Beaverton is a city in Washington County, in the U.S. state of Oregon that is located 7 miles (11 km) west of Portland in the Tualatin Valley. Take a look below for 20 awesome and interesting facts about Beaverton, Oregon, United States.

1. The city is among the main cities that make up the Portland metropolitan area.

2. Its population was 89,803 at the 2010 census, making it the second-largest city in the county and the sixth-largest city in Oregon.

3. Beaverton is an economic center for Washington County along with neighboring Hillsboro.

4. It is home to the world headquarters of Nike, Inc., although it sits outside of city limits on unincorporated county land.

5. The hunter–gatherer Atfalati tribe of the Kalapuya people inhabited the Tualatin Valley prior to the arrival of European–American settlers in the 19th century.

6. They occupied a village near the Beaverton and Fanno creeks called Chakeipi, which meant “place of the beaver”, and early white settlers referred to this village as Beaverdam.

7. Lawrence Hall took up the first land claim in 1847 and established a grist mill.

8. The entry of a railroad in 1868 spurred growth in the small farming communities and led to the town’s incorporation in 1893.

9. According to Oregon Geographic Names, Beaverton’s name is derived from the settlement’s proximity to a large body of water resulting from beaver dams.

10. The area of Tualatin Valley that became Beaverton was originally the home of a Native American tribe known as the Atfalati, which settlers mispronounced as Tualatin.

11. The Atfalati population dwindled in the latter part of the 18th century, and the prosperous tribe was no longer dominant in the area by the 19th century when settlers arrived. The tribe named their village Chakeipi, which translates to “place of the beaver,” which early settlers referred to as “Beaverdam.”

12. Early settlers include the Hall Family from Kentucky, the Denneys who lived on their claim near present-day Scholls Ferry Road and Hall Blvd, and Orin S. Allen, from western New York.

13. Lawrence Hall purchased 640 acres (2.6 km2) in Beaverdam in 1847 and built a grist mill with his brother near present-day Walker Road.

14. His was the first land claim in the area. He was soon followed by Thomas Denney in 1848, who came to the area and built its first sawmill. In 1860, a toll plank road from Portland to Beaverton was completed over a trail called Canyon Road.

15. After the American Civil War, numerous other settlers, including Joshua Welch, George Betts, Charles Angel, W. P. Watson, and John Henry, laid out what is now known as Beaverton hoping they could bring a railroad to an area once described as, “mostly swamps & marshes connected by beaver dams to create what looked like a huge lake.”

16. In 1872, Beaverton’s first post office opened in a general store operated by Betts, who also served as the first postmaster of the community. Betts Street, where the current post office now stands, is named in honor of him. In 1893, Beaverton, which by that time had a population of 400, was officially incorporated. Alonzo Cady, a local businessman, served as the first mayor. Many major roads in Beaverton are named for these early settlers.

17. Beaverton was an early home to automobile dealerships. A Ford Motor Company dealership was established there in 1915; it was purchased by Guy Carr in 1923 and over the years Carr expanded it into several locations throughout Beaverton. There are still several dealerships near the intersection of Walker and Canyon Roads.

18. In the early 1920s, Beaverton was home to Premium Picture Productions, a movie studio which produced about fifteen films. The studio site was later converted into Watt’s Field and associated aircraft manufacturing facilities. A second Beaverton airport, Bernard’s Airport, was later developed farther north, at the present location of the Cedar Hills Crossing mall.

19. The town’s first library opened in 1925. Originally on the second floor of the Cady building, it has moved repeatedly; in 2000 it was moved to its current location on Hall Boulevard and 5th Street. A branch location was opened for the first time in June 2010, when the Murray-Scholls location opened near the Murrayhill neighborhood. The Beaverton libraries and 15 other local libraries participate in the Washington County Cooperative Library Services.

20. As part of the Silicon Forest, Beaverton is the location of numerous technology organizations and companies, including Linux Technology Center of IBM, Tektronix, Maxim Integrated Products, VeriWave, and Oregon Technology Business Center (OTBC), a non-profit tech startup incubator.