Salem Travel Information
Salem is Oregon's capitol, and is also a capital place from which to launch explorations of sites both cultural, like the neighboring city of Mt. Angel's famous Benedictine Abbey, and natural, like nearby recreation mecca Detroit Lake. The Kalapuya Indian name for the area was Chemeketa, or "Place of Rest." Of like minds, Salem's Methodist missionary founders named it after an Anglicized form of the Arabic salaam and the Hebrew shalom, meaning "peace." The name is manifested in the tranquil beauty of the city's Willamette University campus (the oldest institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi) and the Edenlike setting of nearby Silver Falls State Park with an easy, paved trail hike through 10 major waterfalls. And with Salem's first two capitol buildings burned to the ground, the third one certainly seems to be the charm: The white Vermont marble, Greek-style Capitol turned 60 in 1998. From inside its rotunda or at the viewpoint under the pioneer statue atop the building, visitors get a view of both the Coast and Cascade mountains. Salem is located in the Willamette Valley just off I-5 about an hour south of Portland and north of Eugene. To learn more about Salem, select a topic of interest from the left-hand column.
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