Where did Oregon’s longest-serving legislator play Little League as a kid?

It was an odd question. But the friendly customers at Tudor’s Biscuit World in Charleston, West Virginia, were eager to help.

The late Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, made Oregon his adopted home but his formative years were in Charleston. Following the directions from our newfound friends, my wife and I headed toward Magazine Hollow. 

We’d already driven by Courtney’s childhood home on a brick street, the church where he was an altar boy, and Charleston Catholic High School, where he was a multi-sport athlete and an award-winning orator.

Courtney also lived in Virginia, Rhode Island and Massachusetts before reaching Oregon in 1969. But West “By God” Virginia – as he and others called the state – profoundly influenced the character he became.

If you’re wondering why I was in West Virginia’s capital last week instead of the Oregon Capitol …

As important as The Political Palace is, it’s not the real world. That is why Rachelle and I developed the habit of taking a real-world break during the Legislature’s “long” session, held every other year. 

Two years ago, we took a road trip through Eastern Oregon down to Phoenix, Arizona. The time before that, we explored Klamath Falls, Lakeview and the Oregon-California border region.

This year we flew east, seeing family in Virginia and visiting Maryland, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Like many Oregonians – including state Sen. Lisa Reynolds, D-Portland, who was on our return flight – we traveled through Reagan National Airport, just across the Potomac River from D.C. Driving near the airport, we viewed the wooden crosses honoring the 67 people killed when a passenger jet and military helicopter collided on Jan. 29.

Travel changes one’s perspective. You meet people on their home turf and learn from them.

Oregon would be well-served if our 90 legislators took an extended sabbatical, or even Spring Break, to visit parts of the state unlike their own. An Eastern Oregon lawmaker could take up residence in Gresham. A Portland legislator and family might head to Christmas Valley. And so forth.

Travel reinforces how much Americans have in common while making our differences more understandable as we overcome our stereotypes.

My overwhelming impression of West Virginia was how nice, helpful and welcoming everyone was. (And I’ve never had a tastier cheeseburger than the one at Bun’s in Weston.)

The state is economically poorer, less diverse, less educated and more conservative than Oregon. President Donald Trump won about 70% of the vote last year, compared with 41% in Oregon.

West Virginians love their outdoors as much as Oregonians do ours. Nicknamed “the Mountain State,” West Virginia does lack the grandeur of Mount Hood and the Cascades. However, it’s America’s third-most forested state and the only state wholly within Appalachia. The New River Gorge – traversed by the longest steel arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere – is awe-inspiring.

Meanwhile, coal remains king, or at least royalty.

Climate change often is presented as the issue of our day. However, financial insecurity and income inequality are just as consequential, if not more, just as they have been for millennia. The desire for a better life, financially and in other ways, drives migration throughout the world.

It’s understandable from their perspective why West Virginians cling to their coal economy, though tourism has passed it as the state’s leading industry. Coal even is the official state rock.

Like Oregon’s timber industry, coal long provided good-paying though dangerous jobs. Tourism, whether in West Virginia or Oregon, hasn’t matched those economic and social opportunities.

Census Bureau comparisons

Geographic size: Oregon, 95,995.98 square miles; West Virginia, 24,041.15 square miles

Population per square mile: Oregon, 44.1; West Virginia, 74.6

2024 population estimate: Oregon, 4,272,371; West Virginia, 1,769,979

White residents: Oregon, 72.8%; West Virginia, 90.9%

Foreign-born residents: Oregon, 9.7%; West Virginia, 1.7%

Language other than English spoken at home: Oregon, 15.1%; West Virginia, 2.5%

Persons in civilian labor force: Oregon 62.2%; West Virginia, 53.5%

Median household income: Oregon, $80,426; West Virginia, $57,917

Per capita income: Oregon, $44,063; West Virginia, $32,949

Poverty rate: Oregon, 12.2%; West Virginia, 16.7%

Median value of owner-occupied housing: Oregon, $454,200; West Virginia, $155,600
Residents with bachelor’s degree: Oregon, 36.2%; West Virginia, 23.3%

Dick Hughes, who writes the weekly Capital Chatter column, has been covering the Oregon political scene since 1976. Contact him at TheHughesisms@Gmail.com, Facebook.com/Hughesisms, YouTube.com/DickHughes or Twitter.com/DickHughes.