From logging town to creative capital, Portland is brimming with heritage and history
Welcome to the Pacific Northwest
Experience Oregon's eccentric side
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1 city, 9 nicknames
Learn about the city's green thumb and historic landmarks
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Radical local legacies
Honoring Portland's landmark housing initiative
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
Watch this oral history excerpt from the Vanport Mosaic "Lost City, Living Memories: Vanport Through the Voices of Its Residents"