Portland, OR Overview

Situated at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, "The City of Roses" is a booming metropolis of over 560,000 people that retains a small-town feel, thanks to its many unique neighborhoods, mixed-use city planning, and gorgeous natural beauty. The city itself was planned with its residents in mind, so it is very walkable (with short city blocks and central parks and plazas), and is also easy to get around using public transit--in fact, the city's transit system has won many awards and is one of the most thorough systems in the United States. Bicyclists also love Portland, as it is considered one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country and offers over 250 miles of bike paths for cyclists. As a whole, the environment plays a big role in the way the city and its residents live, as evidenced by the growing number of neighborhood farmer's markets, the abundance of open green space (over 37,000 acres!), variety of local parks, and the hundreds of organic restaurants and shops in town. Portland is definitely a city on its way to being "green".

History

Known as "The Clearing" to early fur traders and trappers of the Pacific Northwest, Portland was originally used as a stopping place to rest on the journey to and from Oregon City and Fort Vancouver. In 1843, a 640-acre land claim on the banks of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers was filed by William Overton, an explorer from Tennessee, who recruited Boston lawyer Asa Lovejoy to split the claim as he didn't have the money up front. Asa contributed $0.25 for the filing fee, and the two split the land claim. After clearing some of the land and constructing roads and a few buildings, Overton decided to move on and sold his claim to Francis Pettygrove, a pioneer from Portland, Maine. In 1845, when it came time to decide what to name the township, Pettygrove, (who wanted to name it after his hometown of Portland) and Lovejoy (who was equally as adamant to name it after his home city of Boston) couldn't agree, so they decided to flip a coin. Pettygrove won two out of three tosses of the now famous "Portland Penny", and the city was called Portland. The city remained a small, mud-ridden frontier settlement until the mid-19th century, when the Oregon Land Act was passed (which gave every man or woman 320 acres of land) and the fishing, timber, and farming industries began to boom. The city was officially incorporated into the United States in 1859, and quickly grew in the years following the Civil War, becoming the main port for incoming and outgoing sea vessels on the west coast.