Boring, Oregon

The town's name is not a commentary on the scenery , it honors William Harrison Boring, a Civil War veteran from Illinois who started farming here in eighteen seventy-four and donated land for the first schoolhouse. The community existed for decades as a rural cluster before the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company built an electric trolley line through the area. In nineteen oh three, the settlement was mapped out as Boring Junction, a name that reflected the rail connection rather than any aesthetic judgment.

The post office opened the same year under the name Boring, and it stuck. The trolley cut the trip to Portland from six hours by horse and buggy to about one hour, transforming what had been a farming community into an early commuter suburb. Today Boring has a sister city relationship with Dull, Scotland and Bland, Australia , a trio of notably named places that have turned their shared predicament into something of an international comedy.