Multnomah County Commission

Multnomah County, Oregon
Multnomah County Courthouse in Downtown Portland
Logo
Location in the U.S. state of Oregon
Oregon's location in the U.S.
Founded	December 22, 1854
Seat	Portland
Largest city	Portland
Area
• Total	466 sq mi (1,207 km2)
• Land	431 sq mi (1,116 km2)
• Water	34 sq mi (88 km2), 7.4%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	790,294
• Density	1,705/sq mi (658/km²)
Congressional districts	1st, 3rd, 5th
Time zone	Pacific: UTC-8/-7
Website	www.multco.us

Multnomah County /məltˈnoʊmə/ is one of 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 census, the county's population was 735,334. Its county seat, Portland, is the state's largest city. Multnomah County is part of the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, and though smallest in area, it is the state's most populous county.

Multnomah County (the thirteenth in Oregon Territory) was created on December 22, 1854, formed out of two other Oregon counties – the eastern part of Washington County and the northern part of Clackamas County. Its creation was a result of a petition earlier that year by businessmen in Portland complaining of the inconvenient location of the Washington County seat in Hillsboro and of the share of Portland tax revenues leaving the city to support Washington County farmers. County commissioners met for the first time on January 17, 1855. The county is named after the Chinook word for the "lower river", Multnomah and Matlnomaq being alternative, interpretive English spellings of the same word. In Chinook Jargon, Ne-matlnomaq, means the "place of matlnomaq" or the (singular) Ne-matlnomag, "the lower river", from the Oregon City Falls to the Columbia river. The explorer William Clark wrote in his Journal: "I entered this river...called Multnomah...from a nation who reside on Wappato Island, a little below the enterence" (quoted from Willamette Landings by H.M. Corning). Note that Clark refers to Sauvies Island as Wappato Island and the lower Willamette River as Multnomah. Simply put, Multnomah or "down river" is the shortened form of nematlnomaq, meaning "the down river".