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Exploring the Pacific Greenway: from Portland to the Coast |
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Considering the history of Forest Park and the West Hills:
So it seems only fitting that we should take some interest in how this wonderful park came into existence. One of the earliest descriptions of this area derive from a description by an unknown visitor describing a short exploration from Fort Vancouver in the mid-nineteenth century: Tualatin Mountain The ridge, upon whose eastern face the Forest Park lies, separates the Tualatin Valley from Willamette River frontage. In early days these low range of hills were called “Tuality Mountain”. Although locally referred to as the “West Hills”, it is officially named Tualatin Mountain on U.S.G.S. maps. Sauvie Island The largest island in the Columbia River was called "Wappato Island" by Lewis and Clark. The Indian word "wappato" for arrowhead root, which grew abundantly in the marshes, was used to name the island. Broughton visited the island in 1792 and named the western end of the island "Warrior Point" and the upstream point "Belle Vue Point." In 1834-35 Nathaniel Wyeth built Fort Williams on the island; it was an American commercial rival to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). The present name derived from a French Canadian employee of the HBC, Lourent Sauve, who settled on the island after the failure of the Wyeth enterprise.
Willamette Valley First called "Wap-pa-too Valley" by Clark, then changed to "Columbia Valley" by Lewis on the return trip in 1806. The name derived from "Wal-lamt," an Indian name for a place on the river near Oregon City. Linnton Linnton actually predates Portland. It was laid out in 1844, ahead of Portland and had the advantage of access to Springville and Germantown roads which connected it to the Tualatin valley. It struggled along as a river trading port from 1844 to 1850, but with the construction of Canyon Road connecting Portland with the fertile Plains, it succumbed to Portland’s competition. By the 1890’s the seaborne trade with California had moved upstream to Portland because of its deeper harbor. A smelter in 1891 revived it, when 52 blocks, mostly on the mountain side, were platted. In 1910 it was incorparated as a company town to serve the Clark-Wilson and West Oregon Companies - both lumber yards. It was also home to the Columbia Engineering Works a local shipyard. Linnton had a reputation for being a hard-scrabble town and most of its workers actually lived in Portland and commuted to Linnton on the United railroads that ran from 1909 to 1915. Three months after this rail line closed, Linnton voted to be annexed by Portland. In 1913 the Portland Coke and Gas company moved its headquarters just south of Linnton. At the same time the oil refiners were beginning to develop storage capacity to serve their extended shipping and storage requirements. Today the Portland Coke and Gas building still stands like a lonely sentinel to a bygone era, its cast concrete walls a unique reminder of the grand ambitions of early American coal-fired commerce.
The 1920’s and the depression brought more struggle to Linnton. The population decreased and the community became even “rougher”.According to one early resident, “The town was wild. There were seven saloons in it; men from the mills would come in and end up fighting...We had our own jail, police and curfew.” Prohibition in 1916 did little to change the tough character of the town. “There was nothing but bootleggin’ from here to St. Helens. People had to try and keep from selling it to each other.” reports another oldtime Linnton resident. And even today, you can see the legacy from those outlaw days in the many abandoned fruit orchards dotted along the bottom of Forest Park - especially around Springville road. Other telltale signs are the winding roads up the hills - designed to make it easier to see the police coming. Today Linnton stands on the threshold of new growth, the Linnton Plywood plant is on the verge of being replaced with a mixed use development that would bring tony housing to this once gritty company town. But much of the charm still lies hidden in the little farms at the top of the infamously winding roads, or on rustic display at the Linnton Feed and Grain.Don’t expect to find a Starbucks in Linnton quite yet! Forest Park For an excellent short history of Forest Park see: http://www.noivyleague.com/Pages/forest_park.html
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Thornton Munger History of Forest Park: One of the best sources of information on Forest Park is contained in a pamphlet put together by the Committee of 50, who successfully promoted the establishment of the park in 1948. What follows is an extensive excerpt from the so-called Munger Report. Some of the information contained therein is now outdated, or reflects ideas whose currency have long since passed, but I have included most of this document as it not only provides the best background to the creation of this park, but also provides a feeling for the civic enthusiam that gave birth to this invaluable natural asset: Part I: Pre-Park Days “When William Clark made a side trip up the Willamette River in 1806 on the return trip eastward with Merriwether Lewis and party, he camped at about where Portland University now stands in northeast Portland. Across the river from his camp he saw what is now the Forest Park, then a heavily forested hillside. The trees were mostly Douglas Fir, with western red cedar, grand fir, and western hemlock in the moister places and patches of bigleaf maple, red alder, and other broadleaf trees and shrubs here and there. There was some young forest as well as the old growth; some trees were 5 feet or more in diameter. Peter Burnett, in a letter written in Linnton in 1844, says, “ You can find them (fir trees) in the vicinity of Linnton from 8 feet in diameter to small saplings.” With the Hudson’s Bay Company headquarters almost directly across the Columbia River, there was much travel up and down the WillametteRiver from 1824 on. Permanent settlements were soon established, first in Linnton in 1843, then about the same time at the Springville two miles up river from the then Linnton, and in 1845 Portland was laid out. Even earlier the plains west of TualatinMountain were settled. Some of the pioneers wanted a means of getting their wheat and other produce to the settlements along the river and for tidewater shipment. So first trails and then roads across the ridge were constructed. The first appears to be what later became the Germantown road from the plains to Linnton, constructed in 1845. It was followed by Springville, Cornell, Newberry and Canyon Road which was opened in 1849.” Original Ownership All the land in Forest Park was, of course, originally considered the property of the United States, after the Indians had relinquished it. By procedure of donation claims most of it was given to settlers in the period from 1850 to 1855. Much of the land had been occupied by “squatters” prior thereto, as early as 1847, the records show. Among the larger land donation land claims are found the names of Solomon Richards, George Watts, W.W. Baker, George Kittridge, Marcus Neff, Levi C. Potter, Milton Doan, William Cornell. A quarter section was deeded to the State of Oregon for the University in 1871. It was not long until these large parcels of land changed ownership. The more level land along the ridge top went into farms and much of it remains so, though some on both sides of Skyline Boulevard has increasingly gone into small residence properties. Areas accessible from Portland by way of St. Helens Road and Cornell Road were long ago subdivided into building lots, and some were added to the town of Linnton. Mountain View Park subdivision was recorded in 1882 and some of these sites were used for suburban or summer homes by Portland people. The Linnton subdivision was in 1889. Two or three along the Skyline were put on the market as early as 1908-1910. In the period 1910-1915, just before the hoped-for land boom that the Hillside Drive (later called Leif Erikson Drive) was expected to precipitate, a number of large subdivisions were laid out -- Glen Harbor Heights, Maybrook, Ridgewood, Marine View, Regent Heights, etc. A great number of lots were laid out fronting on imaginary side roads chat were platted but never built. These lots were assessed to pay for the costly Hillside Drive. Few got into and remained in individual ownership. Many were soon forfeited to the city of Portland for non-payment of the assessment. Some of this was in quite large tracts -- in one case 395 acres was forfeited to the city in 1931. In this way Portland acquired some 1400 acres, mostly subject to assessment liens. Other parcels of land, after being logged off, being quite unsuitable for farming, residential use or industrial purposes, were forfeited to the county for delinquent taxes. This process continued on a considerable scale until after the Forest Park was created. In this way Multnomah County got title to about 1100 acres within the present boundary. A few parcels were acquired by tax foreclosure after the Forest Park was created, but none in 1957, 1958 or 1959.
