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Corvallis, Oregon

Corvallis is a city in and the county seat of Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2023 Census Population Estimates, the population was 61,087, making it the 9th most populous city in Oregon. Corvallis is the location of Oregon State University and Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. Corvallis is the westernmost city in the contiguous 48 states with a population larger than 50,000.

Corvallis is the largest principal city of the Albany-Corvallis-Lebanon CSA, a Combined Statistical Area that includes the Corvallis metropolitan area (Benton County) and the Albany-Lebanon micropolitan area (Linn County),  which had a combined population of 229,209 at the 2023 U.S. Census Estimates.

Establishment
In October 1845, Pennsylvanian Joseph C. Avery arrived in Oregon. Avery took out a land claim at the mouth of Marys River, where it flows into the Willamette River, and in June 1846 took up residence there in a log cabin hastily constructed to hold what seemed a potentially lucrative claim. Avery's primitive 1846 dwelling was the first home within the boundaries of today's Corvallis and his land claim included the southern section of the contemporary city.

Avery was quickly joined by other settlers along the banks of the Willamette River, including a 640 acre claim directly to his north taken in September 1846 by William F. Dixon. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 temporarily stalled development of a township, with Avery leaving his Oregon claim to try his hand at mining in the fall of that year. His stay proved to be brief, and in January 1849, Avery returned to Oregon with a small stock of provisions with a view to opening a store.

During 1849, Avery opened his store at the site, platted the land, and surveyed a town site on his land claim, naming the community Marysville. The city was possibly named after early settler Mary Lloyd, but now the name is thought to be derived from French fur trappers' naming of Marys Peak after the Virgin Mary.

In the summer of 1851, Joseph Avery and William Dixon each granted back-to-back 40 acre land parcels from their land holdings for the establishment of a county seat. Avery's holding lay to the south and Dixon's to the north, with the Benton County Courthouse marking the approximate line of demarcation between these two land parcels.

Name change
In December 1853 the 5th Oregon Territorial Legislature met in Salem, where a petition was presented seeking to change the name of that city to either "Thurston" or "Valena". At the same time, another petition was presented seeking to change the name of Salem to "Corvallis", from the Latin meaning "heart of the valley", while a third resolution was presented to the upper house seeking to change the name of Marysville to Corvallis.

A heated debate followed, with the name ultimately awarded to Corvallis in an act passed on December 20 of that same year. By way of rationale, the name "Marysville" was successfully argued to duplicate the moniker of a town in California, located on the same stagecoach route and that a name change was thus necessary to avoid confusion.

Incorporation
A faction within the deeply divided legislature sought to make Corvallis the capital of the Oregon Territory, and in December 1855 the 6th Territorial Legislature initially convened there before returning to Salem later that month—the town which would eventually be selected as the permanent seat of state government.

Corvallis was incorporated as a city on January 29, 1857.

19th-century growth
Corvallis had a three-year boom beginning in 1889, which began with the establishment of a privately owned electrical plant by L.L. Hurd. A flurry of publicity and public and private investment followed, including construction of a grand county courthouse, planning and first construction of a new street railway, construction of a new flour mill along the river between Monroe and Jackson Avenues, and construction of the Hotel Corvallis, today known as the Julian Hotel.

In addition, a carriage factory was launched in the city and the town's streets were improved, while the size of the city was twice enlarged through annexation. Bonds were issued for a city-owned water works, a sewer system, and for public ownership of the electric plant. A publicity campaign was launched to attempt to expand the tax base through new construction for new arrivals. This effort proved mostly unsuccessful, however, and in 1892, normality returned, with the city saddled with about $150,000 in bonded debt.

Geography

Corvallis is at river mile 131–32 of the Willamette River. Corvallis is bordered on the northwest by the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range, with Bald Hill providing a view of the town.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 14.30 sqmi, of which 14.13 sqmi are land and 0.17 sqmi is covered by water.

Climate
Like the rest of the Willamette Valley, Corvallis lies in the Marine West Coast climate zone, with Mediterranean characteristics. Under the Köppen climate classification scheme, Corvallis has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb). Temperatures are mild year round, with warm, dry, sunny summers and mild, wet winters with persistently overcast skies. Spring and fall are also moist seasons with varied cloudiness, and light rain falling for extended periods.

Winter snow is rare, but occasionally does fall, and amounts can range between a dusting and a few inches that do not persist on the ground for more than a day. The northwest hills will often experience more snow. During the midwinter months after extended periods of rain, thick, persistent fogs can form, sometimes lasting the entire day. This can severely reduce visibility to as low as 20 ft. The fog often persists until a new storm system enters the area. This fog could be seen as a type of tule fog.

Rainfall totals within the town itself are surprisingly variable, due to Corvallis lying right on the eastern edge of the Oregon Coast Range, with a small portion of the town inside of the range. Rainfall amounts can range from an average of 66.40 in per year in the far northwest hills, compared to 43.66 in per year at Oregon State University, which is located in the center of Corvallis.

Because of its close proximity to the coastal range, Corvallis can experience slightly cooler temperatures, particularly in the hills, than the rest of the Willamette Valley. The average annual low temperature is 42 F, 4.2 F-change less than that of Portland just 85 mi to the north. Despite this, temperatures dropping far below freezing are still a rare event.

Demographics
Corvallis is the largest principal city of the Albany-Corvallis-Lebanon CSA, a Combined Statistical Area that includes the Corvallis metropolitan area (Benton County) and the Albany-Lebanon micropolitan area (Linn County), which had a combined population of 229,209 at the 2023 U.S. Census Estimates.

2020 census
As of the 2020 census, there were 59,922 people and 23,952 households in the city. The population density was 4200.3 /mi2. The racial makeup of the city was 79.4% White, 10% Asian, 1.4% Black or African American, 0.8% Native American, 0.3% Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 6.0% from two or more races. 8.2% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 23,952 households, with an average of 2.24 people per household. 33.8% were married couples living together, 30.7% had a female householder with no spouse present, and 26.6% had a male householder with no spouse present. 40.1% of housing units were owner-occupied.

In the city, 13.5% were under the age of 18, and 13.1% were over the age of 65. The median age was 26.4 for males, 29.0 for females, and 27.5 for both sexes.

2010 census
As of the 2010 U.S. Census, there were 54,462 people, 22,283 households, and 10,240 families residing in the city. The population density was 4004.5 /mi2. There were 23,423 housing units at an average density of 1,722.3 /mi2. The racial makeup of the city was 83.8% White, 7.3% Asian, 1.1% Black or African American, 0.7% Native American, 0.3% Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 2.8% from other races, and 4.0% from two or more races. 7.4% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 22,283 households, of which 20.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.3% were married couples living together, 7.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 54.0% were non-families. 33.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.22 and the average family size was 2.82.

In the city, 14.9% of the population was under the age of 18, 32.4% was from 18 to 24, 22.9% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to 64, and 10.5% was 65 years of age or older. The median age was 26.4 years. For every 100 males there were 98.7 females.

2000 census
As of the 2000 U.S. Census the median income for a household in the city was $35,437, and the median income for a family was $53,208. Males had a median income of $40,770 versus $29,390 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,317. About 9.7% of families and 20.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.2% of those under age 18 and 6.0% of those age 65 or over.

Religion
In 1903, Franz Edmund Creffield, commonly known as Edmund Creffield (circa 1870–1906), a German-American religious leader who called himself Joshua, founded a movement in Corvallis which became known locally as the "Holy Rollers".

Corvallis lies in the middle of the Unchurched Belt. A 2003 study, released once every 10 years, listed Benton County (of which Corvallis makes up the majority of the population) as the least religious county per capita in the United States. Only one in four people indicated that they were affiliated with one of the 149 religious groups the study identified. The study indicated that some of the disparity, however, may be attributed to the popularity of less common religions (ones not included as an option in the study) in the Pacific Northwest.

Economy
The campus of Oregon State University, which is the major local employer, is located near the edge of the main downtown area.

Other major employers include Samaritan Health Services, SIGA Technologies, Evanite Fiber, ONAMI, and HP Inc., which has a large printing research and development operation in the northeast area of town. Because of this relative concentration of employment and the need for diversity, the city launched a website to attract creative industry to the region by branding it with the slogan "Yes Corvallis".

The National Clonal Germplasm Repository at Corvallis is a gene bank of the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. The gene bank preserves temperate fruit, nut, and agronomic crops from around the world.

Corvallis was ranked number 48 on the 100 best places in the US to live and launch a business by Fortune Small Business 2008. This places Corvallis as the second-best place in Oregon to launch a business, after Portland (number 6). Bend (number 87) and Eugene (number 96) were other Oregon localities ranked in the top 100.

