Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776,[5] making it the 29th most populous city in the United States. Portland is Oregon's most populous city, and the third most populous city in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Approximately 2,260,000?people live in the Portland metropolitan area (MSA),[6] the 23rd most populous in the United States.[6]

Portland was incorporated in 1851 and is the county seat of Multnomah County.[7] The city extends west into the Cedar Mill neighborhood in Washington County and south towards Lake Oswego in Clackamas County. With a commission-based government headed by a mayor and four other commissioners, the city and region are noted for strong land-use planning[8] and investment in light rail, supported by Metro, a distinctive regional government. Because of its public transportation networks and efficient land use planning, Portland has been referred to as one of the most environmentally friendly, or "green", cities in the world.[9]

Located in the Marine west coast climate region, Portland has a climate marked by warm, dry summers and wet but mild winters. This climate is ideal for growing roses, and for more than a century, Portland has been known as "The City of Roses"[10][11] with many rose gardens?most prominently the International Rose Test Garden. The city is also known for its large number of microbreweries and microdistilleries, as well as its coffee enthusiasm. It is also the home of the Trail Blazers NBA team and the Timbers MLS team.

The land today occupied by Multnomah County was inhabited for centuries by two bands of Upper Chinook Indians. The Multnomah people settled on and around Sauvie Island and the Cascades Indians settled along the Columbia Gorge. These groups fished and traded along the river and gathered berries, wapato and other root vegetables. The nearby Tualatin Plains provided prime hunting grounds.[12] The later settlement of Portland started as a spot known as "the clearing,"[13] which was on the banks of the Willamette about halfway between Oregon City and Fort Vancouver. In 1843, William Overton saw great commercial potential for this land but lacked the funds required to file a land claim. He struck a bargain with his partner, Asa Lovejoy of Boston, Massachusetts: for 25?, Overton would share his claim to the 640 acres (2.6?km2) site. Overton later sold his half of the claim to Francis W. Pettygrove of Portland, Maine. Pettygrove and Lovejoy each wished to name the new city after his respective home town. In 1845, this controversy was settled with a coin toss, which Pettygrove won in a series of two out of three tosses.[14] The coin used for this decision, now known as the Portland Penny, is on display in the headquarters of the Oregon Historical Society.

At the time of its incorporation on February 8, 1851 Portland had over 800 inhabitants,[15] a steam sawmill, a log cabin hotel, and a newspaper, the Weekly Oregonian. By 1879, the population had grown to 17,500.[16] The city merged with Albina and East Portland in 1891, and annexed the cities of Linnton and St. Johns in 1915.

Portland's location, with access both to the Pacific Ocean via the Willamette and the Columbia rivers and to the agricultural Tualatin Valley via the "Great Plank Road" through a canyon in the West Hills (the route of current-day U.S. Route 26), gave it an advantage over nearby ports, and it grew very quickly.[17] It remained the major port in the Pacific Northwest for much of the 19th century, until the 1890s, when Seattle's deepwater harbor was connected to the rest of the mainland by rail, affording an inland route without the treacherous navigation of the Columbia River.

Portland lies at the northern end of Oregon's most populated region, the Willamette Valley. However, as the metropolitan area is culturally and politically distinct from the rest of the valley, local usage often excludes Portland from the valley proper. Although almost all of Portland lies within Multnomah County, small portions of the city lie within Clackamas and Washington counties with mid-2005 populations estimated at 785 and 1,455, respectively. The Willamette River runs north through the city center, separating the east and west sections of the city before veering northwest to join with the Columbia River (which separates the state of Washington from the state of Oregon) a short distance north of the city.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 145.4 square miles (377?km2). 134.3 square miles (348?km2) of it is land and 11.1 square miles (29?km2), or 7.6%, is water.[31]

Portland lies on top of an extinct Plio-Pleistocene volcanic field known as the Boring Lava Field.[32] The Boring Lava Field includes at least 32 cinder cones such as Mount Tabor,[33] and its center lies in Southeast Portland. The dormant but potentially active volcano Mount Hood to the east of Portland is easily visible from much of the city during clear weather. The active volcano Mount Saint Helens to the north in Washington is visible in the distance from high-elevation locations in the city and is close enough to have dusted the city with volcanic ash after an eruption on May 18, 1980.[34] Mount Adams, another prominent volcano in Washington state to the northeast of Portland, is also visible from parts of the city.

Portland experiences a temperate climate that is usually described as oceanic with mild, damp winters and relatively dry, warm summers. Like much of the Pacific Northwest, according to the K?ppen climate classification it falls within the cool, dry-summer subtropical zone (Csb), also referred to as cool-summer Mediterranean, because of its relatively dry summers.[35] Other climate classification systems, such as Trewartha, place it firmly in the Oceanic zone (Do).[36]

Summers in Portland are warm, sunny and rather dry, with August, the warmest month, averaging 79.7 ?F (26.5??C), and much larger day-night variation than in winter. Because of its inland location and when there is an absence of a sea breeze, heatwaves occur (in particular during the months of July and August) with air temperatures sometimes rising over 100 ?F (38??C), but 90 ?F (32??C) is more commonplace, occurring 13 days per annum.[37] Winters are normally mild, and very moist, with January averaging 39.9 ?F (4.4??C). Lows, though usually above freezing, can reach that mark or below 37 nights per year, however.[37] Cold snaps are short-lived, and snowfall occurs no more than a few times per year, although the city has been known to see major snow and ice storms because of the cold air outflow from the Columbia River Gorge. The city's winter snowfall totals have ranged from just a trace on many occasions, to 60.9 inches (154.7?cm) in 1892?93. Spring can bring rather unpredictable weather, resulting from warm spells, to thunderstorms rolling off the Cascade Range. The rainfall averages an equivalent 37.5 inches (950?mm) per year in downtown Portland? spread over 155 days a year. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Portland was -3 ?F (-19??C), set on February 2, 1950.[38] The highest temperature ever recorded was 107 ?F (42??C), set on July 30, 1965 as well as August 8 and 10, 1981.[38] Temperatures of 100 ?F (38??C) have been recorded in each of the months from May through September.[38]