Learn more about the city's Native & Asian heritage, lush landscapes, and unfiltered creativity
Let's start with the basics...
Portland, Oregon, nestled in the Pacific Northwest, is renowned for its lush greenery, eco-conscious culture, and vibrant arts scene. Known as the "City of Roses" for its abundant rose gardens, Portland is celebrated for its emphasis on sustainability and its booming food scene.
Going beyond the norm
The city is best known for its unique and eccentric individualism. Today, however, the city has been typecasted as a hipster's haven: from handle-bar mustaches and unicycles. But, there's more to Portland than its artisanal coffees and banjos.
Get to know authentic Portland
Scroll on to learn about 5 unexpected stories about Portland that might help expand your understanding of the city. While there's still big mustaches and unicycles, Portland has a lot more to offer – from its Native & Asian heritage to its sprawling and lush nature.
1. Portland has the 9th largest urban Native population
Nestled on the ancestral lands of 8 tribes like Multnomah, Chinook, and Kalapuya – Portland has the 9th largest urban Native community in the U.S. Despite Oregon's devastating history of colonization, Portland celebrates its Native roots.
2. Portland was named on a coin toss
The Portland we know today began in the 1800s when two pioneers, Asa Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove, flipped a coin to decide the city's name, and Portland emerged on the banks of the Willamette River.
3. Portland has a "lost" city
The 20th century brought both challenges and triumphs for the city. Vanport, a diverse community, faced a devastating flood in 1948, leaving a lasting impact on the city. Yet, Portland's resilience shone through as it rebuilt and evolved.
4. The city's quirky side began with "Keep Portland Weird"
In the 1970s and 80s, a cultural renaissance took hold. Portland embraced its weird and quirky side, becoming a haven for artists, musicians, and those who celebrated individuality. The slogan "Keep Portland Weird" became a rallying cry, reflecting the city's unique spirit.
5. Portland is one of America's greenest cities
As the 21st century dawned, Portland became a pioneer in environmental sustainability. The city's commitment to being green earned it the nickname "The City of Roses," symbolizing both its blooming gardens and eco-conscious ethos.
6. Its Asian American communities shaped today’s Portland
Explore the historic Chinatown and Japantown, dating back to the 1800s, and find serenity in the Portland Japanese Garden, a collaborative masterpiece with Tokyo. These cultural highlights enrich Portland's dynamic character with tales of history and aesthetic beauty.
Visit Vanport: Once the largest federal housing project in the U.S. and the second-largest city in Oregon
Vanport was a temporary housing project built in 1942 to house the thousands of people pouring into Portland to work in his shipyards. At its peak, it was the largest World War II federal housing project in the United States and the second-largest city in Oregon.
Where was Vanport?
Vanport is a merging of the names VANcouver and PORTland. The city, built in a flood plain and circled by dikes, was situated in the low area west of I-5, near the current sites of Delta Park, Portland International Raceway, and Heron Lakes Golf Course.
For over 40,000 residents, Vanport was simply home. They came from all corners of the country to contribute to the war effort and in search of a better life, forming an instant community in a city with everything but a future.
In a state founded on the unceded traditional lands of the many indigenous Tribes and with a constitution that initially made it illegal for Black people to live or own property within its borders, Vanport provided housing to a multicultural and multiracial community.
Since 2014, Vanport Mosaic had collected oral histories with Vanport former residents and survivors of the 1948 flood. We continue to gather around these stories in multi-generational circles to harvesting lessons of hope, resistance and resilience for these challenging times.
A microcosm of The United States
Who lived in Vanport? Watch this interview excerpt with Sen. Jackie Winters, a former resident. The oral history is part of the Vanport Mosaic collection "Lost City, Living Memories: Vanport Through the Voices of Its Residents."
A miracle city
Although built in 110 days as a temporary city, Vanport offered shopping centers, a movie theater, schools, a hospital, police and fire stations, a post office, a bus station, and the only public library in any wartime housing project.
A miracle city
Housing was unofficially segregated, but school and social life were not. Black, Native, Hispanic, Asian, and white residents found themselves going about their daily lives side by side.
A place called home
Watch this oral history excerpt from the Vanport Mosaic "Lost City, Living Memories: Vanport Through the Voices of Its Residents"
Vanport Survivor Beatrice Gilmore's Oral History Interview
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The Vanport flood
On May 30, 1948, a flood destroyed the city. By midnight, the city of Vanport was all but gone with at least 15 people killed and another 18,500 left houseless. About 6,300 of them African Americans.
A surge of social change
Many who fled to Portland stayed, forever changing the social, economic, and political fabric of our region.
Vanport today
Vanport was never rebuilt. Once home to the second-largest city in Oregon, today, this area is the site of Delta Park, Heron Lakes Golf Course, Portland International Raceway, Expo Center, wetlands, and a dog park.
Erased history
Today, only a few signposts and a concrete slab from Vanport’s movie theater are the only physical reminders of the “Miracle City.”
Vanport Mosaic offers walking, bus, and bike narrated tours of the historic sites.
Why was the history of Vanport obliterated from official records and Portland's memory? Listen to Prof. James Harrison, Vanport historian, in this interview excerpt.
The spirit of Vanport lives on
Vanport former residents and flood survivors, now in their 80s and 90s, have kept this history alive. Since 2014 they have collaborated with Vanport Mosaic “memory activists” to record their experience.
Remembering is an act of resistance
Watch this short interview with Vanport survivors Marge Moss. Learn about Vanport Mosaic mission to tell stories WITH, and not "about," under-heard communities like the one who was formed in Vanport.
Reconnect with local Japanese history through art and nature
Find Your Calm With These 3 Artists
Experience peace through art, nature, and one another
Kaneko’s artworks were installed throughout Portland Japanese Garden, towering above or nestled discreetly amid the moss and leaves, connecting viewers and their surroundings through a transformative experience
Creating a backdrop of constantly changing color and texture against Portland Japanese Garden's stunning foliage, Kaneko's works brought out the best of what makes the Garden truly special.
After two seasonal residencies in Portland, Japan Institute’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence, Rui Sasaki, exhibited her site-specific works inspired by the natural beauty of Portland Japanese Garden in March—June 2023.
Both scientific and ethereal, Sasaki's body of work involved selecting plant specimens from Portland Japanese Garden and her home base of Kanazawa, Japan, then firing them in a kiln between sheets of glass to create delicate traces of those plants left behind in the material.
Her breathtaking outdoor installation Amayadori, Japanese for "taking shelter from rain," is made of 1,500 transparent glass rods that are nearly invisible, yet create a beautifully dynamic empty space when illuminated by sunlight. It was installed near Wisteria Arbor.
Sasaki's work included both outdoor and indoor installations, infusing her work into the heart and landscape of Portland Japanese Garden and bringing traces of nature to the Pavilion and Tanabe Gallery.
Takahiro Iwasaki: Nature of Perception features the work of Japan Institute's second Artist-in-Residence Takahiro Iwasaki from September—December 2023.
Considered a rising star of the contemporary art world, Takahiro Iwasaki gained worldwide recognition when he represented Japan at the 2017 Venice Biennale, a renowned contemporary art and architectural exposition often described as the Olympics of the art world.
During his Japan Institute residency Iwasaki created a counterpoint to his historically inspired work by transforming everyday materials into extraordinary miniature landscapes that reflect our contemporary city.
Iwasaki plays with our sense of the familiar, using everyday materials such as duct tape, wooden dowels, and toothbrushes, transforming them into extraordinary model landscapes that literally turn our expectations upside down.
