Through a fun house mirror...



Portland 1974: The imminent departure of an unpopular President. Fresh memories of war. Financial turmoil. An energy crisis. It's hard to avoid the sense of deja vu. The mid-1970s are familiar, even to those who did not experience them. At the same time they are distant, ever receding into the past.

Richard Nixon was President. Neil Goldshmidt was mayor. Connie McCready, Frank Ivancie, Mildred Schwab and Charles Jordan were on the city council. Vera Katz was in her first term in the state legislature. Women would not be allowed to join the City Club until that fall.

Portlanders could eat at the Ringside, Genoa, Hubers, Rheinlander and the Republic Cafe, as well as Henry Thiele's, the River Queen, L'Auberge, the Union Avenue Social Club and the olde England in a box-car themed Victoria Station on Macadam Avenue.

There was no "Big PInk" but there was a Blue Mouse building. There was Tri-Met, but no bus mall. PIoneer Courthouse Square was still a parking lot. The Fremont Bridge was less than one year old.

In 1974 the Portland State University yearbook staff created "A Portland Family Album," a yearbook focused on Portland rather than the University.

"...a collection of Portland's people. No big buildings, no Rose Festival parades; just people. People stopping for us, talking to us, sharing a few moments of this year and of their lives."

In format it is a standard yearbook. Written with an eye toward the future, it is a time capsule of a turbulent moment, a core sample the Portland of 1974. Thirty four years later, it is as striking for its similarities to the present as it is for for its differences.

What follows are excerpts from "A Portland Family Album."

"...A photograph and pen can save those moments in time, and since 1974 is an unusual year, we wish to record it for future years. In taking the pictures of this book, we tried to be as honest and straightforward as in taking a snapshot for a family album, and we prefer to think of the book in just those terms: a family album -A Portland Family Album."



"Well, I'll tell ya. I'm only eighty so I can't tell you a whole lot about it (Watergate). I think its the worst disruption of government in a long time. I've been in Portland since 1909. I can't say anything against it. Portland isn't a flashy city, it isn't a go-getter like San Fransisco. But there's one thing about it: you've got the climatic conditions that are a whole lot better than other places. You don't have any hard winters and there aren't hot summers. By gosh, its just about as good as a fellow wants to get."



Saturday night downtown.

(Note the Rose City Transit bus stop, a remnant of the pre Tri-Met era, still around five years after the formation of the transit agency).





Marchers at Impeach Nixon rally.

("We can do it!" at the corner of Broadway and Yamhill. The Continental Airlines office is now the location of Joseph K. Wedding Rings and Pizzacato).



Do you like America? This question was put to many Portland people at the public library. It's not a deep or leading question, but it provided an opportunity to respond in a personal manner.






"Sure I like America but I don't like the bind we're in right now with Nixon's administration. I could see it coming and told my brother-in-law that if he voted for him, he'd be scratching his ass with his elbow."



"Yes, I like America. I've traveled around quite a bit. I like America but it's not any better than anywhere else."





"I just feel in the middle of everything, and I really care. I've been a conscientious objector, a draft resister, a freedom fighter, and a rock thrower, and now I'm almost apathetic. When you get to a certain age you just have to fit in. I like America. I think that a whole lot of America's original ideals are gone. It's progressing closer to a dictatorship than most Americans believe it to be. I can see it, they can't... I'm lost in the crowd."



"Do I like America? I think that a better question is "Does America like You?"




"I'm a chauvinist American nationalist! You see that flag waving over there? Well, if it was Chinese or Russian then I wouldn't be here. I'd be six feet under."




"I think that's the most stupid question anybody could ask. I love America, I live here. I don't want to live anywhere else. We're in a general upset, but it will be straightened out, I'm sure of that. Of course, I haven't always liked what the President said, but things will be straightened out."





"I think the thing that is going to cut it with a lot of people is the fact that Nixon paid less income tax than you or me. He'll either resign by July or be impeached in August."

(Richard Nixon would resign the Presidency on August 9, 1974).









