VANPORT OREGON HISTORY MARKER

There’s a lot of learning going on when you stop at an Oregon History sign.

We were headed to the Expo Center for the RV Show, me and my wife.

Wife: Look, an historical marker. Want to stop?

Me: No.

So we stopped, we stopped for a section on Vanport, Oregon history.

This is a good printed history online from Dam Failures And Lessons Learned.

This link points to a video from Oregon Public Broadcasting.

From the historical marker:

 

 

This particular marker tells the story in four paragraphs.

Since then we’ve heard about walls of water all too often from tsunamis to dam breaking.

 

The Rest Of The Vanport Story

If this looks like a scene from ‘run for your life’ it’s because it is.

 

 

A woman interviewed in the OPB documentary said this was her dad and they were coming back from church on Sunday when they stopped to see what was going on.

She said her dad took a look at the flood and walked right in to find a little boy going under for the last time.

The video continued with their researched findings showing the whole city of Vanport submerged under twenty feet of water in two hours.

 

 

Rising water in downtown Portland.

Again.

Go by train at Union Station?

 

No thanks, we’ll row.

 

 

Reading Vanport Oregon History

This is the historical marker.

It’s at the PIR and EXPO exit off I-5 north.

Take a left at the bottom the exit ramp and then a right at the next stop. A left turn there goes to the race track, a right to the Expo.

Turn right and an immediate left to a parking lot in a big field with a paved path and there it is.

This is when the married rules of stopping for historical markers applies:

If you’re driving and want to stop, then stop.

If your wife wants to stop, then stop.

It should be a ‘Yes Dear’ moment, but you might wonder if they really want to stop, or they’re playing along with your, my, historical knowledge.

So stop, get out, read, take pictures.

Special shout out to these folks for their work.

Click the link for a detailed map of historical marker throughout Oregon.

 

 

PS:

I’m a history guy, not a history dilettante, and we history guys think we know everything, or enough about a few things to include everything.

I’m not making a confession here, even if it sounds like one.

I thought Vanport was on the other side of the freeway, the east side, not the west side, and I would have continued being wrong if we had not stopped.

Call me corrected, and happy to be so.

I’m taking a shot here, but the area on the east side of I-5 probably flooded too after the waters eroded Denver Avenue, the road between Portland and Vancouver before the freeway, and broke in half.

It felt different standing on the same ground.

 

PSS:

After getting my history straightened out we continued on to the RV Show.

 

 

Four huge buildings full of every camp and travel rig imaginable continued feeling different after learning about Vanport.

I climbed aboard a tricked out $700k Mercedes RV bus. It looked like a million bucks.

The sales guy was lounging on the couch instead of jumping up like I was a potential buyer.

He had me figured out, so I asked,

“If I buy this rig today, can I drive it home?”

Sales Guy: Yes, you absolutely can.

Me: Good. It’s a beauty.

But I hit my head on the doorjamb going out and the deal was off.