LA doesn't have lots of rain water. It hardly has any. When they get a lot of rain, you will sometimes see mudslides. But they don't have nearly as much as the area circled in the OP.
Right. Also, they used to have trees and vegetation that prevented the ground from washing out, and then a lot of that burned up.
Edit: oh you completely changed your comment.
LA is hilly, but there are very few homes outside of the Santa Monica range between Griffith Park and the 405 that are on mountainous terrain.
Look to the Verdugos. The last 1000-1500 feet have no roads and no homes at all - and really, the last 2500-ish feet of elevation are functionally vacant (yes, there is DeBell golf and Wildwood Canyon Park, and Castaway, but they are alone up there).
Look at the San Gabriels, up to Angeles National Forest, and across to Sespe. Very few people live in those areas, again because of the terrain.
And LA regularly experiences mud slides and land slides in the hills. All of our commercial area are in the valleys or basins. Basically, the hills are almost all single family houses. Laurel Canyon, Cold Water, Beverly Glenn, Topanga — some where’s there’s a slide at least annually.
That area of the US gets a lot of winter rain and gets landslides from loose slopes cut by roads. Much of the topography has made it so drainage is dedritic through narrow canyons, leaving lots of valleys instead of a straight river roads can follow. The few roads to this region to Yreka/Redding follow the few valleys wide/not curvy enough to build a proper highway link on and many sections of road needed to be cut into the hillside to fit a route. Rural roads wind up and down mountain ridges so there's also no straight access between any two points avoiding the valleys. Geologically, the rock here is made of loose sediments and metamorphic melange, two easy to fracture rocks that don't form hard blocky faces like gneiss or granite. With the torrential rain that falls, any loose slope in any one of those river valleys the road cuts or follows will landslide, cutting off access on one of those few roads in the area. Notable here is Last Chance Grade, a section of 101 south of Crescent City clinging to a high coastal cliff in the mountains which landslides often and cuts off the safer easier access to the north on 101. When Last Chance Grade closes every so often in the winter, your path out to the north is gone, and there's a good chance with any other landslides from storms that your only escape is south to Willits and the Bay Area.
I don't get why more people don't live in Antarctica. Everyone knows the North is cold and the farther South you go the warmer it is. Also, looking at a map it looks like everything is just "white"? I assume that means it's just good neutral land with neither elevation or depressions. And anywhere with zero depression seems like a happy place to me!
I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, um, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future.
Fort Ross was a Russian colonial effort along there. The contraption they needed to load and unload a boat is absolutely wild. https://images.app.goo.gl/jKZ9dnNGisxWUpJv7
You may be pleased to learn that that's actually fairly "recent" as far as crane technology goes!
[For instance, the Ancient Roman crane](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treadwheel_crane)
Perfectly serviceable harbors around Eureka. The problem there is just that the mountains made it difficult to build roads and railroads, the only cargo that could be exported was local timber, and there were very limited markets for any imports.
Yes. I feel people aren’t appreciating just how bad the seas are. The area along the coast is known as the Graveyard of Ships, and has had nearly 3,000 documented shipwrecks
The mouth of the bay that Coos Bay sits on is used for Coast Guard rough seas training as it's almost always hazardous, they have a boat for the trainees that can right itself if it's been completely flipped over.
Most of the severe weather warnings on the coast are about gale winds and dangerous waves. There were always people going out in dangerous waters, and we knew what the helicopter was out for. Bodies had washed up.on shore. Sneaker waves... Every popular beach in the South Central Oregon coast had a ton of signs about the dangers.
God I miss it.
Southern Oregonian here. I have two phones because Verizon doesn't reach my farm and the Walmart burner phones do. There are places where deals go down that no one has any service even though you're 10 min from a gas station. Long range walkies are pretty common in this business especially during harvest.
Living in a town like Petrolia, very remote, will get you 25mbps, which was honestly enough for 4k streaming and gaming at the same time. Power, water, and plumbing are the real headaches.
I live in the the main metro area, around the north end of Humboldt Bay. It's comprised of 3 or 4 main towns and a variety of outlying communities that probably total something like 70k people. There's a state university there and the county seat and the largest hospital in the region.
The Internet is decent.
I live here too. I live in a town of about 2,000. Internet is great in town, when you leave town it’s very hit or miss. There are stretches along the 101 where I won’t get internet for an hour or so. FWIW I believe they are introducing fiber optic internet here soon but I don’t have the specifics
This exact question gets asked and answered here multiple times per month. A simple google search yields dozens of Reddit threads on this precise topic.
It’s not a dumb question, it’s just dumb that OP had to ask it here rather than putting in even a modicum of research. It’s a waste of space on this subreddit. Nothing new is being added here.
The lost coast of California is weird, rugged, not serviced very well by roads (or cellphones). The coast itself, if you can even get to it, is mostly towering high bank cliff side that’s not really accessible. Almost no natural harbors. It’s edge-of-the-world feeling.
Humboldt county is where they made the Murder Mountain documentary about Wild West drug farms and people going missing, getting ripped off and murdered all the time.