"We have a nice home. The kids can play out front and the things we need are close by."




"Business is great. It may look like the store is empty but actually the place is jammed. they're just very small people. The white shoes are selling like hot cakes. How are hotcakes selling? Like white shoes. It's against company policy for me to hold white shoes but I'll hold one for you anyway. But our best selling model, believe it or not, is that hideous looking brown one over there. It's the one the Marx Brothers used to wear." -Shoe salesman at a local shopping center.




Mrs. Leo: "Portland is a livable city; interesting and unique. We've valued the environmental assets of the area and not allowed heavy industries in. This is due in part to the public interest groups we have, like OSPIRG and good leaders like Goldschmidt and McCall. But there are some definite problems in Portland, like the amount of smog and noise produced by cars. We moved to the Portland Center because it's close to events downtown and we want to personally conserve energy... I feel that, because of the population growth, living in apartment complexes will be a future trend. It will mean sacrificing some individuality in order to live in close, family like groups. It won't be as isolated as suburban life."





Joanne: "I've always lived in Portland, except for a year in Corvallis and a year in Europe. I like the city, especially the convenience of its size. It's a nice place to live, but pretty boring to visit. There's nothing to do here that can't be done in any other city. About the only thing I really don't like about Portland is its closed-mindedness. The people here will still wait for the WAIT signs..."






Harold: "...I live in a house built at the turn of this century, in a small remnant of a neighborhood now decimated by freeways and urban renewal. Portland is now my home, and except for minor things like I-205, Ivancie, and the lack of good restaurants, I enjoy living here.





"No, I don't want to be seen holding the American flag. But you can take a picture of me holding this umbrella with the naked ladies on it."






"There's a list of standard equipment that includes a 350 cubic inch V-8, a turbo Hydromantic Transmission, power steering and front disk brakes. And there is a wide range of options too. From an Automatic Climate Control to an electric rear window defogger and a Cruise Master Speed Control. But it doesn't stop there..."







"It's funny how a plant that lived milloins of years ago could play such a vital role in a future life. Just what plant would have thought that it could be responsible for the powering of a four thousand pound creature that can cross a continent in less time than it takes for a single leaf on a plant to sprout and mature." -Bus rider.


"A Portland Family Album" concludes with:

Blood boiling issues like the Agnew resignation, the Saturday Night Massacre, Nixon's tapes, the gas shortage, and price gouging were mostly topics of street conversation and office arguments. At home it seemed less meaningful to talk about the national isuues when the cost of the food we we ate was enough to ruin dinner. If flood victems and mass murders weren't dinner subjects then neither was Watergate. And yet, every American felt the pressure of the news: the chilliness of a living room, the waiting in gas lines, the attempt to file an honest tax return, the tension of an insecure job market.

In Oregon we deceided that those gas line could be untangled and gave it a try that became known nationally as the Oregon Plan; we sacrificed our outdoor activitiy lights, warm homes, and colored lights at Christmastime, and some street lights went off as well until the rains came again -every drop a kilowatt.

In Portland we decided to value our neighborhoods more than a complete freeway grd; we decieded to go ahead with some postitive attractions for downtown -a transit mall, a waterfront plan*.

It was just a question of doing what we could, making the changes or adjustments day by day, block by block. Mostly 1974 was the year that Americans realized that the past is connected to the future, all the people of the world are connected to each other, all aour backyards are next to a neighbors back yard.

*Both Waterfront Park and the Portland Transit Mall would be completed in 1978.




Late Friday night downtown. (The Hostess Fountain Grill on the corner of Broadway and Yamhill, now the site of the south east entrance of Nordstroms).






"A Portland Family Album" 1974

Editors: Larry Andreas, Seoni Baird, Jeff Becker.

Photographers: Jeff Becker, Harlld Hutchinson, Larry Andreas, Roger Hillman, Seoni Baird, Virginia Dodier, Jim Lommasson.

Writers: Seoni Baird, Domenic Stansberry.

