Letter "According to my daughter's homework today, the sound of a vowel in syllable which is not accented is called a schwa. I have lived for 51 years not knowing this. The a in america, the u in bonus, and the i in Willamette are all examples of this. "Yes, we do live on the Willamette river here in Oregon, and in the Willamette valley. So are Intel's research, fab and marketing facilities located in the Willamette valley, which used to be a huge inland sea before a big earthquake or volcano compromised the end of the lake (40 miles wide by 100 miles long) and let all the water flow into the ocean. "Thousands of years of lake bottom sediment made the valley very flat and fertile. Intel should build its facilities in the deserts, which are in ample supply in the western USA. "There used to be Willamette Indians here before the settlers who arrive on the Oregon trail gave them diseases which killed virtually all of them. "So, the Willamette name lives on, which is more than we can say about Intel's dominance, i'nn't?" ® Name and email address supplied There is a thread currently running on our Forum on the topic of Willamette.