St. Helens is the county seat of Columbia County, Oregon. Take a look below for 15 fun and awesome facts about St. Helens, Oregon, United States.

1. It was founded by Captain Henry Montgomery Knighton, a native of New England, in 1845, as “Plymouth”.

2. The name was changed to St. Helens in the latter part of 1850 for its view of Mount St. Helens, roughly 39 miles (63 km) away in Washington.

3. The city is about 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Portland. Its population was 12,883 at the 2010 census.

4. St. Helens was established as a river port on the Columbia River in the 1840s.

5. The original town was surveyed and platted by Scottish-born Peter Crawford.

6. In 1853, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company tried to make the city their only stop on the Columbia River.

7. Portland’s merchants boycotted this effort, and the San Francisco steamship Peytona helped break the impasse.

8. St. Helens was incorporated as a city in 1889.

9. The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through and camped in the area that is now St. Helens on the night of November 5, 1805, while on their way to the Pacific Ocean.

10. While there, the party encountered Native Americans and Clark observed “low rockey clifts”.

11. Columbia Heights is a formerly separate populated place that is within the city limits of St. Helens.

12. In October, the town embraces the Halloween spirit with a month-long celebration of spooky events and decorations geared toward entertaining crowds of families.

13. The Riverfront District in St. Helens, Oregon served as the backdrop for the 1998 Disney Channel Original Movie Halloweentown.

14. The film adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s novel Twilight also filmed in the town.

15. Public schools in St. Helens are served by the St. Helens School District.