Annual cultural events
Previously known as 'Rhapsody in the Vineyard', the annual, sometimes biannual, 'Downtown Corvallis Wine Walk' is hosted by the Corvallis Area Chamber of Commerce and is held in downtown Corvallis since 2012. It pairs local wineries up with, and inside of, downtown local retailers. Attendees get to sample wine and shop local. Anywhere between 15 and nearly 40 wineries and retailers participate annually. It typically takes place in late Spring or early Fall, with the 21st Wine Walk occurring in May 2024. The da Vinci Days Summer Festival is an annual festival held in Corvallis since 1988. The science, technology, and art based festival includes live music, a kinetic sculpture race during the summer event, and lecture series in the spring. The festival is named after Italian inventor, artist, and writer, Leonardo da Vinci. The festival celebrates its 31th anniversary in 2024. The Red White and Blue Riverfront Festival takes place annually on July 4 on the downtown Riverfront Park banks of the Willamette River with food, vendors and a main stage with live bands. The day begins with the "All-American, Everyone-Can-Join, Fabulous, Fantastic 4th of July Parade!" at 9:30 am through Downtown Corvallis and ends at the Commemorative Riverfront Park. The parade began in 1985. At 10pm there is a fireworks display put on by the "Corvallis Jaycees" along the riverfront. The Philomath Folic & Rodeo celebrated its 60th Anniversary in 2023 and typically takes place in mid-July and is a family-oriented festival and rodeo focused on the traditions the Philomath community was founded, namely American Western heritage and traditions and the history of the logging industry. The Frolic began in 1953, originally called the 'Philomath Western Frolic', then called the 'Philomath Buckaroo and Loggers' Frolic'. In 1983 land was donated and an arena was contracted at Skirvin Park, creating what has since been known as the Philomath Frolic & Rodeo. The rodeo attracts over 5,000 spectators each year and has been distinguished as the Northwest Professional Rodeo Association "Rodeo of the Year" eight times (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006 and 2007). The Corvallis Celtic Festival is a new summertime celebration held in late July, in and around Central Park in Corvallis. It celebrates Celtic culture through lively music performances, participatory sessions, spirited dancing, and engaging workshops that showcase Celtic traditions. The 2nd annual Corvallis Celtic Festival will be held July 25–28, 2024. The Benton County Fair & Rodeo was first held in 1859 with it typically held annually since 1913 and has been at its current location at the Benton County Fairgrounds in West Corvallis, since 1956. The Benton County Fair & Rodeo celebrated "100 years of Rides, Ribbons & Rodeos" in 2013. The Fair & Rodeo includes carnival games, rides, animals, food, live music and the rodeo. The Benton County Fair is usually scheduled for the first weekend in August. Septembeerfest (September Beer Festival) is held annually since 2007 in September, "amongst the trees" in Avery Park in Corvallis. Septembeerfest is a family and pet friendly fun-filled community celebration of the local homebrewers and dozens of local breweries from the craft beer industry as well as a successful fundraiser for the "'Heart of the Valley Homebrewers"', a non-profit organization. The 17th annual Corvallis Septembeerfest will be held September 7, 2024. The Corvallis Fall Festival is an Annual Arts Party in Central Park and was founded in 1972, with the 50th occurrence in 2022. BlockTober Fest celebrated their 10th Anniversary in 2018 and is typically held annually since 2008 to coincide with Oktoberfest, in downtown Corvallis hosted by local craft brew Block 15 Brewing. The Oktoberfest celebration takes place under the traditional big tent occupying one whole city block by their downtown Block 15 brew pub. The celebrations typically feature live German music, German-inspired beer and food, face painting, a Stein Holding Competition, German Spelling Bee, and College Football on the big screen. The Saint Anne Greek Fest is held annually since 2003, celebrating their 20th Anniversary in 2023. It is typically held in mid-October in the Corvallis metro area unincorporated community of Lewisburg. The Saint Anne Greek Fest is held at the St. Anne Greek Orthodox Church grounds with live traditional Greek music, traditional Greek dances, face-painting, games and traditional Greek food. All the money raised by the festival goes to maintain the Lewisburg Grange Hall just north of the Corvallis city limits. The grange has been one of Benton County's most prominent historic landmarks. Built by executives of the O&C Railroad as a depot in 1911, trains stopped there for just 14 years until it became the grange hall for the unincorporated community of Lewisburg in 1925. The building faced significant peril by the early 1990s. The 2 Town's Harvest Party has been in place annually since 2010 and typically takes place mid to late October, but before Halloween. It is hosted by 2 Town's Ciderhouse, a national leader in alcoholic hard ciders at their main facility. In 2024 they will celebrate their 14th Anniversary. There are typically over 55 Craft beverages on tap, a "pumpkin bar", hot cider bar, cidery tours, photo-booth, raffle, live music and food trucks to celebrate the harvest of locally grown apples for their award-winning ciders, with proceeds going towards a local non-profit or charity. In 2023 over 3,400 people attended the annual Harvest Party. The Pastega Christmas Light Display typically takes place just after Thanksgiving and last until just after New Years Day. The Pastega Drive-thru Christmas Light Display began in 1981 at a Pepsi Bottling Plant in North Corvallis. It was hosted there for 31 years, until 2013 when the display was moved across town to the Benton County Fairgrounds. The Display features over 200 figures and mechanized scenes. The radiant display of festive lights and mechanized decorations transforms the area into a holiday wonderland enjoyed by thousands. Between 400 and 700 cars visit the display each day it's open. In 2022 over 30,000 people drove through the display. It has been a CorvallisHoliday tradition for over 40 years.
 * Downtown Corvallis Wine Walk
 * Da Vinci Days Festival and Kinetic Sculpture Race
 * Red White and Blue Riverfront Festival
 * Philomath Frolic & Rodeo
 * Corvallis Celtic Festival
 * Benton County Fair & Rodeo
 * SeptemBeerFest
 * Corvallis Fall Festival
 * BlockTober Fest
 * St. Anne Greek Fest
 * 2 Town's Harvest Party
 * Pastega Christmas Light Display

Museums and other points of interest

 * Benton County Courthouse
 * Corvallis Museum (Benton County Historical Society)
 * Hesthaven Nature Center of the Audubon Society of Corvallis
 * McDonald State Forest
 * Peavy Arboretum
 * William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge
 * Alsea Falls
 * Corvallis-Benton County Public Library
 * Osborn Aquatic Center
 * Corvallis Farmers' Market
 * Vineyard Mountain
 * Whiteside Theatre

Art galleries
The Corvallis Art Guild is almost 80 years old. There are over 30 colorful murals around town, most are within walking distance of each other in downtown Corvallis.
 * The Arts Center
 * Giustina and Murdock Galleries
 * Fairbanks Gallery
 * Art in the Valley
 * Pegasus Art Galley
 * Corvallis Art Guild
 * Corvallis Mural Project

Corvallis
Corvallis is home to the Corvallis-OSU Symphony, which celebrated its centennial in 2005. According to the OSU College of Liberal Arts website (as of 2022) the symphony is the oldest continuously operating orchestra in the state of Oregon.

Other musical organizations include:
 * Corvallis Youth Symphony Association
 * Chintimini Chamber Music Festival
 * Chamber Music Corvallis
 * Corvallis-OSU Piano International
 * Corvallis Guitar Society
 * Corvallis Community Band (Host annual "Summer Concerts in the Park" series at Central Park)
 * Willamette Valley Symphony
 * Heart of the Valley Children's Choir
 * Hilltop Big Band

Along with these the "Corvallis Environmental Center" offers the "SAGE Live Music Concert Series" every summer at Bruce Starker Arts Park in Southwest Corvallis. In the Corvallis metro area Philomath also host a "Music in the Park" summer concert series held at City Park.

Within the Albany-Corvallis-Lebanon Combine Statistical Area
Named Oregon's best festival of its size in 2014, for over 30 years the River Rhythms concert series draws in acts with a wide variety of musical styles at Albany's Monteith Riverfront Park. From the Dixie Chicks to Herman's Hermits to Sugar Ray and Tower of Power Live music in a relaxed outdoor atmosphere, the Summer Sounds concert series is a Monday night concert series at Albany's Monteith Riverpark each summer since 1997.
 * Albany Youth Orchestra
 * Albany "River Rhythm's" Concert Series
 * Albany "Sounds of Summer"
 * Lebanon Community Chorus
 * Lebanon Summer "Concerts in the Park" Series At Academy Square in downtown Lebanon.
 * ''Lebanon "Summer Bands & Brews" Series' At Strawberry Plaza in South Lebanon.
 * Independence "Rivers Edge Summer Concert Series" At Independence's Riverview Riverfront Park.
 * Monmouth "Music in the Park Series" At Monmouth's Main Street Park Amphitheater.
 * WOU Chambers Singers
 * Western Oregon Voices
 * WOU Jazz Orchestra

Within the Willamette Valley

 * Salem Pops Orchestra
 * Willamette Master Chorus
 * Oregon Symphany Orchestra
 * Salem Youth Symphony
 * Eugene Symphony
 * Eugene Concert Choir
 * Eugene-Springfield Youth Orchestra
 * U of O Chamber Choir
 * Organ Symphony

Sports
As the home of Oregon State University, Corvallis is the home for 17 NCAA Division I OSU teams (7 men's, 10 women's) in the Pac-12 Conference. Corvallis is also the home of the Corvallis Knights baseball team, who play in the summer at OSU's Goss Stadium. The Knights play in the West Coast League, an independent collegiate summer baseball league with teams from Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Alberta.

Parks and recreation
Corvallis is recognized as a Tree City USA. The city has at least 47 public parks within and adjacent to the city limits. One such park is Avery Park and Natural Area, which is one of Corvallis' most popular parks. The Avery Park Cross Country Course is located in the park. It is the home course for the Oregon State Beavers cross-country teams. Beazell Memorial Forest, the largest park maintained by Benton County, is located 10 miles from the town.

Parks in Corvallis

 * Willamette Park
 * Crystal Lake Sports Fields
 * Avery Park
 * Wildcat Park
 * Crystal Lake Sports Park
 * Peavy Arboretum
 * Timberhill Natural Area
 * Central Park
 * Cloverland City Park
 * Porter Park
 * Village Green Sports Fields & Park
 * Chintimini Park
 * Bald Hill Natural Area
 * Jackson-Frazier Wetlands
 * Riverfront Commemorative Park
 * Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park
 * Bruce Starker Arts Park
 * Witham Hill Natural Area

Government
Helen Berg served as mayor of Corvallis for three terms from 1994 until 2006. Berg was the first female mayor of Corvallis, and the longest-serving mayor of the city to date. The current mayor is Charles Maughan, elected in 2022.

The City of Corvallis uses the City Council/City Manager form of government with a weak mayor. The City Council is made of nine city councilors who represent their representative wards and are elected to two-year terms. The City Manager is appointed by the City Council and serves at the pleasure of the City Council. The City Manager primary job is to run the administrative day-to-day operations of the city.

The Corvallis Police Department provides law enforcement services to the city.

Education
Education has had a place in Corvallis since the earliest days of the town, with the first school building constructed in 1848 and put to use in 1850.

During the first decade of the 21st century, local boosters claimed that Corvallis had the highest education rate per capita of any city in the state of Oregon.

Public schools in the city are administered by the Corvallis School District, with two acting high schools, Corvallis High School and Crescent Valley High School. Corvallis is also the home of Oregon State University and the Benton Center campus of Linn-Benton Community College.

Print

 * Corvallis Gazette-Times

The Corvallis Gazette-Times is a daily newspaper for Corvallis. The newspaper, along with its sister publication, the Albany Democrat-Herald of neighboring Albany, Oregon, is owned by Lee Enterprises of Davenport, Iowa.

