Visiting and Living in Portland, Oregon

Considered by many the gem of the Pacific Northwest, Portland, Oregon is home to some 500,000 residents who often live, work and play in a sophisticated lifestyle and at a harmonious, laid-back pace. It is a pace far removed from the stressful, hurly-burly machinations of its large urban neighbors to the south: San Francisco and Los Angeles. Perhaps the only things both California communities have over the City of Roses is gridlock, earthquakes, job quantity, movie-star glamour and a milder year-round climate. But for quality living, employment opportunities, outdoorsy charm and a clean, environmental existence - Portland holds its own with the best of them. And living healthy and stress-free is only one of the many by-products of this bustling metropolis.

Few cities have a setting as beautifully scenic as Portland. Located in the northwestern region of the state, just south of Vancouver, Washington, Portland borders the banks of the Willamette River, about 10 miles from its confluence with the Columbia River. The city is a mere two-hour drive (about 65 miles inland) from the Pacific Ocean and its large deepwater port receives oceangoing vessels from all over the world.

A little history

Thirty years after the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the Columbia River in 1805, settlers, missionaries and traders began immigrating from the 24 United States to where today sits Portland International Airport. By covered wagon thousands of immigrants traveled 2,200 miles from Missouri to Oregon City (just south of present-day Portland) in the 1840s, most of them to settle in the lower Willamette Valley. By 1870, over a quarter million people had transversed the Oregon Trail and became residents of Oregon's northwest region.

Settlers Francis Pettigrove from Portland, Maine and Amos Lovejoy of Boston in 1845 acquired considerable acreage along the west bank of the Willamette river. After flipping a coin to name their new town, Pettigrove won the toss and named their new community Portland.