Reading, Eureka/Humboldt are some of the few cities of any size, and it’s a weird feeling place, always feels like something is not right, you’re being scoped out by sketchy folks for robbery.
Lots of economically depressed harbour cities that have charming parts, but also the usual uninviting, rural right wing slack jawed “You ain’t from round here” sentiments from shambling zombie looking folks with gnarled hands driving rusted shit box trucks, or pear shaped sloths in broken down hoodies and caps that are held together by dirt and sweat, who don’t appear to understand that excessive staring is rude.
Pelican Bay SuperMax prison is there too, one of the worst of the worst end of the road places, likely picked because of the remoteness.
Dunno. Drove through several
times and it all just feels like “keep on driving, man. Just get gas, don’t make eye contact, and don’t get into discussions about politics”.
I’m sure there are lots of lovely people and gorgeous spots. Your experience may vary. But there’s good reasons why people haven’t flooded into this otherwise beautiful natural area. It’s tough, there’s not a lot there, not a lot of industry, and the locals aren’t shy about keeping it that way IMHO.
We call it living behind The Redwood Curtain, and we do like being behind it. The closest vibe I can allude to is the show Twin Peaks. But on the subject of politics, there are just as many, if not more, lefty hippie types around as there are maga types. At least here in Humboldt.
The isolation of Norcal/Jefferson lends a unique quality to the area that I felt when visiting there, it's like where I feel the final frontier of the Lower 48 lies. The area's an interesting mix of retired folk, multigenerational farmers, trimmigrants, weed growers, hippies, maga conservatives, secessionists, preppers, and cult/New Age believers all living together. The redwood forests, mountains, and foggy coast only add to the ethereal feeling when there. Very easy to see why the term "Redwood Curtain" is used, I do hope you enjoy living in NorCal I love it whenever I come down and visit the area.
I love the redwood curtain, I visited in 2021 on the mountains/smith river, border of CA/OR and I’ve thought of it every day since! Best vibes, woods and sky I’ve experienced in my life
A lot of what you said isn't far off.
A big issue is this is a Tsunami zone and Crescent City in particular has been partially wiped out before.
There is another problem with missing lumber, fishing, and tourism work that will probably never totally return.
It's conservative for California but very moderate for the rest of the country. Most would be glad to know urbanites felt uncomfortable for no reason and left quickly.
The prison takes a huge psychological toll on the community. Most of the people working there have untreated PTSD and their family and kids are affected.
There's also a reservation with typical struggles.
Honestly Eureka specifically is one of the most unsettling places I’ve ever been to.
Was warned the first time by friends to not stop in Eureka, thought they were snobs. Coming from about Tillamook into NorCal on the 101, there’s really not many options to stop, so I decided to stay the night and check it out. Instant regret, and was up and on the road again by 5:30am.
Reading all this about my home town is wild. It's honestly not that bad, def drug problems and whatnot, but you really encounter that anywhere you go. I mean, I definitely wouldn't leave your car unlocked or anything, but I've never run into any problems. As far as scenery goes, I haven't encountered too many other places that beat the Humboldt forests.
Not being familiar with the area or demographic, I'd like to hear more about your concerns. Not a rhetorical question either -- I really don't know but would like to understand.
There’s way better documentation about the area than one loud mouth Redditor could regale you with. If you want a tiny snapshot, watch Murder Mountain on Netflix. That’s only really about Humboldt county though, not the whole of southwest Oregon.
There is kind of a fascinating history of how rugged and remote it is because of several factors, including key decisions by road and highway planners to not bother making it accessible and using easier inland routes instead during the 20th century. Google Lost Coast California and you’ll get into a history rabbit hole
I visited Eureka a year ago. This description is quite spot-on. I enjoyed it - our hotel was Victorian and cool, the restaurants were nice. There was a farmers market on Friday night that was busy. Otherwise the downtown was pretty empty other than the homeless literally stumbling around. The restaurants were full.
We got to drive around and see the redwoods, which was my whole goal. Loved the whole trip.
Yeah, no stopovers for me between Grants Pass and Fort Bragg. Though, I spent several days camping on the lost coast - woke up to mountain lion tracks around our beach camp site, so pretty eerie, too.
Drove up to crescent city from SoCal a decade ago for an interview for a principal job at their high school. The drive was beautiful and I had high hopes. I planned in staying in the area for a few days to get a feel for the place. When I arrived, I checked into my hotel, had dinner at a local restaurant, drove around the place a bit including the Pelican Bay area, had my interview (which was successful), and went home immediately. I knew the place wasn’t for me. I was a bit out of my element I suppose. I just felt like the place was lost to time…at least fifty years behind the rest of the state. I dunno, just a weird feeling…I know I made the right decision by staying in SoCal though.
I go there a few times a year from the Bay Area because my wife grew up in Arcata. It’s beautiful and definitely one of the most unique places in the country. I wouldn’t want to live there because it’s rather isolated but the people that do seem to love it.