Roads St. Helens Road is close to the Forest Park boundary along its lower edge; Skyline Boulevard is on the west, on or near the boundary. Cornell Road and Thompson Road are on the south line and Newberry Road at one point is at the north end. All have long been paved. Lengthwise from N. W. Thurman Street to Germantown Road is Leif Erikson Drive. The area is now crossed up and down the slope by three roads, namely Germantown, a much used county road, now paved; Saltzman, a county road paved to Leif Erikson, but unsurfaced above and closed to public use; and Springville Road, a city street, passable to Leif Erikson from Linnton, but closed to public use above. In addition there are now a few dedicated roads or city streets that penetrate to the margins of the Forest Park from St. Helens Road and from Skyline Boulevard, but they are mostly unimproved. The Surveyor General’s plat of 1855 shows two roads going from the river to “the Plains”, one starting at “Bakers” (near the end of the present St. Johns bridge) and the other at “Linnton”, both joining in the Tualatin Valley. The first of these probably became the Springville Road and the other apparently started approximately opposite the entrance to the West Oregon Lumber Company sawmill and followed a route not now used by a road, unless it be at the eastern end of the Germantown Road. This is probably the “wagon road which was opened between Tualatin Plains and Linnton over which John Minto walked from Tualatin Plains to Linnton on December 3, 1844”. There were also some trails from the valley to the river indicated on the 1855 plat, but no road shown then along the river or on the ridge top. “That Indians wore trails up some of the ridges across the mountain to Tualatin Plains, which were used by early explorers, may be reasonably presumed. That earliest wagon roads were widenings of some of these trails is highly probable.” These first roads were built by farmers and the founders of Linnton and Springville. They had various alignments in the next 50 years. A report of viewers on a new survey of the Germantown Road in 1891 says “it is the most even grade of any of the other four roads that lead from the Mountain down to the river road.” In 1900 there was another resurvey of the Germantown Road “west of Balch Road” (Skyline). The Springville Road first built about 1846 shows on the 1855 plat at its approximate location now; it was officially surveyed in 1868 and made a county road. It is now a city street. Newberry Road was surveyed and established as a county road from St. Helens Road to “Cornell or Balch road” (now Skyline) in 1882, being mostly on the route of an existing “private road”, which is shown as an unnamed road in the General Land Office “Diagram of a Portion of Oregon Territory, Aug. 21, 1852”. Saltzman Road was created as a county road in 1889, but it followed a trail of some sort constructed by Mr. Saltzman at his expense. Cornell Road, which apparently succeeded in part Balch Creek Road or Balch Road, was accepted by the county after survey in 1872; it ran up Balch Creek from Portland to the ridge top and along the skyline for several miles, more or less on the line of what later became Skyline Boulevard. Hillside Drive (later Leif Erikson Drive) An optimistic realtor, Richard Shepard, a member of the Town Council, promoted a scenic drive to run from the Germantown Road at a point 600 feet or so above the river, proceed southeasterly along a contour in and out of ravines and around ridges to connect with the end of N. W. Thurman Street in Portland, The road was engineered by C. U. Nelson, a well qualified surveyor. It was quickly graded in 1914-15 from the Germantown Road to the then Portland city limits. The cost of constructing Hillside Drive was $148,093 (some say $158,000), almost twice what the engineers expected. To pay for the project all the property on each side was assessed at so much per lot. There were then thousands of lots. Meanwhile, in July 1915, primarily for industrial reasons, Portland annexed all of Linnton, along with St. Johns. The amount of the assessment ordered by Ordinance in January 1916, was $134,914.27. Some $14,000 of the project costs were paid from Portland’s General Fund, There was much protest that the assessments were unreasonable, the road cost too much, the property was not benefited by the new road. Of the total amount of assessments only about a third was paid up by the landowners. This real estate fiasco proved that this rugged hillside was not then suitable or desired for residential or any other use. Shepard’s promotion was a tragic failure. It is recalled that in the fall of 1927 and the spring of 1928 it was passable for venturesome motorists, equipped with ax and shovel, and off and on at other times. An extension of Hillside Drive from Germantown Road northward and down the hill to Linnton was proposed in 1915 and again in the 1920’s, but never accomplished. As part of the “relief projects” conducted in 1931, and later the stretch of Hillside Drive from Thurman Street to Saltzman Road was graded and graveled, but it was not long before neglect, washouts and slides had made it well-nigh impassable until it became the responsibility of the Bureau of Parks in 1947 to care for it. The name Hillside Drive was, by the way, changed officially on May 24, 1933 to Leif Erikson Drive on petition of the Sons of Norway, which name it has since carried. Logging The virgin forest that clothed this hillside was so close to tidewater and the settlements that it was exploited early, mostly for firewood for domestic fuel and for steamboats, but also for building materials, round timbers and later for sawlogs. Logging has continued, even in old-growth timber, until recently, using modern methods which have resulted in many tractor and truck roads, especially at the north end of the present Forest Park. High lead logging was in progress as recently as 1951. In smaller timber, which must be considered as “second-growth” there has been much cutting by its private owners, especially for cord-wood. In 1914 the city of Portland operated a wood-cutting camp to provide work for the unemployed and fuel for needy families. Again in 1937 a wood cutting camp was operated by the City for the needy between Springville and Saltzman Roads west of Leif Erikson. Clear-cutting has of necessity been the prevailing practice in the logging of these sidehills. The results. would not have been so devastating had it not been for the repeated fires. Fires Following logging, slash burning was usual, and with a minimum of protection, (until recently) wild fires from this and other causes swept repeatedly over much of the area. Hence much of the Forest Park that should be carrying a stand of second-growth Douglas fir is now a sea of bracken fern, weeds and brush. In places there are nice patches of pole wood size and larger conifers that have escaped the destruction of fires. There is also a considerable area occupied by alder, which invaded the land after fire; it is now rapidly developing into beautiful groves. There are now only a few patches of really virgin old-growth timber. In one of these areas between Springville and Germantown roads is a Douglas fir 90 inches in diameter at breast-height in a grove of trees almost as large. In August 1940 the Bonnyslope fire devastated some 1000 acres both east and west of the TualatinMountain ridge. It covered considerable acreage south of Saltzman Road, killing much young timber. A good deal of this burn was later scourged by the 1951 fire. Since the Forest Park was created, there has been but one disastrous fire. That was the fire of August 1951 which burned over about 1,200 acres within the exterior boundaries, and an even greater area outside to the west. However, more than half this acreage within the Forest Park was privately owned (mainly the Corinne Barbur property in Section 23, T I. N - 1 W) and that was very severely devastated. What has been done to protect the area from fire since the Forest Park was created is the subject of a later section. Existing Parks and Quasi-parks within Area Before the Forest Park was established in 1947, there were four Portland city parks within its exterior boundaries. They are Macleay, Holman, Clark and Wilson and LinntonParks. Their history is described in some detail by C. P. Keyser in the Appendix of this paper. Macleay Park at the south end of the Forest Park, and extending to the south of Cornell Road, has an area of 104.74 acres. It embraces a bit of real primeval forest along Balch Creek. It was the gift of Donald Macleay. George F. Holman Park to the north of MacleayPark and touching N. W, Aspen Street contains 52.44 acres. It was given to the City of Portland in 1939 by George and Mary Holman. Clark & WilsonPark (also called 0.M. ClarkPark) of 17.74 acres was donated to Portland by the Clark and Wilson Lumber Company in 1927. It lies in a glen west of Linnton and contains some virgin timber. LinntonPark (also called PioneerPark) comprises 287.82 acres and, as its name implies, is contiguous to Linnton. After its timber had been clean cut by a fuel dealer it was deeded to Portland by the A. Meier estate in 1938. Pittock Bird Sanctuary of the Oregon Audubon Society. Though not public property, this area just west of MacleayPark and north of Cornell Road is in effect a park and contributes toward the continuity of the Forest Park in scenery, opportunity for nature study by the public and the preservation of some virgin forest, birds and other wild life. It was acquired in 1930 and contains some 30 acres part of which was the gift of the Henry L. Pittock estate. Camp Tolinda of