Oregon

Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States, nearly 1,950 feet down. No rivers flow in or out. It sits inside the remains of a volcano called Mount Mazama, which erupted roughly 7,700 years ago.

The Klamath people watched it happen. Their oral history describes the sky god Skell battling the god of the underworld, red-hot rocks flying through the air, and the mountain collapsing into itself.

Archaeologists found sandals buried under layers of ash from that eruption, proving people were there when it blew. The Klamath still consider the lake, which they call Giiwas, a sacred place.

Dozens of tribal nations lived across Oregon for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. The Chinook built cedar canoes and ran massive trade networks along the Columbia River. The Kalapuya managed the Willamette Valley with seasonal burns that kept the land healthy for hunting and gathering.

Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific coast through Oregon in 1805. Within a few decades, settlers started pouring in along the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail. The federal government offered hundreds of acres of free land, but only to white settlers.

When Oregon became the 33rd state on February 14, 1859, it banned slavery but also banned Black people from living in the state. That ban stayed in the state's constitution until 1926.

Disease wiped out as much as 90 percent of some Native communities. The government forced most surviving tribes onto reservations, breaking treaties almost as fast as it signed them.

Stand on the rim of Crater Lake and stare into water so blue it doesn't look real. Hike to Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, a 620-foot waterfall just 30 minutes from Portland.

Explore the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute near Pendleton, where the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla tribes tell their own history. Drive the Oregon coast, where every mile of beach is public by law.