"How Portland Started: Explorers, Booze &... " a Portland Travel Page by ATXtraveler

Portland, OR was discovered for the first time by Americans in 1843 by a Tennessee drifter named William Overton and Boston lawyer Asa Lovejoy ventured west, and parked their canoe in the Williamette River Valley. They decided that this area would be the perfect place to harvest timber and enjoy the fruits of their expedition.

The name Portland comes from a very important coin toss, in which Lovejoy wanted to name it after the beloved home of Boston, and Pettygrove (who bought his claim from the drifter Overton) wanted his birthplace of Portland, Maine. I guess just about anyone could guess who won!

The roaring 1800's brought a shadow on the Rose City however when several shady characters like Brunco Kelly brought their hotels and felonious methods of making money to Portland. Kelly was famous for getting young men into his hotel, getting them drunk and selling them to ship captains as slave labor. When a young man woke up from his drunken stupor, he would find himself on the ship in the middle of the ocean with no way to get back to land other than working for the ship captain!

Speaking of shipping follies, Sweet Mary, a brothel owner, would actually operate her bordello on a barge in the middle of the river... outside of jurisdiction from the local government!

None of those practices are still in practice, however one holdover from the originators of Portland still lives strong in this part of the country...

Microbreweries are still alive and strong in the Port City, despite the efforts of Simon Benson. Simon found most of his workers drinking in the middle of the day, and when he questioned his workers... they admitted there was no clean drinking water in the city! So the old adage... Save water, Drink Beer! got its start in Portland... where the practice is still held strong today!

Information based off the information available to you at http://www.travelportland.com