601 Southwest Second Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97204
U.S.A.
Company Perspectives:
ODS Health Plans will be the premier carrier in the fields of dental and medical health insurance by focusing on its customers, the brokers who facilitate our ability to win business, the employers who buy our products, the insureds who use our products and services, and the health care professionals who provide these services. We will provide the highest value products supported by the best possible service. We will keep our promises, and meet all of the reasonable expectations of our customers.
History of Oregon Dental Service Health Plan, Inc.
With offices in Portland, Milwaukie, and La Grande, Oregon, Oregon Dental Service Health Plan, Inc. (ODS Health Plan) is one of the few remaining insurance carriers based in and focused on providing service in Oregon. Founded in 1955 as Oregon Dental Service, ODS Health Plan works with more than 6,000 Oregon physicians and specialists and more than 1,800 dentists to provide a full range of medical and dental plans to more than 650,000 members. ODS Health Plan, Inc., a subsidiary of Oregon Dental Service, founded in 1985, provides traditional indemnity plans, managed care plans, preferred provider organization plans, and point of service plans. The company has three other subsidiaries--BestChoice Administrators, Inc., which provides third-party administrator coverage for self-insured businesses; Dental Benefits Insurance Company, a property and casualty insurance company serving the needs of dentists; and Dentists Management Corporation, which pioneered the development, marketing, and support of integrated dental practice management software and hardware.
A Statewide Nonprofit Branching Out: Mid-1950s Through 1989
The Oregon Dental Association, a dentists' trade association, founded Oregon Dental Service (ODS) in 1955 in response to a direct request by the Longshoreman's Union to provide dental care to union members' children. ODS, a nonprofit provider of group dental plans, one of the first dental insurers in the nation, from the start had a board of directors, half of whom were non-dentists appointed by the Oregon Dental Association. ODS prided itself on distinguishing its plan from other plans in two ways: Claims came directly to ODS from the dentist, whom ODS reimbursed, and the customer received a bill from ODS for any amount he or she owed after the deductible. The insurer began to grow significantly in 1972 when some schools in Portland picked up the plan and, in 1976, when state employees joined, giving the insurance company statewide standing. In 1974, Bud Lindstrand assumed the role of CEO of the company, a post he retained until 1998.
By the mid-1980s, ODS felt that it had exhausted the possibility of much new client growth in Oregon and turned its attention to expanding its services, diversifying into fee-for-service medical coverage in 1985 with the founding of Oregon Dental Service Health Plan, Inc. The company also launched three other subsidiaries. When Oregon dentists began to experience difficulty purchasing malpractice insurance, ODS founded a wholly owned for-profit subsidiary of Oregon Dental Service, which provided all classes of dental property, casualty, and liability insurance in 1985. Dental Benefits Insurance Company also began offering workers' compensation policies in 1990 when dentists and their employees began having difficulty getting workers' compensation policies written. BestChoice Administrators, Inc. started to provide third-party administrator coverage for self-insured businesses. Dentists Management Corporation, a for-profit company owned by Oregon Dental Association, pioneered the development, marketing, and support of integrated dental practice management software and hardware that tied into a mainframe at ODS.
ODS also faced significant challenges in response to changes in Oregon's health insurance market beginning in the second half of the 1980s. Competition between insurance companies turned fierce; at each bid for a new contract, ODS vied with 10 to 15 other companies, such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield, United Benefit, Aetna, and others. In addition, expensive medical technology, rising labor costs, an aging population, and a growing number of uninsured patients led insurance companies to introduce double-digit premium hikes to compensate for the increased costs of doing business. As a result, employers began turning to managed healthcare plans, or health maintenance organizations, otherwise known as HMOs, to provide health and dental coverage for their employees.
The Second Largest Indemnity Plan in the State: Early 1990s
By the early 1990s, ODS contracted with close to 2,000, or 95 percent, of dentists in the state of Oregon. The second largest indemnity plan in the state--still one-eighth the size of Blue Cross/Blue Shield--it had 592,614 enrollees in its dental plan and 94,640 enrollees in its medical plan. ODS's dental business made up about 55 percent of its earned premiums and accounted for about 20 percent of all dental business in the state.
