Wilsonville

History

Alphonso Boone, the grandson of Daniel Boone, settled in what would later become Wilsonville in 1846 and established the Boones Ferry across the Willamette River in 1847. The ferry gave rise to the community of Boones Landing, which eventually grew into Wilsonville. The first post office was established in 1876 with the name Boones Ferry. named after the first postmaster, Charles Wilson. That same year the first school, Wilsonville Grade School, was opened as a single-room building. By 1890, the railroad had reached town and the community contained depot, several hotels, a saloon, a tavern, a bank, and several other commercial establishments. A railroad bridge was built across the river for the Oregon Electric Railway beginning in 1906. Two years later, a new two-room school replaced the old one-room school, which in turn was replaced by a modern school in the mid 1900s, all on the same property. Wilsonville was flooded in 1964 and the first fire station was built in 1966. In 1971, the planned community of Charbonneau on the south side of the river was annexed into the city the year after development began. In 1988, the city opened its first library building, which replaced the one-room library located in space leased from the school district. The population grew to 7,106 at the 1990 census, and in 1991 the Town Center Shopping Center along Wilsonville Road opened. Due to growth in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District, the school board approved building a new high school to be located in Wilsonville in 1992. Walt Morey Park, a bear-themed park located in Morey's Landing, contains a life-size 8-foot-tall wooden statue of Morey's most famous literary creation, Gentle Ben. Living Enrichment Center, a New Thought Church with as many as 3,000 members, was…

Geography

Wilsonville is located on the southern edge of the Portland metropolitan area, sitting at an elevation of above sea level. It is located on the north side of the Willamette River around where Alphonse Boone established the Boones Ferry. The Boeckman and Coffee Lake creeks account for 85% of the runoff in Wilsonville. Coffee Lake Creek is on the west side of the city and includes the Coffee Lake Wetlands. The foothills of the Chehalem Mountains lie to the west of Wilsonville, with most land within the city on level ground. Wilsonville divides the city into 16 neighborhood groups, designated A through P. Within each of these planning areas are individual neighborhoods, and occasionally a neighborhood spans several of these groups. Wilsonville, as part of the Willamette Valley is within the Marine west coast climate zone. Summers in Wilsonville are generally warm, but temperatures year-round are moderated by a marine influence from the Pacific Ocean. Wilsonville receives most of its precipitation during the mild to cool winter months, with the wettest period from November through March. December is also on average the wettest month with . Wilsonville's lowest recorded temperature was on December 23, 1998.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  35,127
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  31,149
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  30,769
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  29,622
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  28,744
• Spotted Towhee

  Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827 · Aves
  26,674
• Northern Flicker

  Colaptes auratus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  24,575
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  24,065

Most recent

• M 2.61 — 2026-07-31
  18 km NE of Amboy, Washington
• M 2.61 — 2026-07-10
  3 km SE of Rose Lodge, Oregon
• M 3.18 — 2025-11-23
  5 km SE of Amity, Oregon
• M 2.66 — 2024-08-30
  14 km ESE of Molalla, Oregon
• M 3.09 — 2023-11-24
  4 km WSW of Deer Island, Oregon
• M 2.68 — 2023-07-02
  11 km W of Deer Island, Oregon