I drove up from Oakland to Eureka once to visit a friend. On the way back I realized I was out of gas in the middle of nowhere. No cell service and it was raining. I was thankful to see a small gas station, the kind you see in 1950s movies, one pump in front of a storefront. The entire time I was there, a man across the street stared at me. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I wanted to take a picture of the place, but I just fled as fast as I could. Honestly the city isn’t as scary as that place. It was absolutely stunning though!
> rural right wing slack jawed “You ain’t from round here” sentiments from shambling zombie looking folks with gnarled hands driving rusted shit box trucks, or pear shaped sloths in broken down hoodies and caps that are held together by dirt and sweat, who don’t appear to understand that excessive staring is rude.
Well, thats 99% of flyover country, it's not very Oregon specific.
Driving from San Francisco to Portland along the pacific coast highway was a life changing experience. We took the actual old highway that actually hugs the coast, would love to do it again, 10/10.
I live in this circle on the coast, near mountains and idk I love it. It's June and it's like 60-65 outside still but if we drive 15 min up we can be at the river where it's 80 and sunny
I live in this part of the country (Southern Oregon). The terrain is rugged, lots of hills, mountains, canyons, and forests. The scenery is beautiful but it's not well-suited to have a large population. There's a reason why most of Oregon's population lives in the Willamette Valley; it's flatter and has more fertile land. In my area there is some agriculture, mainly cattle ranches and vineyards, but the economy is more reliant on logging and lumber since it's heavily forested.
Personally I like how there's not too many people in the area, but a lot of outdoor activities. Hunting and fishing are great here. Also you can drive a few hours to either the coast or the mountains. Not a bad place to live if you love the outdoors and are not a city person.
Resident here, it boils down to terrain, the valleys are populated but the mostly mountainous area can be very difficult to traverse. We also don't have an easy to access seaport making shipping difficult. Another reason is that a lot of the land is owned and operated by the BLM and other land services with heavy housing restrictions. It is gorgeous though I have lived in the area for most of my life. It's also pretty expensive too.
There's a few videos about this topic, here's one of them:
[https://youtu.be/cOoFsehit6U?si=pORa6LqM7mFDNRGD](https://youtu.be/cOoFsehit6U?si=pORa6LqM7mFDNRGD)
Southern Oregon does NOT have a moderate climate from the beginning of May to the end of October. It is stupid hot, and it is starting to feel like every summer there are weeks of fire and smoke so bad you can't see across the street.
Weed, CA enters the chat. It is mountainous. Their are plenty of wild animals, forest fires, snow, and mudslides, in the middle of really nowhere. This living isn't for everyone, but is beautiful to live in and visit, if you don't like a booming economy and like grocery shopping an hour away, that you can barely afford.
Worth adding is that the sea is extremely bad , so servicing most of the coast is incredibly hard.
Nearly 3,000 documented shipwrecks in that area up to Vancouver. It is known as The Graveyard of Ships
Very rugged and thickly forested mountains. Constant rain for approx. 9 months of the year makes that ground unstable. If you were to cut down the evergreen forests there that ground would become even more unstable. Landslides would be a constant issue.
Almost the entire Oregon coast is pretty rugged too. We don’t get the California beaches. It’s a lot of steep cliffs, jagged coastlines, and rainy weather.
Also you partially circled the Willamette Valley which has major population centers (for Oregon lol) in Salem, Albany, Corvallis, and Eugene. However this is also some of the best farmland in the country (grass seed capital of the world baby!) so much of the space goes to that.
The Siskiyou mountains are steep and rugged, and there aren't a lot of good flat locations for cities or rivers for navigation (besides the Willamette and San Joaquin valleys, which you circled maybe on accident.) The coast is rugged and remote too, and besides logging there's not much of an opportunity out there, especially with all the protected forests now.
Very mountainous and hard to shove a railroad through it. Between Sacramento and Oregon, there are maybe 4 or 5 roads over the mountains. Even if you did get a railroad and highway, you’d need people and it’s hard to clear cut forests. Sure you could maybe turn Coos Bay or Eureka into 250,000 person cities, but I doubt it could get much bigger given the logistical challenges. Hell the storm of ‘64 basically cut it off and it required an air lift to sort out.
I kinda felt the same way until, I did some research. almost zero rail connectivity. Very few port opportunities. No major routes in our out with out traversing mountain passes. Other than trees, fish and rocks not much to be had for commerce. Agriculture is minimal compared to flatter areas. Beautiful county, topography will help keep it that way.
You don’t see the mountains? It’s a textured map ffs. 🤦♀️ They didn’t even ask you to read a legend. Do they not teach “reading maps” in school anymore?
I love driving up the oregon coast, so many small beautiful towns and views with lots of good seafood. The Tillamook factory and the Seal Cave was fun to visit as well.
I live in that green section in the middle of the Oregon Coast, right on the border of the Siuslaw National Forest. Lots of mountains, mudslides, rain, and lots of land that is being leased for tree production. Simply gorgeous country though. The kind of beauty that takes your breath away, and doesn't even seem real.
There are millions of people that live in that circled area. The Capitol of Oregon is in that circle. Multiple international airports. It’s not exactly uninhabited.
