How far south from the Oregon border is California considered the Pacific NW? (San Francisco: home, living in)

[TheDragonslayer]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

Actually, I was wrong & Dragonslayer had it right, the Sutter Buttes are related to the volcanism near Clear Lake. Pretty interesting little mtn. nonetheless!

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2011/3024/fs2011-3024.pdf

Thank you, that was a wonderful read, interesting that at one time the buttes were large and had a deep lake in the center, much like Crater lake in Oregon. Also interesting in that natural gas has been pumped from beneath the Sacramento valley for over a century and that natural gas is pumped through out Northern California into our homes for cooking and heating, natural gas formed from algae in the bottom of an ancient sea buried beneath 38,000 feet of sediment.

[Tulemutt]

Dragonslayer and Fiddlehead, your posts are great to read here. Thanks for the contributions.

But, if we draw a line west to east at about Eureka to lake Shasta we are pretty close to halfway between Canadian and Mexican borders. Pacific "Northwest" would be north of that mathematically. And pretty much culture and geology and even climate become notably different as one heads south from there as well. I'm not buying San Francisco and the Peninsula as PNW.

I see we have two votes to include SF / Peninsula so far. Lmao that neither of those votes have identified themselves in any posts with justifications for their position. You don't suppose those are from the contributor in the other thread that inspired me to set up this discussion, do ya?

[SoCalbound12]

Well the Cascade Mountain range starts in Lassen Volcanic National Park which is about 3 hours north of Sacramento on the 5. I would say the PNW starts there.

[Fiddlehead]

Originally Posted by BeauCharles

Could have something to do with this "State of Jefferson" stuff that's been kicked around for many years (Southern Oregon + Far Northern California).

I agree with the "transition zone" idea. Just as important for the Jefferson idea is cultural identity, folks in that region know they live in a very special place, but it is really considered peripheral to both California and Oregon, and politically ignored by both. Very few folks want to move from Portland to, say, Grant Pass, except when they retire. Having lived in NW Oregon, the California, and the State of Jefferson, I'd say Jefferson has a different feeling ecologically and culturally than either California or Oregon. And it has a lot to recommend it as its own distinct region, not just the ass end of two much larger states or regions.

[chuckmann]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

I recall reading somewhere that the Sutter Buttes are actually the southernmost Cascades volcano, which if true, extends things even further south. I always found them cool to look at one long drives up or down I-5.

Even more interesting when one circumnavigates the Buttes close up. There is a back country road that does just that.

If I had a copy of Assembling California by John McPhee, I'd look up what he said about the Buttes. It has been too long since I read that one to remember.

[Kaphawoman]

I've always thought of California as just California, in a class all its own. I use "Pacific Northwest" as a catch-all for Oregon and Washington. I thought that's how most Americans thought, as most of us from other parts of the country don't know enough about the different regions of CA to distinguish. We just know LA and San Diego in SoCal and SF and Sac in northern Cal. I understand that earth scientists may see it differently.

[TheCabbage]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

A contributor in a CA sub forum has declared Northern California is part of the Pacific NW. Perhaps it is by some definitions, such as coastal geology? But who, if anyone calls any part of the state the Pacific NW? How far south have you heard it referred to as PNW?

As always, geographic regions not delineated by political boundaries are open to interpretation and everybody identifies with their own area differently.

Climate-wise, the area from Cape Mendocino northward could be reasonably considered to be the southern fringe of the Pacific Northwest given the nature of weather patterns in the winter. The climate changes pretty quickly south of there. You could also delineate using some proxy of Pac NW culture or use a geologic definition (i.e. Cascadia).

I know someone from Seattle who lives in Eureka and he is staunchly opposed to the idea that Eureka is the Pacific Northwest. But Seattle is the heart of the PacNW, so being on the fringe like I say he is, he would naturally feel that way. If your definition of the PacNW is really crappy weather, then the North Coast of California surely qualifies.

[TiffaNYC]

I don't think California is any part of the PNW - not at all (CA native here).

[ajams22]

I've heard some on the western side of the Cascades say eastern Oregon isn't even part of the PNW because it's too dry and "culturally different." I can't imagine Portlanders suffering from a superiority complex would take too kindly to having part of California included in their pristine PNW definition.

[TheDaveMaybe]

You cannot sit there and tell me that Crescent City is NOT PNW.