In todays digital age, having a robust online presence is crucial for businesses in every industry, including water mitigation and restoration. How Water Mitigation AI Boosts Calls for Vancouver WA Water Damage Companies . Many companies often find themselves struggling to attract the right leads. Enter SEO strategies by Water Mitigation AI-designed to drive more restoration leads! But hey, its not just about having a fancy tool; its about using it effectively.
First off, lets talk about keywords. Theyre not just words; theyre the bridge between you and potential clients. But dont just stuff your website with random keywords-search engines arent fooled by that anymore. Instead, focus on long-tail keywords (you know, those three or four keyword phrases that are super specific). For instance, instead of just using "water damage," try something more specific like "emergency water damage restoration in Miami." See the difference? Youre not just casting a wide net; youre targeting the right fish.
Now, onto on-page SEO. Many businesses neglect this, thinking its not all that important. AI optimization for restoration service pages near Fruit Valley But, oh boy, are they wrong! Voice search optimization for water damage in 98660 On-page SEO involves optimizing individual pages on your website to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic. This includes elements like meta tags, headings, and even image alt texts. AI content for restoration SEO And remember, your website content should be relevant and engaging. Google loves content thats helpful to users (and keeps them coming back). So, keep your audience in mind while creating content.
Speaking of content, lets not forget about blogging. Regularly updated blogs can drive traffic to your site and show your expertise in the field. But, dont just write for the sake of writing. Provide value. Share tips on preventing water damage or the benefits of quick restoration. People are more likely to trust a company thats knowledgeable and willing to share insights.
Oh, and lets not ignore local SEO! Many restoration companies underestimate its power. Claim your Google My Business listing, ensure your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) is consistent across all platforms, and encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews. Local SEO helps you stand out in your community, making it easier for nearby clients to find you.
And hey, lets talk about mobile optimization. More people are searching for services on their phones than ever before. If your website isnt mobile-friendly, youre basically turning away potential clients. Make sure your site loads quickly and is easy to navigate on a mobile device.
But look, SEO isn't just a one-time task. It requires consistent effort and adaptation. Algorithms change, and so do user behaviors. Keep an eye on your analytics to understand whats working and whats not. Adjust your strategies accordingly.
Finally, patience is key. SEO isn't an overnight success story. But with dedication, your restoration company will not just see more leads, but quality leads that turn into loyal clients. So, embrace the power of SEO by Water Mitigation AI and watch your business grow!
Part of a series on |
Internet marketing |
---|
Search engine marketing |
Display advertising |
Affiliate marketing |
Misc |
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising.[1] SEM may incorporate search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages to enhance pay-per-click (PPC) listings and increase the call to action (CTA) on the website.[2]
In 2007, U.S. advertisers spent US $24.6 billion on search engine marketing.[3] In Q2 2015, Google (73.7%) and the Yahoo/Bing (26.3%) partnership accounted for almost 100% of U.S. search engine spend.[4] As of 2006, SEM was growing much faster than traditional advertising and even other channels of online marketing.[5] Managing search campaigns is either done directly with the SEM vendor or through an SEM tool provider. It may also be self-serve or through an advertising agency.
Search engine marketing is also a method of business analytics, which is mainly aimed at providing useful information for organizations to find business opportunities and generate profits. SEM can help organizations optimize their marketing and gather more audience and create more customers.[6]
As of October 2016, Google leads the global search engine market with a market share of 89.3%. Bing comes second with a market share of 4.36%, Yahoo comes third with a market share of 3.3%, and Chinese search engine Baidu is fourth globally with a share of about 0.68%.[7]
In August 2024, Google's search engine was declared by a court to be a monopoly over the market.[8] During the trial, the US Department of Justice argued "Google hasn’t just illegally cornered the market in search — it’s squeezed online publishers and advertisers with a “trifecta” of monopolies that have harmed virtually the entire World Wide Web"[9]
As the number of sites on the Web increased in the mid-to-late 1990s, search engines started appearing to help people find information quickly. Search engines developed business models to finance their services, such as pay per click programs offered by Open Text[10] in 1996 and then Goto.com[11] in 1998. Goto.com later changed its name[12] to Overture in 2001, was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, and now offers paid search opportunities for advertisers through Yahoo! Search Marketing. Google also began to offer advertisements on search results pages in 2000 through the Google AdWords program. By 2007, pay-per-click programs proved to be primary moneymakers[13] for search engines. In a market dominated by Google, in 2009 Yahoo! and Microsoft announced the intention to forge an alliance. The Yahoo! & Microsoft Search Alliance eventually received approval from regulators in the US and Europe in February 2010.[14]
Search engine optimization consultants expanded their offerings to help businesses learn about and use the advertising opportunities offered by search engines, and new agencies focusing primarily upon marketing and advertising through search engines emerged. The term "search engine marketing" was popularized by Danny Sullivan in 2001[15] to cover the spectrum of activities involved in performing SEO, managing paid listings at the search engines, submitting sites to directories, and developing online marketing strategies for businesses, organizations, and individuals.