The paper in its current form was created in 1909 as the result of the merger of two competing weekly newspapers, The Corvallis Gazette (established 1863), and The Corvallis Times (established 1888).
 * The Corvallis Advocate

The Corvallis Advocate is a free alternative newsweekly

The Corvallis Advocate is self described 'fiercely independent' and maintain separate departments covering area business, local government, social justice, and parenting. The Advocate states: "Our primary purpose is to advocate for our shared community. The Corvallis Advocate is led by an Editorial Board, and is locally owned."
 * The Daily Barometer

The Daily Barometer is an independent campus newspaper of Oregon State University. It is published weekly. Also known as "The Baro", the news team covers local news and events and brings awareness to important student issues. Students serve as editors, reporters, and photographers to cover news through the newspaper, website, social media, and online videos.

On March 16, 1896, the first issue of a monthly called The Barometer rolled off the presses at Oregon Agricultural College, today's Oregon State University.

Radio
Local radio stations serving the Corvallis area:
 * Corvallis:

 * Within the Albany-Corvallis-Lebanon Combine Statistical Area:

Corvallis is part of the Eugene, Salem and Portland, Oregon radio and television market.
 * Within the Willamette Valley:

Television

 * Corvallis:

Corvallis has 1 television station within the city and 3 Translator stations. KAOC-TV is an Oregon Public Broadcasting/ PBS station. KLSR-TV (FOX 34 Oregon), KGW (NBC 8 Portland) and KATU (TV) (ABC 2 Portland) have translators within the city.

-KAOC-TV

Translator stations for:

-KLSR-TV (FOX 34 Oregon) at K14GW-D

-KGW (NBC 8 Portland) at K16ML-D

-KATU (TV) (ABC 2 Portland) at K08PZ-D There is 1 additional television station within the Albany-Corvallis-Lebanon combine statistical area and 1 additional Translator station in the Albany-Corvallis-Lebanon combine statistical area. KSLM-LD is based in Dallas, Oregon. KPDX (FOX 12 Portland) has a translator in neighboring Albany.
 * Within the Albany-Corvallis-Lebanon Combine Statistical Area:

-KSLM-LD (Dallas, Oregon) at KVDO-LD in Albany

-KPDX (FOX 12 Portland) at K20DD-D in Albany Corvallis is a part of the Eugene radio and television market with stations such as KVAL, KEZI and KMTR. Corvallis also is within the Salem and Portland area TV market worth stations such as Portland-Salem's CW, KATU, KOIN and KGW are also available on select cable providers.
 * Within the Willamette Valley:

Transportation
In 2009, the Corvallis metropolitan statistical area (MSA) ranked as the highest in the United States for percentage of commuters who biked to work (9.3%), and the second-highest percentage of commuters who walked to work (11.2%). More than one of five Corvallis commuters traveled to work via some form of active transportation. In 2013, the Corvallis MSA represented the fifth-lowest mode share for commuting by private automobile (72.6%). During the same period, 8.8% of Corvallis-area commuters biked, another 7.9% walked, and 7.7% worked from home.

Air
Corvallis Municipal Airport (CVO) serves private and corporate aircraft's. Many well known celebrities have flown in and out of the Corvallis Municipal Airport over the years including John F. Kennedy in 1960, Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama.

The closest commercial air service is available at Eugene Airport (EUG), 35 mi, Salem Airport (SLE), 40 mi or Portland International Airport (PDX), 95 mi.

The Groome Transportation Company provides multiple direct shuttles daily between Corvallis and the Eugene Airport (EUG). Groome Transportation also provides multiple shuttles daily between Corvallis and the Portland Airport (PDX) with stops in Albany, Salem and Woodburn.

Train
Historically Corvallis had a very busy passenger train station and depot that was located downtown. They are no longer in use, but have been moved to other areas in the city, preserved, and repurposed. The Corvallis passenger train station is currently the Corvallis Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant. Passenger service is currently provided by the Amtrak Cascades line at the nearby Albany Amtrak Station (ALY).

There are 2 freight lines that run through the city regularly.

Bus

Long-distance bus service is provided in Corvallis by Greyhound. It stops at the Downtown Transit Center and at OSU campus Transit stop (station ID: CVI and CVO).

FlixBus provides Regional service from the Downtown Transit Center and OSU campus Transit Center. There are 4 daily trips southbound to Eugene and the U of O campus, and 4 daily northbound trips to Albany, Salem and a Portland.

The Campus Connector – The Groome Transportation Company also provides Shuttle Bus service between the Oregon State University campus and University of Oregon campus in Eugene multiple times daily called the "Campus Connector" with a stop at the Eugene Airport between the two rival university campuses.

Local bus service is provided by 3 different transit systems, the Corvallis Transit System (CTS), the Benton Area Transit System (BAT) and the OSU Transit System "Beaver Bus". The Corvallis City Council approved an additional fee on monthly water utility bills in January 2011, allowing all CTS bus service to become fareless.

The CTS system runs a total of 12 daytime routes, 10 within the city limits, Monday through Saturday, covering most of the city and converging at the Downtown Transit Center. Additional commuter routes run in the early morning and late afternoon on weekdays, and midmorning and midafternoon on Saturdays.

When Oregon State University is in session, CTS also runs 2 routes of the "Night Owl", a set of late-night routes running Thursday through Saturday.

Two short-distance intercity routes are also ran by CTS from the Downtown Transit Center and OSU campus Transit Center. The "Linn-Benton Loop" runs multiple trips daily to the Albany Transit Center/ Albany Amtrak Station (ALY) and Linn-Benton Community College The "Philomath Connection", runs multiple trips daily to downtown Philomath.

Two other intercity routes are ran by the Benton Area Transit System (BAT) from the Downtown Transit Center and OSU campus Transit Center. The "99 Express" runs multiple trips daily to Lewisburg and Adair Village. The "Coast to Valley Express" runs multiple trips daily between the Albany Amtrak station (ALY) and the Newport Transit Center with stops in Philomath, Blodgett, Eddyville and Toledo.

The Beaver Bus is ran by the Oregon State University Transit System for transportation across the main campus. The Beaver Bus has 3 routes from the Reser Stadium Transit Center and has multiple stops throughout campus. Buses arrive at every stop every 15–20 minutes from 7am-7pm.

From 2010 to 2011, CTS has seen a 37.9% increase in ridership, partially as a result of going fareless and "the rising cost of fuel for individual vehicles and the desire for residents to choose more sustainable options for commuting to work, school and other activities" According to Tim Bates, the Corvallis Transit System and Philomath Connection had 3,621,387 passenger miles traveled and 85,647 gallons of fuel consumed in fiscal year 2011, a period that covers July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011. In 2019, the local bus system expanded to several more lines throughout the city, and the addition of a minimal Sunday service.

Highways
Oregon State Route 34 is the main connector from Corvallis to I-5, the maim arterial north–south route though the state of Oregon, which lies 10–12 miles to the east of the city. Continuing on OR 34 another 9–10 miles east of I-5 is the city of Lebanon, Oregon the 3rd largest city of the Albany-Corvallis-Lebanon CSA. Westward on OR 34 connects Corvallis to Philomath, Marys Peak, Alsea and Waldport on the Oregon Coast.
 * OR 34.svg Highway 34
 * US 20.svg Highway 20

US Route 20 is the main connector between the cities of Corvallis and Albany, Oregon, which is the 2nd largest city of the Albany-Corvallis-Lebanon CSA. US 20 runs approximately parallel to the Willamette River for 11 miles Northeast of Corvallis until it reaches North Albany and crosses the Willamette River into Downtown Albany. Westward US 20 connects Corvallis to Philomath, Blodgett, Eddyville, Toledo and Newport and the Oregon Coast.
 * OR 99W.svg Highway 99W

Oregon State Route 99W runs a north–south route and is the main connector between Corvallis and Eugene, Oregon, 44 miles to the South. On Highway 99w in between the cities of Corvallis and Eugene are the cities of Monroe, Oregon and Junction City. To the north on OR 99W from Corvallis are the cities of Adair Village, Monmouth, Independence, Rickreall, Amity and McMinnville.

Bridges
There are eight major bridges in the city, all but two traverse the Mary's River or the Willamette River.
 * Harrison Street Bridge
 * Van Buren Street Bridge
 * Willamette River Bridge (Highway 34)
 * Mary's River Bridge (Highway 99W)
 * 4th Street Bridge (Highway 99W over Mary's River)
 * Pacific Highway Bridge (Highway 99W over Railroad in North Corvallis)
 * 15th Street Bridge (Over Mary's River to Avery Park)
 * Irish Bend Covered Bridge

There are over 100 street and pedestrian crossings that traverse over the tributaries throughout the city. There are 13 creeks and 2 rivers that run through the city.

Bicycle
The League of American Bicyclists gave Corvallis a gold rating as a Bicycle-Friendly Community in 2011. Also, according to the United States Census Bureau's 2008–12 American Community Survey, 11.2% of workers in Corvallis bicycle to work. The city of Corvallis is ranked third-highest among 'small' U.S. cities (with populations under 200,000) for bicycle commuters, behind Key West, Florida (17.4%) and Davis, California (18.6%).

Water
The city's water system has two water treatment plants, nine processed water reservoirs, one raw water reservoir, and some 210 mi of pipe. The system can process up to about 19 e6USgal of water per day.

The Rock Creek treatment plant processes water from sources in the 10000 acre Rock Creek Municipal Watershed near Marys Peak. The three sources are surface streams, which are all tributaries of the Marys River. Rock Creek has a processing capacity of 7 e6USgal of water per day (gpd), though operational characteristics of the 9 mi, 20 in pipeline to the city limits capacity to half that. The Rock Creek Plant output remains steady year round at about 3 e6USgal.

The H.D. Taylor treatment plant obtains water from the Willamette River, and has been expanded at least four times since it was first constructed in 1949. Its output varies seasonally according to demand, producing from 2 to 16 e6USgal per day, though it has a capacity of 21 e6USgal per day.