Cafe Unknown Update

So, did he stop writing about Portland's place and history and pack it in, just like that?

No, that is not the case. Summer came, and with it vacation. Things got in the way, not so of much the writing as the research these posts need to be put together.
Then one of those life events that catch us unaware happened. We had to deal with a protracted illness of a beloved pet. Everything else was shelved while we went through it.

There are plenty more stories to pursue and obscurity to explore. One is already on the way, sooner than later, I hope.
In the meantime, I wanted to say that this site is not abandoned or going away. And thanks for reading(!)

Most importantly, if you enjoy this site, please take some time to be extra good to your pet today. Think well of and remember your local Humane Society, your veterinarian (in my case the wonderful staff at North Portland Veterinary Hospital) and the fine folks at Dove Lewis Emergency Animal Hospital.

Thanks, and I'll be back soon, -Dan

Robin.

The Roosevelt Mysteries

Theodore Roosevelt had a cordial long distance relationship with Portland and Oregon. By pressing a gold telegraph key from the East Room of the White House he signaled the start of Portland’s Lewis & Clark Exposition on June 1st 1905. More significantly, it was Roosevelt’s embrace of Portlander William Gladstone Steele’s dream which created, with his signature, Crater Lake National Park on May 22, 1902.
On May 21st 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt visited Portland. His stay would set the pattern for three more to come and set the stage for the first of three mysteries in Portland associated with him.

President Theodore Roosevelt in Salem, May 21st 1903. A few hours later he would arrive in Portland. -Courtesy of the Salem Public Library.

The President woke early that morning to greet a large crowd gathered at Junction City from the platform of his private railroad car at ten minutes to seven. Despite sporadic rain, crowds awaited him in every town. At eight he passed through Albany before stopping at Salem to greet local dignitaries. He arrived at Union Station at two to an ecstatic welcome from Portlanders who lined the route of the parade in his honor with a crowd estimated at 75,000 people.

At 4:30 his procession reached City Park (now a part of Washington Park) where a monument to Lewis & Clark was being built in anticipation of the centennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. As the rain fell, he gave a speech in honor of the explorers and the western course of empire. Then, rolling up his sleeves, he laid the cornerstone of the monument, working the cement with a silver trowel, while the crowds on the hillside and from the branches of nearby fir trees cheered.

“Today the Secretary of the Navy spoke of the great pride we take in the feats of the mighty battleship which bears the name of this state – the Oregon. It is a good thing to cheer her, but it is a better thing to see that we keep on building other ships like her, but even better.”
-Theodore Roosevelt in Portland at the Lewis & Clark Monument, May 21st 1903,

Beneath the large granite cornerstone a small copper box was sealed in cement, a time capsule, stating the purpose of the monument, a history of the expedition and the regions progress and items such as stamps, pennies, the Portland city charter and a portrait of Roosevelt.
His work completed, the President left for the Portland Hotel where was feted into the evening before continuing on to Puget Sound the next day.

The time capsule is still there.
But where exactly?
As the laying of the cornerstone preceded the construction of the monument, it is not clear whether the “cornerstone” is, at, near or under the monument. The exact location is lost to history. A wave of interest revived at the time of the monuments centennial, but the efforts of historians, stonemasons and psychics were fruitless.

The Lewis & Clark monument in Washington Park.

In 1911, the former President Theodore Roosevelt, seen here at the Portland Hotel, (the present site of Pioneer Courthouse Square) returned to Portland to another enthusiastic welcome. The visit went off without a hitch. Unlike the next one that followed one year later…

In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt was back in the game. Estranged from the Republican Party establishment and unhappy with his handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, Roosevelt was once again a presidential candidate, this time with the Progressive or “Bull Moose” Party.

At seven o’clock on a bright, sunny September 11th 1912 morning, the former President arrived at Union Station to the customary crowds an enthusiastic welcome. There he was met by an old Montana friend and the local chairman of the Progressive Party, Henry Waldo Coe.