Search engine marketing uses at least five methods and metrics to optimize websites.[16]
Search engine marketing is a way to create and edit a website so that search engines rank it higher than other pages. It should be also focused on keyword marketing or pay-per-click advertising (PPC). The technology enables advertisers to bid on specific keywords or phrases and ensures ads appear with the results of search engines.
With the development of this system, the price is growing under a high level of competition. Many advertisers prefer to expand their activities, including increasing search engines and adding more keywords. The more advertisers are willing to pay for clicks, the higher the ranking for advertising, which leads to higher traffic.[18] PPC comes at a cost. The higher position is likely to cost $5 for a given keyword, and $4.50 for a third location. A third advertiser earns 10% less than the top advertiser while reducing traffic by 50%.[18]
Investors must consider their return on investment when engaging in PPC campaigns. Buying traffic via PPC will deliver a positive ROI when the total cost-per-click for a single conversion remains below the profit margin. That way the amount of money spent to generate revenue is below the actual revenue generated.
There are many reasons explaining why advertisers choose the SEM strategy. First, creating a SEM account is easy and can build traffic quickly based on the degree of competition. The shopper who uses the search engine to find information tends to trust and focus on the links showed in the results pages. However, a large number of online sellers do not buy search engine optimization to obtain higher ranking lists of search results but prefer paid links. A growing number of online publishers are allowing search engines such as Google to crawl content on their pages and place relevant ads on it.[19] From an online seller's point of view, this is an extension of the payment settlement and an additional incentive to invest in paid advertising projects. Therefore, it is virtually impossible for advertisers with limited budgets to maintain the highest rankings in the increasingly competitive search market.
Google's search engine marketing is one of the western world's marketing leaders, while its search engine marketing is its biggest source of profit.[20] Google's search engine providers are clearly ahead of the Yahoo and Bing network. The display of unknown search results is free, while advertisers are willing to pay for each click of the ad in the sponsored search results.
Paid inclusion involves a search engine company charging fees for the inclusion of a website in their results pages. Also known as sponsored listings, paid inclusion products are provided by most search engine companies either in the main results area or as a separately identified advertising area.
The fee structure is both a filter against superfluous submissions and a revenue generator. Typically, the fee covers an annual subscription for one webpage, which will automatically be catalogued on a regular basis. However, some companies are experimenting with non-subscription based fee structures where purchased listings are displayed permanently. A per-click fee may also apply. Each search engine is different. Some sites allow only paid inclusion, although these have had little success. More frequently, many search engines, like Yahoo!,[21] mix paid inclusion (per-page and per-click fee) with results from web crawling. Others, like Google (and as of 2006, Ask.com[22][23]), do not let webmasters pay to be in their search engine listing (advertisements are shown separately and labeled as such).
Some detractors of paid inclusion allege that it causes searches to return results based more on the economic standing of the interests of a web site, and less on the relevancy of that site to end-users.
Often the line between pay per click advertising and paid inclusion is debatable. Some have lobbied for any paid listings to be labeled as an advertisement, while defenders insist they are not actually ads since the webmasters do not control the content of the listing, its ranking, or even whether it is shown to any users. Another advantage of paid inclusion is that it allows site owners to specify particular schedules for crawling pages. In the general case, one has no control as to when their page will be crawled or added to a search engine index. Paid inclusion proves to be particularly useful for cases where pages are dynamically generated and frequently modified.
Paid inclusion is a search engine marketing method in itself, but also a tool of search engine optimization since experts and firms can test out different approaches to improving ranking and see the results often within a couple of days, instead of waiting weeks or months. Knowledge gained this way can be used to optimize other web pages, without paying the search engine company.
SEM is the wider discipline that incorporates SEO. SEM includes both paid search results (using tools like Google AdWords or Bing Ads, formerly known as Microsoft adCenter) and organic search results (SEO). SEM uses paid advertising with AdWords or Bing Ads, pay per click (particularly beneficial for local providers as it enables potential consumers to contact a company directly with one click), article submissions, advertising and making sure SEO has been done. A keyword analysis is performed for both SEO and SEM, but not necessarily at the same time. SEM and SEO both need to be monitored and updated frequently to reflect evolving best practices.
