Salem
Capital of Oregon, in Marion County (of which it is administrative headquarters) and Polk County, on the Willamette River, 84 km/53 mi south of Portland; population (2000 est) 136,900. It is a distribution and processing centre for timber from the Cascades forests to the east, and fruit and vegetables from the fertile Willamette farmlands. Hi-tech goods, building materials, and textiles are also produced. The state government is Salem's largest employer. It was incorporated in 1857.
History
The area was settled by Methodist missionaries from the James Lee Mission in 1840. They established the Oregon Institute in 1842; this later developed into Williamette University (1842). The settlement was named after Salem in Massachusetts, which was the home of other early settlers; Salem is a form of
shalom, the Hebrew word meaning peace. The mission dissolved in 1844, the year that Salem was laid out, and the city became territorial capital, taking over from Oregon City, in 1851 and state capital in 1864.
| Salem has 62 entries on the national register of historic places. Features include the neoclassical marble State Capitol (1937) and several house museums including the Thomas Kay Woollen Mill (1890). Early pioneer homes are now part of Mission Mill Museum. The Salem Arts Fair and Festival is held annually in July and the city is also the home of Chemeketa Community College (1962). |
Salem
| City in Tamil Nadu, India, 320 km/200 mi southwest of Chennai (formerly Madras); population (1991) 367,000. Industries include iron-mines, textiles, chemicals, iron and steel, electrical goods and handicrafts. Locally iron, bauxite and magnesite are mined. The chief agricultural product of the region is tapioca, and there are many small-scale sago processing plants producing starch to be used in the textile industry. |
Salem
| City and administrative headquarters of Essex County, northeast Massachusetts, on Massachusetts Bay, 24 km/15 mi northeast of Boston; population (2000 est) 40,400. Leather goods, electrical equipment, and machinery are manufactured. Services including health care and education, and tourism are major industries. Many attractions relate to the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692 that ended in the execution of 19 people. The trials took place in nearby Danvers, then known as Salem Village. Salem was incorporated as a city in 1836. |
| Settled as Naumkeag in 1626, it was renamed Salem in 1629 after the Hebrew word for peace, shalom. It became a leading port and shipbuilding centre in the 18th century, and was one of the richest US towns in 1790. The city was badly damaged by fire in 1914. |
| Tourist attractions relating to the trials include the Witch Dungeon Museum, the Wax Museum, Salem Witch Museum, and the Witch House, which, as the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin, is the only remaining contemporary structure associated with the trials. There is also ‘Dracula's Castle’. There are 44 entries on the national register of historic places, and other points of interest include Pioneer Village – a reconstruction of 1630s Salem, the Peabody and Essex Museum, the New England Pirate Museum, the birthplace of the 19th-century writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the House of the Seven Gables (1668), which inspired Hawthorne's novel of the same name in 1851. Salem Maritime Historic Site was the first National Historic Site in the US National Park system. Salem was the birthplace of US senator George Cabot. |