Roosevelt was whisked away to the Oregon Hotel, off of Seventh Street (later Broadway) to breakfast on cantaloupe, strawberries, ham, lamb chops, bacon, eggs, potatoes and coffee with the local party faithful. Sometime between his arrival at Union Station and breakfast, the former President made it very clear to Mr. Coe that there was to be no public speaking outdoors, at parks and such. The Colonel (as he was often referred as) was tired and so was his voice.
This would present some problems.

The Oregon Hotel was Colonel Roosevelt’s Portland bivouac for his day trip of September 11th 1912.

After an extended session of meet and greet, Roosevelt and his entourage went to the Hotel Multnomah for a luncheon. Then he joined a motorcade of dignitaries, Spanish American War veterans and a large police escort for a parade through Portland streets in an open topped car. At Chapman and Lownsdale Squares (the Plaza Blocks) a crowd of 5,000 waited, seeded by party committee with published promises the former President would speak. Tipping his hat and nodding Roosevelt greeted with “hello” and left with “goodbyes” as his car rushed by the crowds.

The Plaza Blocks.

The motorcade crossed the Hawthorne Bridge and continued up Grand to arrive at Holladay Park. There he was greeted by at least a thousand men and women, with hundreds of children and scores of babies grouped around the speakers stand.

“We want a speech” they began to chant in unison.
The site of so many mothers, children and babies weekend his resolve. He stood up in his car and began to speak:

“It’s a pleasure to be here and say a word of greeting. And as I am in the grandfather class now, I know you understand my attitude on the baby question. It pleases me to see so many children here. I believe in good citizens, but I believe that the best citizen is the one who carries in arms a little citizen. Goodbye and good luck to you all.”
-The speech, in its entirety, given by Theodore Roosevelt at Holladay Park, Portland Oregon, September 11 1912.

“Where are we going next?” asked the President.
“Another park.” replied Henry Waldo Coe, referring to a gathering of at least 2,000 (including much of Portland’s small African-American population) waiting in the North Park blocks near the corner of Flanders and Park.

It was too much.
Too much speaking, too many parks.
Theodore Roosevelt was not a man used to having his instructions disregarded. He commanded his driver to break with his motorcade and head out, somewhere far from the crowds and chaos. His car sped off, leaving the rest of the dignitaries, his police escort and his veteran honor guards in dust and confusion. Roosevelt spent the next couple hours speeding through the bucolic countryside near Kenton and St. Johns.

“After we left Holladay Park, the Colonel asked where we were going. I told him another park. He would not go saying to turn aside to some place where he could get some air. So we left the main party and drove down to Kenton and St. Johns.”
-Henry Waldo Coe, Progressive Party committeeman in the Oregonian, September 12, 1912.

Things got worse when Roosevelt re-appeared at the Hotel Oregon

The Oregon Hotel’s annex, attached to the original building was nearing completion at the time of Roosevelt’s visit and would open a year later. Today it is the Benson Hotel.

His joy ride through North Portland finished, Roosevelt returned to the Hotel Oregon for some rest before resuming his itinerary with speeches at the Gipsy Smith Tabernacle and the Moose Lodge. As he settled down in his suite, he looked forward to relaxing with a book, “The Second Roman Republic” by Paul Hermit” a favorite gift from his wife.

The book was gone.

He was sure he had it when he arrived in his suite. Someone had to have taken it. Enraged, he summoned M.K. McRea, the manager of the Hotel Oregon.

“That book I prize very highly. You had no right to allow anyone in my rooms while I was out. I want that book advertised as lost in the morning papers; you get it and send it to me either in San Francisco or Chicago. It was a volume of essays by Paul Hermit –one that I value highly. I think it was taken by some “jack” and I want it back.”
-Theodore Roosevelt to M.K. McRae at the Oregon Hotel.

The lost book, the heat, the slog of parks –Theodore Roosevelt had enough.