In some contexts, the term SEM is used exclusively to mean pay per click advertising,[2] particularly in the commercial advertising and marketing communities which have a vested interest in this narrow definition. Such usage excludes the wider search marketing community that is engaged in other forms of SEM such as search engine optimization and search retargeting.
Creating the link between SEO and PPC represents an integral part of the SEM concept. Sometimes, especially when separate teams work on SEO and PPC and the efforts are not synced, positive results of aligning their strategies can be lost. The aim of both SEO and PPC is maximizing the visibility in search and thus, their actions to achieve it should be centrally coordinated. Both teams can benefit from setting shared goals and combined metrics, evaluating data together to determine future strategy or discuss which of the tools works better to get the traffic for selected keywords in the national and local search results. Thanks to this, the search visibility can be increased along with optimizing both conversions and costs.[24]
Another part of SEM is social media marketing (SMM). SMM is a type of marketing that involves exploiting social media to influence consumers that one company’s products and/or services are valuable.[25] Some of the latest theoretical advances include search engine marketing management (SEMM). SEMM relates to activities including SEO but focuses on return on investment (ROI) management instead of relevant traffic building (as is the case of mainstream SEO). SEMM also integrates organic SEO, trying to achieve top ranking without using paid means to achieve it, and pay per click SEO. For example, some of the attention is placed on the web page layout design and how content and information is displayed to the website visitor. SEO & SEM are two pillars of one marketing job and they both run side by side to produce much better results than focusing on only one pillar.
Paid search advertising has not been without controversy and the issue of how search engines present advertising on their search result pages has been the target of a series of studies and reports[26][27][28] by Consumer Reports WebWatch. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also issued a letter[29] in 2002 about the importance of disclosure of paid advertising on search engines, in response to a complaint from Commercial Alert, a consumer advocacy group with ties to Ralph Nader.
Another ethical controversy associated with search marketing has been the issue of trademark infringement. The debate as to whether third parties should have the right to bid on their competitors' brand names has been underway for years. In 2009 Google changed their policy, which formerly prohibited these tactics, allowing 3rd parties to bid on branded terms as long as their landing page in fact provides information on the trademarked term.[30] Though the policy has been changed this continues to be a source of heated debate.[31]
On April 24, 2012, many started to see that Google has started to penalize companies that are buying links for the purpose of passing off the rank. The Google Update was called Penguin. Since then, there have been several different Penguin/Panda updates rolled out by Google. SEM has, however, nothing to do with link buying and focuses on organic SEO and PPC management. As of October 20, 2014, Google had released three official revisions of their Penguin Update.
In 2013, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held in Lens.com, Inc. v. 1-800 Contacts, Inc. that online contact lens seller Lens.com did not commit trademark infringement when it purchased search advertisements using competitor 1-800 Contacts' federally registered 1800 CONTACTS trademark as a keyword. In August 2016, the Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint against 1-800 Contacts alleging, among other things, that its trademark enforcement practices in the search engine marketing space have unreasonably restrained competition in violation of the FTC Act. 1-800 Contacts has denied all wrongdoing and appeared before an FTC administrative law judge in April 2017.[32]
Google Ads is recognized as a web-based advertising utensil since it adopts keywords that can deliver adverts explicitly to web users looking for information in respect to a certain product or service. It is flexible and provides customizable options like Ad Extensions, access to non-search sites, leveraging the display network to help increase brand awareness. The project hinges on cost per click (CPC) pricing where the maximum cost per day for the campaign can be chosen, thus the payment of the service only applies if the advert has been clicked. SEM companies have embarked on Google Ads projects as a way to publicize their SEM and SEO services. One of the most successful approaches to the strategy of this project was to focus on making sure that PPC advertising funds were prudently invested. Moreover, SEM companies have described Google Ads as a practical tool for increasing a consumer’s investment earnings on Internet advertising. The use of conversion tracking and Google Analytics tools was deemed to be practical for presenting to clients the performance of their canvas from click to conversion. Google Ads project has enabled SEM companies to train their clients on the utensil and delivers better performance to the canvass. The assistance of Google Ads canvass could contribute to the growth of web traffic for a number of its consumer’s websites, by as much as 250% in only nine months.[33]
Another way search engine marketing is managed is by contextual advertising. Here marketers place ads on other sites or portals that carry information relevant to their products so that the ads jump into the circle of vision of browsers who are seeking information from those sites. A successful SEM plan is the approach to capture the relationships amongst information searchers, businesses, and search engines. Search engines were not important to some industries in the past, but over the past years the use of search engines for accessing information has become vital to increase business opportunities.[34] The use of SEM strategic tools for businesses such as tourism can attract potential consumers to view their products, but it could also pose various challenges.[35] These challenges could be the competition that companies face amongst their industry and other sources of information that could draw the attention of online consumers.[34] To assist the combat of challenges, the main objective for businesses applying SEM is to improve and maintain their ranking as high as possible on SERPs so that they can gain visibility. Therefore, search engines are adjusting and developing algorithms and the shifting criteria by which web pages are ranked sequentially to combat against search engine misuse and spamming, and to supply the most relevant information to searchers.[34] This could enhance the relationship amongst information searchers, businesses, and search engines by understanding the strategies of marketing to attract business.
