Washington County is one of 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon and part of the Portland metropolitan area. The 2020 census recorded the population as 600,372, making it the second most populous county in the state and most populous "Washington County" in the United States. Hillsboro is the county seat and largest city, while other major cities include Beaverton, Tigard, Cornelius, Banks, Gaston, Sherwood, North Plains, and Forest Grove, the county's oldest city. Originally named Twality when created in 1843, the Oregon Territorial Legislature renamed it for the nation's first president in 1849 and included the entire northwest corner of Oregon before new counties were created in 1854. The Tualatin River and its drainage basin lie almost entirely within the county, which shares its boundaries with the Tualatin Valley. It is bordered on the west and north by the Northern Oregon Coast Range, on the south by the Chehalem Mountains, and on the north and east by the Tualatin Mountains, or West Hills.
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is 187 miles (301 km) long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward between the Oregon Coast Range and the Cascade Range, the river and its tributaries form the Willamette Valley, a basin that contains two-thirds of Oregon's population, including the state capital, Salem, and the state's largest city, Portland, which surrounds the Willamette's mouth at the Columbia.
Hillsboro is the 5th most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County. Situated in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city hosts many high-technology companies, such as Intel, locally known as the Silicon Forest. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 106,447.
The Oregon Electric Railway (OE) was an interurban railroad line in the U.S. state of Oregon that linked Portland to Eugene. Service from Portland to Salem began in January 1908. The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway purchased the system in 1910, and extended service to Eugene in 1912. Regular passenger service in the Willamette Valley ended in May 1933. Freight operations continued and the railway survived into the 1990s, ultimately as a Burlington Northern feeder. Operation as an electric railroad ended July 10, 1945.
The Tualatin River is a tributary of the Willamette River in Oregon in the United States. The river is about 83 miles (134 km) long, and it drains a fertile farming region called the Tualatin Valley southwest and west of Portland at the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley. There are approximately 500,000 people residing on 15 percent of the land in the river's watershed.
The Tualatin Valley is a farming and suburban region southwest of Portland, Oregon. The valley is formed by the meandering Tualatin River, a tributary of the Willamette River at the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley, east of the Northern Oregon Coast Range. Most of the valley is located within Washington County, separated from Portland by the Tualatin Mountains. Communities in the Tualatin Valley include Banks, Forest Grove, Cornelius, Hillsboro, Aloha, Beaverton, Sherwood, Tigard, and Tualatin.
Oregon Route 210 is a state highway which runs between the community of Scholls, Oregon and the Raleigh Hills neighborhood west of Portland, terminating at the Sylvan overpass on Highway 26. It has become an important route for both commuters and agriculture through Washington County. Oregon Route 210 is signed from east-to-west; though in actuality it runs in a northeast-to-southwest direction.
Oregon Route 219 is an Oregon state highway which runs between the cities of Hillsboro and Woodburn, Oregon, in the United States. The Hillsboro-Silverton Highway continues further south to Silverton, signed as OR 214. The highway mainly serves local residents and agricultural traffic; despite its proximity to the Portland area it lies outside the Portland Urban Growth Boundary and so maintains its character as a country road.
Kinton is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States. It is located near the northern shore of the Tualatin River, near the intersection of Oregon Route 210 and River Road, a major county arterial that runs northwest towards Hillsboro. Kinton is located approximately eight miles north of Newberg, six miles southwest of Beaverton, and seven miles southeast of Hillsboro. The community was once the site of a ferry crossing the Tualatin River between Kinton and nearby Scholls. While the ferry has long since been replaced with a bridge, OR 210 is still known locally as Scholls Ferry Road. Kinton is in Oregon's wine country, with several notable wineries in the area.
Historic ferries in Oregon are water transport ferries that operated in Oregon Country, Oregon Territory, and the state of Oregon, United States. These ferries allowed people to cross bodies of water, mainly rivers such as the Willamette in the Willamette Valley, and the Columbia, in order to transport goods, move people, and further communications until permanent bridges were built to allow faster crossing of the water. The early ferries were used by wagons and pedestrians, while later ones transported trains and then automobiles. Oregon has a few automobile ferries still in operation.
The Willamette River flows northwards down the Willamette Valley until it meets the Columbia River at a point 101 miles from the Pacific Ocean, in the U.S. state of Oregon.
The Tualatin Plains are a prairie area in central Washington County, Oregon, United States. Located around the Hillsboro and Forest Grove areas, the plains were first inhabited by the Atfalati band of the Kalapuya group of Native Americans. Euro-American settlement began in the 1840s.
Fanno Creek is a 15-mile (24 km) tributary of the Tualatin River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Part of the drainage basin of the Columbia River, its watershed covers about 32 square miles (83 km2) in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties, including about 7 square miles (18 km2) within the Portland city limits.
Laurel is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States. Settled in 1872, the community is located between Hillsboro and Newberg, in the southern portion of the Tualatin Valley in the foothills of the Chehalem Mountains. The community retains its agricultural heritage. Laurel is served by the Hillsboro School District and includes the century-old Laurel Valley Store building, which is in the process of being turned into a restaurant. As an unincorporated community, Laurel has no defined boundaries or population statistics of its own.
The Willamette River is a 187-mile (301 km) tributary of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Oregon. The upper tributaries of the Willamette originate in mountains south and southeast of the twin cities of Eugene and Springfield. Formed by the confluence of the Middle Fork Willamette River and Coast Fork Willamette River near Springfield, the main stem meanders generally north from source to mouth. The river's two most significant course deviations occur at Newberg, where the stream turns sharply east, and about 18 miles (29 km) downriver from Newberg, where it turns north again. Near its mouth, the river splits into two channels that flow around Sauvie Island. The main channel enters the Columbia about 101 miles (163 km) from the larger stream's mouth on the Pacific Ocean, and the smaller Multnomah Channel enters the Columbia about 14.5 miles (23.3 km) further downstream near St. Helens in Columbia County.
Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue (TVF&R) is a special-purpose government fire fighting and emergency services district in the Portland metropolitan area of Oregon. Established in 1989 with a merger between Washington County Fire District 1 and the Tualatin Rural Fire Protection District, it primarily provides fire and emergency medical services in eastern Washington County, but also provides services in neighboring Multnomah, Clackamas, and Yamhill counties. It serves unincorporated areas along with the cities of Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin, West Linn, Wilsonville, and Sherwood, among others. With over 400 firefighters and 27 fire stations, the district is the second largest fire department in the state and has an annual budget of $197 million.
Washington County Fire District 2 (WCFD2) was a special-purpose government fire fighting and emergency services district in Washington County on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area of Oregon. Established in 1952, it primarily provided fire and emergency medical services in the central portion of the county surrounding Hillsboro, including the city of North Plains. The District had two fire stations when it was absorbed by Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue in 2017.
Cornell Road is an east–west street and traffic corridor in the Portland metropolitan area, in Multnomah and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. It crosses the Tualatin Mountains between the Willamette Valley and the city of Portland on the east and the Tualatin Valley and the city of Hillsboro on the west.
Minnehaha was a sternwheel-driven steamboat which was built in 1866 on Oswego Lake, then known as Sucker Lake, in Oregon, United States. Minnehaha was later transferred to the Willamette and Columbia rivers where it operated for the first part of the 1870s.
Onward was a stern-wheel driven steamboat that operated on the Tualatin River from 1867 to 1873, on Sucker Lake, now known as Oswego Lake, from 1873 to 1874, on the Cowlitz and Lewis rivers. This vessel should not be confused with the similar sternwheeler Onward built in 1858 at Canemah, Oregon and dismantled in 1865.