The total reservoir capacity is 21 e6USgal, though measures to voluntarily reduce water usage begin when reservoir levels fall below 90% of capacity, and become mandatory at 80% or below. As part of its ongoing water-conservation program, the water department jointly publishes a guide to water-efficient garden plants.

Green power
According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency report on its "green power communities", Corvallis is among the top cities in the nation in terms of buying electricity produced from renewable resources. Corvallis purchases more than 126 million kilowatt-hours of green power annually, which amounts to 21% of the city's total purchased electricity.

Fire department
The Corvallis Fire Department is headed by Fire Chief Ben Janes as of February 14, 2022 and currently has four stations in the City and 1 station located in the Corvallis Rural Fire Protection District staffed by 1 paid Lieutenant and several Resident Interns. A sixth fire station was shuttered several years ago due to budgeting shortfalls and remains closed to date. Corvallis Fire provides ALS ambulance service for all of Benton County with 5 frontline ambulances. In 2021 CFD ran almost 10,000 calls for service. The Corvallis Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 2240 represents all line personnel and prevention staff.

Notable people

 * This list excludes persons whose only connection to Corvallis is attendance or employment at Oregon State University.

 * Lucia H. Faxon Additon (1847–1919), writer, teacher, social reformer
 * Edward Allworth (1895–1966), Medal of Honor recipient
 * Debra Arlyn (born 1986), singer-songwriter
 * Daniel Atkinson (1921–2024), biochemist at UCLA who spent his retirement years in Corvallis
 * Joseph C. Avery (1817–1876), Marysville town founder and politician
 * Brad Badger (born 1975), NFL player
 * Brad Bird (born 1957), Academy Award-winning animator, writer, and director (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant, Ratatouille)
 * Kevin Boss (born 1984), NFL tight end, Super Bowl XLII champion with the New York Giants
 * Chris Botti (born 1962), jazz trumpet musician
 * Meredith Brooks (born 1958), singer, songwriter, producer
 * James Cassidy, member of band Information Society
 * Meghna Chakrabarti, journalist, radio producer, NPR
 * Robert Cheeke, bodybuilder and vegan activist
 * Randy Couture, mixed martial artist and UFC Hall of Fame member
 * Edmund Creffield, founder of "Bride of Christ Church", also known as "Holy Rollers"
 * Morgan Eckroth (born 1998), barista, winner of the 2022 United States Barista Championship and online content creator
 * Christopher L. Eisgruber, Rhodes Scholar and 20th president of Princeton University
 * Atta Elayyan (1985–2019), New Zealand futsal player, murdered in the Christchurch mosque shootings
 * Dick Fosbury (1947–2023), 1968 Olympics gold medalist and innovator of modern back-first method of high jumping
 * Bob Gilder (1950–), professional golfer, member of Champions Tour
 * Gordon Gilkey (1912–2000), artist and educator
 * Kevin Gregg (1978–), MLB player
 * Les Gutches (1973–), Olympic wrestler, world champion
 * Elizabeth Hoffman, actress
 * Talanoa Hufanga, NFL player
 * Nick Hundley (1983–), MLB player
 * Eyvind Kang, violinist and composer
 * Paul Kocher, cryptographer
 * Jon Krakauer, author (Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven, etc.) and mountaineer
 * Wayne Krantz, guitarist
 * Jane Lubchenco, marine biologist, named in 2009 to head National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
 * Bernard Malamud, author, writer of The Natural; his book A New Life was based on Corvallis
 * Ben Masters (1947–), actor, notable for soap opera Passions, stage and film works
 * Ralph Miller (1919–2001), basketball coach, enshrined in Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
 * Barbara Minty, (also known as Barbara Minty McQueen) Vogue model and wife of late actor Steve McQueen
 * Rebecca Morris, broadcast, radio, and print journalist, The New York Times bestselling nonfiction author
 * Sara Nelson (1973–), an American union leader who serves as the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL–CIO
 * Mario Pastega (1916–2012), businessman and philanthropist
 * Linus Pauling (1901–1994), 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and 1962 Nobel Peace Prize (graduate of Oregon Agricultural College, now Oregon State)
 * Putsata Reang, journalist, writer
 * Jason Reed, actor, musician
 * Harold Reynolds (1960–), MLB player and broadcaster
 * Doug Riesenberg (1965–), former NFL offensive tackle
 * Mike Riley (1953–), former head coach of Nebraska Cornhuskers, former coach of NFL's San Diego Chargers
 * Nathan Sexton, professional disc golfer and winner of the 2017 United States Disc Golf Championship
 * Jordan Smotherman, pro hockey player
 * Robb Thomas, former NFL player
 * Ernest H. Wiegand, professor of horticulture and developer of modern method of manufacture of the maraschino cherry
 * Carl Wieman, 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics recipient for creation of Bose–Einstein condensate
 * Bushrod Washington Wilson (1828–1900), pioneer, railroad executive, and county functionary
 * Mike Zandofsky, former NFL player

Sister cities
Corvallis has two sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International:
 * 🇪🇹 Gondar, Ethiopia
 * 🇺🇦 Uzhhorod, Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine

title: Corvallis, Oregon


text:
Salem, Oregon

Salem is the capital city of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood of West Salem is in Polk County. Salem was founded in 1842, became the capital of the Oregon Territory in 1851, and was incorporated in 1857.

Salem had a population of 175,535 at the 2020 census, making it the 3rd most populous city in the state after Portland and Eugene. Salem is the principal city of the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan area that covers Marion and Polk counties and had a combined population of 433,353 at the 2020 census. This area is, in turn, part of the Portland–Vancouver–Salem Combined Statistical Area.

The city is home to Willamette University, Corban University, and Chemeketa Community College. The State of Oregon is the largest public employer in the city, and Salem Health is the largest private employer. Transportation includes public transit from Cherriots (legally known as Salem Area Mass Transit District), Amtrak service, as well as limited commercial and non-commercial air travel at McNary Field. Major roads include Interstate 5, Oregon Route 99E, and Oregon Route 22, which connects West Salem across the Willamette River via the Marion Street and Center Street bridges.

Origin of name
The Native Americans who inhabited the central Willamette Valley at first European contact, the Kalapuya, called the area Chim-i-ki-ti, which means "meeting or resting place" in the Central Kalapuya language (Santiam). When the Methodist Mission moved to the area, they called the new establishment Chemeketa; although it was more widely known as the Mill, because of its situation on Mill Creek. When the Oregon Institute was established, the community became known as the institute.

When the institute was dissolved, the trustees decided to lay out a town site on the Institute lands. Some possible sources for the name "Salem" include William H. Willson, who in 1850 and 1851 filed the plans for the main part of the city, and suggested adopting an Anglicized version of the Biblical Hebrew word "שָׁלוֹם, Shalom", meaning "peace" (used also as a greeting). The Reverend David Leslie, President of the town's Trustees, also wanted a Biblical name, and suggested using the last five letters of "Jerusalem". Or, the town may be named after Salem, Massachusetts, where Leslie was educated. There were many names suggested, and even after the change to Salem, some people, such as Asahel Bush (editor of the Oregon Statesman), believed the name should be changed back to Chemeketa. The Vern Miller Civic Center, which houses the city offices and library, has a public space dedicated as the Peace Plaza in recognition of the names by which the city has been known.

Europeans
The first people of European descent arrived in the area as early as 1812; they were animal trappers and food gatherers for the fur trading companies in Astoria, Oregon.

The first permanent American settlement in the area was the Jason Lee Methodist mission (1840) located in the area north of Salem known as Wheatland. In 1842, the missionaries established the Oregon Institute (the forerunner of Willamette University) in the area that was to become the site of Salem. In 1844, the mission was dissolved and the town site established.

In 1851, Salem became the territorial capital after it was moved from Oregon City. The capital was moved briefly to Corvallis in 1855, but was moved back to Salem permanently that same year. Salem incorporated as a city in 1857, and with the coming of statehood in 1859, it became the state capital.

Capitol buildings
Oregon has had three capitol buildings in Salem. A two-story state house, which had been occupied for only two months, burned to the ground in December 1855. Oregon's second capitol building was completed in 1876 on the site of the original. The Revival-style building was based in part on the U.S. Capitol building. The building received its distinctive copper dome in 1893. On April 25, 1935, this building was also destroyed by fire. The third and current Oregon State Capitol was completed on the same site in 1938. It faces north instead of west like it's predecessor, and is recognizable by its distinctive pioneer statue atop the capitol dome that is plated with gold-leaf and officially named the Oregon Pioneer.

State fair and cherry festival
Agriculture has always been important to Salem, and the city has historically recognized and celebrated it in a number of ways. In 1861, Salem was chosen as the permanent site of the Oregon State Fair by the Oregon State Agricultural Association. Salem is nicknamed the "Cherry City", because of the past importance of the local cherry-growing industry. The first cherry festival in Salem was held in 1903 and was an annual event, with parades and the election of a cherry queen, until sometime after World War I. The event was briefly revived as the Salem Cherryland Festival for several years in the late 1940s.

Geography and climate
Salem is located in the north-central Willamette Valley, in Marion and Polk counties. The 45th Parallel (roughly the halfway point between the North Pole and the Equator) passes through Salem's city limits.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 48.45 sqmi, of which 47.90 sqmi is land and 0.55 sqmi is water.

Although the Willamette River flows through Salem, the North Santiam River watershed is Salem's primary drinking water source. Other important streams that pass through Salem are Mill Creek, the Mill Race, Pringle Creek, and Shelton Ditch. Smaller streams in the southern and southeastern parts of the city include Clark Creek, Jory Creek, Battle Creek, Croisan Creek, and Claggett Creek, while Glen Creek and Brush Creek flow through West Salem.

Elevation within the city limits ranges from about 120 to 800 ft. Salem contains the volcanic Salem Hills in the south and is sandwiched by the 1000 ft Eola Hills directly to the west and the 600 ft Waldo Hills to the east. Northern and eastern Salem are less hilly. South and West Salem contain some canyons and are the hilliest areas. The coast range and the Cascades—including Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson, and on the clearest of days, Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams in Washington—can be viewed from throughout the city.

