Established in 1829 by the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1844 it became the first U.S. city west of the Rocky Mountains to be incorporated.

Known in recent decades as the site of several large paper mills on the Willamette River, the city played a significant role in the early history of the Oregon Country.

[5][6] It was the capital of the Oregon Territory from its establishment in 1848 until 1851, and rivaled Portland for early supremacy in the area.

The town became the see city of the first Roman Catholic archdiocese in the western United States, when the diocese of Oregon City, established in 1846, was raised to metropolitan rank, with Archbishop François Norbert Blanchet as its ordinary.

The population in the area of Oregon City declined due to the California Gold Rush.

The upper area is atop a bluff composed of Canemah basalt, which flowed about 2.5 million years ago from a vent 7.5 miles (12 km) to the southeast in the Boring Lava Field.

In 1915 the town built the water-powered Oregon City Municipal Elevator to connect the two parts, which was converted to electricity in the 1920s.

It is mainly concentrated in winter (November to March), and the precipitation in July and August is obviously much less than in other months.

Oregon City High School is the third most populated high school in Oregon, and is a state and national power in girls' basketball, winning three consecutive USA Today girls' national championships in the 1990s.

The Clackamas County Historical Society archives, housed in the Museum of the Oregon Territory, also include the incorporation plat for the city of San Francisco.

In 2009, Clackamas Heritage Partners announced that it could no longer afford to keep the museums open.

The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center was closed to the public indefinitely in September 2009; the Stevens Crawford Museum and Museum of the Oregon Territory, staffed largely by volunteers, continued to operate on a limited schedule.

[23] The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center eventually reopened during the summer of 2013 with the support of grants and donations from numerous sources.

[24] The Stevens-Crawford Heritage House Museum is a 1908 structure with 11 furnished rooms; exhibiting furniture from the collection of the Clackamas County Historical Society to replicate an Edwardian era home and Progressive Era narrative.

A small private airfield is along Beavercreek Road, south of Oregon City.

Oregon City is served by Portland International Airport, 15 miles (24 km) to the north, and by Portland-Mulino Airport, a general-aviation facility in the town of Mulino, approximately 15 miles (24 km) to the south.

As part of the greater Portland metropolitan area, Oregon City is served by TriMet, the regional transit authority, with several bus lines which converge at the Oregon City Transit Center.

Until 1958, an interurban trolley line operated by the now-defunct Portland Traction Company connected Oregon City with Portland;[25] remnants of this line are still visible (such as an abandoned bridge across the Clackamas River, just east of the OR 99E bridge).

In more recent years, the city operated a "historic trolley" service during the summer months, primarily to serve the needs of tourism, but the vehicles used were trolley-replica buses, rather than actual trolley cars, and in 2013 it was decided to discontinue that service and sell the vehicles.

[26] Two other public agencies provide transit service in Oregon City, supplementing that of TriMet.

SMART, South Metro Area Regional Transit, serving Wilsonville, connects to CAT in Canby.

If transfers between TriMet and CAT are necessary, they are accomplished at the Oregon City Transit Center (OCTC) at 11th & Main, which is at the northeast end of the downtown area.