Albert Alonzo Durham founded the town of Oswego in 1847, naming it after Oswego, New York. He built a sawmill on Sucker Creek (now Oswego Creek), the town’s first industry. During this early period in Oregon history, most trade proceeded from Portland to Oregon City via the Willamette River, and up the Tualatin River Valley through Tualatin, Scholls, and Hillsboro. 

In 1865, prompted by the earlier discovery of iron ore in the Tualatin Valley, the Oregon Iron Company was incorporated. Within two years, the first blast furnace on the West Coast was built, patterned after the arched furnaces common in northwestern Connecticut, and the company set out to make Oswego into the “Pittsburgh of the West”. 

By 1890, the industry produced 12,305 tons of pig iron, and at its peak provided employment to around 300 men. The success of this industry greatly stimulated the development of Oswego, which by this time had four general stores, a bank, two barber shops, two hotels, three churches, nine saloons, a drugstore, and even an opera house.

The Lake Oswego School District the city’s roughly 7,000 students, with a ratio of 23 students per instructor. The two high schools in the district are Lake Oswego High School and Lakeridge High School. There are also six elementary schools and two junior high schools. 

Oswego Lake is a lake, originally named Waluga (wild swan) by Clackamas Indians, which has been expanded is and currently managed by the Lake Oswego Corporation. The lake supports watercraft, and a dock floats at the lake’s east end, where boaters can disembark and walk to the nearby businesses. The main canal from the Tualatin River was dug in 1872.

Every three years, the water level in the lake is lowered several feet by opening the gates on the dam and allowing water to flow into Oswego Creek and on to the Willamette River, enabling lakefront property owners to conduct repairs on docks and boathouses. In 2010, the lake was lowered about 24 feet to allow for construction of a new sewer line, the lowest lake level since 1962, when the original sewer line was installed.

As of the census of 2010, there were 36,619 people, 15,893 households, and 10,079 families residing in the city. Of the 15,893 households, 28.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.1% were married couples living together. 

The median age in the city was 45.8 years; 22.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 5.7% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 21% were from 25 to 44; 35.1% were from 45 to 64; and 16.2% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 47.3% male and 52.7% female.

Lake Oswego has two sister cities in other countries!

• Yoshikawa, Saitama, Japan
• Pucón, Araucanía Region, Chile