Talk:Oregon Outback

merge with Southeastern Oregon

It looks like they are separate areas. —EncMstr 00:38, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, OK, Duff, who seems to have disappeared again, indicated he was planning to merge SE Oregon here, after I had redirected his abandoned SE Oregon article to Southern Oregon. In a related but separate issue, somewhere I remember discussing how Oregon Outback and Harney Basin are very similar as well. Personally I think "Oregon Outback" sounds like something dreamed up by the tourism commission, so I'd welcome more input so we can decide once and for all what the heck these regions are called, hopefully with nice dry designations like "south, southeast and southwest"! Katr67 (talk) 05:01, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Oregon Outbackis indeed a marketing term designed by various people in the arid Great Basin and nearby regions of southern Oregon to boost tourism for people who want to explore spectacular desolation, along with the people who want to boost interest in the Oregon Trail both in and out of Oregon. It goes in line with the general interest of parties in the intermontane West (between roughly east of the Cascades and Sierras to the Rockies and south to the Colorado River Basin) to find a tourism base to replace lost income from dwindling timber cutting and cattle raising. The interests in wind sailing, hang-gliding, birding, mountain-biking, new-style dude ranches, demonstrations of dry-land farming by horses, and dry-land mountain climbing are part of the same desire.Uniquerman (talk) 21:36, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

The National Forest Service has over the last 45 and particularly the last 20 years has built many horse trails and roads and is prospecting new roads in the North Warner Mountains to the same end.Uniquerman (talk) 21:42, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Hmmm. ok reappearing, and having now lived here a while longer, have some further thoughts on thisen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Oregon/redlinks_List#Geography. Oregon Outback is fairly commonly understood IN Lake County, Oregon to BE Lake County, and limied surrounding desrt though other high desert regions or counties may reasonably also consider themselves as within its scope. I find it interesting that Lake County is not to be found in either Central Oregon, Southern Oregon, or Eastern Oregon. Maybe it does not actually exist. Southeastern Oregon probbably oughtta remain a region, some if not all of which comprises the Oregon Outback; Lake County as one county in the region. Duff (talk) 07:55, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Extent

Even a very brief perusal of articles on the web, illustrates that the Oregon Outback includes an area much larger than that of Klamath and Lake counties. I spend a lot of time in the southern regions of Harney and Malheur counties know many ranchers, small town dwellers, ranch hands, etc… and the southern reaches of these two counties, more than either Klamath or Lake, are defined as the Oregon Outback. I’m sorry, but who ever is claiming the title of Outback for Lake and Klamath don’t know what their business. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.178.103.226 (talk) 20:13, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

That's the problem though. The only available references aren't terribly reliable. So what's stated in the article is what is documented. If you know of some authoritative source which says otherwise, please tell us! —EncMstr (talk) 20:31, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

There isn't any authoritative source because there isn't any official geographic designation. The article's reference [1] describes a highway that goes from Lapine in southern Deschutes County to Lakeview in Lake County. It has been designated a Scenic Byway by the USDOT. This falls short of defining a geographic territory. Reference [2] doesn't appear to define anything at all. Failing a statute enacted by the State legislature or some kind of county ordinance (which would by definition delimit an intra-county area), if the other legal questions of rights, responsibilities, and ownership could be solved, there will be no legal entity called Oregon Outback. Maybe the current Interior Secretary could find a way around this if he wished, something like the new "Wild Lands" designation. Otherwise, all or any of the land from Ontario south to the Nevada border (excluding perhaps the Owyhee River watershed), west across to Malin, north to Lapine, and across the northern edge of the Great Basin back to the western reaches of the Owyhee watershed could be called Oregon Outback. It's all of a piece in terrain and remoteness. In short, the Oregon Outback is anything anyone says it is.Uniquerman (talk) 20:14, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

For further information, get in touch with John Cogar at www.2people.org or, if that doesn't work and you're really interested rather than just musing, drop him a note at simply Lakeview OR 97630--it'll get to him--or call information for his phone number. This is a subject John loves to talk about, and I'd bet money he has the most current information.Uniquerman (talk) 15:05, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Unofficial?

If the name is officially recognized by state, local and other entities, why is the name considered an unofficial "term" to describe the High Desert region of Oregon? Before I change it to reflect that it's just a term and delete unofficial, does anyone have some background on why it's written that way? Dbroer (talk) 16:44, 7 February 2014 (UTC)