the CampFire Girls. This organization bought from Multnomah County 4 lots aggregating about 2 acres in 1948 (though negotiated for before that). It lies at the end of a little dirt road a quarter mile south of Germantown Road. This, too, is a quasi-public recreational area. Multnomah County School District No. 1 also owned about 3 acres near Linnton inside the Forest park’s exterior boundaries in 1947. Bonneville Power Administration owns a right-of-way for its 115,000 volt line clear across the Forest Park, aggregating 25 acres . Recreational Use Before the Park was Created With a wild area so close to a big city, much of it a “no man’s land”, it is obvious that it would be used by pedestrians for exercise, nature study and picnicking and by youngsters to play Indian and explore. It was for years a favorite place for Boy Scouts to take their 14 mile hike, for there were 7 miles on Leif Erikson without a cross-road or any traffic. A rookery of great blue herons east of the Skyline and north of Saltzman Road, where hundreds of these great birds built their huge nests, each year attracted Audubon Society members and other nature study enthusiasts until the birds abandoned the area because of nearby logging. Macleay Park was developed early and much used by walkers and picnickers. Beginning in 1928 the Girl Scouts maintained a day camp as CampSacajawea just off Aspen Street on land, which later became part of MacleayPark. This was discontinued several years ago largely because of insufficient level land and vandalism to their equipment. When agitation to create the Forest Park was started, various groups and individuals explored the area and did some work on it. Mazama Club members, under the leadership of Harrie Jennison, as chief trail builder, and Fred Cleator, as chief tree planter beginning in the early forties had Sunday work parties several times a year for some years. They were joined by members of the Trails Club and Boy Scouts. They built the Hardesty Trail from the Skyline to St. Helens Road and maintained that and others. They designated an area above Leif Erikson between Springville and Germantown Roads as the Hardesty Forest in honor of Wm. P. Hardesty and there planted several thousand trees of various species. For 20 or 25 years prior to the park’s creation the late 0. G. Hughson spent his Sundays, even after he was in his eighties, cutting the brush and logs out of Leif Erikson and Saltzman Road and building trails down the ridges and ravines. He was a devoted champion of the area and militant against the land’s being used by trespassing cattle, hogs and goats. Early Proposals for a park or Parkway on the Northern Hills Under the leadership of Rev. Thomas L. Eliot a Municipal Park Commission for Portland was set up in 1899. The Olmsted Brothers firm of Brookline, Massachusetts was engaged to make a city planning study. A salient feature of their report, published in 1903 by the Commission was a circuit boulevard, 40 miles in length, linking up a number of parks. On the west side of the Willamette River the boulevard, referred to as Hillside Parkway, was to go from the St. Johns ferry to the Sellwood ferry. In the discussion of the area northwest of Guild’s Lake, which 44 years later became the Forest Park, the Olmsted report said, “No use to which the land could be put would begin to be as sensible or as profitable to the city as that of making it a public park or reservation, leaving out of it, if it should be found necessary for economy, the top of the ridge, which might come to have special value for country residences”, A bond issue of $1,000,000 was voted in 1907 to carry out the Olmsted plan. Emanuel T. Mische, superintendent of the Portland Park Commission, later head of the Bureau of Parks and Recreation, from 1908 to 1915, was a continual advocate for a parkway or parks along the western hillsides. In 1915 he conducted a group of visiting park commissioners and park superintendents over the newly constructed Hillside Drive (Parkway) above Linnton, pointing out the possibilities for a great municipal forest rivaling those of any city in scope and scenery. In his 1912 report he says, “One of the choicest landscape features of this region is the opportunity afforded by developing a parkway along the sidehills north of the city”. In 1912 E. H. Bennett, an eminent city planner, was brought out from Chicago to make The Greater Portland Plan. In his report he says, “The forest reserves are extensive in the large cities of Europe. The great woodland areas are the great life-giving elements of the city. There the people may go and spend the day on holidays and Sundays. Amusements may not be excluded, but should be of a normal and natural kind and well regulated . . . . . A wide stretch of country and the Columbia River are seen from that (proposed park and parkway) on the North . . . . . Deep splendid ravines and promontories from which the whole country with the distant snow-capped mountains come finely into view.” He and Mische had in mind a reserve covering much of the area now in Forest Park. Again in 1936, the City Planning Commission suggested public acquisition of park strips along Skyline Boulevard and naturalistic areas along Leif Erikson Drive. Seven years later another eminent city planner recommended what in time became the Forest Park. Robert Moses in his 1943 report, quoted at length in the City Club report of 1945, says) “… the steep wooded hillsides located on the westerly border of the city should be in public ownership…they are as important to Portland as the Palisades of the Hudson are to the city of New York.” Meanwhile a number of individuals were taking an interest in creating a park on this sidehill. Among those most active was Fred W. Cleator of the U.S. Forest Service who talked up the project and led groups of Mazama Club members and youth groups in planting forest trees on some of the denuded slopes. C. Paul Keyser,superintendent of the Bureau of Parks from 1917 through 1949, was interested in this proposal throughout that period and gave it his support, as did City Commissioner Kenneth Cooper. City Club Study and Report In 1944, aroused by the repeated demands that something be done to preserve in park status the northwest hills, the City Club of Portland appointed a committee of five to study the physical and economic problem, report the facts and make recommendations. The committee consisted of Garnett E. “Ding” Cannon actuary with Standard Insurance Company, as chairman, John D. Carter, manager of local branch of IBM, Dr. David B. Charlton, owner of the Charlton Laboratories,Allan A. Smith with Laing, Gray & Smith, and Sinclair A. Wilson, forest economist with the US Forest Service. The report of the committee of 6 printed pages was approved by the membership September 7th, 1945. The report gives in concise form a world of information about the area, justification for giving it park status, legal aspects financial problems and a proposed plan of action. This City Club report should be considered as an introduction or supplement to the present manuscript. Its material is not repeated here, except for occaisional quotations and repetition of the basic facts. Two years later this committee was reactivated and called upon to make a progress report. This they did and reviewed the activities of the Forest Park Committee of Fifty and others, quoted the petition of that group to the major and the City Council and the letter of may 29, 1947 of the Portland Planning Commission to the City Council. The initial recommendation were reaffirmed and expanded. This “prrogress Report: Status of Forest Park Proposal” of the City Clubcommittee was printed in the July 4, 1947 Bulletin. Oil Well Boom About the time the City Club’s report was written rumors were circulating that the contours and geology of this locality indicated the possibility of oil. Shortly thereafter three wells were drilled within a few miles of each other west of Portland. One drilled by the Richfield Oil Company was on the Corinne barbur property, just east of Skyline Boulevard. This for a time checked hopes for a park, fearing land speculation. But after the well had been drilled to a depth of 7, 885 feet and no oil found, it was abandoned, as were the other two wildcat wells, and the oil boom was quickly forgotten. Oil leases on 2,000 acres of city and 3,000 acres of county lands were granted in 1945 but terminated with the abandonment of oil drilling in September, 1946. Organization of the Forest Park Committee of Fifty Since the City Club does not implement its recommendations with action, it was under the auspices of the Western Federation of Outdoor Clubs that a program of action was started. In the Mazama Club rooms on November 12, 1946, Garnett E. (Ding) Cannon, chairman of the City Club Committee, active in the Trails Club of Oregon and president of the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs, called together a public meeting of citizens to formulate a plan to effectuate the proposed park. Ways and means of creating the park were discussed. Thornton T. Munger, recently retired from the U. S. Forest Service (who was out of the city and not at the meeting) was chosen to organize a permanent committee of citizens. Shortly thereafter Mr. Munger addressed a letter to some 40 civic, commercial, educational and recreational agencies asking each to appoint a representative, and an alternate, to make up this Committee of Fifty. There were also about ten “members at large” named, including the five City Club Committeemen. The agencies initially represented on this Committee were the following: Geological Society of the Oregon Country Oregon Federation of Garden Clubs Portland Council of Social Agencies Catholic Youth Organization School District No. I Oregon Roadside Council Federated Community Clubs Central Labor Council, AFL 4-H Clubs Lions Club East Side Commercial Club Kiwanis Club The Pathfinders WaysideGarden Club Junior Chamber of Commerce Boy Scouts of America CampFire Girls Multnomah Anglers and Hunters Mazama Club Girl Scouts PortlandGarden Club Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs Womans Forum Little Gardens Club Progressive Business Mens Club Men’s Garden Club Federated Jewish Societies Congress of Parents and Teachers Portland Federation of Women’s Organizations Oregon Audubon Society Trails Club of Oregon Realty Board Izaak Walton League Y.W. C. A. Portland Chamber of Commerce Portland Grade Teachers Association Portland Industrial Union Council, ClO Presidents’ Council of Portland’s Business and Professional Clubs