He did a quick speech at the Gipsy Smith Tabernacle then went back to the hotel. The book was still missing. He returned to his car and ordered his driver to take him to the Moose Lodge. It was forty five minutes before his scheduled appearance so he spoke to a largely empty room. When he finished, he ordered his driver to take him to Union Station. By the time his audience was arriving at the Moose Lodge, Roosevelt was in his private railroad car, reading. Within the hour his train departed for LaGrande.

In Portland the search continued. A mini-scandal erupted when it was suggested that Mrs. A.W. Nicholson, a prominent member of the local Progressive committee might have taken the book by mistake while Roosevelt signed items she had presented to him (the misunderstanding would be cleared up when Roosevelt returned to Portland in 1915).

The book was never found.

The very title seems to have vanished. There is no sign of “The Second Roman Republic by Paul Hermit” on Google, or Amazon, or ABE, or Bookfinder. In the nearly fifteen years that Powell’s has catalogued its inventory, the book has never “come over the counter” at any Powell’s location.

Not once.

Theodore Roosevelt died on January 6th 1919, but his final arrival in Portland was at 1:00 in the afternoon on Friday, October 13th 1922, when a large crate was lowered off the steamship S.S.Ohioan onto Municipal Pier #1 at the foot of 17th Street in Northwest Portland. There he was greeted by his old friend and political associate Dr. Henry Waldo Coe, who true to form, installed him in a park.

The Theodore Roosevelt statue in the South Park blocks donated by his friend and political allie, Henry Waldo Coe.

There was another memorial, of sorts, to Theodore Roosevelt in Portland.
A memorial to the Veterans of the Spanish American War, 18 feet high and weighing 16 tons stood near the Battleship Oregon, just south of the Hawthorne Bridge, from 1939 to 1942.

The former President’s profile adorns the side of the monument “Dedicated to the Perpetual Memory of Theodore Roosevelt.” A mast of the Battleship Oregon can be seen in the background.
-Courtesy of Donald R. Nelson from “Progressive Portland II, Stop and Go.”

A “Colossus of Portland” built of Central Oregon rock, it looked like a gigantic Oscar statue (or as some said, Benito Mussolini). The monument was a work by Oliver Barrett, head of the University of Oregon’s sculpture department. The figure was meant to symbolize Roosevelt’s and the veteran’s spirit, “fighting, but constructive” rather than any single person.

It was not popular with either the Spanish American War veterans or by and large, the people of Portland. When Harbor Drive was being constructed over its location there was little concern when it was announced that the statue would be placed in storage across the river at Stanton Yard, until a new home could be found for it.

Somewhere between Harbor Drive and Stanton Yard the monument vanishes from all record. It appears on no city inventory thereafter.

Sources sheepishly mentionend a “bulldozer accident.”

“I think I remember it cracked when they were taking it apart. Anyway, Stanton Yard does not have any record of it, and nobody seems to know what finally happened.”
- Don Eckton a Portland property control officer in the The Oregonian January 9 1972.

Years later, those in the know speculated that the monument was not hauled away, but knocked down and covered by Harbor Drive. If that is the case, Portland’s Memnon could be under Waterfront Park today, south of the Hawthorne Bridge on in the slope between Front Avenue (Naito Parkway) and the River.

Along with a book and a box, Theodore Roosevelt’s colossus awaits discovery.

Hail to the Fleet




The tradition of navy ships visiting the Rose Festival dates to June 1907, when the cruiser U.S.S. Charleston, gleaming in white and spar paint, and the torpedo boat U.S.S. John Paul Jones, in utilitarian black, seamed up the Willamette into Portland’s harbor. It was the first Rose Festival, “The Rose Carnival.”

Upon arrival, the Charleston anchored mid-channel north of the (original) Steel Bridge. Officers and crew were ferried to the rose bedecked Stark Street dock while Portlanders arrived by the launch load to the sound of the cruiser’s Marine Band. The visitors were treated to tours of the bridge, wheel-house and decks, with up close views of the ships six and three inch caliber gun batteries. For sailors, the city waited with its festivities and many entertainments that included, but were not limited to, the block long bar at Erickson’s Saloon and a civic reception at the Portland Hotel.

