Portland, Oregon has quite a few nicknames . . . Potland being one of the more cheesier of them.
But of the nicer ones, here's a little excerpt of their humble beginnings:
The City of Roses - Way back in 1888, a group of visitors met at the Episcopalian Church for a convention. They couldn't help take notice of the lovely rose garden, and the roses around the city. Their remarks were about the City being full of Roses.
The moniker City of Roses was starting to take root, and in 1905 the Mayor decided to have a festival of roses, and out of that "rose" the Portland Rose Festival.
Then in 1908, a wealthy man, Leo Samuel, is said to have had a vibrant rose garden in the front of his house, located centrally in town. He left a pair of pruning shears near a note that read anyone who wanted to, could snip as many roses as they wanted.
This simple act was mimicked all over Portland. And soon, businesses and homes were growing roses for everyone to enjoy. The City of Roses was not just a cutesy name . . . it truly was . . . and is!
Rip City - The Portland Trailblazers is our only major league . . . anything. We don't have a major league football team, or baseball team. We WILL have a major league soccer team . . . in 2011. So the Trailblazers is our major league anything for now.
It's said that the name RIP CITY took hold when, during a Blazer's game, a three-pointer made by Jim Barnett caused the basket net to rip. The play-by-play announcer, Bill Schonely, exclaimed "RIP CITY" when he saw what just happened. And the name stuck!
Bridgetown - Portland is not a very large metropolitan area. In the late '60's and '70's there was talk about putting in freeways, and thank goodness for the grass roots efforts. They used Portland's 11 bridges as a reason and arguments against freeways. With eight bridges crossing the Willamette River, and three crossing the Columbia, there was no reason, they stated (and rightly so) for putting in a freeway system. The traffic crossing back and forth is eased with so many bridges -- all toll free.
Stumptown - during the mid-1800's Portland was a BOOM town. The land was cleared so fast for development, logging, farmland the stumps were left before they could all be ground out. Hence the name: Stumptown.
In present day, the nickname is used to denote the very small heights on the "high-rise" offices downtown. With a lack of tall skyscrapers, the tallest downtown building is only 550 ft. high, the buildings are "stumped" compared to other metro cities.
P-Town - Nothing really to say about this other then it's probably our way of being "cool" in the era of P-Diddy's . . .
PDX - This is the airport code for the Portland International Airport. For some reason, it caught on and you'll hear people use the abbreviated PDX interchangeably.
Does your City have nicknames?
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| Carla Muss-Jacobs 503-810-7192 Carla@carlahomes.com |
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Carla - For rose lovers, Portland is the place to be. I still have to go to a rose convention there. I missed the last one.
Thank Rosalinda . . .this might be a nice blog for you to see too:
The City of Roses . . . Wordless Wednesday
Hope you like it!!
Varla,
I did not know these facts about Portland. Vertainly didn't know about the rose thing. Interesting.
Eugene, Oregon:
Named for Eugene Skinner: first settler, first ferryman, first developer (platted his farm).
For years it was simply Skinner's Mudhole. Very apt apparently.
His wife thought Eugene City sounded better.
That's interesting, Carla. I never heard of those nicknames. One of my friends from the old days in Hawaii moved to Portland and I visited him there a few years ago. It is a beautiful city.
I actually came to your blog because of the great profile photo of your kitty! What a face!
Now that I'm here, I'll stay awhile.
Cheers,
Robin
Carla - I learn the coolest stuff about America on AR. Great post with cool info. Now when I travel to Portland I won't feel like such a tourist!
Carla - Great post on Portland. Charlotte is called the Queen City being named after Queen Charlotte.
Carla,
Great Localism post. I love reading interesting information about different cities. I live in Williams, AZ... I think the only nickname we have is "Gateway to the Grand Canyon." Maybe I should look into it! Thanks for sharing.
Your friend in the Cosmic Cow Pie.
Hi Terry -- is your "C" key broken? HA HA HA.
Hey Jim . . . oh no! Now, I'm going to be calling Eugene Skinner's Mudhole -- either that, or call my backyard the same thing!
HA HA Robin -- BB (no relation to Broker Bryant) was "smug" (not Cheshire cat smiling at all). Thanks for reading the blog!!
Hi Nevin -- Yeah, I like reading about Americana too. Another name for Portland is Razor City . . .
Howdy Claude . . . of course, I did not know that. And as Nevin said, it's nice to know the trivia of American. Good Queen Charlotte!
Thanks Carra . . . I like being at the Cosmic Cow Pie ;-) Now that would be fun to know how that name came about!
Carla-alot of interesting facts. Imagine if Stumptown stuck? LOL My town you would miss if you blinked when you drove through. No list of different nick names....
Hi Debra -- Stumptown HAS stuck! We have a lot of business named with "Stumptown" . . . Stumptown Coffee, Stumptown Printers, Stumptown Photography, Stumptown Comics, Stumptown Dog, Stumptown Dance, Stumptown Disc Golf, Stumptown Poker . . .
AND I am NOT endorsing ANY of these businesses . . . get off my BACK Malcolm Gladwell, FTC!
Oh....LOL I had no idea....