Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Ontario, OR

Ontario is an incorporated city in Malheur County, Oregon, and its population was 11,645 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in Malheur County.

The 2020 census counted 4,404 households and 4,682 housing units in Ontario, and the median age of its residents was 34.8 years.

Ontario lies along the Snake River at the Idaho border, and it is the largest community in far eastern Oregon, a region also known as the Western Treasure Valley.

Ontario is the principal city of the Ontario, OR-ID Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Malheur County in Oregon and Payette County in Idaho.

Ontario was founded on June 11, 1883, by developers William Morfitt, Mary Richardson, Daniel Smith, and James Virtue, and it was named by Virtue after Ontario, Canada.

A post office was started in March 1884 by Richard Welch, the Oregon Short Line Railroad arrived later that year, and Ontario became one of the largest stockyards in the West.

Ontario was incorporated by the Oregon Legislative Assembly on February 11, 1899.

During World War II, Mayor Elmo Smith allowed Japanese Americans to settle in Ontario at a time when much of the West Coast supported their exclusion, and the local Japanese American population grew from about 134 to about 1,000 as the county recruited farm workers.

Ontario's slogan is "Where Oregon Begins," and it is the closest city to the Idaho border along Interstate 84, roughly halfway between Portland and Salt Lake City.

Since 2019, cannabis dispensaries have been an important part of Ontario's economy, as Idaho residents drive across the state line to buy marijuana that remains illegal in Idaho, and total cannabis sales from Ontario dispensaries topped 100 million dollars in December 2020.