BlockBefore

Portland, Oregon

33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1990. It stands in the Portland West census division. It lies in ZIP code area 97209. It stands on Tanner Creek (historical). The Survey maps it on the Portland quadrangle. 652,503 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 499 feet above sea level.

Research this city

Portland within Multnomah County

On record in Portland

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 12 of 613 shown

Every listing in Multnomah County

Population over time

2 figures

Portland grew from 583,776 to 652,503 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010583,776
2020652,503+68,727 (+12%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

13 surveys from 33 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

What the histories say of this town

668,836 words

2 chapters about Portland from the published histories of the county, public domain and reproduced complete.

ChapterFrom Length
HistoryHistory of Portland, Oregon : with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens and Pioneers (1890)281,665 words in 18 parts
Portland, Oregon, Its History and Builders : in Connection with the AnPortland, Oregon, Its History and Builders : in Connection with the Antecedent Explorations, Discoveries, and Movements of the Pioneers That Selected the Site for the Great City of the Pacific (1911)387,171 words in 25 parts

Fires near this place

1 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Portland in 2001, burning about 7,500 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Natural1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
13 July 2001Natural7,500 acresPrineville DistrictSTARVATION

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Multnomah County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 43 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 43 workings within 5 miles of Portland: 31 past producers, 9 producers, 1 occurrence, 1 prospect. 9 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Limestone QuarryStone, DimensionPast Producer
Portland TunnelMercuryOccurrence
Portland TunnelMercuryProspect
City of PortlandStonePast Producer
City of PortlandStonePast Producer
QuarryStonePast Producer
City of PortlandStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
City of Portland PitStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
City of Portland PitStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Pacific Stoneware CoClayPast Producer

Every working recorded in Multnomah County

Storms near this place

16 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Portland in 16 storm reports between 1999 and 2018: 6 heavy rain, 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
December 2015Heavy RainWest Portland$621,000Heavy rain resulted in urban flooding across the Portland metro area. All Amtrack and freight trains were shut down between Portland and Vancouver due to flooding. A mobile home park in Gresham flooded. There were a couple of land slides on Highway 30 where debris covered the highway. One of these slides was near German Town Road. The other slide was near the St John's Bridge, hit a car (with no injuries) as it happened, and covered all lanes of Highway 30.
October 2016Heavy RainPortland$30,000Heavy rain caused culverts and low-lying urban areas to flood, including 4th and Morrison. Also flooding was reported at the Portland State University Bookstore.
May 2014Thunderstorm WindPortland$11,000Winds from a thunderstorm resulted in a large Oak Tree falling on two parked cars in downtown Portland.
March 2015Heavy RainPortland$6,000A mudslide crossed Northwest Marlborough Street into a residential garage after 3 to 6 inches of rain fell across Northwest Oregon.
September 2007HailPortland$5,000Estimated half-inch hail fell near 162nd and Main.
July 2007Thunderstorm WindPortland$5,000Reports received of strong wind resulting trees blown down in downtown Portland.
June 2009Thunderstorm WindPortland$1,200The top of a 70-foot tree, estimated between 20 and 20 inches in diameter, was snapped off in downtown Portland at the intersection of SW Salmon Street and Park Avenue. A passer-by was nearly hit as it fell to the ground. Time of the event is estimated based nearby reports from the storm.
September 2018Heavy RainPortland-Standing water reported near NE 28th Ave between Glisan and Burnside. Trimet MAX lines were temporarily closed due to standing water between Lloyd Center and Hollywood. Rain guage at the Portland Airport reported 0.82 of an inch of rain.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindPortland-A thunderstorm moving through Multnomah County produced lightning that hit a tree which fell on power lines causing a power outage to about 1600 customers.
November 2009Heavy RainPortland-An observer reported receiving 0.98 inches in two and a half hours.
November 2009FloodPortland-Major street flooding was reported at the intersection of 39th Avenue and Belmont Street, east of downtown Portland.
January 2007Heavy RainPortland-A total accumulation of 1.61 inches was reported at the WFO Portland.
August 1999HailPortland-A reporter from the Hillsboro Argus newspaper reported 3/4 inch hail near 33rd Ave and Columbia Boulevard in Portland. This is unusually large hail for the Portland area away from mountains or foothills.
May 2003Funnel CloudPortland-no account filed
May 2001Thunderstorm WindPortland-no account filed
August 1999LightningPortland-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Multnomah County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
East Portland1.0 miles33
Albina1.4 miles33
Kings Heights1.7 miles33
Irvington1.7 miles33
Marquam Hill1.8 miles21
Portland Heights1.9 miles33
Willamette Heights2.3 miles33
South Portland (historical)2.5 miles21

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on PortlandAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q6106The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1136645. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.