Editing Pacific Northwest (section)

==Definition ==
[[File:PacNWComparison.PNG|thumb|right|upright=1.05|None of the multiple possible definitions of the Pacific Northwest is universally accepted. This map shows three possibilities: (1) The shaded area shows the historical [[Oregon Country]]. (2) The green line shows the [[Cascadia (bioregion)|Cascadia bioregion]].<ref name="sightline1">{{cite web|url=http://www.sightline.org/maps/maps/cascadia_cs05m|title=Map of Cascadia|work=Sightline.org|access-date=February 19, 2011}}</ref> (3) The labeled states and provinces include Washington, Idaho, Oregon and British Columbia.]]

Definitions of the "Pacific Northwest" region vary, and even Pacific Northwesterners do not agree on the exact boundary.<ref name=schwantes>{{cite book|last=Schwantes|first=Carlos A.|title=The Pacific Northwest: an interpretive history|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JImlIbueaXcC&pg=PA1|access-date=December 14, 2010|date=January 1, 1996|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-0-8032-9228-4|pages=1–2}}</ref><ref>{{citation | first=Kent D. |last=Richards | journal=Pacific Historical Review|volume=50|number=4|publisher=University of California Press|date=November 1981| title=In Search of the Pacific Northwest: The Historiography of Oregon and Washington |pages=415–443 |doi=10.2307/3639158 | jstor=3639158 }}</ref> The most common conception includes the [[U.S. state]]s of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and the [[Provinces and territories of Canada|Canadian province]] of British Columbia.<ref name="coates">{{cite book |last= Coates |first= Ken S. |editor1-last= Findlay |editor1-first= John M. |editor2-last= Coates |editor2-first= Ken S. |title= Parallel Destinies: Canadian-American Relations West of the Rockies |year= 2002 |publisher= University of Washington Press |isbn= 978-0-295-98252-6 |pages= 3–5 |chapter= 1. Border Crossings |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4leTYpWOE5UC&pg=PA3 |access-date=December 14, 2010}}</ref>

Broader definitions of the region have included the U.S. states of  [[Alaska]] and parts of the states of California, Montana, and Wyoming, and the Canadian territory of [[Yukon]].<ref name="coates" /><ref name="Hayes1999">{{cite book|last=Hayes|first=Derek|title=Historical atlas of the Pacific Northwest: maps of exploration and discovery : British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Yukon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sl57oHrVXGoC&pg=PA8|access-date=July 12, 2011|year=1999|publisher=Sasquatch Books|isbn=978-1-57061-215-2}}</ref><ref name="sinclair">{{cite book|last1=Apostol|first1=Dean|last2=Sinclair|first2=Marcia|author3=Society for Ecological Restoration International|title=Restoring the Pacific Northwest: the art and science of ecological restoration in Cascadia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CsGyhzFBjyAC&pg=PR24|access-date=December 14, 2010|year=2006|publisher=Island Press|isbn=978-1-55963-078-8|page=24}}</ref>

Definitions based on the historic [[Oregon Country]] reach east to the [[Continental Divide of the Americas|Continental Divide]], thus including all  of western [[Montana]] and western [[Wyoming]]. Sometimes, the Pacific Northwest is defined as being the [[Northwestern United States]] specifically, excluding [[Canada]].