But trouble arose in 1991 when dentists, who were also members of a preferred provider organization (PPO) run by Dental Registry Inc. of Portland, resigned from that PPO after ODS reminded them of its policy that dentists who were part of ODS were not allowed to charge fees to other groups lower than those charged to ODS members. Although such a contract clause--called "most favored nation"--was common among insurers, sources at the time insisted that the impact of ODS's "Rule 3" was to thwart the formation of managed care dental products for dentists. The Willamette Dental Group, in association with Dental Registry Inc., filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against ODS, claiming that ODS had interfered with their ability to offer discounted fees to competing insurance plans. Although Willamette Dental lost its suit, it took its case to the Oregon Court of Appeals, and in 1994 the U.S. Department of Justice began investigating potential antitrust violations by ODS.
The year 1991 also saw the passage of new state law in Oregon, which required that all insurers offer a basic benefits package to small businesses--those with from 3 to 25 employees--at lower rates than traditional packages, that is, with limitations on premiums and exclusions. ODS began to offer small group health insurance in 1992, positioning itself well to capitalize on the mandate, which became mandatory for all small businesses in 1998.
Developments After the Institution of the Oregon Health Plan: Late 1990s
Another new law, adopted by the legislature in 1994, created the Oregon Health Plan, which spearheaded a shift within healthcare to HMO-style coverage in Oregon and expanded the Medicaid market. In response to these changes, in 1993 ODS entered the managed care business, teaming up with Oregon Health Sciences University to launch head-to-head competition with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Oregon. ODS and OHSU linked up with an estimated 2,500 physicians in all but two Oregon counties and forged a relationship with most of the hospitals outside the Portland metropolitan area. One of 22 applicants seeking contracts with the state, the joint venture initially went after the newly growing Medicaid business. It gave ODS an entrée with rural physicians who sought more Medicaid and private business.
The combined ODS businesses had 500,000 policyholders and revenues of $185.5 million in 1994, $101.5 million of which came from the company's dental plans. Although dropped by the state's Bargaining Units Benefits Board for 1994, the new HMO, ODS Health Plan, was added to the list of plans offered by the State Employees Benefits Board, giving it a shot at some of the $80 million worth of insurance purchased by the state in 1994.
At about this time, many on ODS's board began to lobby to get the Oregon Dental Association out of those businesses that it had developed, which they considered tangential to its mission. In 1995, top managers at ODS, led by Lindstrand, the company's CEO, offered to buy the ODS Health Plan, Inc. and the Association's three for-profit subsidiaries from the Oregon Dental Association. The offer, however, which was originally well received, created divisions among board membership of the $240 million company. It was rejected by board vote.
The following year, the company had outgrown its headquarters, and ODS began construction on a new $65 million building, the ODS tower, in downtown Portland. As the majority owner and occupant of the tower, which was completed in 1999, ODS leased 40 percent of the office space. Also in 1999, ODS opened a satellite office in LaGrande, Oregon when it could not find enough skilled workers to process its claims in Portland. More building was completed in 2001 when ODS opened the ODS Plaza in the converted Pendleton Woolen Mills shirt factory in Milwaukie, Oregon. This building housed offices for ODS Health Plan's claims, printing, and mailing divisions and for the company's BestChoice Administrators, Inc. and Dentists Management Corporation
Under the leadership of Robert Gootee, a longtime board member, who assumed the positions of president and chief executive of the company in 1998, ODS now faced the shortcomings of the Oregon Health Plan. According to a Wall Street Journal article published in 1999, many HMOs began to pull out of the plan shortly after it was inaugurated, finding that they could not make it work without a "sophisticated provider network and a critical mass of patients." In 1997, ODS Health Plans offered the state plan in 15 counties; by 1999, it offered it in only six, five of those in the more densely populated Willamette Valley in which Portland is located.
With solid dental membership of more than 600,000, health plan membership of about 200,000 in 2001, and total revenues of approximately $573 million, management under Gootee fixed its attention on expanding ODS's subsidiary businesses. Several of the company's subsidiaries experienced significant advances in 2001: BestChoice Administrators added 60 new accounts, including the Portland metro area's transportation provider, Tri-Met, and Rite Aid Corporation; it added these to a wide range of public and private sector clients. The sales arm of Dental Benefits Insurance Company, the leading malpractice dental insurer in Oregon, received certificates necessary to expand operations in Montana, Utah, and Arizona. Dentists Management Corporation added an online version of its software services.
Principal Subsidiaries: Health Services Group: ODS Health Plan, Inc.; BestChoice Administrators, Inc.; Dental Benefits Insurance Company; Dentists Benefits Corporation; Dentists Management Corporation.