Like most of the Willamette Valley area, Salem has a mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb). Rain is heaviest in late fall and throughout winter, and almost all of the annual precipitation falls between October and April, with a dry season from May through September. Light snowfall occurs in winter, but major snows are rare. Mostly cloudy skies and low cloud ceilings are commonplace during the rainy season.

Salem's mean annual temperature is 54.1 °F; its annual precipitation is 40.08 in, with an average 3.5 in of snow included. However, over a quarter of years receive no snowfall. The state capital is about 47 mi south of Portland, but actually has a lower average temperature than that of Portland (54.4 °F), due in part to the lower daily minima.

All-time extremes in Salem range from 117 to -12 F. The coldest afternoon of the year usually falls to 32 F on the freezing point, whereas the coldest recorded maximum temperature was 16 F in three separate months and years. The warmest night on record was 74 F in July 2006 and the warmest annual night averages 64 F.

2020 census
As of the 2020 census, there were 175,535 people, and 64,426 households in the city. The population density was 3,596.8 people per square mile. The racial make up of the city was 75.3% White, 1.4% African American, 1.0% Native American, 3.3% Asian, 1.8% Pacific Islander, and 10.2% two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 22.4% of the population.

24.2% of the population were under 18, and 6.2% were under 5. People over 65 made up 14.6% of the population. The gender make up was 49% female and 51% male.

The median household income was $62,185, and the per capita income was $31,610. 14.7% of the population were under the poverty line.

2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 154,637 people, 57,290 households, and 36,261 families residing in the city. The population density was 3228.3 PD/sqmi. There were 61,276 housing units at an average density of 1279.2 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the city was 79.0% White, 1.5% African American, 1.5% Native American, 2.7% Asian, 0.9% Pacific Islander, 10.1% from other races, and 4.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 20.3% of the population.

There were 57,290 households, of which 33.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.0% were married couples living together, 13.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.2% had a male householder with no wife present, and 36.7% were non-families. 28.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 3.15.

The median age in the city was 34.5 years. 25.2% of residents were under the age of 18; 10.8% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 27.6% were from 25 to 44; 24.5% were from 45 to 64; and 12% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.9% male and 50.1% female.

2000 census
As of the census of 2000, there were 136,924 people, 50,676 households, and 32,331 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,994.0 /mi2. There were 53,817 housing units at an average density of 1,176.8 /mi2. The racial makeup of the city was 83.1% White, 1.3% African American, 1.5% Native American, 2.4% Asian, 0.5% Pacific Islander, 7.9% from other races, and 3.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 14.6% of the population. Non-Hispanic Whites were 70.7% of the population in 2010, compared to 88.6% in 1990.

There were 50,676 households, out of which 32.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.7% were married couples living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.2% were non-families. 28.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 3.10.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 25.4% under the age of 18, 11.4% from 18 to 24, 30.1% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $38,881, and the median income for a family was $46,409. Males had a median income of $34,746 versus $26,789 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,141. About 10.5% of families and 15.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.2% of those under age 18 and 7.1% of those age 65 or over.

Government
Salem is governed using the council–manager government model. The city council consists of eight members who are elected from single member wards. The mayor is elected in a citywide vote.

The current mayor is Chris Hoy, a Democrat who took office in 2022.

The following are Salem's city councilors:

 * Ward 1: Virginia Stapleton
 * Ward 2: Linda Nishioka
 * Ward 3: Trevor Phillips
 * Ward 4: Deanna Gwyn
 * Ward 5: Jose Gonzalez
 * Ward 6: Julie Hoy
 * Ward 7: Vanessa Nordyke
 * Ward 8: Micki Varney

Economy
State government is Salem's largest employer, but the city also serves as a hub for the area farming communities and is a major agricultural food processing center. It lies along the I-5 corridor and is within an hour's drive of Oregon's largest city, Portland.

Salem is the home of Kettle Foods, Inc., a maker of potato chips since 1982. Kettle employs 700 in Salem and at a plant in Bowthorpe, England. NORPAC Foods, Inc., is a large food processor in Salem and elsewhere in Marion County. Its brands include Flav-R-Pac and West-Pac frozen fruits and vegetables, and Santiam canned vegetables. Oregon Fruit Products, Inc., has been canning blackberries, marionberries and other fruits in Salem since 1935, with Oregon as its brand name.

In a bid to diversify its economic base, Salem attracted a number of computer-related manufacturing plants in the 1990s. In November 2003, the Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon Group (SUMCO), one of these arrivals, announced it would be closing its two silicon wafer plants at the end of 2004, eliminating 620 jobs, and moving production to other plants.

Salem is the headquarters of the Oregon Department of Corrections and home to four state correctional facilities, including the Oregon State Penitentiary, Oregon's only maximum-security prison.

Numerous projects are underway to increase the supply of housing in the downtown core. These projects will provide upscale, low- and high-rise condominium and office space.

Top employers
According to Salem's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the 2022 fiscal year, the top employers in the area are:

Neighborhood associations
Salem has 18 recognized neighborhood associations, which are independent groups that receive administrative support from the city.

Cultural events and series
The nonprofit group Salem Community Markets (SCM) operates several farmers' markets in Salem. The largest and most well-known of these is the Salem Saturday Market, which is located north of the Capitol, runs from May to October, and focuses on local products, including art, baked goods, produce, live plants, meat, and other items. Other SCM-run markets include a Monday Market (hosted from May to September at the Salem Hospital), a Wednesday Farmers' Market hosted on campus at Chemeketa Community College, a Thursday Market in West Salem, and a Holiday Gift Market in December. There is also an indoor Saturday Public Market which is open all year.

The annual World Beat Festival, held in June, is sponsored by the nonprofit Salem Multicultural Institute. The event lasts for two days and is held at the Riverfront Park. It features international crafts, music, dance, food, and folklore from every continent, and in recent years has held a Dragon Boat race similar to the ones held during the nearby Rose Festival in Portland.

The Salem Art Association sponsors the annual Salem Art Fair and Festival, which takes place at Bush's Pasture Park during the summer. Its displays, interactive exhibits, food, and performances attract thousands of visitors each year.

The Bite of Salem, held in July at the Riverfront Park, is an event similar to others such as the Bite of Oregon in Portland. The event consists of a weekend of local restaurants in Salem offering samples of their menus to patrons in a festival atmosphere, with live entertainment and benefiting local charities. In the summer, Chef's Nite Out is a wine and food benefit held for Marion-Polk Food Share. Oregon Wine & Food Festival takes place at that state's fairgrounds in January.

The largest event in Salem is the Oregon State Fair at the end of August through Labor Day. Located in the Oregon State Fairgrounds in North Salem, the fair offers exhibits, competitions and carnival rides. Other events such as concerts, horse shows and rodeos take place at the Oregon State Fair and Expo Center throughout the year.

The Mid-Valley Video Festival offers local, national and international independent films in theaters throughout the city.

The Salem Film Festival has included feature films that were Oregon premieres.

The Salem Repertory Theatre presents shows at the Reed Opera House. The Pentacle Theatre, which features plays and musicals, is located in West Salem. The Elsinore Theatre is a historic landmark featuring recitals, concerts, films, and plays. It has the largest working pipe organ on the west coast, a remnant of its days as a showcase for silent films, in the early days of cinema. Grand Theater is newly renovated and is the home of Enlightened Theatrics, a professional theatre company and hosts the Salem Progressive Film Series on the third Tuesday nine months of the year.

Salem Capital Pride (Salem's yearly Gay Pride Event), hosted by Aundrea Smith (Author of: "Your Local Queer"; 2019) is held in early August.

The personal house and garden of landscape architects Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver, known as Gaiety Hollow, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Their firm Lord & Schryver designed the gardens of Historic Deepwood Estate.

Museums and other points of interest
In addition to the Oregon State Capitol and adjacent Willson Park, Salem's downtown contains the Willamette Heritage Center, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, the Elsinore Theatre, Riverfront Park, the Willamette River, some of the oldest buildings in Oregon, as well as shopping and restaurants. The A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village interactive children's museum and Prewitt-Allen Archaeological Museum are both also located in Salem.

The two leading candidates for the tallest building in Salem are Salem First United Methodist Church and the Capitol Center. A private survey commissioned by a local publication holds that the church is the tallest. The tall white spire of the 1878 church rises at the intersection of Church and State Streets across from the Capitol grounds. The Capitol Center (originally the First National Bank Building, then the Livesley Building) was built in 1927 by former Salem mayor Thomas A. Livesley, a prominent Salem-area businessman and civic leader. At that time of its completion, it was the tallest commercial building in the state.

In 1988, Livesley's family home was purchased through private donations and was donated to the state. It now serves as the official residence of the Governor and family. Now known as Mahonia Hall, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1990.

The Oregon Symphony, based in Portland, presents approximately ten classical and pops concerts each year in Salem. The Salem Chamber Orchestra includes professional area musicians as well as students. The Salem Armory Auditorium has hosted touring bands including Korn and Phish.

The Salem Concert Band is a community band made up of professional and amateur musicians that performs several classical and pops concerts annually.

Because Salem is the state capital, it has a multitude of government agencies, departments, and boards housed in buildings with architectural designs ranging from the early 20th century to examples of state-of-the-art civil building design.

The historic Reed Opera House in downtown Salem has a number of local shops and dining establishments, as well as an art gallery.

Salem has been awarded "Tree City USA" status by the National Arbor Day Foundation for 30 consecutive years for its dedication to urban forestry. Salem was the first city in Oregon to receive the award. In keeping with the city's "Cherry City" theme, flowering cherry trees have been planted along many Salem streets as well as on the Capitol Mall across from the Capitol.

The Salem Public Library's main branch is located just south of downtown. A branch library is located in West Salem (Polk County). The Library participates in the Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service, so Salem Public Library cards are also valid in the member libraries in Yamhill, Polk, Marion, and parts of Linn County. In addition to the Salem Public Library, the Mark O. Hatfield Library at Willamette University is open to the public as well, although the hours are limited.

The film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was filmed at the Oregon State Hospital.

Salem and its environs have a multitude of wineries and vineyards that are open to the public.

