The city of Hillsboro, Oregon is located in the states Washington County. It is also part of the Portland metropolitan area and has an approximate population of 91,611. Various high-technology businesses make up what is called in the region as the Silicon Forest.
The Tualatin Valley was initially inhabited by the Kalapuya's Atfalati tribe for thousands of years. The European-American settlers liked the area as it boasted a moderate weather condition, abundant agricultural, fishing and hunting opportunities. A community was established by the year 1842. It was named in honor of an Oregon politician, David Hill.
The settler economy thrived thanks to riverboat transportation on the Tualatin River and the railroad, that came through in the early 1870s. An interurban electric railway was constructed during the early 1900s. These types of transportation, including highways, pushed the local population to about 2,000 by 1910 and roughly 5,000 by the year 1950.
The city of Hillsboro has a strong high-tech industry; a lot of these businesses arrived during the 1980s. Key sectors are health care, retail sales, and agriculture. The region has production of grapes and numerous wineries. Manufacturing is the top employment sector with almost a quarter of the labor force working in different manufacturing operations. 68% of staff commute to work, with an average commute time of 24 minutes (one way).
As the center of Oregon's Silicon Forest, Hillsboro is home to companies like for instance Intel, which has several campuses, the largest of which are hawthorn Farm, Jones farm and Ronler Acres. The business employs approximately 16,000 local individuals. Other businesses operating within Hillsboro comprise Epson, Yahoo!, Credence Systems, Synopsys and Sun Microsystems High-End Operations. Corporate head office for TriQuint Semiconductor, FEI Company, Lattice Semiconductor, RadiSys and Planar Systems are situated here. Hillsboro is home is home to Pacific University's Health Professions Campus.
Hillsboro's recreational facilities include the Hillsboro Stadium and various parks. The National Register of Historic Places (or also called NRHP) lists nine sites within Hillsboro. Hillsboro is served by the Hillsboro Airport, public buses and light rail transit.