The New Atlas of Oregon Highlighting the Work of UO Geographers

Bill Loy edits the Oregon Atlas. A good atlas is much more than a collection of maps. It is a compelling record of a place and a people. It is a guide to the future. A good atlas transforms raw information into art. Now the state of Oregon is about to get a very good atlas. A new, completely revised and expanded Atlas of Oregon will reach bookstores this fall, thanks to University of Oregon geography professor emeritus Bill Loy; Jim Meacham, director of the UO infographics lab; Aileen Buckley, assistant professor of geography; and former graduate student Stuart Allan, who now heads Allan Cartography in Medford. Assisting them are also scores of students, professors, and experts from around the state. It is a labor of love as well as a tribute to the state. The first Atlas of Oregon, authored by Loy and Allan, was published twenty-five years ago to commemorate the UO’s 100th birthday. Published by UO Books in 1975, the first atlas was a statewide bestseller. Unfortunately, the UO Books program -- a victim of budget cuts -- was discontinued that same year. In the years since, attempts to produce an updated edition of the Atlas fell short because of the difficulty in gathering the needed funding. That is, until 1998, when the UO’s then-Vice President of Public Affairs and Development Duncan McDonald and Director of Communications Tom Hager were talking over ways to help celebrate the UO’s 125th birthday in 2001-2002. The conversation turned to books, and then to the first Atlas, a book that both men remembered as a great reference book. What better way to celebrate the 125th than to publish a much-needed new edition? While McDonald worked on raising money, Hager contacted Loy and Allan, and found that they were eager to update their 1976 work. Loy -- a respected expert who seems to know everyone who knows anything about Oregon -- recruited UO geographers Meacham and Buckley as additional authors. Over a period of two years, this core team coordinated the work of more than 100 contributors, including some of the leading Oregon historians, geologists, natural resource experts, and state agency experts. The result shows just what a quarter-century of progress can do -- the new Atlas of Oregon is to the old Atlas as a supercomputer is to a manual typewriter. Twenty-five years ago, the maps were carefully drawn and colored by hand, and Loy and Allan spent weeks building the needed graphics overlays for their printer in Portland. Now the needed information starts as bits and bytes in powerful computers. Sophisticated programs translate elevation data, for example, into maps so detailed they look like satellite photos. These are then carefully colored and shaded. In Stuart Allan’s hands, the result is what the Wall Street Journal calls "the world’s most beautiful maps." It is a fitting gift for the UO to give the state of Oregon. The new Atlas of Oregon will be available October 15 in bookstores, and can be pre-ordered on the web at: http://uopress.com.

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