- US map
- State capitals
- Salem
Capital of Oregon · Marion County · capital since 1851 · 44.9°N 123.0°W
Salem, Oregon
Salem, on the Willamette River 47 miles south of Portland, has been the capital of Oregon since 1851, with a brief interruption. Portland is more than three times its size.
Where Salem is
Salem is the seat of Marion County, with its western neighborhoods across the river in Polk County, at 44.94°N, 123.04°W, in the heart of the Willamette Valley. The Willamette River flows north through the city toward Portland and the Columbia. The Coast Range lies about 30 miles west and the Cascade Range about 40 miles east, with Mount Jefferson visible on clear days. Elevation is about 150 ft. Interstate 5 runs along the east side of the city. Salem is on Pacific Time; only Malheur County in the far southeast of Oregon uses Mountain Time.
How it became the capital
Oregon City, at the falls of the Willamette, was the capital of the provisional government and of Oregon Territory from 1848. The legislature voted in 1851 to move to Salem, a Methodist mission settlement founded in the 1840s; the choice was disputed for years, and in 1855 the capital was briefly moved to Corvallis and then back. Salem was confirmed when Oregon became the 33rd state in 1859 and by a popular vote in 1864.
Population
Salem had 175,535 residents in 2020, the third-largest city in Oregon after Portland (652,503) and Eugene. The Salem metropolitan area, covering Marion and Polk counties, has about 433,000 people, roughly a tenth of the state's 4,237,256. The larger Portland metropolitan area to the north holds nearly half of all Oregonians.
The capitol
Oregon's first two capitols burned, in 1855 and 1935. The present Oregon State Capitol, completed in 1938, was designed by the New York firm Trowbridge and Livingston with Francis Keally. It is a stripped-classical Art Deco building of white Vermont marble whose flat-topped cylindrical dome is crowned by the Oregon Pioneer, a 23-ft gilded bronze statue of a man carrying an axe. Wings were added in 1977, and a major seismic retrofit was completed in the 2020s.
Distances to other cities
| City | Direction | Road distance |
|---|---|---|
| Portland, OR | north | about 47 mi |
| Eugene, OR | south | about 65 mi |
| Seattle, WA | north | about 220 mi |
Olympia, the capital of Washington, is about 160 miles north on Interstate 5. See the Columbia River map for the river the Willamette flows into.
Related maps
- Oregon map — the whole state with borders, cities and counties.
- Oregon county map · blank Oregon map · printable Oregon map.
- All 50 state capitals on one map, and the state capitals quiz.
- West region · Pacific division · Pacific Time Zone.