When it comes to the history of Oregon, what immediately comes into mind is the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This is the nationally-taught history of the Pacific Northwest. Although there was a story before and there is a story after, the expedition is a good starting point for a first course in Oregon.

The purpose of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, & such principal stream of it as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river, may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this Continent for the purposes of commerce.

                                                                                                                             ～ President Thomas Jefferson

Before Lewis and Clark

The well-known explorers that have trekked the Pacific Northwest long before Lewis and Clark were the Spanish Juan Rodriguez in 1543. He sailed from Mexico to Oregon. Then came the British Sir Francis Drake in 1592. The British continued to take interest in this region (mostly due to the fur trade), and in the 1770s came James Cook, George Vancouver and Peter Puget. In around the same time period, the American fur trader Captain Robert Gray discovered the Columbia River.

The Beginning of a Legend

After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the size of the United States doubled with the westward territory extending beyond the Mississippi River, covering Louisiana. Oregon lied beyond this expanded version of the United States. It was President Jefferson’s vision that the young nation’s territory would eventually stretch across the whole continent, all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

President Jefferson commissioned Merriweather Lewis, a neighbor of his in Virginia, to commence on an exploration all the way from the Mississippi River to the farthest western shore at the Pacific Ocean. Lewis then approached his army friend William Clark to serve as co-captains on this voyage, named Corps of Discovery.

The team consisted of the two captains and thirty other men. They embarked at St. Louis, in Missouri. That is where the Missouri River meets the Mississippi River. It was also going to be the largest outpost for the crew before heading west to a land hitherto unknown to Americans.

The Expedition Begins in 1804

In May 1804, the expedition began, carrying with it three vessels. An interesting point to note is that the crew fished for food. On one summer morning, they caught 490 catfish in just a few hours. The Missouri River remains a key habitat for catfish today.

This roundtrip would take 8,000 miles back and forth St. Louis. A key difficulty was the abundance of mosquitoes and gnats, which bothered the crew consistently. The team were very good documentarians. The two team leaders aside, the other team members also compiled diaries of their observations of the American west. Together they returned hundreds of pages recording the journey.

The journey west was not wholly unknown to men, however. The Frenchmen conducted fur trade with the tribes and they had some records that assisted the crew, including some descriptions of the American Indian Tribes and maps. The crew did not quite know what to expect in terms of seeing fierce animals, but they surely expected to meet some American Indians that might be somewhat hostile. The American Indians have inhabited in this land since they migrated here 15,000 years ago.

The Lakota tribe, of present-day South Dakota,for example, demanded more gifts from the explorers than the coffee and tobacco that was offered. There was a moment of tension, where Clark drew his sword. Eventually, he managed to take the bowline of the canoe from the Lakota chiefs and coolly returned to the main keelboat.

The Corps of Discovery passed through what is now South Dakota, then onwards through the Great Plains. Their next stop was what is now North Dakota, meeting the chiefs of the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians by the fall of 1804. Soon, the snow-capped Rocky Mountains also came into their view.

At now-Montana, the crew faced the Great Falls of the Missouri River. They had to carry their boats for 24 days before they reached the upstream for safe voyage. They met a Frenchman Toussaint Charbonneau and his wife, who was an Indian girl turned into slave. The explorers took in the man and his wife Sacagawea.  Together, the team soon met the Shoshone tribe. The Shoshone tribe recognized Sacagawea as their own. They provided the explorers with horses and a guide to climb the Rockies, until they made it safely to the level terrains—what is now Idaho.

The team assembled canoes for the next leg of journey. They aimed to reach the Pacific northwest by boat, on the Columbia River, which is the riverway that runs in this territory. In American Indian language, this river is called Origan. Obviously, this territory would become known as now Oregon. On their way, they met the Nex Perce Indians and the Chinook. The meeting with the Chinook indicated to the crew that their destination, the shore of Pacific Ocean, was near.