Sleek and fast, the U.S.S. Charleston was a recent addition to Theodore Roosevelt’s modern steel-hulled navy. It was painted in the white garb soon to be made famous by “the Great White Fleet” of battleships and cruisers dispatched later that year by the President to show the flag (and newly acquired military might) on a three year voyage around the world.

The “Great White Fleet” passing the mouth of the Columbia River on May 18th 1908, the closest it came to Portland, on the second leg of the world cruise, a round trip from San Francisco to Puget Sound before continuing on to Asia.

The U.S.S. Charleston in Portland during the "Rose Carnival." Note the tall trees on the bluff to the right, where Overlook Park is today, the last of the original forest that covered The Peninsula. (click on images to expand).

Aboard the Charleston was Admiral William T. Swinburne, who had chosen the cruiser for his flagship. He was suffering from rheumatism in a knee, aggravated by a recent tennis game, but was expected to be able the Rose Carnival’s committees planned events. Arriving from Washington was Commodore F.E. Beatty, the Charleston’s new captain, who took command of the ship in a ceremony that took place at its mid-river anchorage.

As the week wore on, the Rose Carnival ran its course and the sailors returned to their ships. The U.S.S. Charleston and U.S.S. Paul Jones steamed down the Willamette and Columbia rivers to resume duty with the Pacific Squadron. The mutual admiration between the city and the navy brought on by the visit was enough to establish the tradition of the Rose Festival fleet which continues to this day.

The U.S.S. Charleston in Portland Harbor. The hull of this, the first Rose Festival ship still exists, run aground, used as a breakwater at Kelsey Bay on Vancouver Island.

The white ships of the navy would be a regular sight in Portland harbor until the start of World War I, when the U.S. Navy would follow Great Britain’s lead in painting their fleet “battleship” gray.

The best known of Portland’s early navy visitors, the Battleship Oregon was laid up in reserve at its Bremerton Washington base in 1907, the year of the Rose Carnival and the start of the Great White Fleet’s voyage. Only eleven years old, the famed veteran of the Spanish American war was already obsolete due to the armament innovations that followed the launch of the H.M.S. Dreadnaught. The Oregon returned to service in 1911 as a training vessel in San Francisco and visited the Rose Festival in 1916. During World War I the Oregon was flag ship of the Pacific Fleet. After the war the U.S.S. Oregon visited the Rose Festival a final time in 1925 before being donated to the City of Portland (later to be donated for scrap during World War II).

An unknown navy ship in Portland Harbor. Note the tower of Union Station and the original Steel Bridge.

The Cruiser U.S.S. Boston spent a lot of time in Portland, especially during the Lewis and Clark Expostion in 1905.

Two Short Features and a Sequel

A few projects are taking longer to come around than I had hoped. In the mean time, some odds & ends, and a few more movies…

The Big Guy Stays

As the 1950s blended into the early 1960s, both Portland and Seattle invited the world in for a look.

The Oregon Centennial Exposition and International Trade Fair was held in Portland in 1959, the Seattle’s Worlds Fair in 1962.

It has been said that, for better or worse, the two surviving icons of the fairs; Portland’s Paul Bunyon stature and Seattle’s Space Needle tell much about their host cities that true hold even to this day.

Seattle, sleek, flashy, brash, called for the world and reached for the stars.

Portland was more grounded, modest, its international pitch seemingly an afterthought. A city comfortable with itself and frankly, a little weird.

The Oregon Centennial Exposition and International Trade Fair was an odd combination of Tomorrowland and Frontierland, where the future and the past mixed with incongruous results.

Recently it was widely reported that the owner of a national chain of pre-fabricated log cabin homes, infamous for plundering Bunyons for his collection, wanted to acquire Portland’s Paul Bunyon from the corner of Interstate Avenue and Denver in the Kenton neighborhood, where he has dwelled since the fair ended in 1959, “No matter how much money it took.” Assurances were offered that Paul Bunyon would remain at a log cabin outlet storen “somewhere in the state of Oregon.”