The representation has remained about the same to date, with changes in the person representing the agency from time to time. The first meeting was held February 5, 1947. The next meeting was held on February 18 at which permanent officers were elected to constitute the Executive Committee, namely: Thornton T. Munger, chairman G.E. Cannon, vice chairman Dale Coven, treasurer Under date of June 9, 1947, the Committee, after canvassing its members, sent a petition to the Mayor and City Council asking (a) that they dedicate all the city-owned lands in the area for park purposes (b) ask Multnomah County to convey to the City its land, and (c) adopt a policy of acquiring private lands within the designated boundary. PART II CREATION OF THE FOREST PARK IN 1947 The City Planning Commission adopted May 8, 1947, a report of its Park Committee, Theron R Howser, Secretary, recommending strongly the creation of the Forest Park about as proposed by the City Club. A few days later Glenn Stanton, as president of the City Planning Commission, wrote a forthright letter to the City Council urging that the public lands within the area be dedicated to park purposes and recreation. The boundary which the Planning Commission recommended embraced 5,635 acres, slightly less than the 6,114 acres suggested by the City Club. Many organizations and individuals gave their endorsement of this project by resolution, through the press and otherwise. Public sentiment was well aroused and unanimous in wanting the area so reserved. All through the late winter and spring of 1947 some 20 scheduled talks were given by members of the Committee of Fifty at civic clubs, on the radio, etc. Three large scale maps were prepared showing the proposed area with the county lands in green and the city property in red. One was used as a window display in the Public Service Building. These maps were shown many times at meetings where talks were given. Park Superintendent C. P. Keyser and members of the City Council were all in favor of it. Stopping sale of city and county lands. Prior to 1947 city and county lands within the proposed area were being sold as opportunity offered and as the law expected. Some parcels with merchantable timber would fetch quite a substantial price. But, anticipating the creation of the park, the city Council in January 1947 voted to sell no more of its land within the proposed boundary. The CountyCommissioners soon did likewise at the behest of some of the Forest Park Committee. Public Hearing by City Council. The City Council held a public hearing July 9, 1947 re the recommendation of the Planning Commission and then Commissioner Fred L. Peterson urged the dedication “of all city and county and delinquent tax owned property located on the hillsides north of Macleay Park between St. Helens Road and Skyline Boulevard to the City of Portland for park purposes and that the Bureau of Parks be authorized and instructed to use this land as public recreation area.” The City Council adopted unanimously the Planning Commission’s report and recommendations “except the statement regarding sewage and water” and with the proviso that “the purchase of property for this park be not made from the Recreational Areas Fund”. Transferring city lands from the Assessment Collection Division to the Park Bureau. The city’s lands, amounting to about 1,400 acres, were held by the Assessment Collection Division to be resold to compensate the city for the loss on the Hillside Drive bonds; they had assessed against them $62,444.54. At first it was held that they could not be transferred to park status without park funds reimbursing the Assessment Collection Division. However, the Council did, by Ordinance 90094, approve on August 24, 1949 the transfer without payment by the Park Bureau. School District’s Interest. School District No. 1 would get some revenue if and when these tax-forfeited lands were sold, but they waived any claim by letter of February 15, 1945 to Mr. Cannon of the City Club committee. Transferring County lands to the city. Some of the MultnomahCounty officials thought that the County could not transfer its lands to the City unless the latter paid the County at least the amount of the delinquent taxes. So Allan A. Smith, of the newly formed committee gave leadership to writing and advocating an amendment to an existing statute which passed the Oregon Legislature in February, 1947 as SB 220. It gave the County clear authority to transfer county park land to the city as well as to other public agencies. The City Council also requested the County Commissioners to withhold their land from sale, declare it park land and convey it to the City under the terms of SB 220. Subsequently, on April 20, 1948, these lands, amounting to nearly 1,100 acres were declared county parks following advertisement and a public hearing and then all the county land within the exterior boundary was transferred to the City on May 18, 1948 without cost. The actual deeds were recorded in 1949. With these steps taken and hurdles overcome, the Forest Park became an actual and legal reality with about 3,000 acres of public land (including the existing parks) inside the gross area of about 6,000 acres. PART III THE FOREST PARK SINCE 1947 To recite all that has been done in the Forest Park since it was established in 1947 is not within the scope of this paper. The Minutes of the annual meetings of the Committee of fifty and the occasional News Letters of the chairman to that Committee give many of the highlights. Official records of the Park Bureau have, of course, the details. The following paragraphs attempt to sketch briefly the activities and accomplishments under appropriate headings. The Dedication Soon after the Forest Park had become a reality, a formal dedication was held on a Saturday afternoon, September 25, 1948. It was on the site of the recent oil, well drilling on land of Mrs. Corrine Barbur, just east of Skyline Boulevard. The newspapers gave good advance notice and a considerable audience was present. Speakers were Commissioner Tom West on behalf of the County of Multnomah, Commissioner Fred Peterson and Commissioner William A. Bowes for the City of Portland and Mr. Allan A. Smith who gave the dedicatory address, copy of which is in the Public Library’s archives. Rev. Charles Guilbert offered the invocation. Thornton T. Hunger was master of ceremonies. Camp Fire Girls and Girl Scouts participated with singing and Boy Scouts acted as color guards. Administration and Personnel Harry B. Buckley became in 1950 Superintendent of the Bureau of Parks and Recreation, and from then on has given active and sympathetic administration of this area, taking aggressive action on acquisitions, timber salvage, protection and maintenance of roads and trails. In 1950 a Park Forester was employed to handle the technical aspects of surveys, fire prevention, timber cutting, planting and public relations. There has been much turnover in the incumbents, with some interludes; they are: Wallace J. Pesznecker 1950-1952 “Bill” Keil 1952—1956 Louis Vogel 1956 Elwood Shade 1956-1957 J. W. Livesay 1957-1959 Since 1955 J, Howard Williamson has been foreman of the Forest Park, including the heavily used Macleay Park. He has had two or so assistants most of the time and in the summer from 3 to 14 high school boys who act as fire lookouts and as laborers on road and trail maintenance, clean up, erecting signs, etc. A headquarters cabin, with office, tool storage and garage, was built in 1951 on Balch Creek almost under the Thurman Street bridge to serve the Forest Park and MacleayPark. The area of the Forest Park, within the exterior boundary, was determined to be 6,168 acres, using the dot method on an official map of 3½ inches to the mile scale. This is somewhat larger than the area estimated by the city Planning Commission for the tract they recommended which was adopted, An accomplishment of the Park Foresters and of the park Bureau is the systematic surveying and mapping of trails, property lines and other features, resulting, in combination with other maps, of a good base map from which a fire control map and a map for public use have been prepared recently. Forest Park Committee of Fifty This Committee did not consider its mission completed with the official setting up of the area in 1948, but has continued its organization and activity. it has worked in an informal advisory capacity to the Park Superintendent, as spokesman to the public on the importance and needs of the Forest Park and through its varied membership has been a liaison with many civic organizations. Through subcommittees special projects have been activated, such as the acquisition subcommittee under Allan A. Smith, that for