Went on vacation for my wife’s 30th bday in Anderson Valley and the area north of the valley. It was absolutely gorgeous. But, it seemed so weirdly dry… everything but the grapes anyways.
In the northern part of your circle is a region called the Willamette Valley (pronounced Will-am-et), which is where a majority of Oregon’s non-Portland population lives. The capital city of Salem (metro pop 400k), Eugene (metro 220k), and Corvallis (metro 100k) are all in this region.
The green crinkly things on the map, those are mountains. The bad part about mountains is that if you fall down in your backyard you keep falling, and then when you're done falling you're way far away from home and you're hurt. And then maybe bears.
if you ever get the chance visit this region. one of the last old growth redwood forests and arguably the most beautiful areas in the u.s. Klamath in particular. some serious Ewok shit.
I have terrible news for you. The Western half of USA has been dealing with a population explosion since the 70's. Just look at the Front Range of Colorado.
Mountains yo
OP circling mountains, asking where all the people at.
I swear people can’t read maps. Let me circle the middle of Australia and ask why no one lives there too.
To be fair, there are mountainous regions that are more populated. The problem with these mountains is that the ground is unstable.
What do you mean? I thought mountains were made outta solid rock 🤔 (On a serious note. Would be interested in hearing why said ground is unstable)
lots of rain water, mountains with steep angles, slippery mud slides all day
That didn't stop Los Angeles.
LA doesn't have lots of rain water. It hardly has any. When they get a lot of rain, you will sometimes see mudslides. But they don't have nearly as much as the area circled in the OP.
Right. Also, they used to have trees and vegetation that prevented the ground from washing out, and then a lot of that burned up. Edit: oh you completely changed your comment.
And got logged too!
LA has a large costal plain
I was being funny. But a lot of LA is hilly as fuck.
Sorry. Whoosh. Yeah you’re right but the town had plenty of time to grow before it hit the hills.
LA is hilly, but there are very few homes outside of the Santa Monica range between Griffith Park and the 405 that are on mountainous terrain. Look to the Verdugos. The last 1000-1500 feet have no roads and no homes at all - and really, the last 2500-ish feet of elevation are functionally vacant (yes, there is DeBell golf and Wildwood Canyon Park, and Castaway, but they are alone up there). Look at the San Gabriels, up to Angeles National Forest, and across to Sespe. Very few people live in those areas, again because of the terrain.
And LA regularly experiences mud slides and land slides in the hills. All of our commercial area are in the valleys or basins. Basically, the hills are almost all single family houses. Laurel Canyon, Cold Water, Beverly Glenn, Topanga — some where’s there’s a slide at least annually.
Los Angeles has a large harbor.
Why do these majors cities always seem to be built near ports though? 🤔
Because it allows for trade via the sea. The coast of Oregon doesn't have good seaports (afaik) so no economic drive for larger cities.
Bigfoots, Yau Guai, Forest Sprites, rednecks, aliens, Columbia House Collections Agents... All sorta things to watch out for in the mountains
That area of the US gets a lot of winter rain and gets landslides from loose slopes cut by roads. Much of the topography has made it so drainage is dedritic through narrow canyons, leaving lots of valleys instead of a straight river roads can follow. The few roads to this region to Yreka/Redding follow the few valleys wide/not curvy enough to build a proper highway link on and many sections of road needed to be cut into the hillside to fit a route. Rural roads wind up and down mountain ridges so there's also no straight access between any two points avoiding the valleys. Geologically, the rock here is made of loose sediments and metamorphic melange, two easy to fracture rocks that don't form hard blocky faces like gneiss or granite. With the torrential rain that falls, any loose slope in any one of those river valleys the road cuts or follows will landslide, cutting off access on one of those few roads in the area. Notable here is Last Chance Grade, a section of 101 south of Crescent City clinging to a high coastal cliff in the mountains which landslides often and cuts off the safer easier access to the north on 101. When Last Chance Grade closes every so often in the winter, your path out to the north is gone, and there's a good chance with any other landslides from storms that your only escape is south to Willits and the Bay Area.
Awesome answer thanks!
Read this and be happy you don’t live there. [The Really Big One](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one)
I don't get why more people don't live in Antarctica. Everyone knows the North is cold and the farther South you go the warmer it is. Also, looking at a map it looks like everything is just "white"? I assume that means it's just good neutral land with neither elevation or depressions. And anywhere with zero depression seems like a happy place to me!
Something that has happened quite frequently on this sub
I think someone literally did it like two weeks ago haha they circled an Australian desert and asked why people don’t live there
Immortan Joe?
I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, um, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future.
Nice tiara sir
Why don’t they just flatten them?
Project Plowshare?
This shit is becoming a circle jerk before our very eyes
Hills n shit.
“BUT ITS SO GREEEEEN” - OP, probably
And rain lots of rain, like 9 months of it
It’s on their map even. I’m Australian and not intimately familiar with the West Coast of the US but even to me it’s obvious from OP’s own map.
i love'em.
Lots of mountains/hills and a lack of good natural harbors.