On one fateful day, November 7, 1805, about 1.5 years after the Corps of Discovery embarked their journey, the team finally had the Pacific Ocean in view from their camp, at the mouth of the Columbia River. The Pacific Ocean was going to be miles away, but it was within sight.

President Jefferson provided a letter of credit from the United States Government that whatever ship that takes the crew back to the East Coast would be fully paid for. However, after camping a whole winter at Astoria, Oregon, the explorers did not meet any ship. In  March 1806, they began heading back by trekking the way of return. It took them six months to reach St. Louis in September 1806, since they already knew what to expect on the return journey.

The Significance of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

One prominent feature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is its scientific nature. The team had first-hand experience with the nature and peoples that lied in previously unknown territory. For one thing, they encountered the first coyote and grizzly bear that they had seen in their lives.

It was also an exceedingly successful adventure because only one life was lost to sickness early on in the journey. The first version of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Journal was published in 1807, containing a trove of valuable information on the geographic and natural discovery, as well the ethnographic information of the American Indian tribes encountered.

In terms of business insights, Lewis and Clark recommended the establishment of fur trading posts on the route to counter the increasing business presence of the British Canadians in this region. Due to the rapids and falls of the Columbia River, he recommended to President Jefferson that he should not rely on the Columbia River system as a commercial waterway.

Sources

Conrad Stein, Lewis and Clark (1997).

Eyewitness Travel Guides, USA (2006).

Oregonhistoryproject, The Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Portland was founded in 1843 and incorporated in 1851. The City of Portland grew out of the area west of the Willamette River. That fact meets the history of the city’s early beginning. Due to the convenience of the Willamette River as a waterway, the Portlanders relied on river trade for much of its economy. It was soon to be known as a major international Port. Beginning in the mid-1800s to early-1900s, the rise of the railway as a logistics alternative has dwindled the city’s reliance on river trade. The city then developed toward the inland area, also likely due to the constant flooding of the Willamette.

Now the Old Town of Portland, Portland’s original downtown area rose to meet the needs of the river trade. It stands at what was the former port and the riverfront quarter. It was an area that bustled with life, and a vibrant bar scene. People of all walks engaged in all sorts of trade and business there. It is against this historical backdrop that the infamous Shanghai tunnels came into being. The phenomenon continues to stoke and spook the imagination of future generations.

The Shanghai Tunnels of Old Town

The Shanghai Tunnels is an urban legend rife with mystery and interpreted history. TravelPortland has this to say about the clandestine catacombs that once sprawled the underground of the Old Town:

Local lore says that a labyrinth of interconnected basements, makeshift rooms and low-ceilinged tunnels reached the waterfront in the 1890s. Allegedly, this made it easy to sneak illegal goods, including opium and Prohibition-era alcohol — or kidnapped victims — onto waiting ships.

It is with a stretch of imagination that the word “Shanghai” came to be the name of the illegal criminal practice at the time. It is said that, during the 1890s, it was a common practice to kidnap men and sell them into slavery (“shanghaied”) as the crew of ships in Portland. The men were transported via these underground tunnels into an unknown, but certainly unfortunate, future.

This network of throughway underground was used during the mid-19^th century till World War II, when they were closed and sealed. Besides the slaves-to-be, goods were also transported through this network of connected basements toward the dock by the Willamette. It goes beyond saying that a lot of such goods were contrabands.

As a thing of the past, the Shanghai Tunnels remain more so in memory than in reality. Apparently, some trapdoors, through which people were purportedly dropped, are still accessible in some of the bars in Chinatown.  It is possible to join a Haunted Shanghai Tunnel Tour under the Old Town Pizza & Brewing today.

Photo: The Old Town Pizza & Brewery is at a heritage building in Old Town Portland.

The Chinese Americans in Old Town Portland

The Chinese immigrants started arriving in Portland around 1850s or so, from the gold mines of California or the southwestern fields of Oregon. Others arrived by sea directly from China. Portland’s Chinatown was once the second largest in America, after San Francisco. By the 1870s, the Chinese immigrants took up six blocks in this waterfront area for their businesses and community.

