. it's a place with

creator, matt groening, the birthplace of the simpsons'

and the childhood home of grunge rocker courtney love.

here, pubs don't just serve beer, they're likely to brew it.

of the craft beer craze, it's the unofficial capital

and home to more tattoo shops per capita than any other city.

but only from the air is it possible to discover

how portland truly turns things upside down.

gardens grow on 27 acres of rooftop.

capturing rainfall they're surprising but sensible,

that defies a simple description--

reducing pollution and saving energy.

reinventing green spaces is just one way

oregonians think outside the box

and keep alive the adventurous spirit

original pioneers. of the state's

to understand how one of america's quirkiest cities

got this way

requires traveling back in time,

starting at one of oregon's wildest places.

at the center of this state is an unusual gathering place

in the foothills of the ochoco mountains--

one that seems to breathe the air

and the success of its entrepreneurs.

in the west, a primeval landscape

at the edge of the world.

to the east, miles of high-altitude desert

too desolate for life to thrive.

but everywhere, evidence of a rich volcanic past--

a lava flow where apollo 11 astronauts trained

to walk on the moon,

a vast crater with the deepest lake in north america,

and painted hills that hold the fossils

of amazing ancient creatures.

oregon has always been known

for the hopeful spirit of its pioneers

of oregon's pioneering spirit.

it was here where a college athlete and his coach

turned a simple idea for a running shoe

into the best-known sportswear brand of all time,

and where a where a young winemaker surprised the world

by growing award-winning oregon grapes.

junkies take to the air it's a place where adrenaline

on one of the greatest rivers in the west.

even the energy here is alternative.

so proud is this state of its innovative spirit,

it coined the motto "she flies with her own wings."

this is oregon.

our journey across oregon begins in a place

it was november, and with winter coming on,

in 1992, monkey face became an international icon

when french climber jean baptiste tribout

made the first ascent up the overhanging east wall.

it instantly eclipsed even the toughest climbs

in north america.

he named the route "just do it."

once climbers reach the top of smith rock,

many take a moment to savor the view

most remarkable landscapes. of one of america's

more than two centuries ago, a couple of adventurers

were taking in their first views of this territory.

in 1805, lewis and clark traveled down the columbia river

and finally laid eyes on the pacific ocean.

and earn the privilege of naming it.

they started building a camp here in a stand of evergreens,

naming it fort clatsop,

after one of the local native american tribes.

william clark set off with a party

down the coast to search for provisions.

in the fall, this coast is now a popular place

to spot gray whales on their annual migration

between the bering sea and mexico.

a little further on, clark clambered up the steep bluffs

of tillamook head, which he described in his journal

as "the steepest, worst, and highest mountain

i ever ascended."

in north america, challenging the best in the world

the appropriately named crooked river

twists and turns through steep slopes

to the towering spires of smith rock.

this castle of craggy peaks

dates back to a catastrophic eruption

nearly 20 million years ago.

hot ash, lava, and chunks of rock surged

like an ancient oil gusher, eventually cooling in place,

and over time weathering into great stone pinnacles.

in some cultures, places like this attract mystics.

for adventurers. in oregon, it's a haven

welcome to one of the hottest spots for sport climbing

in america.

to find new routes up its most demanding surfaces.

the toughest one of all is a 300-foot-high pillar

that looms above the valley.

it's called monkey face.

for these hard core sport climbers,

it isn't just about reaching the top, it's about finding

the toughest possible route up and down the peak--

scaling near-vertical walls,

suspending from a single rope,

and rappelling into the abyss.

the ultimate achievement-- to be the first to take on

a newer, harder route

but these unmarked buildings are the true heart of the internet.

towers, rotors and blades are built internationally

and then shipped to oregon.

the state now has nearly 1,200 wind turbines

on more than a dozen wind farms.

as these towers multiply, so do their critics--

incessant noise, ruined vistas, threats to birds.

the complaints are mounting, but there's no question

that wind is providing an important alternative

sources of electricity. to oregon's traditional

and the demand for power is increasing in the state,

recently developing especially from oregon's

digital economy.

by looking at them, you'd never know

the wind is free, but the turbine technology isn't.

when you google justin beiber, lady gaga, or tsunami japan,

chances are your search is routed through this facility,

along with millions of other search requests and emails.

the google server farm, it's known as

and its location here near the columbia river is no accident.

the server farm's cooling towers

require as much as 100 megawatts,

enough to power more than 40 million ipads.

dalles hydroelectric station, and it's the nearby

with its half-mile-long powerhouse, that supplies google

with a steady source of cheap, renewable power.

the basic technology of hydropower has been around

and a fast-growing forest of giant machines

east of the cascades.

but in 1985, one of the community's leaders

tried to rig the county election with an outrageous attack--

planting salmonella in salad bars

at ten local restaurants.

it was the first act of bioterrorism in the u.s.

one year later, the dream was over,

and rajneeshpurum lay abandoned.

throughout its history, oregon has lured many

seeking alternative ways of life--

from hardscrabble pioneers to sport climbers,

scaling its volcanic peaks.

home to alternative energy but these days, it's also

since ancient times--

that run on the wind.

it looks like a garden of giant pinwheels

sprouting across the landscape,

dominating the horizon above the wheat farms

of oregon's wasco county.

wind energy industry. this is the heart of oregon's

the pylons tower 65 feet in the air.

the arc of their blades spans more than 200 feet.

each of these turbines generates up to 2.4 megawatts,

enough to power 420 homes.

wind power currently provides more than 6%

electricity supply. of oregon's total

so that salmon could leap from pool to pool,

of the highest concentrations of native americans

on the continent,

and much of their economic and social life

centered on columbia river salmon.

