The rural-urban divide in Oregon, and implications for ecotourism and rural development

Leah Sottile's headline in the High Country News last month was "How a trail in rural Oregon became a target of far-right extremism."  It's a fascinating read, and I'm just excerpting here part of it that relates to the rural-urban divide in the West.  

In 2018, Kulla was elected one of Yamhill County’s three commissioners, besting the conservative incumbent. Over the last 40 years, this county in western Oregon’s Willamette Valley has become one of the world’s premier wine-growing regions, bringing an influx of money and visitors. Kulla, who is unusually liberal for a conservative county, ran on a platform of smart planning for inevitable growth and protecting vulnerable people in the community. At the time of his election, he was also a cannabis farmer.

Philip Higgins, the son of Quaker back-to-the-landers in Yamhill, met Kulla at the cemetery. Higgins, who is a commercial real estate broker, grew up understanding “that when you don’t have a lot of spare money, the government doesn’t seem like it’s there to help you.”

Kulla pointed to a metal tab on Higgins’ pants pocket. “See the little clip on it?” Higgins smiled and pulled out a Kershaw folding knife. Kulla, in turn, fished out a grafting knife from his pocket, well-worn from harvest.

The two men joked about how they contradict the rural stereotypes they seem to signify: Kulla wore Vivobarefoot shoes, Higgins wore a Rolex. “This,” Higgins said, rolling up his sleeve to display it, “is the urban-rural divide.” The men cracked up laughing.

But as they walked down the hill toward the old railroad right of way — the unlikely source of so much local anger — their tone changed. “Yamhill County is the urban-rural divide personified,” Higgins said.

In Oregon, as in other Western states, “urban-rural divide” is shorthand for the cultural, political and economic tensions between the few urban centers — Portland, Eugene, Salem, Bend — and the many rural communities. That divide, Kulla said, is fundamental to understanding the place. He wishes it wasn’t real, he said, “but it is.”