choosing a name under Irving Lincoln, and the subcommittee on suitable recognition of gifts and services under Robert H. Ellis, Jr. The membership of the Committee has continued to consist of representatives of about 40 civic, recreational, philanthropic and youth groups with a few members-at-large. The organizations represented have remained with little change, but the individual representatives were revised in 1953 and 1957. From the start Thornton T. Munger has been chairman until August, 1959, when C. E. “Dingt’ Cannon, who had been vice-chairman, succeeded him. Allan A. Smith has been counsel since 1947. There have been some changes in the Secretary and treasurer in the elections. Each year an annual meeting has been held; from 1948 through 1953 it was in the PublicServiceBuilding. Since then it has been in the Forestry Building on N. W. Upshur Street and been followed by a tour of the area, especially parts behind the locked gates, except in the one or two years when muddy roads prevented. In 1954 mud precluded the tour after the meeting in June and it was postponed until July 28. In 1959 the tour included a picnic at the Whitwood water tank. Minutes of all these meetings were sent to all members. At intermediate times the Executive Committee has met with the Park Superintendent and usually with the Park Forester to discuss progress and problems and to make plans. The Committee has carried on its work wholly on a basis of voluntary contributions of services and cash donations, including a donation of the stationery. The expenditures have usually been only $10 or $15 a year. At the initiative of the Committee a wall space in the Forestry Building has been recently devoted to the Forest Park where are displayed a large scale map, typical scenes in the area and a roster of donors of land and a roster of agencies that have contributed notable services toward park development. Name From the start various names for the Forest Park were suggested --Sacajawea, David Douglas, etc. To forestall hasty decision and in accord with an editorial in The Oregonian entitled “Let It Simmer”, the subject was dropped in 1950. In 1957 the Executive Committee thought it was time for the area to have a name, as have all other city parks. A committee with Irving B. Lincoln as chairman canvassed the subject, soliciting names from the public. Some 48 names were suggested. These the committee sifted and submitted four to the preferential vote of those present at the annual meeting of the Committee of Fifty in September, 1957. The names to choose from were Skyline, Tualatin, Tualatin Mountain and Portland. The vote was rather inconclusive because only 17 were present, some did not vote their 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices and because of the split between “Tualatin” and “Tualatin Mountain”. The weighted tally showed a slight preference for “Portland”, then “Skyline”, “Tualatin” and “Tualatin Mountain”. This result was transmitted to Commissioner Bean (who had been at the meeting when the vote was taken) on September 12, 1957, but no action has been taken since then. The area continues to be called just “Forest Park”. Fires and Fire Prevention The U. S. Forest Service was requested by Superintendent Buckley to prepare a Fire Protection Plan; this was done, resulting in a very inclusive analysis of the fire problem and 24 detailed recommendations. It was written by E. H. Marshall of the Division of State and Private Forestry, dated June 8, 1950. At that time there were 800 acres of unburned logging slash on private land between Germantown and Newberry Roads. Unfortunately, few of the recommendations in that report were acted upon promptly. The City Fire Bureau is responsible for suppression of fires, the Park Bureau for prevention and detection. In August, 1951, a fire started north of Saltzmnan Road which, in the next three days, swept over about 1200 acres inside the park and as much more outside to the west. it was finally controlled with the help of man power and equipment of the Portland Fire and other city departments,, Multnomah and WashingtonCounties and the U. S. Forest Service. After the fire, Messers. Cannon, Smith and Munger of the Committee of Fifty called on Mayor Dorothy McC. Lee, leaving a strong letter demanding better protection. It said “The fire was detected very tardily, suppression action was unaccountably delayed several hours, the strategy of attack had apparently not been worked out in advance, foremen were not skilled in methods of indirect attack, crew supervision and overall supervision was inadequate.” Soon thereafter a cooperative plan for fire control was drawn up by the Disaster Relief and Civil Defense Administration which detailed the responsibilities and course for action of each agency: Fire Department, Park Bureau, Police, Public Works Department, Civil Defense, Mosquito Control, Offices of Communications. This plan has been revised annually, usually after inter-bureau conference, and has well alerted all agencies for an emergency. Beginning in 1952, and every year since, a school to train city firemen in forest fire techniques has been held under the direction of U. S. Forest Service experts with cooperation of the Park Forester and the City Fire Department. Following indoor lectures the 50 to 140 firemen have, in groups, been shown in the park methods of fire line construction and fire suppression. During the fire season some of the student employees man lookout points, one to three of which are on the east side of the river, to detect “smokes” and report them by radio. Two 10,000 gallon water tanks and a reservoir were placed in 1952 along Leif Erikson Drive for filling tank fire engines when needed. Several miles of fire trail have been bulldozed out; some of these are usable for emergency fire fighting equipment. Since 1951 there has been no serious fire in the Forest Park. Some years not even a single fire.
Reforestation Prior to the creation of the Forest Park some planting was done by volunteers, using a variety of species, as previously mentioned. Unfortunately much of this was wiped out by the 1951 fire. Since 1947 a little volunteer planting by Mazama Club members, Trails Club, Boy Scouts and 4-H boys has continued. Some rhododendrons were set by the Mazamas under Harrie Jennison’s direction along the Hardesty trail. In December 1950 a program of planting by high school and upper grade elementary school students was started as a part of the science curriculum “learn by doing”. This was first intended to be for the training of leaders for a much larger program of student planting on the Tillamook Burn. The trees were mostly donated by the U. S. Forest Service and Crown-Zellerbach Corporation, though later the Park Bureau started to raise some trees for forest planting. That first winter some 500 students had training in reforestation, sometimes on school time, some on vacation time. They planted 17,500 trees on 28 acres. This project has been continued each winter with 8,000 to 20,000 planted annually. Acquisition of Land When the Forest Park was created, there were several hundred separate owners of land within the exterior boundaries. One owned 700 acres in one block (Mrs. Corrine Barbur); others had just a 25-foot lot with taxes as low as $.25. In 1951, 23 parcels, aggregating about 80 acres, were forfeited for unpaid taxes and were then transferred to the City by the County Commissioners. Small acreage was so added subsequently, but none was taken by the County through tax foreclosure in 1957, 1958 or 1959. In April, 1950 a letter was sent by the Park Superintendent to land owners inside the boundaries suggesting they donate their land to the City, as a result of which by 1951 the following gifts were made: 3 lots by the Eighth Church of Christ, Scientist 1 lot by Albany Iron Works 2 lots by Mrs. Ella Bollinger (and William Bollinger, dec.) 2 lots by Mary and August Nelson At about the same time a tract of 62 acres, near the junction of Leif Erikson and Saltzman Road, was purchased very reasonably. Another parcel was acquired by settlement of a timber trespass. Early in 1956 a letter was written by Allan A. Smith, counsel of the Committee of Fifty, to about 250 owners of land within the park. It asked if they were interested in a donation, wanted to be further informed or were not interested. About a quarter replied, but only a very few offered to donate their lands and some of these were tax delinquent to the point of foreclosure. Those who donated then and later are the following. Most of the acreage was small.
Not until recent years did the City have money with which to buy holdings, though recognizing the importance of consolidating the park ownership. Several sizable tracts have since been acquired by purchase. In 1955 a piece of cutover land along Germantown Road of 127 acres was acquired, Another tract of 24.6 acres in a strategic position touching Leif Erikson Drive had to be condemned because of the unreasonable demand of the owner, but the court granted a most unreasonable price of $10,000 which the City had to pay plus costs. The aggregate land bought to date is about 580 acres. A small parcel of park land was sold to the White Shield Home, that had no value for park use but was much needed by the home. An amendment to the law of 1947 (ORS 275.330) was passed in 1959 by which the County may dispose of park land without a vote of the people. Under this it is expected that some advantageous exchanges may be made by the City of land that was County land (before conveyance to the City) that hitherto could not be disposed of (except for park use) without a vote of the people.