The Kenton Neighborhood informed the interested party that Mr. Bunyon was not for sale. There the story happily ends. For if Paul Bunyon for quick cash, it would have said something else about Portland altogether.

The Treasure of Yaquina Bay

If history had turned out differently:
If there had been a few less financial panics, a few more miles of railroad built, a few less steamships vanished beneath the waves; Portland would have had a major rival in Yaquina City.

As the western terminus of the Oregon Pacific Railroad, Yaquina City (five miles east of Newport) was positioned as an alternative shipping point for farmers in the southern half of the WillametteValley, lumber from the Cascade Range and a transcontinental connection with the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad which was building west from Wyoming.

The late 1880s were a time of grand dreams. The Oregon Pacific was one of them. What is amazing is how close it came to being reality. The Coast Range was crossed, a route over the Cascades was well under construction. Oregon Pacific steamships ran from Yaquina Bay to San Francisco and riverboats connected it to Portland at Corvallis. In far eastern Oregon grading was taking place.

But the ships had a tendency to sink. Then the money ran out. Eventually the railroad was sold. Today, what survives is a workday branch line to a paper mill at Toledo.

Yaquina City is forgotten. And Portland never had to contend with the greater Yaquina Metropolitan area.

An Oregon Pacific trestle on the way to Yaquina City, west of Toledo Oregon.

Near the former site of Yaquina City are the Oregon Oyster Farms. Since 1907 it has been the primary source of Oysters for Portland’s iconic seafood restaurant, Dan and Louie’s Oyster bar.

Dan and Louie’s Oyster bar.

For the past fifty years though, Yaquina Bay has been home to a Portland treasure of a very different sort...

In 1956, after numerous disputes with the city, the Portland Traction Company lost its franchise to operate Portland’s transit system. The company’s San Francisco based ownership re-constituted its operating division as the Rose City Transit Company, albeit with much the same leadership, and eventually re-negotiated a new franchise to provide Portland's public transportation.

Rose City Transit held the franchise to operate Portland’s transit system until the formation of Tri-Met in 1969.

But what was to be done with all those obsolete Portland Traction tokens, some dating as far back as 1942?

A Portland Traction token to the left, right, a Rose City Transit token..

There were two and a half tons of them. One million two hundred and fifty thousand tokens with a street value of $208,000 as they were still acceptable tender on Rose City Transit buses.

Unsuccessful attempts were made to melt them for the German silver they contained. Perhaps they could be embedded in a Portland bridge pier? The answer was no.

Then, with the know-how and gumption that can dynamite a whale carcass on the Oregon Coast; in November 1958 someone had an idea...

Four officials of the transit company with two trucks full of tokens were dispatched to Newport. There, they met by Stan Allyn, skipper of the Kingfisher, a charter out of Depot Bay. Sixty seven bags of tokens were loaded onto the boat and taken out into Newport Harbor. The officials dropped them, one by one, over the side of the boat.

In an article in the November 13, 1958 Oregonian, Stan Allyn was quoted as saying “Two tides later and they were buried in silt. Recovering them would be impractical.”

Word to the wise.

Three More Portland Traffic Engineering films from 1939…

A snippet of East Burnside at 10th taken from the roof of today’s Hippo Hardware (one of the “Burnside Arcades”) is followed by chaos on SE 6th and Yamhill, today a transit mall street. Order is brought to the scene by a traffic cop.

A view of SW Sixth and Morrison, unique not so much for what it shows but for its setting, a view from; an upper floor on the north east wing of the legendary Portland Hotel, was torn down in 1951, It is the present location of Pioneer Courthouse Square. Below, the Portland Hotel.

And finally…

A cavalcade of 1930s Portlanders take a try at crossing Burnside at East 32nd in 1939. The film was taken from the corner where Music Millennium is now. The Laurelhurst gate seems strangely absent, but with close observation it can be seen, obscured by ivy.

Portland's Commissioner Clyde and his pal remind you that Tuesday is Election Day!