In this part of Portland, an ongoing issue was the flooding from the Willamette River. The flooding and a great fire of 1873 destroyed the original Chinatown. It started at a Chinese laundry. It burned 20 blocks before it was brought under control. Efforts to rebuild Chinatown was moving the center of development northward. By 1895, New Chinatown had a hospital, four churches, two joss houses, five herb shops and a theater. The 1890s was the period that coincided with the development of nihonmachi (Japantown) when the Japanese immigrants also came to America as laborers.

In terms of state-sanctioned racism, both the Chinese and Japanese immigrants have had their fair share.  The Congress passed the first Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. Thereafter, it passed more laws aiming to exclude the Chinese immigrants between 1888-1902.

These laws have the effect of first denying U.S. citizenship to the rightful citizens of Chinese descent. Secondly, they limited the number of Chinese people that could enter the United States in any capacity. The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, by the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act. Finally, in 2011 the Senate passed a resolution (S.Res.201) expressing regret for the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Today, however, visitors won’t see the Old Town bustling anymore. The area has more than declined — it is near-desolate as far as I could observe. The buildings of Chinatown show the Chinese American establishments of a bygone era. Its deserted streets breathe an air of hopelessness, feeling as if it has been eternally banished into the terra nullius of Portland’s memory.

The Japanese American History Museum in Naito Center

Frank Satae Matsura’s Photography

On the day of my visit, there was also a wonderful photography exhibition featuring the work of the (apparently) quixotic Frank Satae Matsura, who made it to Portland mysteriously and began shooting portraits of the Native Americans in his times. Upon arriving in Portland I 1903, he set up his own studio in Okanogan. His studio attracted all kinds of customers, including a large number of Plateau Indians.

Matsura had a trove of portraits that depict the American Indians in a time of change. In the early 1900s, these communities underwent the irreversible trends of European influence due to (particularly the fur) trade. The items worn by the subjects of Matsura’s photography are telltale signs of the tribesmen’s adaptions to European-influenced lives.

It is the curator’s view thus:

Matsura’s portraits show more conceptual sophistication than that was common in commercial “frontier” photography; rather, they contain stylistic choices that foreshadow contemporary art movements. For instance, Matsura trade closely-cropped backgrounds for wider frames, sometimes allowing furniture, lighting equipment, or the edge of the artificial backdrop to infiltrate a shot-perhaps reminding us not to take the environment at face value.

Many of these portraits also revel in playfulness and irony: feminist, interracial, and social themes contradict idealized life in the American west… far from portraying Indigenous participants as frozen in time or as propaganda, Matsura’s multifaceted and formally rigorous portraits reveal a living continuum.

And having seen those portraits, I agree with this lauded assessment of Frank Satae Matsura’s photography.

The Japanese American Experience in Oregon

The permanent exhibition features a well-told narrative of the lives of Japanese Americans in Oregon. Needless to say, their experience of being interned during WWII is a key message to take from the exhibition.

The early Japanese immigrants to the United States were the laborers in railroads, canneries, logging and farming. Known as Issei, first generation Japanese immigrant, the early immigrants came to the United States in the 1880s or so, when Chinese immigration was halted due to the Chinese Exclusion Act. As they settled down in America, the next generations were known, consecutively, as Nisei (second generation), Sansei (third generation), and Yonsei (fourth generation). The Shin Nikkei are the Japanese people and their descendants who immigrated from Japan after WWII.

In Japantown (nihonmachi), businessmen of Japanese descent supplied jobs, daily goods and information to newly-arrived immigrants. There was a vibrant Japanese community in Portland.  In railroad, farming and lumber, the Japanese laborers made significant contribution to the industries of the Pacific Northwest. The immigration of Japanese women began in 1907. With their arrival came a growing community and the needs for school (both regular schools and Japanese schools), temples and other community provisions.