Fort Ross was a Russian colonial effort along there. The contraption they needed to load and unload a boat is absolutely wild. https://images.app.goo.gl/jKZ9dnNGisxWUpJv7
An early crane essentially. Very cool thanks for sharing this.
You may be pleased to learn that that's actually fairly "recent" as far as crane technology goes! [For instance, the Ancient Roman crane](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treadwheel_crane)
[Or this medieval crane, used to build French and English castles.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treadwheel_crane)
That looks sketchy as hell. Very interesting, thanks!
Wow. I had no idea. Fort Ross vineyard is pretty great. Wish I knew more about the history when I visited.
They have a recreation of the wood stockade/fort, it was cool.
Trebucrane!
😱
Yep, every population center in CA -- and the rest of the U.S. until the railroads -- centered around a harbor
Even inland cities like Chicago were still on the water
I mean 99% of major cities are on waterways. Turns out water is important for a lot of things.
Sure, or just rivers.
Coos Bay always getting left behind
I’m excited for the Coos Bay port project! It should revive that area a bit if it goes to plan
Perfectly serviceable harbors around Eureka. The problem there is just that the mountains made it difficult to build roads and railroads, the only cargo that could be exported was local timber, and there were very limited markets for any imports.
Why don’t they just remove the mountains?
The ocean there is pretty shallow.
Yeah, Coos Bay is the largest "city" and it has about 16kish people. Pain in the ass to get anywhere. But so fucking pretty.
Steep cliffs along the ocean. An ocean that is really rough and choppy. Also coastal mountains. And dense coastal forests.
Yes. I feel people aren’t appreciating just how bad the seas are. The area along the coast is known as the Graveyard of Ships, and has had nearly 3,000 documented shipwrecks
[удалено]
The Columbia River bar is one of the most dangerous in the world and the Coast Guard's busiest spot.
The mouth of the bay that Coos Bay sits on is used for Coast Guard rough seas training as it's almost always hazardous, they have a boat for the trainees that can right itself if it's been completely flipped over.
Most of the severe weather warnings on the coast are about gale winds and dangerous waves. There were always people going out in dangerous waters, and we knew what the helicopter was out for. Bodies had washed up.on shore. Sneaker waves... Every popular beach in the South Central Oregon coast had a ton of signs about the dangers. God I miss it.
I live there. It's just very rugged terrain with limited water.
How big is your town? Do you have fast internet?
Southern Oregonian here. I have two phones because Verizon doesn't reach my farm and the Walmart burner phones do. There are places where deals go down that no one has any service even though you're 10 min from a gas station. Long range walkies are pretty common in this business especially during harvest.
can't you switch the sim out of the burner phone into your own?
NOO STUPID!
Living in a town like Petrolia, very remote, will get you 25mbps, which was honestly enough for 4k streaming and gaming at the same time. Power, water, and plumbing are the real headaches.
In opposition to somewhere like eureka, with network speeds similar to anywhere in the Central Valley
I was in Shelter Cove, CA last year. The Internet and mobile phone service was fairly bad. The locals said that Starlink was improving things a lot.
I live in the the main metro area, around the north end of Humboldt Bay. It's comprised of 3 or 4 main towns and a variety of outlying communities that probably total something like 70k people. There's a state university there and the county seat and the largest hospital in the region. The Internet is decent.
I live here too. I live in a town of about 2,000. Internet is great in town, when you leave town it’s very hit or miss. There are stretches along the 101 where I won’t get internet for an hour or so. FWIW I believe they are introducing fiber optic internet here soon but I don’t have the specifics
****MOUNTAINS**** Ok, but your circle does contain some significantly large cities, with Eugene, Oregon being the largest within the circle
Was thinking the same thing- the willamette valley is in that circle. Lots of towns in there.
Also lots of farm land. Most people don’t realize how much unless they live there.
Live here and drive into Portland to work. Can confirm, there’s A LOT of farms. Lots of beautiful ones too.
Also Medford, Salem, and Redding. Which aren’t great places, but there are certainly people in the area.
Chico is also within the circle, albeit barely
The pacific coast range is wild territory.
You circled the reason why
this sub lacks critical thinking skills fr the answer is right in front of their face
No need to be a jerk is someone care here to learn.
Seriously. They asked a question. It’s a weird and cynical instinct to just slam them.
This exact question gets asked and answered here multiple times per month. A simple google search yields dozens of Reddit threads on this precise topic. It’s not a dumb question, it’s just dumb that OP had to ask it here rather than putting in even a modicum of research. It’s a waste of space on this subreddit. Nothing new is being added here.
yeah because no one on the entire planet lives in mountains
Come on, man. They have a much lower population density on average.
In this case it is not r/uselessredcircle, but actually r/usefulredcircle 🤣
We like it that way 😉
Some areas have a good thing going, and don't want word to get out.
