Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near North Rainier Rainier, OR

Rainier is a city in Columbia County, Oregon, on the south bank of the Columbia River across from Kelso and Longview, Washington, and had a population of 1,911 at the 2020 census.

At the 2020 census, Rainier had 824 households.

Rainier was founded in 1851 by Charles E. Fox, the town's first postman, and was first called Eminence, then Fox's Landing, before being renamed Rainier on January 6, 1852, for Mount Rainier in Washington.

Rainier was incorporated as a town in 1885.

Lewis and Clark passed Prescott Beach, four miles east of Rainier, on November 5, 1805, and camped near Goble, six miles outside Rainier, on March 27, 1806.

The Lewis and Clark Bridge, originally called the Longview Bridge and designed by Joseph B. Strauss, designer of the Golden Gate Bridge, opened on March 29, 1930, linking Rainier with Longview, Washington.

The bridge is the only one spanning the entire width of the Columbia River between Portland and Astoria, Oregon.

Rainier was home to the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant, the only commercial nuclear reactor ever built in Oregon, which opened on May 20, 1976, and was decommissioned in January 1993 after closing in 1992.

Trojan's cooling tower was demolished by implosion on May 21, 2006, and the plant grounds are maintained as Trojan Park by Portland General Electric.

In 1940, the Lewis and Clark Bridge toll was 80 cents for a car and driver; the bridge no longer has a toll.