Boring, Oregon
Boring is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. It is located along Oregon Route 212 in the foothills of the Cascade mountain range, approximately southeast of downtown Portland, and northeast of Oregon City. A bedroom community, Boring is named after William Harrison Boring, a Union soldier and pioneer whose family built a farm in the area in 1856, before Oregon had received statehood.
The community was officially platted in 1903 after the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company constructed an electric rail line, which operated from Portland to Cazadero. The former railway is now part of the Springwater Corridor, a rail trail which begins in Boring and ends at the Eastbank Esplanade along the Willamette River in southeast Portland. The Boring Lava Field, an extinct volcanic field zone that comprises terrain extending from Boring to downtown Portland, took its name from the community.
Boring was a hub of the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest prior to and during World War I due to the abundance of surrounding temperate coniferous and evergreen forests, as well as its proximity to the Port of Portland. In addition to logging, plant nurseries and agriculture have also historically been major economic forces in Boring.
Boring has often been included in lists of places with unusual names. In 2012, Boring was named a sister city of the village of Dull, Scotland, and later joined Bland, Australia, in the "Trinity of Tedium."
History
Timeline
The land on which Boring was built was a former lava field. The Boring Lava Field, which takes its namesake from the community, is located just north of Boring. There are approximately 80 lava vents across the area, remnants of the volcanic activity that occurred there roughly 2.6 million years ago. The lava field extends across surrounding Portland and Vancouver, Washington, though the volcanic centers are extinct. The land that would later become Boring had no known inhabitants, though the Clackamas Tribe had a camp located south of Boring, near present-day Oregon City, along the Willamette River. By 1855, the remaining members of the tribe had relocated to the Grand Ronde. Settlers began to arrive in the Oregon Territory in mid-1800s via the Oregon Trail, after the establishment of Portland.Boring takes its name after William Harrison Boring, an Illinois native and early resident who began farming there in 1874, and subsequently donated land for the community's first schoolhouse to be built. He was a Union veteran who had moved to Oregon after having fought in the Siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War. William's half-brother, Joseph, had settled in the area in 1856 prior to his arrival.
Boring was platted in 1903 as Boring Junction after the construction of a railway line by the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company. The post office was established and named Boring the same year, which builders of an interurban railway adopted as the name of the community. An electric trolley operated on the railroad line from Portland through Gresham and Boring, ending in Cazadero, which began transporting passengers in 1905. The trolley significantly reduced travel time between Portland and the communities to its east: Horse and buggy travel from Boring to Portland took an average of six hours, while a trip to Portland via the trolley system took only one hour. Though younger students in the area attended a local school built on Richey Road, high school students in Boring commuted via trolley to Gresham and Portland to attend high schools there. The early residents of the area post-settlement were mainly German and Swedish immigrants.
After World War II and the prominence of automobile ownership, the trolley ceased passenger operations to Portland, but continued to travel between Boring and Gresham. The railway went defunct in the following years, and was incorporated as part of the Springwater Corridor, a rail trail that begins in Boring and ends at the Eastbank Esplanade in downtown Portland.
In 2005, citizens of Boring applied to become one of the first legally recognized villages in Oregon. However, after many months of polarizing debate on the village issue, residents narrowly defeated the village designation in a town hall referendum in August 2006, with 293 votes in favor and 298 against.
Name and municipality pairings
The unusual name of the community often prompts its inclusion on lists of unusual place names. The name "Boring" is embraced by locals, however, and found in many local businesses, resulting in many road signs that seem humorous to outsiders. Boosters of the village designation use the slogan "The most exciting place to live."In 2011, Elizabeth Leighton of Aberfeldy, Scotland, proposed the community's pairing with the village of Dull, Scotland, after passing through Boring on a cycling holiday. In June 2012, Boring accepted the proposal of Dull to "pair" their municipalities, in an effort to promote tourism in both places as a play on their names. Dull is a village of only 84 residents, while Boring has about 8,000.