cite web
: |author=
has generic name (help)cite journal
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
![]() August 2007 cover, with a caricature of Vancouver mayor Royce Pollard
|
|
Type | Alternative monthly |
---|---|
Format | Tabloid |
Owner(s) | News-Register Publishing Company[1] |
Publisher | Oregon Lithoprint, Inc., Guy Everingham |
Editor | Ossie Bladine |
Founded | October 2006 |
Language | English |
Ceased publication | August 2011 |
Headquarters | Vancouver, Washington |
Circulation | 13,000 |
Website | www |
The Vancouver Voice was an alternative newspaper serving Clark County and Southwest Washington in the United States, with a focus on the area's largest city, Vancouver. It ceased publication with volume 5, issue 13 of August 19, 2011.
In early 2006, The Vanguard, a previous two-year-old alternative publication for Vancouver, folded. Several of the staff and writers involved with The Vanguard came together soon after its demise to continue the nascent tradition of an alternative periodical for the rapidly expanding population of Clark County.[2] Former Vanguard columnist and Willamette Week Screen editor James Walling joined with longtime cohort Eric A. Johnson and soon-to-be production manager Melissa Wolf to found The Vancouver Voice.[2]
In the summer of 2007, the publication became embroiled in some of the controversy surrounding the Camas, Washington mayoral race after publishing a vitriolic letter from one of its readers that attacked the character of candidate and former city councilwoman Liz Pike. Pike responded by sending a letter of complaint from her attorney to the paper and the writer of the letter (who is unaffiliated with the paper's staff).[3] Walling declined to acquiesce to Pike's complaint. In the general election, Pike was defeated by Paul Dennis, earning only 25 percent of the vote.[4]
In September 2010, Voice freelancer Marcus Griffith was the first journalist to question what was initially reported as a local acid attack.[5] The incident which later was revealed to be a hoax,[6] and resulted in felony theft charges related to funds gathered for the alleged victim. Griffith posted his initial investigation on the website of the paper. This resulted in The Voice being labeled "Satan's paper" by religious groups sympathetic to the perpetrator of the hoax.[5]
In 2011, the paper's Oregon-based owners offered if for sale, after having purchased it in 2008 from Vancouver resident James Walling.[7] After three years the paper was folded by Oregon Lithoprint Incorporated, citing "general economic malaise in the region, and specific challenges to the newspaper industry."[8]
The Voice featured content in the vein of most traditional alternative weekly periodicals, though more serious journalistic coverage of crimes and similar incidents has occurred.[5][6] Past cover stories have included conflicting development models in the area (high density mixed use versus urban sprawl), and the tenth anniversary of Vancouver School of Arts and Academics.[2]
Pike's former co-chair of the Camas Wine Art Music Festival, Amy Parent, also complained that Pike improperly took over management of the event. Parent wrote a scathing letter to The Vancouver Voice newspaper in Vancouver, criticizing Pike, calling her names and provoking a complaint from Pike's attorney.
cite web
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Media analyses, including a posting in The Vancouver Voice, questioned why in her photograph acid burns were absent from her face along her hairline, eyes or lips and none were reported on her neck, shoulders or hair or inside her nose or mouth. The Vancouver Voice also had reported that homeless witnesses claimed Storro was alone when she fell to the ground screaming.
Vancouver Lake | |
---|---|
![]() An aerial view of the lake
(with the Columbia River in the foreground) |
|
Location | Clark County, Washington |
Coordinates | 45°40′40″N 122°43′16″W / 45.6779°N 122.721°W |
Primary inflows | Columbia River (intermittent) and Burnt Bridge Creek (continuous) |
Primary outflows | Lake River (intermittent) |
Catchment area | Vancouver Lake/Lake River, Lakeshore, Burnt Bridge Creek, Salmon Creek, Whipple Creek, Flume Creek |
Basin countries | United States |
Max. width | > 2 mi (3.2 km) |
Surface area | approx. 2,400 acres (9.7 km2) |
Average depth | < 3 ft (0.9 m) |
Max. depth | 12 to 15 feet (3.7 to 4.6 m) |
Shore length1 | > 7 mi (11 km) |
Islands | 1 |
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. |
Vancouver Lake is located just west of Vancouver, Washington, United States, north of the Columbia River and Portland, Oregon, south of Ridgefield, Washington, and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.
