Eastern Oregon
This desert climate is in part due to a rain shadow effect caused by the Cascade Range.
[citation needed] In the 2012 presidential election, the Republican candidate Mitt Romney received at least 60% of the vote in every county in Eastern Oregon.
By November, three more counties in Eastern Oregon, for a total of eleven, had voted to join Idaho, a number that grew to 12 by June of 2023.
[12][13] Top 15 most populated Eastern Oregon cities (according to the 8-county definition): By extending the boundary outside to include neighboring counties, Eastern Oregon would include three of the largest population centers east of the Cascade Range: Bend, Redmond, and Klamath Falls.
Some parts of Eastern Oregon receive fewer than 10 inches (250 mm) of rain yearly, classifying them as deserts.
"[19] South of the wheat lands of northeast Oregon, agricultural activity is generally limited to livestock grazing except where irrigation is available.
[clarification needed] The Snake River offers boating experiences that range from a quiet drift through the desert to hair-raising thrills of class II to III+ rapids.
[tone][citation needed] Historically, the region has been relatively isolated from Western Oregon, due to the difficulty of crossing the Cascades.
In 1845, Sam Barlow built a road around the south side of Mount Hood, which served as the final leg of the Oregon Trail.
The Applegate Trail and Santiam Wagon Road were constructed soon after, connecting eastern and western Oregon in the southern and central parts of the state.
This was followed by the 1862 incorporation of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company whose operations included building a rail bypass from The Dalles to Celilo Falls.
Shortly thereafter Henry Villard, who then controlled OR&N, moved aggressively to block entry of the then under construction Northern Pacific Railway into the Columbia Gorge.
[23] In an agreement first made in March 1880 and formalized in the fall of 1880, the Northern Pacific Railway, then controlled by Frederick Billings, and the OR&N, at that time controlled by Henry Villard, agreed to divide the Columbia Plateau at the Snake River, with the Northern Pacific staying to the north and the OR&N staying to the south.
The only other railroad ever built east over the Cascade Mountains was trackage that was to become part of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, which was opened in 1926 over Willamette Pass to Klamath Falls[24] to bypass the difficult line south of Eugene to Ashland.
Further west, U.S. Route 97 runs north and south from the California border through Klamath Falls, Bend, and Redmond to Biggs Junction on the Columbia River.
