Dave Knows Portland

Archives for December 2011

New Year’s Weekend Amusements (Dec. 30, 2011 – Jan. 1, 2012)

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New Year's EveWhether you’re after fine dining, dance parties, activities with the kids, or fireworks, I’ve got you covered with this post: New Year’s Eve in Portland.

On New Year’s Eve all TriMet buses and trains are free after 8pm, with some routes running until 3am!

And you still have a few options through the weekend if you haven’t yet got your fill of holiday lights and displays:

Peacock LanePeacock Lane 2011

Peacock Lane officially lights up for the 2011 holiday season on December 15 at 6pm.

Peacock Lane is a narrow residential street one block east of Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard (née 39th Ave) between SE Stark and Belmont. Since the 1920s the residents of this stretch of mostly Tudor style houses have gone a little crazy with the Christmas lights [more]

Pittock MansionPittock Mansion Holiday Season 2011

Once again Portland’s historic Pittock Mansion is going all out for the holiday season. This year, from November 21 through January 2, the theme is Christmas Around The World.
“Every year, starting more than 40 years ago, dozens of volunteer decorators, designers, and local organizations donate their time and talents to transform Pittock Mansion into a Christmas wonderland for approximately 17,000 delighted visitors during the holiday season.” [more]

Tannenbaum MadnessTannenbaum Madness 2011

Alberta Main Street‘s Tannenbaum Madness is a walking window tour of whimsical, wacky and artistic trees.
“Tannenbaum Madness is an event, inviting families and art lovers to bundle up and take a stroll up Alberta Street this holiday season. Businesses up and down NE Alberta Street create a walking tour of whimsical, artistic, and unique holiday trees on display it in their front windows.” [more]

Zoolights!ZooLights 2011

The 2011 ZooLights ignite for the first time on Friday, November 25. The sparkling lights and brilliant hues will be cast each evening (except Christmas Eve and Day) through January 1, 2012.
“More than a million lights transform the Oregon Zoo into a luminous winter wonderland filled with moving sculptures, forests of lighted trees and animal silhouettes.” [more]

And for even more weekend events and activities, check out the Dave Knows Calendar, and visit Around the Sun, Blogging Portland on the Cheap, PDX Pipeline, and Oregon Events at OregonLive.com.

December 29, 1854: Tillamook’s Morning Star is Completed

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Morning Star 2 (replica of the original)Unable to find a captain willing to risk his ship on the Tillamook Bay bar in the 1850s, the denizens of Tillamook County faced a dilemma. They had plenty of milk, butter, and cheese, but no sugar, flour, or coffee – they had to laboriously grind wheat kernels in their coffee grinders to bake bread, and they resorted to drinking a toasted-wheat beverage instead of coffee or tea.

So they decided to build a boat.

Instead of seeing their products go to waste, the settlers set to work. With no lumber mills nearby, they started with standing timber. From native Douglas fir, they shaped a 37-foot keel and built a 6-foot hold using 6-foot by 8-foot timbers spaced 10 inches apart. These were then covered with a 2-inch thick planking of Douglas fir, sawed by hand into 40-foot lengths.

Metal needed for spikes and fittings was hand-forged from materials left by the wreck of the Shark, a 12-gun U.S. sloop of war, which broke up on the Columbia River Bar and drifted south to the beach at Arch Cape in 1846. It took six trips with four horses to pack it on the trail over Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain, across the Nehalem River and south to Kilchis Point in Tillamook Bay — a total of 289 miles by today’s roads.

The rigging and sails were made from bolts of canvas, rope and blocks bought for $10 from the Tillamook Indians, who salvalged them from an 1851 wreck that drifted to Netarts Bay west of Tillamook. [Source: The Morning Star of Tillamook (pdf)]

The Morning Star was completed on December 29, 1854, and launched soon after.

Further reading:

December 28, 1978: United Airlines DC-8 Crashes in Northeast Portland

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The Oregonian front page, 29 December 1978Originating at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, United Airlines Flight 173 stopped in Denver, and continued to Portland on Thursday, December 28, 1978. The pilot reported a problem with the plane’s nose landing gear to the Portland tower, and, according to the National Transportation Safety Board report (pdf), failed to monitor properly the aircraft’s fuel state and to properly respond to the low fuel state. The DC-8 ran out of gas and crashed in Northeast Portland at about 6:15pm.

The Oregonian reported the next day:

The jetliner, reportedly carrying 172 adult passengers, five infants and eight crew members, apparently lost power after circling Portland International Airport and crashed into two vacant houses and a grove of trees at East Burnside Street, five miles southeast of the airport and about 200 feet east of 157th Avenue.

The last known dispatch from the pilot was: “We’re going down. We’re not going to make the airport.”

Further reading:

December 27, 1901: French Bark Henriette Sinks in Astoria Harbor

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Morning Oregonian headline, 28 December 1901The French bark Henriette sank in Astoria’s harbor on December 27, 1901 (Morning Oregonian, 28 December 1901).

ASTORIA, Dec. 27. – The French bark Henriette, with a cargo of redwood lumber for Europe, is at the bottom of the river a short distance out from the wharves opposite Kopp’s brewery, in Uppertown. Yesterday afternoon and the night previous, the bark had dragged her anchors, and was well outside the river channel toward the shore, and a tug went to her to taker her to a safe anchorage in the lower harbor, but the tug’s service was declined. At low water last evening, shortly after 8 o’clock, the bark settled on some hard object and immediately began to leak. The tide at the time was extremely low, registering 1.9 feet below zero, one of the lowest of the year.

The pumps were manned, but the water began to make headway until 2 o’clock, this morning, when the officers and crew left her, and shortly afterwards she keeled over and sank.

Built on the Seine in 1874, the Henriette was a diminutive craft of the old school. She had been loaded with 400,000 feet of redwood lumber from California, which had been brought to Portland by steam schooner.

Within days agents for the bark called for bids to release her from the harbor. Green redwood lumber differs from fir and pine in the respect that all of it will not float, making the task of saving the cargo quite difficult (Morning Oregonian, 29 December 1901).

By March she had been raised and her cargo recovered (Morning Oregonian, 6 March 1902)

Stumptown Stories: The Missoula Flood, Evidence of Disaster (27-December-2011)

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Stumptown Stories: The Missoula Flood, Evidence of DisasterThe Stumptown Stories series, geared to everyone who loves this city we live in, takes place most Tuesdays at Jack London bar (basement of the Rialto, SW 4th and Alder). Free to get in, but must be 21 or over – there’s a full bar!

This Tuesday, December 27, 2011 author, artist, and photographer Rick Thompson presents The Missoula Flood, Evidence of Disaster, based on his findings from 10 years of research uncovering the effects of the Missoula Flood in Oregon and Southwest Washington. With color photos, topographical maps and space photos Rick will show some of the effects still visible today.

This catastrophic ice age flood propelled over 500 cubic miles of water, ice, rock and mud across eastern Washington, further cut the Columbia River Gorge, covered the Willamette Valley with up to 400 feet of water and left gravel bars miles long and hundreds of feet high.

Doors open at 5pm for this free event (21 and over only). Presentation begins at 7:30pm.