Management Plan and Practices In 1950 at the request of the Park Bureau, the U. S. Forest Service prepared a comprehensive, yet concise, “Management Recommendations for Portland City Forest Park”. It was written by Walter C. Thomson. It describes the area, illustrated by a forest cover type map, and makes specific recommendations under the headings: Recreational Developments, proposing 10 campgrounds and 6 trails; Protection from fire, insects, decay, the elements and the public; Economic Forestry, nine procedures recommended; Consolidation of Ownership; Planting; Publicity. Progress has been made in carrying out some of the recommendations of this report, but the frequent turnover in the incumbency of the park forester, and the volume of routine administration, surveying and maintenance has forestalled doing many of the things Mr. Thomson suggested. This report should definitely be used as a working program. The recreational developments proposed have, with minor exceptions, not been put in. Much has been done on the trail system. The protection of the area from fire has been considered elsewhere, and has been notable. The police have latterly been giving wore surveillance to prevent vandalism and hunting. Great progress has been made in consolidation of ownerships, as discussed elsewhere, Considerable planting has been done, though much of it lost in the 1951 fire. It has been somewhat sporadic, depending upon the amount of volunteer and school children planters that was proffered. By publicity the people of Portland are becoming acquainted with the park, its possibilities and policies. Mr. Thomson’s report recommended that this area be managed on a utility-purpose basis by which the timber in need of cutting would be utilized in such a way as not to be inconsistent with the primary purpose: recreation and aesthetics. He thought it was capable of producing 600 to 700 board feet per acre per year (after full stocking was achieved) which if cut and sold on a sustained yield basis, could make the park self sustaining. This recommendation has been carried out so far on a wise conservative basis. A few sales of dead, over mature or overcrowded trees have been made. The receipts are put in a fund for development and land acquisition of this area. Several timber trespasses were discovered by the park forester in 1951 and some have been settled by cash payments or land exchanges. An isolated tract of 826,000 board feet of defective old growth timber lying where there was no prospect of recreational use was advertised by a prospectus and sold in 1952 for $32.50 per 14 bd. ft., considerably above the stated minimum price. A few other sales of thinnings, dead trees and from clearing operations have netted a thousand or two dollars a year. Public Utility Crossings Though the Forest Park In order that electricity and gas from plants and distributing stations along the river might be transported to the large populations west of TualatinMountain, it has seemed necessary to grant permits for pipe lines and pole lines to cross the Forest Park. There are now eight such public utility crossings, not counting water mains. A Bonneville Power Administration 115,000 volt line, using wood towers, was built before 1945 on a purchased right-of-way north of Germantown Road aggregating 25 acres, with a branch going northward to Astoria. A branch from this line carrying 235,000 volts was built on steel towers later on an easement. Pacific Power and Light Company was granted in 1948 a permit for a 115,000 volt line. This was for five years with provision for annual renewal thereafter. Portland General Electric Company built a 115,000 volt line on an easement in 1956-7 which follows for some distance the P.P.&L. Co. line, and on the east side runs along the edge of the Forest Park a little above St. Helens Road for a mile or so. Portland Gas and Coke Company (now Northwest Natural Gas Company) has two pipelines about three miles apart from its plant at Willbridge to the Tualatin Valley. The last one, built with an 18-inch pipe in 1956-57, made quite a conspicuous swath through the forest near Saltzman Road. The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company has two pole lines that cross the ridge, one near Springville Road and the other near New-berry Road. There are some water mains that go part way or all the way up the hill from the Bull Run supply line on St. Helens Road, There is a used water tank of 130,000 gallons, the Whitwood tank, underground, in Sec. U, T. 1 N. 1 w., east of Leif Erikson Drive. There is a 130,000-gallon tank, until recently not filled, near Skyline and Germantown Road. It now holds Bull Run water as a reserve for fire fighting only. In the ravine of Saltzman Creek there are two tanks, the Willbridge tank just west of Leif Erikson Drive, now empty, and the other lower down. Elsewhere along the east edge of the park there are tanks that serve the district below them. Leif Erikson Drive Leif Erikson Drive (prior to 1933 being Hillside Drive) has since the Forest Park was created been considered a park driveway or road to be maintained by the Park Bureau. No private land now fronts on this roadway from Thurman Street to some distance north of Saltzman Road, a distance of 8 or 9 miles. Years of disuse, slides, washouts, roadside brush and fallen trees made it unsafe for public travel or impassable. Little Park Bureau money was available for its maintenance, but some work was done from time to time; in 1954 a crew of “trustees” from the jail worked on it. In the winter of 1955-56 exceptional rains caused over 100 slide-ins and slide-outs, making the road impassable. An allotment from the Disaster Relief and Civil Defense Administration of some $40,000 put the road in excellent condition. A major improvement was installation of substantial culvert. Such work and improvements have been continued. This road through the heart of the Forest Park is of major importance in its administration and protection. The section of Leif Erikson from Saltzman Road to Germantown Road is passable for cars only in the driest season, but the roadbed is wide and smooth. The whole length of Leif Erikson Drive is barred by gates to which only the park employees, the police, fire department and the Public Service company employees have keys. This Drive from Thurman Street to Saltzman Road was opened to the public for the first time in many years on two Sundays in 1955, from 10 to 5; 1017 cars with 2262 people went over the one-way route on Sunday July 31. It could not be opened to the public in 1956. In 1957 it was opened after the summer fire hazard was passed on five successive Saturdays and Sundays September 27 - October 25. There were 258 cars on the Saturdays and 2330 on the Sundays. On the day of the feature article in the Sunday Oregonian there were 1364 cars or over 200 per hour. It was not opened in 1959 for lack of personnel for supervision. Saltzman Road from Leif Erikson to the Skyline, long unused, was made passable by the County in 1951. This portion of this road has been barred to public travel by locked gates at each end. In 1959 the County widened it and prepared the surface for gravelling. North of Germantown Road an unsurfaced county road, about a third mile in length, named Newton Road, takes off from Skyline Boulevard and by connection with an old logging road makes it possible to cross by car in the dry season from the Skyline to Linnton. Public Usage Usage of the area has not been pushed, it being thought best to wait until the brush and fern patches had grown up to trees and were less hazardous from fire, and until trails, sign boards, picnic spots, etc. had been developed to take care of heavier public usage. As stated earlier, Leif Erikson Drive (as well as upper Saltzman and upper Springville Roads) has been closed by gates. When the former has been opened after the fire season and before the rainy season the response has been very good. There is a great deal of visitation by the public of the viewpoints overlooking the Forest Park on Skyline Drive and 53rd St. Drive. A few pedestrians and nature students walk Leif Erikson Drive and the trails, both individually and in organized groups. The horseback riding clubs, represented by membership in the Committee of Fifty, at one time were enthusiastic about building saddle trails. There is now some horseback riding, both by those who live nearby and by those who bring their horses in by trailer. A commercial stable on Thompson Road to service this area is projected. The camps of the Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, Sacajawea and Tolinda, now unused or little used, have already been mentioned. The Boy Scouts some years ago built a cabin in the woods back of Linnton north of the Germantown Road, which was a center for a few years of many of their woodcraft and camping activities. As a recreational project the Park Bureau conducted for some years beginning in 1950 day camps for boys, called Paul Bunyan Camp, one located at the Whitwood water tank. A big Douglas fir “discovered” in 1957 has attracted much public interest. it is in a dense forest with other big virgin trees just below Leif Erikson Drive a third of a mile north of Springville Road. It measures 90 inches in diameter and 211 feet tall to a broken top. PART IV A LOOK AHEAD In a few years nearly a million people will be living within a few miles of the Forest Park. Residences will crowd about it on three sides and industry will dominate its eastern edges. It is hoped that soon the privately owned land within the exterior boundaries will have been acquired by the City, except, perhaps, some of the farmland and the scenic home sites along the Skyline. Thus the feeling of an extensive, uninterrupted forest sanctuary may be preserved “far from the madding crowd”, saved from the intrusion of houses pole lines and other accompaniments of urbanism. There will