The Willamette Valley is the name of the broad, fertile swath of land -- Oregon's "fertile crescent" -- swooping from Portland south to past the city of Eugene, to the Rogue and Umpqua valleys.

Thousands of emigrant pioneers in the mid to late 1800s made the harrowing overland journey to make their home in this lush valley, which came to be known as "the Eden at the end of the Oregon Trail."

Interstate 5 (I-5) is now the backbone of this still beautiful, bountiful region, home to the bulk of Oregon's celebrated wineries (the valley sits on the same latitude as France's Burgundy wine region), flower fields, Christmas tree farms, and u-pick farms, partaking of which marks a favorite spring and summer pastime of Oregonians. More than half of Oregon's remaining covered bridges are found in the valley.

The Willamette Valley is located in western Oregon. To learn more about the area, please select a topic of interest from the navigation bar on the left.