Oregon Business

The recession’s punch hit the state’s rural communities first and hardest.

‘Keeping the Town Alive’

Data centers arrived in Oregon five years ago, cloaked in mystery. There’s no hiding them now.

Aircraft officianados and designers extraordinaire "Skeeter" Karnes and his son Richard have relentlessly pursued a uniquely crafted single seat aircraft that gives even the most seasoned pilots a thrill every time they pour on the gas, pull back on the stick and scream straight up through the clouds.

"I was really passionate about entrepreneurship and building things," Alford-Jones, 25, said. "For me, it almost seemed like there was no other alternative."

It’s nearly unheard of for a first-time inventor to land in a major retailer’s health and beauty care aisle, a highly competitive category dominated by multinational corporations. And yet for Peterson, 71, the work has just begun.

Great for retrofitting historic structures

"Make no mistake, if the U.S. and nationwide economy goes into recession, it will drag Oregon down with it."

Oregon’s state universities are embarking on what’s believed to be the state’s largest solar energy project, an effort that will eventually bring solar arrays to all seven campuses in the Oregon University System.

Hats by Montana Peaks have even made it to the big screen. Sissy Spacek wore one in "Streets of Laredo" and so did Paul Gross in the Canadian Western "Gunless."