The lovely town of Lake Oswego values and preserves its natural beauty and the unique lifestyle it offers its residents. With a population of 40,000, Lake Oswego is home to many of Portland’s business and professional leaders, who cherish the peace and security of this charming and close-knit community while enjoying the cultural, educational, and recreational benefits that its proximity to the City of Portland affords. 

Location
In the south of the greater Portland metropolitan area, Lake Oswego is located in Clackamas County. It is bordered on three sides by I-5, I-205 and State Hwy. 43.
Lake Oswego is 8 miles from downtown Portland. Oregon’s next two largest cities, Salem and Eugene, are around 50 miles and 100 miles distant respectively, and it is 150 miles to Seattle. 

Geography
The City of Lake Oswego extends over rolling wooded hills surrounding the 400 acre Lake Oswego and on the western bank of the Willamette River. 

Jobs
Only minutes from downtown Portland and the employment centers in Washington County, Lake Oswego is home to over 2,000 businesses, of which 75% have one to three employees and 13% are larger businesses.  

Major employers include Lake Oswego School District, OTAK, Inc., Safeco, Gage industries, Bates Private Capital, Microsystems Engineering, and Waggener Edstrom Inc. The prestigious Kruse Way area, the largest concentration of office space concentration in the county, is located within the city.  

Housing
With almost 700 architecturally impressive lakeside properties, Lake Oswego offers some of the most sought-after housing in the Portland Metropolitan Area, and many of Portland’s business leaders and professionals make their homes there. Numerous large estates with extensive acreages, single family homes in safe and welcoming residential communities, or condos, townhouses, and apartments, ensure there is something for every taste and need. The average price of a single family home in 2005 was $380,000. 

Recreation
Lake Oswego has over 600 acres of parks and open spaces. Recreation facilities include an adult community center, indoor tennis courts, outdoor swim park, an 18-hole golf course and driving range, and the Water Sports Center on the Willamette River. Community involvement is very strong, and volunteers participate in a well-organized program to develop and beautify wild areas within the city for the enjoyment of the public. 

There are numerous excellent golf courses within easy driving distance of the City, including the stunning, year around, 18-hole, executive Par-3 Sah-Hah-Lee course on the Clackamas River and a 9-hole children’s course in nearby Gladstone. Within the City, the municipally-owned Lake Oswego Golf Course is a challenging 18-hole course that plays 2,724 yards for a par 54 and offers stimulating golf to players of all levels of ability. The course has magnificent mountain views, and a creek winds through several of the holes. The lighted, covered practice range is open year round, and a professional coaching staff is available.  

The Lake Oswego area contains countless opportunities for outdoor recreation, from alpine mountaineering to just sitting and enjoying the natural beauty of the city’s parks. The city’s Millennium Park, on the shores of the lake, is a very popular place where citizens of all ages enjoy summer concerts, movies in the park, art exhibits, music festivals, kid's day celebrations, 4th of July spectaculars, car shows, and a weekly Farmers Market.  

Minutes from the city, the Tryon Creek State Park’s mixed red alder, Douglas fir, bigleaf maple, and western red cedar forest is home to more than 50 species of birds and many small mammals. Tryon Creek State Park provides excellent opportunities for hiking, biking, and horse-riding on its paved trails. 

Special Attractions/Events
The pride of Lake Oswego’s community and a focal point for social activity, the Lakewood Center for the Arts features regular dance, music and exercise classes, art galleries, dramatic productions, student mentoring, community meeting rooms and the celebrated Festival of the Arts. For over 40 years this major annual regional arts event has presented the work of established and emerging artists from all areas of the art world, and in recent years has drawn crowds of up to 25,000 art lovers. 

The Willamette Shore Trolley line is a renowned regional attraction that runs for six miles between Portland and Lake Oswego, along the west side of the Willamette River. Offering beautiful views of the river and the elegant homes on its banks, this authentic antique trolley travels over several long trestles and through a 1400 foot curving tunnel on its popular forty-minute journey. 

In nearby Milwaukie, the famous North Clackamas Aquatic Park boasts the only wave pool in the Portland area and also offers lap swimming and novelty pools for a day of fun and entertainment for the whole family. 

Interesting Facts
Lake Oswego’s first white settlers were Albert Durham and his wife Miranda, who arrived in the area in about 1849 and soon established a sawmill, a dam, and several dwellings on the shores of the lake.  

From the late 1850’s, the area’s history was dominated by the iron industry, as the huge iron deposits in the surrounding hills led to hopes that it would become the “Pittsburgh of the West”. Vast amounts of iron were smelted using timber from the surrounding forests, but the industry never really prospered. By 1920, the last operating foundry in Oswego fell victim to the more efficient iron industry of the Great Lakes region, and the recreational potential of the lake and town began to emerge. Rail transit that was first developed for the iron industry soon carried commuters to and from Portland. Travel by auto soon followed, and these wealthy commuters turned Oswego from a company town owned by Portland investors into a unique residential community. 

Around 1920 a real estate developer named Paul Murphy began to develop and sell properties near the lake and built the Lake Oswego Country Club and golf course which still operates today.  

Murphy’s real estate office, built in 1920 was restored in 1997 and renamed the Oswego Heritage House. It is now the town’s museum. 

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