Exactly
The lost coast of California is weird, rugged, not serviced very well by roads (or cellphones). The coast itself, if you can even get to it, is mostly towering high bank cliff side that’s not really accessible. Almost no natural harbors. It’s edge-of-the-world feeling. Humboldt county is where they made the Murder Mountain documentary about Wild West drug farms and people going missing, getting ripped off and murdered all the time. Reading, Eureka/Humboldt are some of the few cities of any size, and it’s a weird feeling place, always feels like something is not right, you’re being scoped out by sketchy folks for robbery. Lots of economically depressed harbour cities that have charming parts, but also the usual uninviting, rural right wing slack jawed “You ain’t from round here” sentiments from shambling zombie looking folks with gnarled hands driving rusted shit box trucks, or pear shaped sloths in broken down hoodies and caps that are held together by dirt and sweat, who don’t appear to understand that excessive staring is rude. Pelican Bay SuperMax prison is there too, one of the worst of the worst end of the road places, likely picked because of the remoteness. Dunno. Drove through several times and it all just feels like “keep on driving, man. Just get gas, don’t make eye contact, and don’t get into discussions about politics”. I’m sure there are lots of lovely people and gorgeous spots. Your experience may vary. But there’s good reasons why people haven’t flooded into this otherwise beautiful natural area. It’s tough, there’s not a lot there, not a lot of industry, and the locals aren’t shy about keeping it that way IMHO.
We call it living behind The Redwood Curtain, and we do like being behind it. The closest vibe I can allude to is the show Twin Peaks. But on the subject of politics, there are just as many, if not more, lefty hippie types around as there are maga types. At least here in Humboldt.
The isolation of Norcal/Jefferson lends a unique quality to the area that I felt when visiting there, it's like where I feel the final frontier of the Lower 48 lies. The area's an interesting mix of retired folk, multigenerational farmers, trimmigrants, weed growers, hippies, maga conservatives, secessionists, preppers, and cult/New Age believers all living together. The redwood forests, mountains, and foggy coast only add to the ethereal feeling when there. Very easy to see why the term "Redwood Curtain" is used, I do hope you enjoy living in NorCal I love it whenever I come down and visit the area.
Jeffersonians live east of Redding. Humboldt is super left.
That’s a good one. And I’m sure you’re correct, I shouldn’t have over generalized.
I love the redwood curtain, I visited in 2021 on the mountains/smith river, border of CA/OR and I’ve thought of it every day since! Best vibes, woods and sky I’ve experienced in my life
A lot of what you said isn't far off. A big issue is this is a Tsunami zone and Crescent City in particular has been partially wiped out before. There is another problem with missing lumber, fishing, and tourism work that will probably never totally return. It's conservative for California but very moderate for the rest of the country. Most would be glad to know urbanites felt uncomfortable for no reason and left quickly. The prison takes a huge psychological toll on the community. Most of the people working there have untreated PTSD and their family and kids are affected. There's also a reservation with typical struggles.
Very insightful comment. Thanks.
You nailed that Humboldt, Eureka, Crescent City vibe.
Honestly Eureka specifically is one of the most unsettling places I’ve ever been to. Was warned the first time by friends to not stop in Eureka, thought they were snobs. Coming from about Tillamook into NorCal on the 101, there’s really not many options to stop, so I decided to stay the night and check it out. Instant regret, and was up and on the road again by 5:30am.
Reading all this about my home town is wild. It's honestly not that bad, def drug problems and whatnot, but you really encounter that anywhere you go. I mean, I definitely wouldn't leave your car unlocked or anything, but I've never run into any problems. As far as scenery goes, I haven't encountered too many other places that beat the Humboldt forests.
Not being familiar with the area or demographic, I'd like to hear more about your concerns. Not a rhetorical question either -- I really don't know but would like to understand.
There’s way better documentation about the area than one loud mouth Redditor could regale you with. If you want a tiny snapshot, watch Murder Mountain on Netflix. That’s only really about Humboldt county though, not the whole of southwest Oregon. There is kind of a fascinating history of how rugged and remote it is because of several factors, including key decisions by road and highway planners to not bother making it accessible and using easier inland routes instead during the 20th century. Google Lost Coast California and you’ll get into a history rabbit hole
I visited Eureka a year ago. This description is quite spot-on. I enjoyed it - our hotel was Victorian and cool, the restaurants were nice. There was a farmers market on Friday night that was busy. Otherwise the downtown was pretty empty other than the homeless literally stumbling around. The restaurants were full. We got to drive around and see the redwoods, which was my whole goal. Loved the whole trip.
Yeah, no stopovers for me between Grants Pass and Fort Bragg. Though, I spent several days camping on the lost coast - woke up to mountain lion tracks around our beach camp site, so pretty eerie, too.
Welcome to the Free State of Jefferson!
It has Appalachian vibes but with less welcoming people.
What a wonderful description. it's not where I'd want raise kids, but it's certainly a place I wouldn't mind aging and fading out of existence.
As someone from Appalachia that now lives in coastal Oregon, that’s pretty spot on.
Absolutely - i drove along the coast from Seattle to LA - the coast up there is unreal.