Principal Competitors: Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Oregon; Foundation Health Plan; Greater Oregon Health Service Inc.; Kaiser Permanente; Pacific Health & Life Insurance Co.; PACC Health Plans Inc.; Pacificare of Oregon; Health Maintenance of Oregon Inc.; Qual-Med Oregon Health Plan; Sisters of Providence.
Related information about Oregon
pop (2000e) 3 421 400; area
251 409 km²/97 073 sq mi. State in NW USA,
divided into 36 counties; the ‘Beaver State’; established as a
fur-trading post on the site of the present town of Astoria, 1811;
occupied by both Britain and the USA, 1818–46, when the
international boundary was settled on the 49th parallel; became a
territory, 1848; joined the Union as the 33rd state, 1859;
population grew after 1842 with settlers following the Oregon
Trail, and again in the late 19th-c after the completion of the
transcontinental railway; capital, Salem; other chief cities,
Albany, Eugene, Portland, Springfield; bounded W by the Pacific
Ocean; rivers include the Columbia, Snake, Willamette; split by the
Cascade Range; fertile Willamette R valley in the W, with the Coast
Ranges beyond; High Desert in the E, a semi-arid plateau used for
ranching and wheat-growing; Blue Mts and Wallowa Mts in the NE;
Fremont Mts and Steens Mts in the S; highest point Mt Hood
(3424 m/11 234 ft); several small lakes in the S,
including Upper Klamath L and L Albert; about half the area
forested; produces over a quarter of the USA's softwood and
plywood; electronics, food processing, paper, fishing; livestock,
wheat, dairy produce, fruit, vegetables; major tourist region;
Crater Lake National Park in the SW.
noncompliant
Oregon (pronounced The pronunciation , while common, is
incorrect., ?o.??.??n Occurs among speakers where the horse-hoarse merger
has occured, which include the majority of native Oregonians.) is a
state in the Pacific Northwest
region of the United
States. Oregon borders the Pacific Ocean on the west, Washington on the north,
Idaho on the east, and
California, and
Nevada on the south. Two
north-south mountain ranges?the Pacific Coast Range
and the Cascade
Mountain Range?form the two boundaries of the Willamette Valley, one
of the most fertile and agriculturally productive regions in the
world.fact
Oregon has one of the most diverse landscapes of any state in the
US. It is one of the few places in the Northern Hemisphere
where lift-serviced alpine skiing is available year round.fact
Oregon's population in 2000 was 3,421,399, a 20.4% increase over
1990.
History
Oregon's earliest residents were several Native
American tribes, including the Bannock, Chinook, Klamath, and Nez Perce. In 1811, New York
financier John
Jacob Astor established Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River with the
intention of starting a chain of Pacific Fur Company
trading posts along the river. In the War of 1812, the British gained control of all of the Pacific Fur Company
posts.
By the 1820s and 1830s, the British Hudson's Bay
Company dominated the Pacific Northwest. John McLoughlin, who was
appointed the Company's Chief Factor of the Columbia District,
built Fort
Vancouver in 1825.
In 1841 the master trapper and entrepreneur Ewing Young died with
considerable wealth, with no apparent heir, and no system to
probate his estate. Doctor Ira Babcock of Jason Lee's
Methodist Mission was
elected Supreme Judge. Babcock chaired two meetings in 1842 at
Champoeg?half
way between Lee's mission and Oregon City?to
discuss wolves and other
animals considered troublesome at the time. This government was
first of several acting governments of the Oregon Country (also
referred to as the Republic of Oregon) citeneeded prior to American annexation.
The Oregon Trail
infused the region with new settlers, starting in 1842–43, after
the United States agreed to jointly settle the Oregon Country with the
United Kingdom.
Cooler heads prevailed, and the Oregon boundary
dispute between the United States and British North
America was set at the 49th parallel. The Oregon Territory was
officially organized in 1848.
Settlement increased due to the Donation Land Claim
Act of 1850, in conjunction with the forced relocation of the
native population to Indian
Reservations in Oregon. The state was admitted to the Union on
February 14,
1859.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, regular troops were withdrawn and
sent east. The First Oregon Cavalry served until June 1865.
In the 1880s, railroads
enabled marketing of the state's lumber and wheat, as well as the more rapid growth of its
cities.
Industrial expansion began in earnest following the construction of
the Bonneville
Dam in 1943 on the Columbia River. (See: State of
Jefferson, State of Klamath, State of Shasta and Cascadia.)
Oregon state ballots often include politically conservative
proposals (e.g. Those trade routes brought the term
eastward.
