Dave Knows Portland

October 30, 2000: Steens Mountain Wilderness Established

by Leave a Comment

Steens MountainOn Monday, October 30, 2000 President William J. Clinton signed the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act, establishing the Steens Mountain Wilderness and adding nearly 175,000 acres to Oregon’s inventory of protected wilderness lands (The Oregonian, 31 October 2000).

It took the threat of a national monument designation and hundreds of hours of sometimes contentious meetings, but Republicans and Democrats along with environmentalists and ranchers were able to craft legislation designating the acreage in southeast Oregon as the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area.

Ranchers and local residents received assurances they would have a say in how much of the public land around them is managed. Environmentalists secured nearly 100,000 acres of “no-grazing wilderness” on the 30-mile long ridge.

“I believe this sets a precedent that will be replicated time and time again to protect other extraordinary places, not only in my home state of Oregon but throughout the Western United States,” Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio said Monday.

Steens Mountain is located in the Alvord Desert in Harney County. The mountain is a large fault-block mountain that stretches 50 miles and rises from 4,200 feet to peak at 9,733 feet.

Credit: Steens Mountain photo by Sam Beebe / Ecotrust on Flickr. Used here under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) licence.

October 29, 2006: Portland Aerial Tram Cars Arrive in Portland

by 1 Comment

Portland Aerial Tram CarTwo weeks late, the pair of Swiss-made tram cars destined for use on the Portland Aerial Tram finally arrived in Portland on October 29, 2006.

The two tram cars that will be used to shuttle people back and forth from Oregon Health and Science University to the South Waterfront arrived on a large ship at the Port of Portland’s Terminal Six Sunday afternoon.

The journey for the cars started in Switzerland where they were fabricated.

The cars were originally scheduled to arrive in Portland the week of October 16th. Tram Project Manager, Rob Barnard, told KGW “The ship that they were on didn’t have a lot of freight for the Portland area. It was running late and they diverted to Canada where the majority of their shipment was.”

The cars were built by Bern, Switzerland based Gangloff Cabins.

The Portland Aerial tram officially opened to the public on January 27, 2007.

Photo credit: Tram photo by Wikipedia user Cacophony. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

October 28, 1911: East Portland Built Sternwheeler Multnomah Sinks in Elliot Bay

by 1 Comment

Sternwheeler Multnomah at Three Tree Point, WA two years before her fatal voyageSunday Oregonian headline (29 October 1911)When the sternwheeler Multnomah was launched in 1885 it was one of the fastest, and certainly the finest fitted, steamer on the Willamette (Morning Oregonian, 22 May 1885). She was placed on the Portland – Oregon City route, making two trips a day. She later ran routes on the Columbia too, including excursions to Multnomah Falls (The Sunday Oregonian, 1 July 1888).

In 1889 the Multnomah was transferred to Seattle, where, thanks to her formidable speed, she quickly attained the title of “Greyhound of the Sound” (Morning Oregonian, 23 November 1889). She plied the waters of the Sound for the next two decades, but technology advanced and the now not-so-fast wooden ship ultimately came to be a mere hulk engaged in carrying freight between Olympia, Tacoma and Seattle, until the fateful night of October 28, 1911 (Morning Oregonian, 29 October 1911).

During a dense fog at midnight the steamship Iroquois outbound from Seattle with passengers for Victoria, struck the freight steamer Multnomah, from Tacoma to Seattle, and cut her in two. The Multnomah was sunk in very deep water. All the persons on board were saved. Fifteen head of cattle went down with the Multnomah. The Iroquois proceeded apparently undamaged.

According to dive reports after the accident she lies in 270 feet of water, her freight deck littered with the still tied down skeletons of the drowned farm animals

October 27, 1997: Oregon Death with Dignity Act Goes into Effect

by Leave a Comment

Though Oregon voters passed the Death With Dignity Act in November 1994, due to several years of legal wrangling the country’s first law permitting physician-assisted suicide did not go into effect until October 27, 1997.

Measure 51, which if passed would have repealed the law 51% of voters had passed in 1994, was on the ballot the very next week. It was rejected by 59.9% of the voters.

The first reported use of legal assisted suicide in Oregon occurred on March 24, 1998, when a woman in her 80s who had been fighting breast cancer for 20 years took a lethal dose of barbiturates washed down with a glass of brandy.

October 26, 1970: Tryon Creek Park is Formed

by Leave a Comment

The Oregonian article on Tryon Creek Park's creation (29 October 1970)Southwest Portland’s Tryon Creek Park, a 670 acre natural area maintained by Oregon State Parks and Friends of Tryon Creek, was created on October 26, 1970.

The Oregonian reported on October 29, 1970:

All hurdles have been cleared to develop . . . the Tryon Creek area as the Tryon Creek State Park, Gov. McCall’s office announced . . .

The announcement climaxes work that was begun in the early 1960s by citizens who wanted to preserve wilderness areas in the proximity of urban communities. The Tryon Creek area was such a wilderness.

Tryon Creek State Natural Area is the official name of the park. The only Oregon state park within a major metropolitan area, it encompasses Tryon Creek canyon, a second growth forest made up of red alder, Douglas fir, big leaf maple, and western red cedar. Tryon Creek is one of the last unobstructed tributaries of the Willamette River in the Portland area. The park has a Nature Center, trails, and a shelter.