Oregon City, Oregon

Everything Oregon City is known for

0 songs mention this city 4 artists from here

Music in Oregon City

Songs About Oregon City

No songs reference Oregon City yet.

Artists From Oregon City

D
Drew Struzan
other Pop: 1
E
Edwin Markham
other Pop: 1
N
Noah “Shark” Robertson
country Pop: 1
S
Sam Henry
folk Pop: 1

Rivers & Roads in Song near Oregon City

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Oregon City.

Interstate 5 13 songs Interstate 405 4 songs

History of Oregon City

Mill Ends Park RoadyGoat

1948

Mill Ends Park sits in the median of SW Naito Parkway near SW Taylor Street, beside Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland. It is a circle just two feet across, about 452 square inches, holding a single small tree. The story goes that journalist Dick Fagan, whose Oregon Journal office overlooked the spot, found a weed-choked hole meant for a light pole that never arrived, and planted flowers in it; he named it for his newspaper column, 'Mill Ends.' The Guinness Book recognized it as the world's smallest park in 1971. (Honest note: in February 2025 a park in Nagaizumi, Japan claimed a smaller footprint, so Portland's title is now disputed/second-smallest.) Each St. Patrick's Day the city still fusses over it as if it were a grand civic green.

11.5 mi away

Keep Portland Weird (Borrowed From Austin) RoadyGoat

2003

Painted on the exterior wall of Music Millennium, the oldest record store in the Pacific Northwest at 3158 East Burnside Street, are the three words that became Portland's unofficial motto: "Keep Portland Weird." Store owner Terry Currier brought the slogan to Portland around 2003, adapting it directly from Austin's earlier "Keep Austin Weird," as a campaign urging people to choose independent local businesses over national chains. He trademarked the phrase in 2007 and sold tens of thousands of bumper stickers. He first tried "Keep Portland Unique" and dropped it for not having the right ring. The broader lifestyle meaning came later; it began as a small-business rallying cry. (Sources: Wikipedia; KOIN.)

RoadyGoat → · 11.5 mi away

End of the Oregon Trail: Journey's End at Oregon City

1843

Oregon City was the terminus of the 2,170-mile Oregon Trail, where an estimated 400,000 emigrants arrived after months of overland travel to start new lives in the Willamette Valley.

Portland's Shanghai Tunnels: The Dark Side of the Waterfront

1850

Beneath Portland's Old Town, a network of tunnels connected tavern basements to the waterfront, where legend holds that men were kidnapped and sold as involuntary crew to ship captains — a practice called shanghaiing.

12.0 mi away

Powell's City of Books: The World's Largest Independent Bookstore

1971

Powell's City of Books occupies an entire city block in Portland's Pearl District, housing over a million volumes across 3,500 sections on multiple floors.

12.0 mi away

Voodoo Doughnut and the Rise of 'Keep Portland Weird'

2003

Voodoo Doughnut, opened in 2003 on SW 3rd Avenue, became a symbol of Portland's proudly eccentric culture with creations like the Bacon Maple Bar and the Voodoo Doll doughnut.

11.9 mi away

Fort Vancouver: The Empire on the Columbia

1825

Fort Vancouver was the Hudson's Bay Company's western headquarters from 1825 to 1849, the most important fur trading post in the Pacific Northwest and a magnet for early American settlers.

18.4 mi away

Things to Do in Oregon City

food 11.9 mi away
Voodoo Doughnut

Portland's iconic pink box of weird doughnuts. The Bacon Maple Bar changed breakfast.

Everything Near Oregon City

59 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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