be pressure to widen the roads, to straighten the curves, to pave, to build more roads. This should be resisted, for this “wilderness within a city” is not a place for speeding motorists; here there should be no need for haste. Its roadways should be sufficient for leisurely picnickers, nature students, photographers, and not used so as to inconvenience pedestrians and equestrians. Greatly increased recreational use of the area is hoped for and expected. As soon as adequate supervision and protection are assured the roads should be open to the public, except when road surfaces or acute fire danger indicate otherwise. Small picnicking spots should be developed with simple facilities for the passive recreationist. There will be requests for facilities for active recreation: play equipment, play courts, swimming pools, with accompanying buildings, parking lots, etc. This is not the place for such active recreational uses. Portland is well supplied with many and better parks for such uses. Though much of the Forest Park now appears to be more of a brush-field than a forest, the pole wood stands will soon be mature trees, the saplings will be stately poles, and the present fern patches will be forested. Spared from fire and with a little hand planting, the 6,000 acres will rapidly all become forest clad. Here within city limits will be a continuous forest 7¾ miles long. The roads and trails will be under over-arching trees, varying from virgin forest with giants up to 8 feet in diameter, to thrifty second-growth stands of tall Douglas fir, to side hills of picturesque grey-barked alder, with here and there spectacular outlooks to the Cascade snow peaks and the Columbia River. This will be a show place, unrivalled by any other city, to which to take visitors and introduce them to the lush forest flora of the Douglas fir region. However, this forest has more than an aesthetic and recreational value. It has educational and utilitarian potentialities. This productive forest soil is capable of producing, when fully stocked with trees, at least 600 board feet per acre per year. On 5,500 acres (taking 500 or so acres from the gross area for roads, reserved areas and private land) there is indicated a potential permanent annual growth of over 3 million board feet. This should be harvested, but only in a most careful and conservative way, so as not to interfere with recreational uses or aesthetic appearances. Well executed thinnings, improvement cutting, salvage of dead and dying trees will benefit the forest and improve its appearance. Properly located patches of spot logging with accompanying good clean up of debris would also be permissible. Thus this forest may serve as an educational demonstration of the practice of scientific forest management--the biggest source of wealth in the Pacific Northwest. Proceeds from the harvesting of the annual growth will go far toward making the Forest Park self-supporting. Thus Portland may have, as the name implies, both a utilitarian and educational FOREST under scientific silviculture and a PARK where woodland aesthetics and primitive recreation are exemplified by multipurpose management. The objectives stated so well by the City Club Committee in 1947 should ever be kept in mind. They are (in part): 1. To provide facilities that will afford extensive nearby outdoor recreation for the people and attract tourists. 2. To beautify the environs of Portland. 3. To provide food, cover, and a sanctuary for wildlife. 4. To provide a site on which youth and other groups may carry on educational projects. 5. To grow timber which will in time yield an income and provide a demonstration forest.
APPENDIX A CITY PARKS WITHIN FOREST PARK PRIOR TO 1947 By Charles Paul Keyser MACLEAY PARK The history of Macleay Park is more than casually interesting. It gives an instance of how the natural charm of a bit of primeval forest has been preserved as against the ravages of common gainful pursuits, or mass human erosions. In the year 1897 Donald Macleay was discussing the wisdom of continuing to pay taxes on a piece of property on the edge of town in Balch Gulch with Deputy Assessor Maxwell. Maxwell suggested: “If it won’t yield its taxes, why don’t you give it to the City for a park?” Macleay did not take to the suggestion at the time, but a week later came again to see Maxwell and said he had been thinking over the proposition, allowed Maxwell had given him an idea, and he had decided to offer the 130 acre parcel to the City. He asked Maxwell whom to approach in the City Hall to complete the deal. He had in mind that the wood on the property when cut should be divided equally between the Good Samaritan and the St. VincentHospitals, and whenever the park should be “improved”, the patients of the hospital should be given outings in the park at the City’s expense. The park was covered with a stand of native timber. As time passed and nobody in the City Hall had shown a disposition to improve the park for conveyed outings, a group of nature lovers, headed by Colonel L. L. Hawkins, who was soon to become a member of the Park Commission when first instituted in 1899, undertook to resist depredation in any form of carving by the hand of man. Wildness Cleanliness and Natural Orderliness were to be positively sanctified in this Temple of Nature traversed by a charming brook known as Balch Creek. The Cornell Road had been built and rebuilt higher up along the south canyon wall, and that improvement could be condoned as a bygone concession to the needs of travel. The Nature lovers, Col. Hawkins, R. B. Lamson, Dick Montague and sister Jane, Jerry Bronaugh, Rodney Glisan, T. Scott Brooke, and add Col. James Jackson, to name a few residing nearby, made it a main aim in life to keep it otherwise and henceforth inviolate, and they had sufficient standing in the community to have their idea of the value of the park respected. Even though Donald Macleay might have wrought better than he knew, through his beneficent action a priceless visible form of nature holds for him who would commune. Macleay’s deed of gift was dated June 21, 1897. A more precise boundary survey has shown the aggregate of two composing parcels contiguous but separated by the city boundary line, to consist of 104.74 acres: a rectangle conforming to the general pattern of land subdivision but not at all to the topography of canyon and stream. It was a natural therefore, to work toward taking in more territory, especially downstream to connect it with the Forestry Building, and in effect annex George Holman Park, which latter will come in for further comment later in this discussion. It does not appear that the hospitals favored by Macleay in his deed ever made any contention relative to any color of claim they may have laid. All was serene until 1905 Lafe Pence, come lately from Denver, entered on a bold scheme to wash down a large sector of terrain lying, or better said, standing between MacleayPark and Willamette Heights. The main purpose was to fill Guild’s Lake and thereby develop industrial sites, at the same operation terracing the hillside for residences. He reached over into Washington County and obtained appropriation rights to the waters of several streams that feed into the Tualatin River to supplement the flow of Balch Creek. Surreptitiously and without consent he constructed a wooden flume placing its intake a short distance upstream from the west boundary line of Macleay Park, thence through the park and beyond for a total distance of some 3,000 feet to a point above Scotch Nubbin where his hydraulicking operations were started. It was a box flume four feet wide, designed to carry all of the water of Balch Creek in normal seasonal flood. It followed the contour of the north canyon wall and supplied a secondary flume that carried the spoil from the digging giant down into Guild’s Lake. The digging giant required a higher head pressure. It was supplied from a higher-level system of flumes and ditches through a tunnel from the WashingtonCounty sources. The Balch Creek basin is separated completely from the Tualatin drainage by the Skyline Ridge of Tuality Mountain. For this high line he went ahead, again without the owners’ consent, and cleared 900 feet across the property of the Ibex Land Company adjacent to Macleay Park, and that started a chain reaction, The agent of the Ibex Land Company happened to be a member of the Park Board whom Pence found he could not humbug or cajole, one Leander L. Hawkins who had migrated from a mining country himself. Not only did he size Pence up as an arrant knave and run him off the Ibex land, he followed through by bringing the encroachment on Macleay Park to the attention of Mayor Lane, ex-officio Chairman of the Park Commission, Lane, as bold as Pence, mobilized a police squad armed with sledge hammers, and they wrecked twenty feet of the flume near the intake, all on a Sunday afternoon, February 25, 1906, Lane in person directing the demolition. It happened also that the wrecking took place outside MacleayPark but that was only a minor detail in the fuss that ensued. Pence came before the Park Board next day in a specially called session. He pled good intentions toward working a public benefit, did not anticipate there would be objection, and explained his motive was to get the flume in operation in order to demonstrate before he would be forbidden, or delayed with red tape until Balch creek would run low. After heated words between Hawkins and Pence, the Park Board resolved, moved by Meyer and seconded by Lewis, Hawkins dissenting, Eliot absent, to let Pence go ahead with his sluicing under the terms of a revocable permit limited to the end of May 1907, when the removal of the flume was exacted, faithful performance guaranteed under the penalty of a $500 cash bond. The grant of permission also provided that the flume was not to exceed four feet in width and operations were