Media
Salem has one daily newspaper, the Gannett-owned Statesman Journal. The Capital Press, a weekly agricultural newspaper, is published in the city and is distributed throughout the West Coast. The monthly Salem Business Journal covers business and government. Salem Magazine, published quarterly, both in physical and digital (online) issues, focuses upon its people; its unique culture; and its downtown and surrounding neighborhood communities.

Northwest Television operates three television stations that have Salem transmitters: KWVT-LD, KSLM, and KPWC, which serve an area from Longview, Washington, to Eugene, Oregon. Two stations are licensed to Salem but operate out of Portland: KPXG-TV and KRCW.

As of 2012, seven radio stations broadcast from Salem, including three commercial AM stations, three non-commercial FM stations, and a community radio station. KBZY was a popular Top 40 station from its sign-on in 1957 through the 1960s and 1970s. Today KBZY has an oldies format, and continues to use live and local personalities. KBZY is affiliated with the ABC Radio Network. KYKN carries syndicated conservative talk hosts. KZGD is a Spanish language sports talk station. KSLM features conservative talk programming. KSAI is a non-commercial station licensed to Educational Media Foundation with a Contemporary Christian format. KMUZ, established in 2012, is a non-commercial community radio station carrying locally produced content in a variety format.

Salem is part of the Portland Arbitron survey area for radio stations, and most of the Portland stations can be received in Salem, including powerful AM stations news/talk KEX, CBS Sports Radio affiliate KXTG, and Fox Sports Radio affiliate KPOJ. Stations to the south in Corvallis and Albany are also easily heard in Salem.

NPR programming is carried by Oregon Public Broadcasting, which can be heard on KOPB-FM from Portland, and KOAC from Corvallis.

City parks

Salem's Public Works Department, Parks Operations Division, is responsible for a park system encompassing 2,338 acre with 29.53 mi of trails, 46 parks, and another 55 open and undeveloped areas.

Minto-Brown Island Park is the largest at 1200 acre. In 2018, the Peter Courtney pedestrian and bicycle bridge was completed, connecting Minto-Brown with the 23 acre Riverfront Park, located across the Willamette River adjacent to downtown. Riverfront Park is also home to the Salem Carousel.

Bush's Pasture Park, a 90.5 acre urban park a few blocks south of downtown Salem, features natural groves of native Oregon White Oak trees, the historic Bush House, a rose garden, and adjacent Deepwood Estates.

Other city parks include 101 acre Cascade Gateway Park and Marion Square Park, which is located downtown next to Marion Street Bridge and has a skatepark and basketball court. The skatepark also allows bicycles. Marion Square Park was laid out by city founder William H. Willson, and is the next oldest municipal park in Salem after Willson Park at the Oregon State Capitol.

Across the Willamette River in West Salem is the 114 acre Wallace Marine Park, which includes a boat ramp and floating boat dock allowing easy access to the river for water sports. The NRHP-listed Union Street Railroad Bridge, repurposed as a bicycle and pedestrian bridge, connects Wallace Marine Park and West Salem to Riverfront Park and downtown Salem.

Salem is also home to one of the smallest city parks in the world, Waldo Park, which consists of a single Sequoia tree.

The capitol grounds, which are maintained by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, cover three city blocks and include Willson and Capitol parks.

Recreation
Other large parks located in the Salem area include the 1680 acre Willamette Mission State Park north of the city, and Silver Falls State Park east of Salem. Both of these parks have extensive hiking, biking, and horse trails.

Salem's central location provides access to a wide variety of recreational activities in a variety of climates and geographies year round. The Coast Range and the Pacific Ocean are to the west. The Santiam Canyon area, the Western Cascades and the High Cascades are to the east. Portland and its environs are to the north, while Eugene and its environs are to the south.

Salem also has two disc golf courses. A nine-hole course located in the woods of Woodmansee Park (located behind Judson Middle School), and a more open style 18-hole course located throughout Cascade Gateway Park. They are both free and open to the public.

Elementary and secondary

Salem's public elementary and secondary schools are part of the Salem-Keizer School District, which includes almost all of the city limits. The Salem-Keizer district has approximately 39,000 students and is the second largest public school district in the state. A small section of Salem in Marion County is assigned to Cascade School District 5.

The city also has many private elementary and secondary schools such as Blanchet Catholic School and Salem Academy Christian. One school, Willamette Academy, is part of an outreach program run by Willamette University that is designed to expose under-represented students to the rewards of an academic life at an early age (7th–12th grade).

Salem is also home to several public boarding schools, the Chemawa Indian School (a Bureau of Indian Education (BIE)-affiliated Native American high school), and the Oregon School for the Deaf. Oregon School for the Blind was formerly in the city and closed in 2009.

Colleges and universities
Post secondary schools include Chemeketa Community College, Corban University, Tokyo International University of America, and Willamette University, the oldest university in the American west. Portland State University, Eastern Oregon University, Western Oregon University and Oregon State University provide classes and a handful of undergraduate degrees at Chemeketa Community College.

All of Marion County and all of Polk County are within the Chemeketa community college district.

Transportation
Cherriots, an independent government agency, provides fixed-route bus service, rideshare matching, and paratransit/lift services for the disabled, within the urban growth boundary. They also operate Cherriots Regional, previously known as Chemeketa Area Regional Transportation System (CARTS), which provides bus service that connects Salem to destinations as far north as Wilsonville, as far west as Dallas, and to the east to Silverton and up the Santiam Canyon to Mill City. Cherriots, in cooperation with Wilsonville's SMART, provides routes between downtown Salem and Wilsonville. From Wilsonville, WES Commuter Rail connects to TriMet routes in Beaverton, including MAX Light Rail.

Greyhound Lines provides north–south service and connecting carrier service to Bend, Oregon, from the Salem Amtrak station.

Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, leases the Salem Depot from the Oregon Department of Transportation. The Coast Starlight provides daily north–south service to cities between Los Angeles, California and Seattle, Washington. Amtrak Cascades trains, operating as far north as Vancouver, British Columbia and as far south as Eugene, Oregon, serve Salem several times daily in both directions.

HUT Airport Shuttle provides transportation to Portland International Airport. HUT also serves Corvallis with a second stop at Oregon State University, Albany, and Woodburn. Mountain Express provides transportation between Salem and Bend.

McNary Field (Salem-Willamette Valley Airport) is owned and operated by the City of Salem. It serves primarily general aviation and the Oregon National Guard – Army Aviation Support Facility (AASF). Delta Connection offered commercial air service with two daily flights to Salt Lake City, Utah, from July 2007. However, citing fuel costs versus a load factor of less than 85 percent, the service was discontinued in October 2008. The city plans to go forward with airport improvements that were announced when service was commenced, including a longer runway and an expanded terminal building. Avelo Airlines began service to Burbank, CA and Las Vegas, NV in early October 2023.

The city is served by the following highways:
 * Interstate 5
 * Oregon Route 99E
 * Oregon Route 99E Business is a spur of the above, serving the downtown area
 * Oregon Route 22
 * Oregon Route 221
 * Oregon Route 51
 * Oregon Route 213

Healthcare
Salem Hospital Regional Health Services, one of the largest of Oregon's 57 acute care hospitals, is a 454-bed acute care medical facility. It is a not-for-profit organization, and is also the city's largest private employer.

Notable people

 * Ryan Allen, football player for the Tennessee Titans
 * George Andrews, mathematician
 * Debbie Armstrong, gold medalist in skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics
 * Ryan Bailey, Olympic sprinter
 * Cal Barnes, actor, director, screenwriter, film producer, novelist, and playwright
 * Lute Barnes, baseball player for the New York Mets.
 * Kat Bjelland, lead singer of the punk rock band Babes in Toyland
 * Jerome Brudos, serial killer
 * Gus Envela Jr., Olympic sprinter
 * John Fahey, musician, author and founder of Takoma records
 * Pat Fitzsimons, PGA Tour golfer
 * Ron Funches, standup comedian
 * Thomas Leigh Gatch, Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy
 * Alfred Carlton Gilbert, inventor, athlete, toy-maker, and businessman. Known for inventing the Erector Set, and for winning an Olympic gold medal.
 * Craig Hanneman, NFL defensive lineman (1972–1975)
 * Jon Heder, actor, filmmaker, and screenwriter
 * Frank Herbert, author of Dune (novel) series; graduated from North Salem High School and employed by Statesman Journal
 * Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States; worked in Salem in the 1880s
 * Bob Horn, NFL linebacker (1976–1983)
 * Cory Kendrix, musician
 * Justin Kirk, actor
 * Kelly LeMieux, bass guitarist for Goldfinger
 * Jed Lowrie, Major League Baseball shortstop
 * Technical Sergeant Donald G. Malarkey, former non-commissioned officer with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army during World War II
 * Richard Laurence Marquette, serial killer
 * Douglas McKay, mayor of Salem, State Senator, Governor of Oregon, and U.S. Secretary of the Interior
 * Jennelle V. Moorhead, educator, president of National PTA from 1964 to 1967
 * Larry Norman, Christian rock musician
 * Thelma Payne, diver, 1920 Summer Olympics bronze medalist
 * Ben Petrick, baseball player
 * Joe Preston, bassist for several metal and rock bands
 * Leonard Stone, actor
 * William L. Sullivan, author of outdoor guide books
 * Kendra Sunderland, pornographic actress
 * Bill Swancutt, football player
 * Stephen Thorsett, professor and astronomer
 * Michael Totten, journalist and novelist
 * Zollie Volchok, former general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics and winner of the 1983 NBA Executive of the Year Award
 * Evina Westbrook, WNBA player
 * Randall Woodfield, murderer and suspected serial killer
 * Dolora Zajick, opera singer

Sister cities
Salem has three sister cities:
 * 🇮🇳 Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
 * 🇯🇵 Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan
 * Gimhae, South Gyeongsang, South Korea

As of 2014, there was talk of reviving the now-stagnant Sister City project launched in 1964 with Salem in Tamil Nadu, India.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Salem, Oregon


text:
Characidae

Characidae, the characids or characins, is a family of freshwater subtropical and tropical fish belonging to the order Characiformes. The name "characins" is an historical one, but scientists today tend to prefer "characids" to reflect their status as a, by and large, monophyletic group (at family rank). To arrive there, this family has undergone much systematic and taxonomic change. Among those fishes remaining in the Characidae currently are the tetras, comprising the very similar genera Hemigrammus and Hyphessobrycon, as well as a few related forms, such as the cave and neon tetras. Fish of this family are important as food in several regions, and also constitute a large percentage of captive freshwater aquarium fish species.

