Portland is a port city in what state?
A: Oregon.
Where is Portland situated?
A: At the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia
rivers.
Portland is the county seat of what county?
A: Multnomah County, the largest county in Oregon by population.
As of 2020, Portland had what population?
A: 652,503, making it the 26th-most populated city in the United States.
It’s the sixth-most populous on what?
A: The West Coast, and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest,
after Seattle.
How many people live in the Portland metropolitan
statistical area?
A: Approximately 2.5 million, making it the 25th most populous in the United
States.
How much of Oregon's population resides within the
Portland metropolitan area?
A: About half.
What was Portland named after?
A: After Portland, Maine.
The Oregon settlement began to be populated in the
1840s, near what?
A: The end of the Oregon Trail.
Its water access provided convenient transportation of
goods, and the timber industry was what?
A: A major force in the city's early economy.
At the turn of the 20th century, the city had a
reputation as what?
A: One of the most dangerous port cities in the world, a hub for organized
crime and racketeering.
After the city's economy experienced an industrial boom
during World War II, its hard-edged reputation began to what?
A: Dissipate.
Beginning in the 1960s, Portland became noted for its
what?
A: Growing progressive political values, earning it a reputation as a
bastion of counterculture.
The city operates with a commission-based government,
guided by what?
A: A mayor and four commissioners, as well as Metro, the only directly
elected metropolitan planning organization in the United States.
Its climate is marked by what?
A: Warm, dry summers and cool, rainy winters.
This climate is ideal for growing what?
A: Roses, and Portland has been called the "City of Roses" for over a
century.
During the prehistoric period, the land that would
become Portland was flooded after what?
A: The collapse of glacial dams from Lake Missoula, in what would later
become Montana.
When did these massive floods occur?
A: During the last ice age.
It filled the Willamette Valley with what?
A: 300 to 400 feet (91 to 122 m) of water.
Before American settlers began arriving in the 1800s,
the land was inhabited for many centuries by what two bands of indigenous
Chinook people?
A: The Multnomah and the Clackamas.
The Chinook people occupying the land were first
documented in 1805 by whom?
A: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
Large numbers of pioneer settlers began arriving in the
Willamette Valley in the 1840s via what?
A: The Oregon Trail, with many arriving in nearby Oregon City.
A new settlement then emerged ten miles from the mouth
of the what?
A: The Willamette River, roughly halfway between Oregon City and Hudson’s
Bay Company’s Fort Vancouver.
This community was initially referred to as what?
A: "Stumptown" and "The Clearing" because of the many trees cut down to
allow for its growth.
In 1843 William Overton saw potential in the new
settlement but lacked the funds to what?
A: File an official land claim.
For 25 cents, Overton agreed to do what?
A: Share half of the 640-acre (2.6 km2) site with Asa Lovejoy of Boston.
In 1845, Overton sold his remaining half of the claim
to whom?
A: Francis W. Pettygrove of Portland, Maine.
Both Pettygrove and Lovejoy wished to rename "The
Clearing" after what?
A: Their respective hometowns (Lovejoy's being Boston, and Pettygrove's,
Portland).
This controversy was settled with what?
A: A coin toss that Pettygrove won in a series of two out of three tosses,
thereby providing Portland with its namesake.
The coin used for this decision, now known as the
Portland Penny, is on display where?
A: In the headquarters of the Oregon Historical Society.
