Wikipedia: Boring, Oregon

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 spanning between Boring and downtown Portland, took its namesake 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.

Timeline

The land on which Boring was built was a former lava field. The Boring Lava Field, which takes its namesake from the community,^[5] is located just north of Boring.^[1] There are approximately 80 lava vents across the area, remnants of the volcanic activity that occurred there roughly 2.6 million years ago.^[1] The lava field extends across surrounding Portland and Vancouver, Washington, though the volcanic centers are extinct.^[1] 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.^[6] By 1855, the remaining members of the tribe had relocated to the Grand Ronde.^[6] Settlers began to arrive in the Oregon Territory in mid-1800s via the Oregon Trail, after the establishment of Portland.^[7]

Boring takes its namesake 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.^[8] He was a Union veteran who had moved to Oregon after having fought in the Siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War.^[9] William's half-brother, Joseph, had settled in the area in 1856 prior to his arrival.^[4][10][11] William Boring died in 1932 at the age of 91 and was buried beside his wife Sarah in Damascus Pioneer Cemetery.^[12]

Boring was platted in 1903 as Boring Junction after the construction of a railway line by the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company.^[13] The post office was established and named Boring the same year, which builders of an interurban railway adopted as the name of the community.^[11] An electric trolley operated on the railroad line from Portland through Gresham and Boring, ending in Cazadero, which began transporting passengers in 1905.^[14] 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.^[14] 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.^[14] The early residents of the area post-settlement were mainly German and Swedish immigrants.^[15]

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.^[14] 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.^[16] 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.^[17]

EDUCATION

The first schoolhouse in Boring was the Fern Hill School, built in 1883.^[59][60] The Kelso Schoolhouse opened two years later, in 1885.^[61] Another four-room school house called Oregonia was built in 1904.^[62] A 40-by-60-foot (12 by 18 m) play shed was added to the school in 1918.^[63]

Contemporarily, the community is served by the Oregon Trail and the Gresham-Barlow school districts as the community straddles the boundary between the two. Elementary schools in Boring include Naas Elementary and Kelso Elementary. Secondary schools serving Boring include Boring Middle School, Sandy High School (Oregon Trail), and Sam Barlow High School (Gresham-Barlow).^[64] Private schools in the area include Good Shepherd School and Hoodview Adventist School.

Boring is also home to Oregon Trail Academy, the only public K-12 single campus International Baccalaureate school in the Northwest. The school was established as a charter school in 2010 by the Oregon Trail School District and also serves students from Gresham-Barlow.^[65] In 2019, the school ranked in the top 15 schools in the Portland metro area and 17th in the state.^[66]

Students' test score performance in the public school system in Boring ranks at or above the national average in both elementary and middle school(s).^[67]

IN POPULAR CULTURE

The eponymous fictional town of the Disney TV series Gravity Falls is inspired by Boring.^[70]

In 2017, it was reported that ABC had developed a "serial killer comedy" series titled Boring, OR about a small town under siege by a serial murderer.^[71] The series is being produced by Jack Black.^[71]

Boring was the subject of a 2016 promotional documentary short by Brooklyn, New York-based cinematographer Adam McDaid for Ogilvy & Mather.^[73][74]

In 2018, the Netflix web television series Everything Sucks! is set in the town and focuses on students attending the fictional "Boring High School."^[75][76]

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boring,_Oregon (Accessed: May 4, 2022)}

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