Gresham, Oregon

Welcome to Gresham, Oregon

Gresham is located on the traditional territory of the Chinookan peoples, who hunted in the then-heavily forested Johnson Creek watershed and fished in Johnson Creek. Gresham elected its first mayor and city council in 1904. Permission to incorporate Gresham was granted by the state on Feb. 11, 1905. Early history Prior to the arrival of early pioneer settlers, the Clackamas tribe of the Chinookan peoples built their plank-house villages next to the various creeks and rivers within Gresham. The lure of land enticed European settlers to what would later be known as Gresham. Before 1884, Gresham was known to many as Camp Ground or Powell’s Valley, after one of the first pioneer families that settled in the area.