Forest Grove, Oregon

Pacific University

Forest Grove's largest private employer and the anchor of the west end of the corridor. The university was founded in 1849 and is Oregon's oldest chartered institution of higher learning; it brings students, faculty, and events to the city year-round and keeps the local economy independent of any single company.

Forest Grove School District 15

The dominant public employer, serving roughly 5,600 students across Forest Grove, Cornelius, Dilley, and Gales Creek. The district runs more than a dozen schools, including Forest Grove High School and Neil Armstrong Middle School, and anchors a large share of the city’s professional jobs alongside City of Forest Grove government.

Manufacturing and food processing

Manufacturing is the city’s largest industry sector, with about 2,000 workers. The base includes food and beverage processors such as New Season Foods, which freeze-dries food on site, and Lieb Foods, plus wood-products maker Woodfold Manufacturing and a cluster of metalworking and high-tech component firms.

Healthcare, retail, and services

Around 69 healthcare and social-assistance businesses employ roughly 1,260 people in Forest Grove, and retail and food service add a steady local base along Pacific Avenue. For bigger job markets, the Silicon Forest sits ten to fifteen minutes east, with Intel’s Hillsboro campuses employing roughly 22,000 people across the region.

A 243-acre restored wetland at the confluence of Gales Creek and the Tualatin River, an Audubon-designated Important Bird Area with a roughly one-mile gravel loop around Fernhill Lake, two covered viewing platforms, and great blue herons, bald eagles, and migrating waterfowl.

A Bureau of Reclamation reservoir run by Washington County Parks as Scoggins Valley Park, about five miles southwest of town. It draws more than a million visitors a year for boating, fishing, swimming, and lakeside picnicking, with two boat ramps and a state-record fishing history.

The iconic former Masonic lodge at 3505 Pacific Ave, now a hotel, theater, restaurant, and brewpub with an 18-hole disc golf course. It is a Forest Grove institution and a favorite stop for out-of-town guests.

The only American-owned sake brewery in the country, at 820 Elm St, with a tasting room and tours. A genuinely unique local draw you will not find anywhere else on the westside.

Saturdays on Main Street in the warmer months, with local farms, prepared food, and live music, a downtown ritual that anchors the small-college-town feel.

A community theatre at 2028 Pacific Ave that has been staging plays, musicals, and performances since 1946, a cultural anchor in the heart of downtown.

The 175-plus-year-old private university at 2043 College Way anchors the town, with a beautiful tree-lined campus and year-round events open to the community, from athletics to concerts and lectures.

At Rogers Park is the city’s biggest community park with sports fields and picnic areas; Joseph Gale Park, Lincoln Skatepark, the Forest Grove City Aquatic Center, and Thatcher Dog Park round out the local lineup, and the Verboort Sausage and Kraut Festival draws crowds every fall just north of town.

A well-rated winery on David Hill Road in the Coast Range foothills above town, with tastings and valley views, part of the wine country that presses in on Forest Grove from every side.