Howard Hughes designed the H-4 Hercules as a World War II transport, a flying boat so large it could carry 750 troops or two Sherman tanks across the Atlantic. Built almost entirely of birch - spruce was actually rare in its construction, making the nickname misleading - the plane was Hughes' obsession through years of development. It flew once, on November 2, 1947, lifting seventy feet above Long Beach Harbor for about a mile before Hughes set it down, never to fly again.

After Hughes' death, the plane found its way to McMinnville, where the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum built a facility around it. The museum has grown to include a second building dedicated to space exploration, an IMAX theater, and most unexpectedly, a water park where slides spiral around a retired 747. But the Spruce Goose remains the draw - standing beneath those wings, visitors grasp the ambition that built them.

The Willamette Valley produces some of America's most respected wines, and McMinnville sits at its heart. Tasting rooms line Third Street downtown, their storefronts sharing space with the restaurants and shops that have multiplied to serve wine tourists. The surrounding hills hold over a hundred wineries within easy driving distance, their vineyards visible from any high ground.

Pinot Noir made the valley famous, the cool climate producing wines that challenged Burgundy's dominance. But the diversity has expanded - Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Riesling, and others thrive in the varied microclimates created by the Coast Range to the west and the Cascades to the east. The wine culture has transformed McMinnville from agricultural service center to culinary destination, the farm-to-table movement finding fertile ground where wineries meet working farms.

Third Street runs through McMinnville's historic core, its brick buildings dating from the late 1800s when the town served as the commercial center for Yamhill County's farms and timber operations. The architecture has been preserved and adapted, storefronts now housing wine bars and restaurants alongside the more utilitarian businesses that any county seat requires.

Linfield University adds a collegiate presence to the north, its campus contributing students and cultural programming to a town of 35,000. The combination works - McMinnville has the services of a functioning small city with the attractions that draw visitors from Portland, an hour northeast. The downtown remains walkable and human-scaled, the wine tourism overlaid on rather than replacing the community that was here before.

McMinnville serves as a base for exploring the wider Willamette Valley, the wine region extending from here to Eugene in the south. The small towns that dot the valley - Carlton, Dundee, Amity, Dayton - each have their own character and their own clusters of tasting rooms. The landscape itself rewards driving, the vineyards climbing hillsides, the farmland stretching across the valley floor.

West of town, the Coast Range rises toward the Pacific, the roads winding through forest to reach beaches an hour away. Spirit Mountain Casino marks the turn toward the coast at Grand Ronde, where the Confederated Tribes have built an economic anchor for communities scattered through the Coast Range foothills. The valley's position between mountains and coast makes it a natural crossroads, McMinnville the hub from which roads radiate in every direction.