Biohazard Cleanup Near West Independence Independence, OR

Independence is an incorporated city in Polk County, Oregon, on the west bank of the Willamette River along Oregon Route 51, east of nearby Monmouth, and part of the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The 2020 census counted 9,828 residents in Independence, living in 3,335 households, up from 8,590 residents in the 2010 census.

Elvin A. Thorp arrived in the Independence area in 1845 and staked a claim north of Ash Creek, platting "Thorp's Town of Independence," named for his hometown of Independence, Missouri, while Henry Hill marked off a one-mile-square donation land claim on the west bank on November 14, 1847, and platted Henry Hill's Town of Independence in 1867.

Independence was incorporated in 1874, and a city charter bill of February 26, 1885, united Thorp's town and Hill's town into a single city.

Thirty square blocks of the oldest part of Independence form the National Register of Historic Places-listed Independence Historic District.

The Kalapuya people warned the first pioneers about flooding along the Willamette River, and in December 1861 a devastating flood wiped out the town's commercial district, farms, and livestock, with a witness writing that a person could row a boat across Thorp's entire town.

Independence thrived as a shipping point, by both rail and boat, for agricultural products and lumber until the 1950s, and was known for hops production from the 1890s through the 1940s, hosting a festival called the "Hops Fiesta" from the early 1930s to the mid-1950s.

Downtown Independence was bypassed by major freeways in the 1960s, but the Independence State Airport was dedicated on August 14, 1964.

Ash Creek flows through Independence, where it meets the Willamette River.

Independence shares the Central School District with Monmouth, and its ZIP code is 97351.