early pioneers, just like the state's

salmon are another of oregon's tenacious travelers.

from their birth on the columbia, they head downstream

to the pacific, where they spend four to five years.

then, their natural instinct is to return upstream

to lay eggs in the place they were born.

but these dams make that journey difficult.

to try and mitigate the dam's effect,

fish ladders were built

historians think this region held some

and find their way up and over a dam

to reach their spawning grounds.

some of the ladders have exhausted and killed more fish

than they've conveyed.

but a million salmon still manage

to make it upstream each year.

once, hydropower on the columbia was hailed

as a great source of renewable energy.

but recently, critics have charged

that this once mighty river has become

merely a series of reservoirs between dams.

despite the dams and loss of traditional fishing spots,

one of these was a legendary series of waterfalls

back up water behind a dam,

then funnel the pressurized stream past a spinning turbine.

the promise of the columbia as a source of renewable power

has transformed this mighty river.

the dalles dam is one of many hydroelectric projects here.

completed in 1938, the bonneville dam was the first.

since then, 14 more hydroelectric projects

have been built on the columbia.

but their power has come with a price.

salmon next to impossible. the dams made life for oregon's

and destroyed they've also flooded

traditional native american fishing grounds.

they had more firepower than all the oregon state police

native americans called "celilo."

the falls are gone, and so are the fish drying huts

that once lined the river.

but the rise of a new tribal longhouse

marks a revival of one celilo village.

built with help from the army corps of engineers,

of columbia basin it's a place where members

native american tribes gather.

when lewis and clark journeyed down the river in 1805,

they estimated there could be

as many as 10,000 native americans here,

twice the population of washington, d.c., at the time.

in the 1960s, nasa discovered that the moon's surface

stands lava butte, a type of volcano called a cinder cone

that formed 7,000 years ago.

a fire station stands on its rim, looking out

over the field of lava that's seeped from the butte.

giant lava flows are everywhere in oregon.

like this one-- but there's nothing

the big obsidian flow. it's known as

1,300 years ago, a nearby volcano belched

170 million cubic yards of liquid volcanic glass--

enough to pave a road circling the earth three times.

in its hardened state, obsidian is perfect for making tools.

the cutting edge of an obsidian knife is sharper than steel.

it's not exactly easy terrain.

rising 500 feet from a tree-covered plain

looked a lot like this lava flow.

apollo 11 astronauts neil armstrong, buzz aldrin,

and michael collins came here

to practice walking across jagged, unpredictable terrain,

their spacesuits on the moon. so they wouldn't tear

oregonians have made themselves quite at home

on these lava lands.

the city of bend is one of only a few in the u.s.

that actually has a volcano within the city limits.

pilot butte was a guiding landmark to native americans

and early white explorers

traveling across the central oregon plateau.

tens of millions of years old,

imagine trying to drive a covered wagon over this.

encountering the painted hills in north-central oregon

been transported to mars. can make one feel like they've

in fact, this scenic marvel is an extraordinary record

of the past 40 million years--

a logbook of changes in climate, plant and animal life.

it's the story of oregon's ancient past

told in colored soils...

red from the residue of wet primeval forests

of sequoia and oak,

yellow from a time when the climate turned dry.

and everything preserved in a dusting of volcanic ash,

today, the butte is a popular lookout spot.

of vegetation for all to see. that's kept these hills free

prehistoric beasts once walked here, too--

three-toed horses, pigs the size of bison,

and rhinos.

many thousands of their fossils have been recovered.

volcanic activity has dramatically changed

the face of oregon.

molten magma has built many of its mountains,

and fresh lava flows blanket hundreds of square miles.

high lava plains, these are oregon's

home to some of the youngest and most dramatic volcanic sites

in the state.

named bhagwan shree rajneesh

explosive ash may have built these walls of rock,

but it was wind-driven waves that scoured them down,

day after day.

nearby, a series of ramshackle buildings are all that remain

of a turn of the century scam.

developers sold a promise of underground water,

and a potential branch spur to the railroad line.

neither happened, leaving a ghost town of broken dreams.

vast stretches of this state remain remote

and practically uninhabitable.

but to some, that's also been oregon's appeal.

today, the town of antelope is home to a christian youth camp.

but in the early 1980s, a guru from india

that once covered these deserts.

tried to take over the town.

his 64,000-acre ranch, called rajneeshpuram,

was the center of operations for his thousands of followers,

known as rajneeshees.

they cleared 3,000 acres of land on the ranch

to grow their own food

and built a 10-megawatt power station.

joining the commune meant donating everything you owned,

including your bank account.

perhaps that is what allowed rajneesh

to have his own fleet of rolls-royces.

group amassed so many weapons, it's also been reported that the

of lumber a year.

with 300 days a year of sunshine,

bend is a center of outdoor activity and a staging place

for skiers heading to nearby peaks.

paddle-boarding is the latest sport to catch on here,

imported to oregon from hawaii

by a couple of north shore surfers in 2001.

bend may be a recreation hub today,

but these rising silver smokestacks

as a hardworking lumber town. broadcast the city's roots

beginning in the late 1910s, this old mill district

was home to some of the largest pine sawmills in the world,

at their peak producing some 500 million board feet

of surprising contrasts. oregon--it's a land

the fuel for this industrial engine?

ponderosa pine.

these giants thrive in the dry, volcanic soil of central oregon.

their long roots can reach deep to moist soil below.

and their straight, lightweight hardwood was in heavy demand

for ship building during world war i.

steered clear oregon's earliest pioneers

of this part of the state.

but in the early 20th century, developers tried to settle

an area called fort rock.

this giant ring formed about a half a million years ago,

when lava bubbled up in the middle of an ancient lake