The lake is shallow, with a maximum depth of 12 to 15 feet (3.7 to 4.6 m) and a mean depth of less than 3 feet (0.9 m).[1][2] There is an island in the northern half of the lake named Turtle Island.[3] The island was formed from the tailings of an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project, which dredged around the perimeter of the lake in the early 1980s. Lake River flows from the north shore to the Columbia River near Ridgefield. Due to seasonal variation in relative river and lake levels, Lake River experiences intermittent flow reversal and flows into Vancouver Lake for considerable periods of time.
The sources for Vancouver Lake's water include a flushing channel (equipped with tidal gates to control flows) from the Columbia River near the southwest shoreline and Burnt Bridge Creek on the eastern shoreline, which winds about ten miles (sixteen kilometres) through many of the city's residential areas. Until the 1980s, this creek was neglected and a major source of pollution for the lake.
Lower River Road leads west out of Vancouver to a park on the shore of Vancouver Lake which includes a large swimming area.[4] A trail leads to Frenchman's Bar Park on the nearby Columbia River.
A study published in 2014 by Curt D.Peterson, et al, PSU Dept of Geology, includes results from multiple core samples which demonstrate there's been a lake in this location continuously going back at least 4000 years.
Vancouver Lake is home to a variety of wildlife species, many of which it shares with the nearby Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Descriptions from the late 19th century describe Vancouver Lake as clear, up to 20 ft (6.1 m) deep and containing sturgeon. Current turbidity, more shallow depths and a lack of aquatic plant structures have diminished the variety of species and more recent surveys showed the most abundant fish by mass were brown bullhead, white crappie, black crappie, and common carp, with a few juvenile salmonids and a population of channel catfish, largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, yellow perch, naturalized goldfish, northern pikeminnow, American shad, mosquito fish, largescale sucker, and freshwater sculpin.[5][6] Rich fringe environments provide habitat for amphibians such as tree frogs, reptiles such as garter snakes and a wide variety of birds, including large species such as great blue herons, osprey and bald eagles. It is within the Pacific Flyway. Large mammals on its banks include raccoons, a few black-tailed deer and an occasional coyote.
Vancouver Lake was referenced in Lewis and Clark's journal entries from November 4, 1805 (v. 6, 17).
Shortly after the lake was deeded to the Port of Vancouver, Washington, in 1919, agricultural interests proposed draining it, (A smaller lake to the north, Shillapoo Lake, was drained and used for agriculture) but by the end of the 1920s, recreational uses were also considered. Because of cold weather, the lake was frozen solid to "several inches" in depth on February 10, 1929, and was home to 500 ice skaters one weekend.[7] The lake was briefly considered as a decommissioning harbor in 1945, but after the Memorial Day flood of 1948 was also seen as a possible resource in flood control.[8]
Suburbanization of its watershed area led to an increase in water pollution. Surface runoff brought increased sediment while residential drain fields and increased use of fertilizers rich in nitrogen and phosphorus contributed to eutrophication. DDT was also used for mosquito control until its effects on fish and birds became apparent, and the county discontinued it. A 2005 report showed higher than normal levels of various contaminants in the lake's fish.[9]
Since then, there have been various interests in the area as it relates to habitat preservation, recreation and industry, culminating in the "Habitek" plan of the mid-1980s and the multi-agency Burnt Bridge Creek Watershed Plan of 1995. Algal bloom has been an intermittent problem for recreational use of the lake (officially recognized by the county in 2003) since cyanobacteria such as Anabaena, Microcystis aeruginosa and Cylindrospermopsin raciborskii may produce neurotoxins such as cylindrospermopsin.[10][11]
The Vancouver Lake Watershed Partnership was formed in October 2004, bringing various public agencies with interest and jurisdiction together.[12]
Vancouver Lake plays host to two water sport oriented recreation clubs. Vancouver Lake Crew is a high school and master aged rowing club that uses the lake as its primary practice facility. Along with rowing, kayaking, canoeing, and dragon boating are also popular activities hosted by Vancouver Lake Crew. On the opposite East shore sits the Vancouver Lake Sailing Club where sailboats can be launched, with opportunities for sailing education and racing.