to be confined within a fifteen-foot right of way. The flume was to be planked over to form a walkway with handrail and to be painted to approval of the Park Board. It was expressly provided that no rights to the waters of Balch creek were allowed to Pence, and that from May to October inclusive no water was to be diverted from Balch creek into the flume. He did not remove the flume nor did he paint it, or run any water through it of consequence. He allowed his permit to lapse. Then after an interval he entered into a contract with the Park Board whereby he was granted another years operation at the end of which time the flume and appurtenances became the property of the City. His attorney did seek to have his $500 returned. The flume served as a walkway for a number of years and has been replaced by a trail. Reverting to the episode when he took the Park Board into camp in February 1906, Pence was sitting pretty after Mayor Lane next day issued a statement in the press lauding him for his enterprise, and the publicity he got out of it made hay. At the moment he had got far enough, at least, to be given an opportunity to demonstrate that mountains can be attacked with storm water applied with squirt guns known to miners as giants. It might be allowed further that at most that was all that his earth moving with giants amounted to. The Oregonian reported February 27, 1906: It was a clever scheme and well executed because it is a fact that Pence has built more than 6000 feet of magnificent flume within the confines of the park without the leave of anybody excepting a trusted few. But this is an extraordinary man imbued with all the attributes of a daring speculator, and the bold features of the transaction has evidently appealed to the city authorities just about as its originator contemplated, even though there was some misunderstanding and not a few ruffled feathers at the meeting of the Park Board yesterday morning.” Indeed Pence knew how to dramatize himself and to wangle publicity and play it to his advantage. He was a lawyer by profession and had been a Congressman in the wildcat mining atmosphere of Colorado. The Macleay Park thrust was played for scenery and effect as a preliminary to a $500,000 deal he was promoting to convert the Fair buildings to industrial uses. It was good strategy to engage Park Commissioner Ion Lewis, one of the top designers of the buildings, as his architect. His attorney was Cicero Idleman, a prominent lawyer who knew the ropes. Anybody knows that the logical way to fill Guilds Lake was with dredgings pumped from the WillametteRiver channel, as has since been done. Before he was all through in the City of Roses, he had demonstrated how his clever schemes could be one of the main contributing causes of a bank failure. Specious to a degree, but decent at heart, his obituary makes him out a very decent sort. So much for Pence; which goes to show why getters and preservers of spaces for leisure-time activities of the public are wary of promoters. What we are endeavoring at some length to point out here is that had he succeeded in developing high class residence property as Lewis & Wiley did in terracing Westover on the other side of Balch Gulch a few years later, using water pumped up from Guilds Lake for the hydraulicking, there would have been no park named for George Holman, and in all probability l4acleay Park would have never become an integral feature of the all-inclusive Forest Park or municipal forest. Withal it would appear that the Olmsted Report in 1903 had ascribed the most advantageous use for the land if and when devoted to public recreation. The preservation of Macleay Park in character as an unspoiled parcel of virgin forest within walking distance of the heart of the city, did and does have a significant implication in its expansion to a more generous area of forestation to be restored, to which the subjoining Forestry Building will naturally relate.
HOLMANPARK Holman Park, 52.44 acres, was acquired by the City through deed of gift dated August 16, 1939, by George F. and Mary Holman, brother and sister of Frederick V. Holman deceased, son of a pioneer family, a prominent lawyer and author of authentic articles bearing on Oregon’s history, and particularly distinguished as the person who gave Portland the name “City of Roses”. His hobby was rose growing and exhibiting. He organized the Portland Rose Society in 1902. He is deserving of at least a marker of recognition in his native City of Roses. The holding was included in the scope of the property that Pence had essayed to regrade by hydraulic operation. In 1909, after Pence had deserted his enterprise, Holman brought a plaster-of-paris scale model of the ground in to Mische, and after discussing plans for development Mische advised him to give it to the City to supplement Macleay Park rather than hazard the money it would take to do anything with it. Holman answered, “You may be right. But first get the land between Macleay Park and my south boundary.” Both F. V. Holman and E. T. Mische had passed away before this condition was met, but ultimately the Homan land was donated as above noted. CLARK AND WILSON PARK Clark and Wilson Park, also called 0. M. ClarkPark, of 17.74 acres, was donated by the Clark and Wilson Lumber Company by deed dated November 19, 1927. It is a glen running down to the level of the St. Helens Road in Linnton from a point in the Germantown Road near the junction with Leif Erikson Drive. It is an undespoiled remnant of a stand of virgin timber that clothed this hillside. It is fortunate that this body of timber has been reserved instead of being put through a mill. At all events, 0. M. Clark wished to preserve a sample of Western Oregon timber in the form of a public park. The Company later sold the remainder of the tract, and after it had been logged off, the City got title to the land as a Forest Park acquisition. LINNTON PARK Linnton Park, comprising 287.82 acres, was long held in its primitive state by A. Meier, and it remained unchanged for years in his estate. His son Julius, about the time he became Governor of Oregon was approached on a proposal to donate the tract to the City for park purposes. He said that his father in his lifetime had a particular feeling of pride in its ownership, and it had a sentimental value to the Meier family. The Linnton schoolhouse sits on the southeast corner of the tract. But said Governor Meier, the time might come when the estate would be willing to give it to the City. Meanwhile the Boy Scouts could continue to use it as a stamping ground, cabin and all, as they had been. Not until 1938 did that status quo dissolve, then the estate sold the timber to a fuel dealer on a contract to cut and remove the wood against a date when the title to the land went to the City. The gift deed was dated November 8, 1938. Along with the contiguous land to the north and the aforesaid Clark and Wilson tract to the south, all logged since 1938 the Meier piece is being reforested, with Boy Scouts and other organized groups participating. APPENDIX B THE PITTOCK BIRD SANCTUARY OF THE OREGON AUDUBON SOCIETY By Thornton T. Munger and C. Paul Keyser About 1929 the Oregon Audubon Society became actively interested in creating a bird sanctuary somewhere close to Portland. “The idea crystallized rapidly under the influence of President Eliot’s enthusiasm and soon a committee was appointed to investigate sites and collect data,”. A dozen areas were visited, and finally a tract west of and adjoining Macleay Park was decided upon. Besides a creek it had a little meadow and some woods. This belonged to a Mr. Tanquary of Denver, City Commissioner Brewster had tried in 1914 to acquire this for an extension of MacleayPark. The Audubon Society, using money from bequests and donations, purchased 12 acres for $3,750 in 1931. Soon after, the Pittock estate, acting through C. A. Morden, its administrator, donated 18 adjoining acres. Active in consummating the Bird Sanctuary was W. S. Raker, an enthusiastic supporter of the Audubon Society, Camp Fire Girls, etc. A memorial fountain on the tract was dedicated to him in 1940 bearing the inscription “William S. Raker, lover of mankind and birds”. Soon the 30 acres was enclosed by a cat-proof fence in the erection of which CWA and WPA relief labor was used. The tract now includes, besides the little meadow traversed by Balch Creek, an artificial pond and some excellent virgin forest. A two-room cottage for the caretaker was built in the early thirties for $300 and enlarged in 1938. “Audubon House”, a club house, was built in 1950 at a cost of $16,000 (sans architect Crowell’s remitted fee), using part of the legacy of Dr. Arch Stewart. Seven years later a modern residence for the caretaker was built, also using the Dr. Stewart legacy. Many improvements to the grounds have been effected by volunteer workers, among them three generations of the Seaman (Marshall) family. It now contains planted specimens of most of Oregon’s native trees. The Pittock Bird Sanctuary is open to the public for bird and nature study on asking the resident caretaker. In its setting and appointments it is as nice a center for leisure time activity of a special nature-loving group as may be found anywhere. It is fortunate that it lies on the margin of Portland’s Forest Park and next to the virgin forest of Macleay Park. |
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The West Hills of Portland are deeply tied into its history. As urban pressures increase the rarity and value of accessible wilderness, it is likely that Forest Park may become even more of a jewel that epitomizes Portland’s qaulity of life.
The disintegrating high stumps of great trees now found in the second-growth forest are mute evidence of the logging of nearly a century ago. Signs of cross-skid roads show how the logs were skidded down the ravines to the WillametteRiver,