In 2013, the farm community and former gold prospecting site Bland Shire in West Wyalong, New South Wales, Australia was added to the mix to create not a "twinned town" relationship but a "League of Extraordinary Communities" grouping Dull, Boring, and Bland as a means of encouraging travel, promoting all three communities. The same year, construction of the Boring Station Trailhead Park was completed on the empty lot that once housed the original 1903 train station, and opened to the public. The Boring Community Planning Organization also issued commemorative "Boring & Dull: a pair for the ages" T-shirts and mugs, as well as raffling off a trip to Dull.
Geography
Topography
Located at the northernmost end of the eastern Willamette Valley, Boring rests in the foothills of the Cascade mountain range, at the base of Mount Hood. The community is approximately from Government Camp, a major resort and skiing community on Mount Hood. The community comprises approximately of Clackamas County. Boring is considered part of the Portland metropolitan area, located approximately southeast of the Portland city limits, and from downtown Portland.Boring's landscape is hilly, with its elevation ranging between and. Several creeks run west through the community limits into the Clackamas River, including Doane Creek, North Fork Deep Creek, and Tickle Creek.
Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification, Boring has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, characterized by warm, dry summers and cool, rainy winters. The community receives an annual average of of rain—significantly more than neighboring Portland, which averages, or Gresham, which averages. Boring's high volume of rainfall can be attributed to its location in the Cascade foothills, which situates it at a considerably higher elevation than other towns and cities in the Portland metropolitan area. The first frost in Boring typically occurs within the first week of November, while the last is typically in the first week of April.Annual data
Economy
After its inception as a railroad community, Boring evolved into a hub for the timber industry in the Northwest, beginning in the pre-World War I era and continuing throughout much of the 20th century. One of the first mills established in Boring was the Hillyard Sawmill, which began operations in the 1890s; the mill produced over of lumber per day, mostly consisting of railroad ties. Bert Jonsrud, an early resident of the area, would later establish the Jonsrud Bros. Lumber Company, which would become Boring's main lumber mill. In a 1915 survey of timber and logging camps in the Pacific Northwest, it was reported that Jonsrud mill was producing of lumber per day. Today, Vanport International is the main lumber company operating out of Boring. Although their main business is lumber export, they are co-located with a lumber mill actively processing timber products.The Portland Traction Company, a now-defunct railroad, operated a rail line from Portland to Boring via Gresham. In the 1950s, the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads jointly took over operation of the remaining portion of the line for freight operations. Much of the line has since been purchased by local governments for the creation of a long-distance rail trail named the Springwater Corridor.
The community is also home to a large number of dairy farms, plant nurseries and berry farms, including Iseli Nursery and Liepold Farms, who supplies produce to the local restaurant chain Burgerville. There are over thirty active plant and tree nurseries that operate within the community. Another Boring community staple, , was built in Boring in 1974 and the facility is still functioning today as an equestrian center, event venue, and an equine-based schooling alternative, Mt. Hood Center Academy. Boring is also home of a campus of Guide Dogs For The Blind, Inc., the oldest guide dog training program on the US West Coast. The largest employer in Boring as of 2018 is Good Shepherd Community Church, an independent Evangelical church.
Demographics
According to the 2010 U.S. census, the ZCTA for Boring's ZIP code had a population of 7,726 in 2,875 households. This was a significant drop from the 2000 census, which had reported a population of 12,851. Males made up 50.50% of the population, while females made up 49.50%. According to this data, the population's ethnic profile was 77.3% white, 13.3% Hispanic or Latino, 2.6% Asian, 3% African American, and 4% two or more races.32.20% of households in the ZCTA earned under $50,000 annually, while 39.80% earned between $50,000–$100,000, and 28% had reported earnings exceeding $100,000. As of 2018, the unemployment rate was 3.98%. 86.8% of residents were property owners, while 13.2% were renters. In 2015, Boring was ranked among the wealthiest ZIP codes in the Portland metropolitan area.