In 2017, lake users noticed an increasing level of Eurasian Water Milfoil (EWM) in the lake. In late 2018, concerned citizens joined forces with local and state agencies to assess the EWM infestation. In early 2019, local volunteers formed a 501c(3) non-profit, Friends of Vancouver Lake. Working with the Vancouver Lake Crew, Vancouver Lake Sailing Club, and hundreds of concerned community members, they secured a Washington State permit to treat the lake with a newly-approved herbicide, ProcellaCOR. This fast-acting herbicide is targeted to EWM, but non-toxic to humans, fish, and wildlife. While environmental conditions prevented a treatment in 2019, Vancouver Lake and its flushing channel were treated with ProcellaCOR July 7, 2020. Post-treatment surveys several weeks later showed no trace of EWM in the lake or flushing channel.
This PDF is no longer available and was not found archived.
citation
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Feb 9. ... Vancouver lake is frozen from shore to shore and about 500 persons were skating there last night. The ice is several inches thick and perfectly safe.
LocationVancouver, Washington and Oregon City, Oregon, USANearest cityVancouver, Washington, and
Oregon City, OregonCoordinates
45°37′31″N 122°39′29″W / 45.6253950°N 122.6581525°W[1]Area207 acres (84 ha)[2]EstablishedJune 19, 1948 (national monument)
June 30, 1961 (national historic site)Visitors710,439 (in 2011)[3]Governing bodyNational Park ServiceWebsiteFort Vancouver National Historic Site
Fort Vancouver National Historic Site is a United States National Historic Site located in the states of Washington and Oregon. The National Historic Site consists of two units, one located on the site of Fort Vancouver in modern-day Vancouver, Washington; the other being the former residence of John McLoughlin in Oregon City, Oregon. The two sites were separately given national historic designation in the 1940s.[4] The Fort Vancouver unit was designated a National Historic Site in 1961, and was combined with the McLoughlin House into a unit in 2003.
The visitor center at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site was originally built in 1966 as a part of the National Park Service's Mission 66 Program. Today, the visitor center is co-operated by both the National Park Service and the United States Forest Service. Recent renovations to the visitor center (2015) transformed the historic building as an information center for both Fort Vancouver National Historic Site and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.[5] The visitor center features rotating archaeological exhibits from the national historic site and art exhibits from local native artists.[6] The building also has a theater that shows 2 films from the National Park Service and the United States Forest Service: Oregon Experience: Fort Vancouver (25 mins), and Mount St. Helens - Eruption of Life (17 mins).
The main unit of the site, containing Fort Vancouver, is located in Vancouver, Washington, just north of Portland, Oregon. Fort Vancouver was an important Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) fur trading post that was established in 1824. Operations until 1845 were overseen by Chief Factor John McLoughlin. It was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's fur trade activity on the Pacific coast and its influence stretched from the Rocky Mountains in the east, to Alaska in the north, Alta California in the south, and to the Kingdom of Hawaii in the Pacific. Ratified in 1846, the Treaty of Oregon was signed by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States, thereby ending the decades long Oregon boundary dispute. The treaty permitted the Hudson's Bay Company to continue to operate at Fort Vancouver, which was now within the Oregon Territory. On June 14, 1860, Fort Vancouver was abandoned by the Hudson's Bay Company in favor of their stations in British Columbia, such as Fort Victoria.
Vancouver National Historic Reserve Historic District
|
|
![]() Pearson Hangar at Vancouver National Historic Reserve.