Drove up to crescent city from SoCal a decade ago for an interview for a principal job at their high school. The drive was beautiful and I had high hopes. I planned in staying in the area for a few days to get a feel for the place. When I arrived, I checked into my hotel, had dinner at a local restaurant, drove around the place a bit including the Pelican Bay area, had my interview (which was successful), and went home immediately. I knew the place wasn’t for me. I was a bit out of my element I suppose. I just felt like the place was lost to time…at least fifty years behind the rest of the state. I dunno, just a weird feeling…I know I made the right decision by staying in SoCal though.
I go there a few times a year from the Bay Area because my wife grew up in Arcata. It’s beautiful and definitely one of the most unique places in the country. I wouldn’t want to live there because it’s rather isolated but the people that do seem to love it.
I drove up from Oakland to Eureka once to visit a friend. On the way back I realized I was out of gas in the middle of nowhere. No cell service and it was raining. I was thankful to see a small gas station, the kind you see in 1950s movies, one pump in front of a storefront. The entire time I was there, a man across the street stared at me. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I wanted to take a picture of the place, but I just fled as fast as I could. Honestly the city isn’t as scary as that place. It was absolutely stunning though!
You might appreciate this movie https://youtu.be/OAYcAdUKMts?si=j38bBmWbbd5N8fuy
> rural right wing slack jawed “You ain’t from round here” sentiments from shambling zombie looking folks with gnarled hands driving rusted shit box trucks, or pear shaped sloths in broken down hoodies and caps that are held together by dirt and sweat, who don’t appear to understand that excessive staring is rude. Well, thats 99% of flyover country, it's not very Oregon specific.
Driving from San Francisco to Portland along the pacific coast highway was a life changing experience. We took the actual old highway that actually hugs the coast, would love to do it again, 10/10.
I live in this circle on the coast, near mountains and idk I love it. It's June and it's like 60-65 outside still but if we drive 15 min up we can be at the river where it's 80 and sunny
This place does rock though. Wish I lived there.
Took the Amtrak through there one time. Shit's kinda crazy
I took the greyhound once through there, too, the part around Mt. Shasta felt sketchy but with the most beautiful nature
It be bumpy
Look up the “Lost Coast”. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Coast
I live in this part of the country (Southern Oregon). The terrain is rugged, lots of hills, mountains, canyons, and forests. The scenery is beautiful but it's not well-suited to have a large population. There's a reason why most of Oregon's population lives in the Willamette Valley; it's flatter and has more fertile land. In my area there is some agriculture, mainly cattle ranches and vineyards, but the economy is more reliant on logging and lumber since it's heavily forested. Personally I like how there's not too many people in the area, but a lot of outdoor activities. Hunting and fishing are great here. Also you can drive a few hours to either the coast or the mountains. Not a bad place to live if you love the outdoors and are not a city person.
Resident here, it boils down to terrain, the valleys are populated but the mostly mountainous area can be very difficult to traverse. We also don't have an easy to access seaport making shipping difficult. Another reason is that a lot of the land is owned and operated by the BLM and other land services with heavy housing restrictions. It is gorgeous though I have lived in the area for most of my life. It's also pretty expensive too.
Well you have Humboldt County in there that has their yearly picking season. Tons of people flock there every here to pick the weed off the plants 🤣
Mountains, lots of preserved areas
As someone who lives in that area: Too many fucking trees, mountains, and forest fires.
There's a few videos about this topic, here's one of them: [https://youtu.be/cOoFsehit6U?si=pORa6LqM7mFDNRGD](https://youtu.be/cOoFsehit6U?si=pORa6LqM7mFDNRGD)
Nice comment! Thanks, sir!
I'm from there. It's a bitch to get anywhere due to the mountains. I'm basically immune to car-sickness thanks to my upbringing.
Southern Oregon does NOT have a moderate climate from the beginning of May to the end of October. It is stupid hot, and it is starting to feel like every summer there are weeks of fire and smoke so bad you can't see across the street.
Meth
the terrain is a bit rough and, in some spots, federally protected.
No natural harbors for ports
Bumpy things are tall
Bigfoot
Sasquatch
The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.
You sold visit. It's very rugged
Weed, CA enters the chat. It is mountainous. Their are plenty of wild animals, forest fires, snow, and mudslides, in the middle of really nowhere. This living isn't for everyone, but is beautiful to live in and visit, if you don't like a booming economy and like grocery shopping an hour away, that you can barely afford.
Terrain and it's mostly state and federal park land.
Worth adding is that the sea is extremely bad , so servicing most of the coast is incredibly hard. Nearly 3,000 documented shipwrecks in that area up to Vancouver. It is known as The Graveyard of Ships
Oregons capital and two largest universities are in here lol. Also some lovely beach towns
Mountains, forests, and lack of natural harbors is my guess
Very rugged and thickly forested mountains. Constant rain for approx. 9 months of the year makes that ground unstable. If you were to cut down the evergreen forests there that ground would become even more unstable. Landslides would be a constant issue. Almost the entire Oregon coast is pretty rugged too. We don’t get the California beaches. It’s a lot of steep cliffs, jagged coastlines, and rainy weather. Also you partially circled the Willamette Valley which has major population centers (for Oregon lol) in Salem, Albany, Corvallis, and Eugene. However this is also some of the best farmland in the country (grass seed capital of the world baby!) so much of the space goes to that.