- In a 2004 article for the Oregon Historical Quarterly,
Professor Thomas Love and Smithsonian
linguist
Ives Goddard argue that Rogers chose the word based on exposure
to either of the Algonquian words wauregan and olighin,
both meaning "good and beautiful".
Less supported theories are based on it having a Spanish
etymology. Others have speculated that the name is related to the
kingdom of Aragon: the
major part of the Spanish soldiers that conquered the West Coast
from California to Vancouver Island in the 18th century were, in fact, from Catalonia, a principate of the
ancient Crown of
Aragon in Spain.
In 1778, Jonathan
Carver used Oregon to label the Great River of the
West in his book Travels Through the Interior Parts of North
America. this use helped establish it in modern use.
Geography
Oregon's geography may be split roughly into six areas:
- the Coast
Range,
- the Willamette Valley,
- the Cascade
Mountains
- the Klamath
Mountains,
- the Columbia River Plateau, and
- the Basin and
Range Region.
.
Oregon is 295 miles (475 km) north to south at longest
distance, and 395 miles (475 km) east to west at longest
distance. As a West Coast state, its lowest point is sea level.
Crater
Lake National Park is the state's only national park, and the
site of Crater Lake,
the deepest lake in the U.S. at 1,943 feet. Similar
federally-owned, protected recreation areas that are entirely in
Oregon include: John
Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Newberry
National Volcanic Monument, and Oregon Caves
National Monument.
Areas that are partly in Oregon and partly in neighboring states
include the California National Historic Trail, Fort
Vancouver National Historic Site, the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, the Lewis and Clark National and State Historical
Parks, the Nez Perce National Historical Park, and the
Oregon National Historic Trail.
Oregon claims the D
River is the shortest river in the world, though the American state of
Montana makes the same
claim of its Roe
River. Oregon is also home to the smallest park in the world,
Mill Ends Park in
Portland.
Law and government
The Oregon
Country functioned as an independent republic citeneeded with a 3-person executive office and a chief
executive until August
131848, when Oregon was
annexed by the United States, at which
time a territorial government was established. Oregon maintained a
territorial government until February 141859,
when it was granted statehood.
State government
Oregon state government has a separation of
powers similar to the federal government. It has three branches, called
departments by the state's constitution:
- a legislative
department (the bicameral Oregon
Legislative Assembly),
- an executive department which includes an "administrative
department" and Oregon's governor serving as chief executive,
and
- a judicial
department, headed by the Oregon Supreme
Court.
Governors in Oregon serve four-year terms and are term limited
to two consecutive terms, but an unlimited number of total terms.
The Oregon Legislative Assembly consists of a thirty-member
State Senate
and sixty-member House. The state supreme court has
seven elected justices, including the only openly gay state supreme
court justice in the nation, Rives Kistler. The only court that may reverse or modify
a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the United States
Supreme Court.
Oregon is one of the few states whose legislature is
biennial. Recent
legislatures have had to be called into special session repeatedly
to address revenue shortfalls resulting from economic downturns,
bringing to a head the need for more frequent legislative
sessions.
The state maintains formal relationships with the nine federally-recognized tribal governments in
Oregon:
- Burns Paiute Tribe
- Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and
Siuslaw Indians
- Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
- Confederated Tribes of Siletz
- Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs
- Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation
- Coquille
Tribe
- Cow Creek Band
of Umpqua Indians
- Klamath Indian Tribe of Oregon
Oregon adopted many electoral reforms proposed during the
Progressive Era,
due to the efforts of William S. Under his leadership, the state overwhelmingly
approved a ballot measure in 1902 that created the initiative and referendum processes for citizens to directly introduce
or approve proposed laws or amendments to the state constitution.
In following years, the primary election to select party candidates was adopted
in 1904, and in 1908 the Oregon Constitution
was amended to include recall of public officials. More recent
amendments include the nation's only doctor-assisted suicide law,
called the Death with Dignity law (which was challenged in
2005 by the Bush administration in the U.S.
Supreme Court), legalization of medical marijuana, and among
the nation's strongest anti-sprawl and pro-environment
laws.
Of the measures placed on the ballot since 1902, the people
have passed 99 of the 288 initiatives and 25 of the 61 referenda on
the ballot, though not all of them survived challenges in courts
(see Pierce v. During the same period, the legislature has
referred 363 measures to the people, of which 206 have
passed.
Oregon has been a pioneer in the use of vote-by-mail:
- 1981 The Oregon
Legislative Assembly approves experimentation with
vote-by-mail for local elections.