|
|
Location | Roughly bounded by an alley N of Officers' Row, East Reserve St., Columbia River, and I-5, Vancouver, Washington |
---|---|
Built | 1824 |
Architect | Hudson's Bay Co.; et al. |
Architectural style | Late Victorian, Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals |
NRHP reference No. | 06001216 |
Added to NRHP | January 5, 2007[7] |
In 1849, the United States Army constructed the Vancouver Barracks adjacent to the British trading post; and took over the facility when it was abandoned. A fire destroyed the Hudson's Bay Company fort in 1866, but the Army facility continued in operation in various forms until the present. Fort Vancouver was separated from the Army's barracks and became a national monument in 1948. Congress expanded the protected area in 1966 and re-designated the site as a National Historic Site. For some years after its addition to the National Park System, the National Park Service was reluctant to begin reconstruction of the fort walls or buildings, preferring to manage it as an archaeological site as provided by its standing policies. However, in 1965, with the urging of the local community, Congress directed reconstruction to begin. All fort structures seen today are modern replicas, albeit carefully placed on the original locations.[8]
In response to concerns about the designation of reconstructed structures, the Park Service designated the Vancouver National Historic Reserve Historic District to encompass reconstructed buildings as well as historic Army and Mission 66-era Park Service structures.[9]
McLoughlin House National Historic Site
|
||
![]() |
||
|
||
Location | McLoughlin Park, between 7th and 8th Sts., Oregon City, Oregon | |
---|---|---|
Coordinates | 45°21′26″N 122°36′21″W / 45.35722°N 122.60583°W | |
Area | 0.6 acres (0.24 ha) | |
Built | 1845 | |
NRHP reference No. | 66000637[10] | |
Significant dates | ||
Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 | |
Designated NHS | 1941 |
The McLoughlin House unit consists of the homes of McLoughlin and Dr. Forbes Barclay, an explorer and associate of McLoughlin's; the two homes are known respectively as the McLoughlin House and the Barclay House. They are located adjacent to each other on a bluff overlooking the Willamette River in Oregon City, Oregon, on a plot of land set aside for public use by McLoughlin in the 1840s.[11]
In 1846, McLoughlin left the employ of Hudson's Bay Company, and purchased from the company a land claim located on the Willamette River in Oregon City. McLoughlin constructed the house there, and lived there until his death in 1857.[12] The house, a two-style colonial mansion, is typical of East Coast residences from the time.[13]
After McLoughlin's death in 1857, his widow lived there until she died three years later; their heirs sold the house in 1867. The home soon became a bordello known as the Phoenix Hotel. In 1908, the paper mill that owned the property wished to expand and the house was threatened with demolition, but preservationists saved it the next year, raising over $1,000 and overcoming a referendum.[14] In 1910 the house was moved from the riverfront to its current location on a bluff overlooking downtown Oregon City. It sat there for twenty-five years, until being restored in 1935–1936 under the auspices of the Civil Works Administration, and opened as a museum.[13]
The Barclay House was built in 1849 by Portland carpenter and pioneer John L. Morrison, and occupied by Dr. Barclay and his family. Barclay died in 1874; the house remained in the family's possession until 1930 when it was moved from the waterfront to its present location, next to the McLoughlin House. Today, the Barclay House contains museum offices and a gift shop.[15]
The McLoughlin House became a National Historic Site in 1941, and both homes were added to the National Park System in 2003, becoming part of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.[12][16] The McLoughlin House unit lies on the Oregon National Historic Trail, a part of the National Trails System. The graves of McLoughlin and his wife are on the premises.[17] The house contains both original and period furnishings.
Opened in a historic hangar in 1996, the Pearson Air Museum and The Jack Murdock Aviation Center showcases aviation history in the Vancouver area, and specifically Pearson Airfield. Today, the Pearson Air museum displays a number of aircraft, including a De Havilland DH-4 Liberty[18] that has been restored to represent an aircraft from the US Army Air Corps 321st Observation Squadron that was stationed at Pearson Airfield in the 1930s. In June 2018, National Park Service Volunteers completed work on a replica of Silas Christofferson's Curtis Pusher from scratch. The original plane was flown from the roof of the Multnomah Hotel in Portland, OR to the location of the modern day Pearson airfield. The replica is currently being exhibited at the Pearson Air Museum. Exhibits at the museum also feature the US Army Spruce Production Division,[19] and the first transpolar flight which landed in 1937 on Pearson Field from Moscow, Russia. Models of the Russian Tupolev ANT-25 that made the first transpolar flight are on display at the museum. The museum also houses a Fleet Model 2 which was flown by Leah Hing, the first Chinese American woman to earn a pilot's license.[20][21]
An earth-covered pedestrian land bridge was built over the Lewis and Clark Highway, as part of the Confluence Project, in 2007. It connects the site with the Columbia River.[22]
Parts of the Vancouver Barracks were transferred to the National Park Service in 2012 when the US Army Reserve officially closed the post after its continuous occupation since 1849. The buildings are typically closed to the public, but there are outdoor exhibits.[23]
Since the Post to Park transfer to the National Park Service in 2012, the NPS has been restoring and renovating the barracks buildings to be used as mixed-use structures. Future tenants of these buildings are expected to be other governmental agencies, community groups, and private businesses. The area is expected to feature a community center, office buildings, restaurants, and retail in addition to a future museum space for the Vancouver Barracks operated by the National Park Service. In 2016, the Gifford Pinchot National Forest moved its headquarters and administration operations to one of the renovated double infantry barracks buildings in the Vancouver Barracks.[24] The United States Forest Service co-operates the visitor center on Fort Vancouver National Historic Site along with the National Park Service.[5]
A cross country running course is located at the site. The USA Cross Country Championships have been held at this site.[25]
![]() WSU Vancouver in April 2016.
|
||
Type | Public | |
---|---|---|
Established | 1989 | |
Chancellor | Sandra Haynes (interim) | |
President | Elizabeth R. Cantwell | |
Academic staff
|
180 | |
Students | 3,504 | |
Location |
Vancouver address
,
,
|
|
Campus | Suburb 351 acres (1.42 km2) |
|
Colors | Crimson and Gray | |
Nickname | WSUV, VanCougs, Cougs, Cougars | |
Mascot | Butch T. Cougar | |
Website | vancouver |
|
![]() |
Washington State University Vancouver (also WSU Vancouver) is a regional campus of Washington State University.