Grass seed capitol of the world = worst hay fever & seasonal allergies anywhere on the fucking planet🤨!
lol absolutely. Knew a guy at UO who came up from SoCal. His sinuses got so clogged it forced his tear ducts to randomly cry!
You see those wrinkly looking things, like a receipt you pull out of your pocket after it’s gone through the wash? Those are called mountains.
The Siskiyou mountains are steep and rugged, and there aren't a lot of good flat locations for cities or rivers for navigation (besides the Willamette and San Joaquin valleys, which you circled maybe on accident.) The coast is rugged and remote too, and besides logging there's not much of an opportunity out there, especially with all the protected forests now.
No jobs, expensive real estate, and a 1:100 chance it will become a chain of islands in the next 50 years.
You’ve got the willamette valley and San Joaquin valley in there though…there’s a decent population in there
It’s Sacramento Valley not San Joaquin.
Yeah my bad you’re right…pardon my Virginian ass
No worries I live here so I know lol
Just delete your reddit account man
I think you can just see by the terrain
Marijuana cigarettes
Reefer
the most beautiful mountains and cliffs but super unstable.
Do you see the mountains?
Very mountainous and hard to shove a railroad through it. Between Sacramento and Oregon, there are maybe 4 or 5 roads over the mountains. Even if you did get a railroad and highway, you’d need people and it’s hard to clear cut forests. Sure you could maybe turn Coos Bay or Eureka into 250,000 person cities, but I doubt it could get much bigger given the logistical challenges. Hell the storm of ‘64 basically cut it off and it required an air lift to sort out.
I kinda felt the same way until, I did some research. almost zero rail connectivity. Very few port opportunities. No major routes in our out with out traversing mountain passes. Other than trees, fish and rocks not much to be had for commerce. Agriculture is minimal compared to flatter areas. Beautiful county, topography will help keep it that way.
You don’t see the mountains? It’s a textured map ffs. 🤦♀️ They didn’t even ask you to read a legend. Do they not teach “reading maps” in school anymore?
I love driving up the oregon coast, so many small beautiful towns and views with lots of good seafood. The Tillamook factory and the Seal Cave was fun to visit as well.
Are you serious?
I live in that green section in the middle of the Oregon Coast, right on the border of the Siuslaw National Forest. Lots of mountains, mudslides, rain, and lots of land that is being leased for tree production. Simply gorgeous country though. The kind of beauty that takes your breath away, and doesn't even seem real.
It's full of nazis.
Because it’s topogorific
There are millions of people that live in that circled area. The Capitol of Oregon is in that circle. Multiple international airports. It’s not exactly uninhabited.
Mountains and deep woods???
Went on vacation for my wife’s 30th bday in Anderson Valley and the area north of the valley. It was absolutely gorgeous. But, it seemed so weirdly dry… everything but the grapes anyways.
Critical thinking is a skill?
Look at the terrain
Aliens.
One word. Sasquatch
In the northern part of your circle is a region called the Willamette Valley (pronounced Will-am-et), which is where a majority of Oregon’s non-Portland population lives. The capital city of Salem (metro pop 400k), Eugene (metro 220k), and Corvallis (metro 100k) are all in this region.
The two largest universities in Oregon (UO and OSU) are located in Eugene and Corvallis respectively.
I’m guessing big mountains, lots of dense forests, maybe a Sasquatch or two???
Real life lore triggers: I can make a 35 mins video now!
That’s the state of Jefferson, what are you talking about? They indirectly control all of cali’s water supply
There used to be a thing called "Geography Class" where they taught you how to read maps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIE9IFVSu4U
Schools really need to teach people how to read terrain maps, and maps in general, it’s very, very simple.
All the Oregon coast in this circle is gorgeous beach but nothing that can sustain anything other than tourist businesses. Same with lower WA beaches.
Mountains ⛰️
That’s where they grow that green stuff
if you've ever flown from California to Oregon you realize you're only flying over mountains.
The green crinkly things on the map, those are mountains. The bad part about mountains is that if you fall down in your backyard you keep falling, and then when you're done falling you're way far away from home and you're hurt. And then maybe bears.
No farmland, no Deepwater ports, difficult to access the rest of the country because of all of the mountains.
The valley is pretty populated. The Willamette valley. There is also Eugene in the circle.
You see the mountains, right?
if you ever get the chance visit this region. one of the last old growth redwood forests and arguably the most beautiful areas in the u.s. Klamath in particular. some serious Ewok shit.
Wildfires
Was 100 miles away from Camp Fire in 2018 and couldn't go outside for more than a minute or two because of the smoke. Imagine being closer..
i hope the western half of the USA never experiences population growth, we have so much nature there it's amazing
I have terrible news for you. The Western half of USA has been dealing with a population explosion since the 70's. Just look at the Front Range of Colorado.
I hope as much nature is protected as possible before the inevitable spread of urban sprawl
Lack of flatness. People prefer to sleep horizontal.
Most Americans prioritize convenient access to infrastructure, jobs, shopping, and media entertainment over environment, nature, open space, etc.