These fish vary in length; many are less than 3 cm. One of the smallest species, Hyphessobrycon roseus, grows to a maximum length of 1.9 cm.

These fish inhabit a wide range and variety of habitats. New World fishes, they originate in the Americas, ranging from southwestern Texas and México through most of Central and South America, including such major waterways as the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. Many of these fish come from rivers and tributaries, while the blind cave tetra, for example, inhabits flooded caves.

Systematics
This family has undergone a large amount of systematic and taxonomic change. More recent revision has moved many former members of the family into their own related but distinct families – the pencilfishes of the genus Nannostomus are a typical example, having now been moved into the Lebiasinidae, the assorted predatory species belonging to Hoplias and Hoplerythrinus have now been moved into the Erythrinidae, and the sabre-toothed fishes of the genus Hydrolycus have been moved into the Cynodontidae. The former subfamily Alestiinae was promoted to family level (Alestiidae) and the subfamilies Crenuchinae and Characidiinae were moved to the family Crenuchidae.

Other fish families that were formerly classified as members of the Characidae, but which were moved into separate families of their own during recent taxonomic revisions (after 1994) include Acestrorhynchidae, Anostomidae, Chilodontidae, Citharinidae, Ctenoluciidae, Curimatidae, Distichodontidae, Gasteropelecidae, Hemiodontidae, Hepsetidae, Parodontidae, Prochilodontidae, Serrasalmidae, and Triportheidae.

The larger piranhas were originally classified as belonging to the Characidae, but various revisions place them in their own related family, the Serrasalmidae. This reassignment has yet to enjoy universal acceptance, but is gaining in popularity among taxonomists working with these fishes. Given the current state of flux of the Characidae, a number of other changes will doubtless take place, reassigning once-familiar species to other families. Indeed, the entire phylogeny of the Ostariophysi – fishes possessing a Weberian apparatus – has yet to be settled conclusively. Until that phylogeny is settled, the opportunity for yet more upheavals within the taxonomy of the characoid fishes is considerable.

Taxonomy
The subfamilies and tribes currently recognized by most if not all authors, and their respective genera, are: Subfamily Spintherobolus clade Subfamily Stethaprioninae
 * Amazonspinther
 * Spintherobolus

 * Tribe Rhoadsiini [Astyanax clade]
 * Astyanacinus
 * Astyanax
 * Carlana
 * Ctenobrycon
 * Inpaichthys
 * Nematobrycon
 * Oligosarcus
 * Parastremma
 * Psellogrammus
 * Rhoadsia
 * Tribe Stygichthyini [Jupiaba clade]
 * Coptobrycon
 * Erythrocharax
 * Jupiaba
 * Macropsobrycon
 * Parecbasis
 * Stygichthys
 * Tribe Pristellini [Hemigrammus clade; Aphyoditini]
 * Aphyodite
 * Atopomesus
 * Axelrodia
 * Brittanichthys
 * Bryconella
 * Nematocharax
 * Phycocharax
 * Tribe Stethaprionini
 * Brachychalcinus
 * Gymnocorymbus
 * Orthospinus
 * Poptella
 * Stethaprion
 * Stichonodon
 * Tribe Gymnocharacini
 * Andromakhe
 * Dectobrycon
 * Grundulus
 * Gymnocharacinus
 * Hollandichthys
 * Moenkhausia
 * Psalidodon
 * Pseudochalceus
 * Rachoviscus
 * Schultzites
 * Tribe Scissorini
 * Genycharax
 * Leptobrycon
 * Microschemobrycon
 * Mixobrycon
 * Oligobrycon
 * Oxybrycon
 * Scissor
 * Serrabrycon
 * Thrissobrycon
 * Tucanoichthys
 * Tyttobrycon

Subfamily Stevardiinae

 * Tribe Eretmobryconini
 * Eretmobrycon
 * Markiana
 * Tribe Xenurobryconini
 * Iotabrycon
 * Ptychocharax
 * Scopaeocharax
 * Tyttocharax
 * Xenurobrycon
 * Tribe Argopleura clade
 * Argopleura
 * Tribe Glandulocaudini
 * Glandulocauda
 * Lophiobrycon
 * Mimagoniates
 * Tribe Stevardiini
 * Chrysobrycon
 * Corynopoma
 * Gephyrocharax
 * Hysteronotus
 * Pseudocorynopoma
 * Pterobrycon
 * Tribe Hemibryconini
 * Acrobrycon
 * Boehlkea
 * Hemibrycon
 * Tribe Creagrutini
 * Carlastyanax
 * Creagrutus
 * Tribe Landonini
 * Landonia
 * Tribe Phenacobryconini
 * Phenacobrycon
 * Tribe Trochilocharacini
 * Trochilocharax
 * Tribe Diapomini
 * Attonitus
 * Aulixidens
 * Bryconacidnus
 * Bryconadenos
 * Bryconamericus
 * Caiapobrycon
 * Ceratobranchia
 * Cyanogaster
 * Diapoma
 * Hypobrycon
 * Knodus
 * Lepidocharax
 * Microgenys
 * Monotocheirodon
 * Othonocheirodus
 * Phallobrycon
 * Piabarchus
 * Piabina
 * Planaltina
 * Rhinobrycon
 * Rhinopetitia

Subfamily Characinae

 * Tribe Protocheirodontini
 * Protocheirodon
 * Tribe Pseudocheirodontini
 * Nanocheirodon
 * Pseudocheirodon
 * Tribe Aphyocharacini
 * Aphyocharacidium
 * Aphyocharax
 * Leptagoniates
 * Inpaichthys
 * Paragoniates
 * Phenagoniates
 * Prionobrama
 * Xenagoniates
 * Tribe Cheirodontini
 * Cheirodon
 * Heterocheirodon
 * Prodontocharax
 * Saccoderma
 * Tribe Compsurini
 * Acinocheirodon
 * Aphyocheirodon
 * Cheirodontops
 * Compsura
 * Ctenocheirodon
 * Kolpotocheirodon
 * Odontostilbe
 * Serrapinnus
 * Tribe Exodontini
 * Bryconexodon
 * Exodon
 * Roeboexodon
 * Tribe Tetragonopterini
 * Tetragonopterus
 * Tribe Characini
 * Acanthocharax
 * Acestrocephalus
 * Charax
 * Cynopotamus
 * Galeocharax
 * Phenacogaster
 * Priocharax
 * Roeboides

Subfamily Pristellinae

 * Bario
 * Deuterodon
 * Ectrepopterus
 * Hasemania
 * Hemigrammus
 * Hyphessobrycon
 * Moenkhausia
 * Myxiops
 * Paracheirodon
 * Parapristella
 * Petitella
 * Pristella
 * Probolodus
 * Thayeria

Former members
The Chalceidae, Iguanodectidae, Bryconidae and Heterocharacinae are the most recent clades to be removed in order to maintain a monophyletic Characidae.

Subfamily Iguanodectinae moved to Iguanodectidae Subfamily Heterocharacinae moved to Acestrorhynchidae Subfamily Bryconinae moved to Bryconidae Subfamily Salmininae moved to Bryconidae Genera incertae sedis
 * Bryconops
 * Iguanodectes
 * Piabucus
 * Gnathocharax
 * Heterocharax
 * Hoplocharax
 * Lonchogenys
 * Brycon
 * Chilobrycon
 * Henochilus
 * Salminus
 * Chalceus moved to Chalceidae

Genera incertae sedis
A large number of taxa in this family are incertae sedis. The relationships of many fish in this family – in particular species traditionally placed in the Tetragonopterinae, which had become something of a "wastebin taxon" – are poorly known, a comprehensive phylogenetic study for the entire family is needed. The genera Hyphessobrycon, Astyanax, Hemigrammus, Moenkhausia, and Bryconamericus include the largest number of currently recognized species among characid fishes that are in need of revision; Astyanax and Hyphessobrycon in the usual delimitation are among the largest genera in this family. These genera were originally proposed between 1854 and 1908 and are still more or less defined as by Carl H. Eigenmann in 1917, though diverse species have been added to each genus since that time. The anatomical diversity within each genus, the fact that each of these generic groups at the present time cannot be well-defined, and the high number of species involved are the major reasons for the lack of phylogenetic analyses dealing with the relationships of the species within these generic "groups".

title: Characidae


text:
Ass

Ass most commonly refers to:
 * Donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus
 * any other member of the subgenus Asinus
 * Buttocks (in informal American English)

Ass or ASS may also refer to:

Art and entertainment

 * Ass (album), 1973 album by the band Badfinger
 * "Ass", a 2016 song by Momus from his 2016 album Scobberlotchers
 * ASS Altenburger, a German playing card manufacturer
 * Agents of Secret Stuff, a 2010 action comedy film

Science and technology

 * ASS (car), a French car made from 1919 to 1920
 * ASS (gene), a human gene that encodes for the enzyme argininosuccinate synthetase
 * Ass (M), in abstract algebra, denotes the collection of all associated primes of a module M
 * Advanced SubStation Alpha (extension .ass), a file format used for subtitles
 * Angle-side-side, condition in geometry that does not prove congruence of two triangles (also called SSA)
 * Arsenic sulfide, the basic chemical formula AsS

Other uses

 * áss, one of the Æsir in Old Norse mythology
 * Advisory Service for Squatters, a non-profit group based in London, UK
 * Alliance of Sahel States, an intergovernmental military alliance between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso

title: Ass


text:
Randal L. Schwartz

Randal L. Schwartz (born November 22, 1961), also known as merlyn, is an American author, system administrator and programming consultant. He has written several books on the Perl programming language, and plays a promotional role within the Perl community. He was a co-host of FLOSS Weekly.

In 1995, while working as a consultant for Intel, he cracked a number of passwords on the company's systems. He was convicted of hacking, sentenced to five years probation, and fined. The conviction was expunged in 2007.