WSU Vancouver is located on a 351-acre (1.42 km2) campus outside of Vancouver, Washington, approximately eight miles (13 km) north of the Columbia River and 17 miles (27 km) north of downtown Portland, Oregon. Degrees offered by WSU Vancouver are conferred by Washington State University. Previously an undergraduate transfer college, WSU Vancouver expanded to a full four-year university in 2006.[1]
It is in the Mount Vista census-designated place.[2]
Washington State University began offering courses in Southwest Washington in 1983 as part of the Southwest Washington Joint Center for Education. In 1989, the university in Pullman formally established Washington State University Vancouver as a branch campus of the state's land-grant institution.[3]
In 1990, the Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board approved placing the campus at Salmon Creek, a community north of Vancouver. The site was chosen over two other finalists, a campus adjacent to Clark College and a site in Mlll Plain.[4]
The current campus opened in 1996. In Fall 2006, WSU Vancouver admitted freshmen and sophomores for the first time and began offering lower-division courses.[3]
The 351-acre (1.42 km2) campus has many computing and research laboratories, including student computing labs, fabrication labs, science research labs, group instruction labs, fine arts labs, a circuits and microprocessors lab, computer-aided drafting lab and a writing center. The science resources and instrumentation possessed by the campus consist of GC/MS, HPLC (UVvis), DNA sequencer, TOC/N, RT-PCR, Flame ionization detector, two Phantom cameras, a scanning electron microscope, an Instron tensile tester, and a confocal microscope, along with a fully functional cleanroom.
WSU Vancouver's library has more than 800 journals in hardcopy and over 9,000 full-text online journals and newspapers, a core collection of more than 30,000 books and access to more than 100 major bibliographic databases. The library participates in several local and regional library consortia, including the Portland Area Library System and ORBIS/CASCADE (the Oregon and Washington Cooperative Library Project). It also houses the Environmental Information Cooperative Library.
WSU Vancouver offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctorate degrees in more than 40 fields of study.[5] Students may also be enrolled in science graduate study programs in the School of Biological Sciences in Pullman and pursue their entire degree at WSU Vancouver; greatly enhancing the number of degrees available at the master's and doctoral level by proxy.[6]
The School of Engineering and Computer Science at WSU Vancouver operates several research laboratories, including the Nanomaterials-Sensor Laboratory, Wireless Circuit and System Research Lab, Computer Aided Engineering Lab, Electric Power Systems Lab, Robotics and Automation Lab, Radio Frequency (RF) Research Laboratory, Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Lab, Micro-Nano-Bio Systems Lab, Electrochemical Engineering Lab, Fluid Dynamics Lab, Interfacial Fluid Dynamics Lab, Parallel and Distributed Data Management Systems Lab, Distributed Systems Research Lab.[7] Usually faculties receive funding from government agencies, and local companies. There are also many research labs in the School of Environmental Science, Biology, Mathematics, and Neuroscience. These include the aquatic ecology lab, conservation biology lab, and the ecology of Mt. St. Helens, among others.
The opening of the Firstenburg Student Commons (FSC) in the Fall of 2007 marked a change in student life on the Vancouver campus.[8]
Although there is currently no on-campus housing, WSU Vancouver offers many activities and events for students. For example, there are many student-run organizations such as a History Club, Cougar Pride LGBT club and KOUG radio. KOUG Radio is a student-run radio station that occasionally features radio shows broadcast by DJs, most of whom are students at the university. Another student-run organization is the Salmon Creek Journal, a visual arts and literary magazine created by students, alumni and faculty.[9]
A total of 17,228 graduates have completed study at WSU Vancouver. Roughly 92 percent of alumni remain in the area.[10] As the campus is located close to many industrial and tech corporations, most of the WSU Vancouver alumni works in nearby companies located in Washington, Oregon, and California.
In the novel Fifty Shades of Grey, the main character, Anastasia Steele, attends and graduates from WSU Vancouver.[11] In response to this association, Avantika Bawa, a professor of Fine Arts at WSU Vancouver curated a 2013 show of student work titled 'Better Shades of Grey'.[12]
45°43′52″N 122°38′13″W / 45.73111°N 122.63694°W