- 1987 Vote-by-mail
becomes permanent, with the majority of Oregon's counties
making use of it.
- 1995 Oregon becomes
the first state to conduct a federal primary election totally by mail.
- 1996 Ron Wyden, Bob Packwood's
replacement, is elected by mail with a 66% turnout.
- 1998 Through a voter
initiative, Oregonians confirm their overwhelming
support for vote-by-mail.
-
2000 Oregon becomes the
first state in the nation to conduct a presidential election entirely by mail.
The state legislature is split between the two parties,
with Republicans dominating the House of
Representatives and Democrats controlling the Senate.
The distribution, sales and consumption of alcoholic
beverages are regulated in the state by the Oregon
Liquor Control Commission. Thus, Oregon is an Alcoholic beverage control state.
Entering the Union at a time when the status of "Negroes" was very much in
question, and wishing to stay out of the looming conflict
between the Union and Confederate States, Oregon banned African Americans
from moving into the state in the vote to adopt its
Constitution (1858). in
2002, additional
language now considered racist was struck from the Oregon
Constitution by the voters of Oregon.
Federal government
Oregon is represented in the United
States legislature by two Senators and
five Representatives. (See also the historical US Congressional Delegations from Oregon.)
In the U.S. Electoral College, Oregon casts seven votes.
See United States court of appeals.
See also : United States presidential election, 2004, in
Oregon
Economy
The Willamette Valley is very fertile and,
coupled with Oregon's famous rain, gives the state a wealth of
agricultural products, including cattle, dairy products, potatoes, peppermint, and apples and other fruits. While the history of the wine production in Oregon can
be traced to before Prohibition, it became a significant industry
beginning in the 1970s and Oregon is home to ten wine
appellations, with three others straddling the
Oregon-Washington border.www.oregonwine.org/ Oregon Wine Center Due to
regional similarities of climate and soil, the grapes planted
in Oregon are often the same varieties found in the French
region of Alsace.
Vast forests have historically made Oregon one of the nation's
major timber
production and logging states, but forest fires (such as the
Tillamook
Burn), over-harvesting, and lawsuits over the proper
management of the extensive federal forest holdings have
reduced the amount of timber produced. According to the
Oregon Forest Resources Institute, timber harvested
from federal lands dropped some 96% from 1989 from 4,333
million to 173 million board feet (10,000,000 to 408,000 m³) in 2001.
Examples include Weyerhaeuser's acquisition of Willamette
Industries in January, 2002, the announcement by Louisiana Pacific
in September, 2003 that they will relocate their corporate
headquarters from Portland to Nashville,
and the experiences of small lumber towns like Gilchrist.
Tektronix was the
largest private employer in Oregon until the late 1980s. Medford is home to
two of the largest mail order companies in the country:
Bear
Creek Corporation which sells gift items under several
brands, and Musician's Friend an international catalog and
Internet retailer of music gear.
Oregon had one of the largest salmon-fishing industries in the world, although
ocean fisheries have reduced the river fisheries in recent
years. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, held in Ashland, is a
tourist draw near its Californian border which complements the
area's scenic beauty and opportunity for outdoor
activities.
Oregon is home to a number of smaller breweries.
Oregon's gross state product is $145.35 billion as of 2005.
Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net
increase of 72,263 people, and migration within the country
produced a net increase of 77,821 people.
As of 2004, Oregon's population included 309,700 foreign-born
(accounting for 8.7% of the state population) and an estimated
90,000 illegal aliens (2.5% of the state population).
The largest reported ancestry groups in Oregon are: German (20.5%),
English
(13.2%), Irish (11.9%), American (6.2%), and Mexican
(5.5%).
Most Oregon counties are inhabited principally by residents of
European ancestry. Concentrations of Mexican-Americans are
highest in Malheur and Jefferson
counties.
6.5% of Oregon's population were reported as under 5, 24.7%
under 18, and 12.8% were 65 or older. "Non-religious" is an
umbrella term
which is sometimes synonymous with or includes elements of
atheism, agnosticism, skepticism, freethought, humanism, secular humanism,
heresy, logical
positivism, and even apathy.