Career
Schwartz is the co-author of several widely used books about Perl, a programming language, and has written regular columns about Perl for several computer magazines, including UNIX Review, Web Techniques, and the Perl Journal. He popularized the Just another Perl hacker signature programs. He is a founding board member of the Perl Mongers, the worldwide Perl grassroots advocacy organization. He was a member of the Squeak Oversight Board, which oversees the Squeak programming language.

He has owned and operated Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. since 1985. After joining as co-host of FLOSS Weekly, a free software/open source (FLOSS) themed podcast in 2007, he assumed the role of host in 2010 until May 2020. He has done voice work for StarShipSofa, a science-fiction podcast.

Schwartz's name is also associated with the Schwartzian transform, an algorithm to efficiently sort a list according to a computation, without repeating the computation many times for each element of the list. He also coined the name spaceship operator for use in his teaching, because it reminded him of the spaceship in an HP BASIC Star Trek game.

Schwartz is a member of the F/OSS community, and has been named a "Perl Expert" and interviewed by numerous outlets – to discuss his views on Perl, Ruby, Smalltalk and other topics – including Dr. Dobb's, Paul dot Com Security TV, The Command Line, PerlCast, FLOSS Weekly, ONLamp.com, and InfoQ. Schwartz was also a speaker at the 2011 OSCON conference and a keynote speaker at the 2010 Texas LinuxFest conference.

His various books have been met with positive reviews.

Intel case
In July 1995, Schwartz was prosecuted in the case of State of Oregon vs. Randal Schwartz, which dealt with compromised computer security during his time as a system administrator for Intel. In the process of performing penetration testing, he cracked a number of passwords on Intel's systems. Schwartz was originally convicted on three felony counts, with one reduced to a misdemeanor, but on February 1, 2007, his arrest and conviction records were sealed through an official expungement, and he is legally no longer a felon.

title: Randal L. Schwartz


text:
Cladogram

A cladogram (from Greek clados "branch" and gramma "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to descendants, nor does it show how much they have changed, so many differing evolutionary trees can be consistent with the same cladogram. A cladogram uses lines that branch off in different directions ending at a clade, a group of organisms with a last common ancestor. There are many shapes of cladograms but they all have lines that branch off from other lines. The lines can be traced back to where they branch off. These branching off points represent a hypothetical ancestor (not an actual entity) which can be inferred to exhibit the traits shared among the terminal taxa above it. This hypothetical ancestor might then provide clues about the order of evolution of various features, adaptation, and other evolutionary narratives about ancestors. Although traditionally such cladograms were generated largely on the basis of morphological characters, DNA and RNA sequencing data and computational phylogenetics are now very commonly used in the generation of cladograms, either on their own or in combination with morphology.

Molecular versus morphological data
The characteristics used to create a cladogram can be roughly categorized as either morphological (synapsid skull, warm blooded, notochord, unicellular, etc.) or molecular (DNA, RNA, or other genetic information). Prior to the advent of DNA sequencing, cladistic analysis primarily used morphological data. Behavioral data (for animals) may also be used.

As DNA sequencing has become cheaper and easier, molecular systematics has become a more and more popular way to infer phylogenetic hypotheses. Using a parsimony criterion is only one of several methods to infer a phylogeny from molecular data. Approaches such as maximum likelihood, which incorporate explicit models of sequence evolution, are non-Hennigian ways to evaluate sequence data. Another powerful method of reconstructing phylogenies is the use of genomic retrotransposon markers, which are thought to be less prone to the problem of reversion that plagues sequence data. They are also generally assumed to have a low incidence of homoplasies because it was once thought that their integration into the genome was entirely random; this seems at least sometimes not to be the case, however.

Plesiomorphies and synapomorphies
Researchers must decide which character states are "ancestral" (plesiomorphies) and which are derived (synapomorphies), because only synapomorphic character states provide evidence of grouping. This determination is usually done by comparison to the character states of one or more outgroups. States shared between the outgroup and some members of the in-group are symplesiomorphies; states that are present only in a subset of the in-group are synapomorphies. Note that character states unique to a single terminal (autapomorphies) do not provide evidence of grouping. The choice of an outgroup is a crucial step in cladistic analysis because different outgroups can produce trees with profoundly different topologies.

Homoplasies
A homoplasy is a character state that is shared by two or more taxa due to some cause other than common ancestry. The two main types of homoplasy are convergence (evolution of the "same" character in at least two distinct lineages) and reversion (the return to an ancestral character state). Characters that are obviously homoplastic, such as white fur in different lineages of Arctic mammals, should not be included as a character in a phylogenetic analysis as they do not contribute anything to our understanding of relationships. However, homoplasy is often not evident from inspection of the character itself (as in DNA sequence, for example), and is then detected by its incongruence (unparsimonious distribution) on a most-parsimonious cladogram. Note that characters that are homoplastic may still contain phylogenetic signal.

A well-known example of homoplasy due to convergent evolution would be the character, "presence of wings". Although the wings of birds, bats, and insects serve the same function, each evolved independently, as can be seen by their anatomy. If a bird, bat, and a winged insect were scored for the character, "presence of wings", a homoplasy would be introduced into the dataset, and this could potentially confound the analysis, possibly resulting in a false hypothesis of relationships. Of course, the only reason a homoplasy is recognizable in the first place is because there are other characters that imply a pattern of relationships that reveal its homoplastic distribution.

What is not a cladogram
A cladogram is the diagrammatic result of an analysis, which groups taxa on the basis of synapomorphies alone. There are many other phylogenetic algorithms that treat data somewhat differently, and result in phylogenetic trees that look like cladograms but are not cladograms. For example, phenetic algorithms, such as UPGMA and Neighbor-Joining, group by overall similarity, and treat both synapomorphies and symplesiomorphies as evidence of grouping, The resulting diagrams are phenograms, not cladograms,  Similarly, the results of model-based methods (Maximum Likelihood or Bayesian approaches) that take into account both branching order and "branch length," count both synapomorphies and autapomorphies as evidence for or against grouping,  The diagrams resulting from those sorts of analysis are not cladograms, either.

Cladogram selection
There are several algorithms available to identify the "best" cladogram. Most algorithms use a metric to measure how consistent a candidate cladogram is with the data. Most cladogram algorithms use the mathematical techniques of optimization and minimization.

In general, cladogram generation algorithms must be implemented as computer programs, although some algorithms can be performed manually when the data sets are modest (for example, just a few species and a couple of characteristics).

Some algorithms are useful only when the characteristic data are molecular (DNA, RNA); other algorithms are useful only when the characteristic data are morphological. Other algorithms can be used when the characteristic data includes both molecular and morphological data.

Algorithms for cladograms or other types of phylogenetic trees include least squares, neighbor-joining, parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference.

Biologists sometimes use the term parsimony for a specific kind of cladogram generation algorithm and sometimes as an umbrella term for all phylogenetic algorithms.

Algorithms that perform optimization tasks (such as building cladograms) can be sensitive to the order in which the input data (the list of species and their characteristics) is presented. Inputting the data in various orders can cause the same algorithm to produce different "best" cladograms. In these situations, the user should input the data in various orders and compare the results.

Using different algorithms on a single data set can sometimes yield different "best" cladograms, because each algorithm may have a unique definition of what is "best".

Because of the astronomical number of possible cladograms, algorithms cannot guarantee that the solution is the overall best solution. A nonoptimal cladogram will be selected if the program settles on a local minimum rather than the desired global minimum. To help solve this problem, many cladogram algorithms use a simulated annealing approach to increase the likelihood that the selected cladogram is the optimal one.

The basal position is the direction of the base (or root) of a rooted phylogenetic tree or cladogram. A basal clade is the earliest clade (of a given taxonomic rank[a]) to branch within a larger clade.

Incongruence length difference test (or partition homogeneity test)
The incongruence length difference test (ILD) is a measurement of how the combination of different datasets (e.g. morphological and molecular, plastid and nuclear genes) contributes to a longer tree. It is measured by first calculating the total tree length of each partition and summing them. Then replicates are made by making randomly assembled partitions consisting of the original partitions. The lengths are summed. A p value of 0.01 is obtained for 100 replicates if 99 replicates have longer combined tree lengths.

Measuring homoplasy
Some measures attempt to measure the amount of homoplasy in a dataset with reference to a tree, though it is not necessarily clear precisely what property these measures aim to quantify

Consistency index
The consistency index (CI) measures the consistency of a tree to a set of data – a measure of the minimum amount of homoplasy implied by the tree. It is calculated by counting the minimum number of changes in a dataset and dividing it by the actual number of changes needed for the cladogram. A consistency index can also be calculated for an individual character i, denoted ci.

Besides reflecting the amount of homoplasy, the metric also reflects the number of taxa in the dataset, (to a lesser extent) the number of characters in a dataset, the degree to which each character carries phylogenetic information, and the fashion in which additive characters are coded, rendering it unfit for purpose.

ci occupies a range from 1 to 1/[n.taxa/2] in binary characters with an even state distribution; its minimum value is larger when states are not evenly spread. In general, for a binary or non-binary character with $$n.states$$, ci occupies a range from 1 to $$(n.states-1)/(n.taxa-\lceil n.taxa/n.states\rceil)$$.

Retention index
The retention index (RI) was proposed as an improvement of the CI "for certain applications" This metric also purports to measure of the amount of homoplasy, but also measures how well synapomorphies explain the tree. It is calculated taking the (maximum number of changes on a tree minus the number of changes on the tree), and dividing by the (maximum number of changes on the tree minus the minimum number of changes in the dataset).

The rescaled consistency index (RC) is obtained by multiplying the CI by the RI; in effect this stretches the range of the CI such that its minimum theoretically attainable value is rescaled to 0, with its maximum remaining at 1. The homoplasy index (HI) is simply 1 − CI.

Homoplasy Excess Ratio
This measures the amount of homoplasy observed on a tree relative to the maximum amount of homoplasy that could theoretically be present – 1 − (observed homoplasy excess) / (maximum homoplasy excess). A value of 1 indicates no homoplasy; 0 represents as much homoplasy as there would be in a fully random dataset, and negative values indicate more homoplasy still (and tend only to occur in contrived examples). The HER is presented as the best measure of homoplasy currently available.

title: Cladogram