places as a play on their names. Dull is a village of only 84 residents, while Boring has about 8,000. In 2013, the farm community and former gold prospecting site Bland Shire in West Wyalong, New South Wales, Australia was added to the mix to create not a "twinned town" relationship but a "League of Extraordinary Communities" grouping Dull, Boring and Bland as a means of encouraging travel, promoting all three communities. The same year, construction of the Boring Station Trailhead Park was completed on the empty lot that once housed the original 1903 train station, and opened to the public. The Boring Community Planning Organization also issued commemorative "Boring & Dull: a pair for the ages" T-shirts and mugs, as well as raffling off a trip to Dull. Geography Topography Located at the northernmost end of the eastern Willamette Valley, Boring rests in the foothills of the Cascade mountain range, at the base of Mount Hood. The community is approximately from Government Camp, a major resort and skiing community on Mount Hood. The community comprises approximately of Clackamas County. Boring is considered part of the Portland metropolitan area, located approximately southeast of the Portland city limits, and from downtown Portland. Boring's landscape is hilly, with its elevation ranging between and . Several creeks run west through the community limits into the Clackamas River, including Doane Creek, North Fork Deep Creek, and Tickle Creek. Climate According to the Köppen climate classification, Boring has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, characterized by warm, dry summers and cool, rainy winters. The community receives an annual average of of rain—significantly more than neighboring Portland, which averages , or Gresham, which averages . Boring's high volume of rainfall can be attributed to its location in the Cascade foothills, which situates it at a considerably higher elevation than other towns and cities in the Portland metropolitan area. The first frost in Boring typically occurs within the first week of November, while the last is typically in the first week of April. Annual data Economy After its inception as a railroad community, Boring evolved into a hub for the timber industry in the Northwest, beginning in the pre-World War I era and continuing throughout much of the 20th century. One of the first mills established in Boring was the Hillyard Sawmill, which began operations in the 1890s; the mill produced over of lumber per day, mostly consisting of