Portland: Oregon City

One day we rented a car to get out of Portland. First stop: Oregon City, which was the first capital of the Oregon Territory. Settled by a Mr. John McLaughlin of the Hudson Bay Company, it had the first courthouse west of the Rocky Mountains, which is why it was the end of the Oregon Trail (Dear Husband is sitting on the marker for the end of the trail). Not only did pioneers file their land claims there, but the original founding documents of San Francisco were also filed there. The town is crammed between some bluffs and the Willamette River (accent on the second syllable), eventually growing up and along both banks. 

This land was originally settled by the Clackamas and Kalapuya. They had a myth that two gods created the Willamette Falls by pulling a rope across the river. The drop is only 4 stories, but it is the second-largest waterfall in the United States by volume, behind only Niagara Falls. Because of all that hydraulic energy, the Falls became site of plants for timber, paper, wool, and electricity. Consequently, they are not scenic in the least, being surrounded by (mostly defunct) industrial buildings. There is a campaign to tear down the empty ones and build offices, homes, and a riverwalk instead. They reminded us of the theme of human interaction with nature from our Japanese Garden and Chinese Garden visits, albeit in the direction of making nature look worse rather than better.

 Although we stopped by the End of the Oregon Trail Museum in order to take pictures of the green and general store where pioneers typically ended their journey that had begun in Independence, Missouri, we chose to visit the decidedly less flashy Museum of the Oregon Territories, in an ugly little building from the 1980s across from the Willamette Falls. It was cheaper but offered 2 solid hours of education and diversion. The exhibits cover the earliest Native tribes, European settlement, natural resources as well as human industries, an old-time pharmacy display, and a rather thorough exhibit on early photography dedicated to both portraiture and documenting downtown Oregon City.

The blue globe is a hand grenade fire extinguisher. Yes, you read that correctly.

We also made a point of experiencing the United States’ only municipal elevator. It was originally built in 1912 of wood and required a 35-foot catwalk to get to the bluff across the railroad tracks. It was powered by water and took 3-5 minutes. There were a couple of scandals involved in its construction, including that Mrs. Clark didn’t want to sell the city access to her land, so they sued and won; the city also had to stack the water board in order to get access to the water system. As predicted, it significantly dropped the water pressure. In 1954, they rebuilt the elevator with steel and a tunnel under the railroad tracks. Now powered by electricity, the trip takes just 15 seconds each way. It’s completely free, and when we told the operator we were tourists, he gave us pamphlets and “I rode the Oregon City municipal elevator” stickers.

  

The building has a space-age feel, but it got a face lift just over a decade ago, with an old-timey map of the town on the floor tiles and lots and lots of holographic photographs on the walls that change depending on which angle you view them from. There were also helpful decals on the windows describing the views of Oregon City’s tiny but vibrant downtown and Mt. St. Helena and Mt. Hood in the distance. We used a coupon at Mesa Fresca for Peruvian/Mexican lunch before hitting the road. Destination: Multnomah Falls!