2000-2003 population trends
Estimates released September 2004 show
double-digit growth in Latino and Asian American populations
since the 2000 Census. Eugene, home of the University of
Oregon, is the third largest city, closely following
Salem.www.pdx.edu/prc/annualorpopulation.html
Oregon
City was the first incorporated city west of the Rockies and later,
the first capital of the Oregon Territory, from 1848 to 1852, when the territorial capital was moved to Salem, Oregon. It
was also the end of the Oregon Trail and the site of the first public
library established west of the Rocky Mountains,
stocked with only 300 volumes. The University of
Oregon in Eugene is Oregon's flagship liberal arts
institution, while Oregon State University in Corvallis is the
flagship agricultural school. The State also has three regional
universities: Western Oregon University in Monmouth,
Southern Oregon University in Ashland, and Eastern Oregon
University in La Grande. Concordia University, Lewis &
Clark College, Marylhurst University, Reed College, Warner Pacific
College, and the National College of Natural Medicine are also in
Portland. Pacific University is in the suburb of Forest
Grove.
There are also private colleges further south in the Willamette
Valley. McMinnville has Linfield College, while nearby Newberg is home
to George
Fox University. Salem is home to two private schools,
Willamette
University and Corban College. In addition to the University of
Oregon, Eugene is home to the campuses of Northwest
Christian College and Eugene Bible
College. Colleges belonging to the state are:
- Blue Mountain Community College in
Pendleton
- Central Oregon Community College in
Bend
- Chemeketa Community College in Salem
- Clackamas Community College in Oregon
City
- Clatsop Community College in Astoria
- Columbia Gorge Community College in The
Dalles
- Klamath Community College in Klamath
Falls
- Lane Community College in Eugene
- Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, with a
campus in Corvallis
- Mount Hood Community College in Gresham
- Oregon Coast Community College in
Newport
- Portland Community College in Portland
- Rogue Community College in Grants Pass
- Southwestern Oregon Community College in
Coos Bay
- Tillamook Bay Community College in Bay
City
- Treasure Valley Community College in
Ontario
- Umpqua Community College in Roseburg
Professional sports teams
The only major professional
sports team in Oregon is the Portland Trail
Blazers of the National
Basketball Association. The Rose Garden's other tenants
include the Portland Winter Hawks, a longstanding and popular
Western
Hockey League team, and the Portland
Lumberjax, an expansion National
Lacrosse League team.
In addition to the Winter Hawks and Lumberjax, Portland has two
more minor-league sports teams who play at PGE Park. The Portland Timbers of
the USL First
Division are a very popular soccer team, and the Portland Beavers of
the Pacific
Coast League are the Triple-A club of the San Diego Padres.
The Eugene
Emeralds and the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes both play in the
Single-A Northwest League. Oregon also has four teams in the
fledgling International Basketball League: the Portland Chinooks,
Central
Oregon Hotshots, Salem Stampede, and the Eugene
Chargers.
Even with all of these professional options available, the
state's two major college teams, the Oregon Ducks and
Oregon
State Beavers remain the most popular sports entities in
the state. They are:
- State
flower: Oregon-grape (since 1899)
- State song: "Oregon, My Oregon" (written in 1920 and
adopted in 1927)
- State bird: Western Meadowlark (chosen by the state's
children in 1927)
- State tree:
Douglas-fir
(since 1939)
- State fish: Chinook salmon (since 1961)
- State rock: Thunderegg (like a geode but formed in a rhyolitic lava flow; since
1965)
- State animal: American Beaver (since 1969)
- State dance: Square dance (Adopted in 1977)
- State insect: Oregon Swallowtail
butterfly (Papilio oregonius; since
1979)
- State
fossil: Metasequoia (since 2005)
- State gemstone: Oregon sunstone, a
type of feldspar
(since 1987)
- State nut: Hazelnut (since 1989)
- State seashell: Oregon hairy triton (Fusitriton
oregonensis, a gastropod in the cymatiidae family; since 1991)
- State mushroom: Pacific Golden Chanterelle (since
1999)
- State
beverage: Milk
(since 1997)
- State fruit: Pear (since 2005)
- State motto: Alis Volat
Propriis, Latin for ?She Flies With Her Own Wings? in
1957.www.leg.state.or.us/history/motto.htm)
- State hostess: Miss Oregon (since 1969)
- State team: Portland Trail Blazers of 1990?1991 (since
1991)
See also
- Wikitravel Entry: Oregon
- Music of
Oregon
- Scouting in Oregon
-
The Begum's Millions, a Jules Verne utopian
fantasy set in Oregon
Notes and references
This web site and associated pages are not associated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Oregon Dental Service Health Plan, Inc. and has no official or unofficial affiliation with Oregon Dental Service Health Plan, Inc..