Boring

Bob Boring, great-grandson of the Civil War veteran who lent his name to the community, says, "Boring is a name, not a condition." The recent pairing of Dull, Scotland, and Boring, Oregon, has created worldwide multimedia reports, including articles in Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal that published the same week. Never incorporated as an official entity, Boring has been a thriving farm, logging, and sawmill community since Joseph and Sarah Boring traveled the Oregon Trail in an ox-drawn covered wagon and settled here in 1853. The "downtown" area of Boring is only four blocks long, but the farming area serviced by the Boring Post Office is 13 miles long and contains a population of 8,000.

Dan Bosserman has lived in Oregon since 1950 and grew up on a farm 10 miles from Boring. He has lived in Boring for 38 years and has been a reporter and columnist for local newspapers, writing a regular historical column. He is a member of the Boring Community Planning Organization and the Sandy Historical Society, which, along with the Clackamas County and Oregon Historical Societies and descendants of original settlers, have provided photographs for this Boring history.