It was through generations of hard work and dedication to their duties that the Japanese people found their footing in Oregon. That would all come to naught as the Pearl Habor Attack of 1941 dragged America into the official conflicts of WWII.

The Japanese Internment in WWII

The roundup of Japanese Americans for internment began immediately after the Pearl Harbor Attack in December of 1941, when a group of prominent Issei were deemed to be spies. In February 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the removal of all people from military “as deemed necessary.” Public notices began appearing that required the Japanese Americans to be assembled at the Portland Assembly Center, a temporary camp.

What followed was the years-long internment that would last well into October 1945, when WWII has finally ended. 110,000 Nikkei were, as a result, removed from the West Coast and relocated. 13,000 of them ended up in Mindoka, Idaho.

The conditions were terrible at these detention centers (the exhibition termed it “American concentration camps” and I prefer to call them internment camps, although it is a bureaucratic euphemism.) To say the least, the Portland Assembly Center was a makeshift camp out of the Pacific Northwest Livestock Exposition. The authorities literally assigned each family to an animal stall.

33,000 Japanese Americans did serve in the Army and participated in the European front of the war. A lot of them, with their language skills, were placed in the Military Information Service (MIS). The rest participated in battles, albeit segregated. Both the 100^th Infantry Battalion and 442^nd Regimental Combat Team were known for their valor—all the while, their family and friends were incarcerated back home.

By the time that WWII ended, the Japanese Americans being incarcerated had lost everything. They had no home, no land, no jobs to return to. The incarcerees in Minidoka were given $25 and a one-way bus ticket. About 70% of Oregon’s Japanese Americans returned to the state.

Minoru Yasui

Worthy of mention is the story of Minoru Yasui. An Oregon native, he was the first Japanese American attorney to become a member of the Oregon State Bar. He was turned away from military service during WWII due to his ancestry. In March 28, 1942, he purposely violated a curfew imposed on Nikkei in the West Coast. For this offense, he spent nine months in solitary confinement as he appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. This was the first case that challenged curfew against a stated minority group. At the time, the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction. He was also interned at a camp during most of WWII. His conviction was eventually vacated in 1986.

After the war, he settled down in Denver and continued to fight for civil rights and social justice. In 2015, President Obama awarded him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. Now, March 28 is Minoru Yasui Day in Oregon.

The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was a blatant violation of civil rights and it was not justified even during war times. There was no one single allegation that could be made against the Japanese Americans for espionage. The Japanese Americans sought justice in the courts after the war. To name just the well-known cases, there was Ex parte Mitsuye Endo, Yasui v. United States, and Korematsu v. United States. 

In the theater of justice, the Japanese Americans also approached the political process for redress and reparations. In 1980, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians published its report titled Personal Justice Denied. The conclusion of the report was that Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity, but motivated by racial prejudice. In 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act. Amongst others, President Reagon acknowledged the injustice committed against the Japanese Americans, apologized publicly to those incarcerated, and a sum of $20,000 was paid to each surviving incarceree.

This was certainly one of the darkest chapters in United States history. But make no mistake, the Japanese Americans have shown themselves to be exceedingly perseverant, resilient with a strong sense of justice and solidarity. In postwar life, they rebuilt their livelihood and status as a driving force for the ever-evolving democratic spirit of the nation.

Sources

TravelPortland.com, Portland’s Shanghai Tunnels.

The Wikipedia on Shanghai Tunnels.

The Wikipedia on Minoru Yasui.

National Park Services, Portland New Chinatown / Japantown Historic District.

Descriptions on site at the Japanese American Museum at Naito Center.

I enjoyed the Multnomah Falls as a good excursion, away from the city life of Portland. On this early morning I ventured into a natural endowment of Oregon, what ultimately is the most precious heritage of the state. The Multnomah Falls features the spectacular view of a triple cascade. It is very close to the City of Portland and easily accessible by public transportation.

Getting There

From Downtown Portland I took the light rail to the Gateway Transit Center. It’s an open area transport hub with light rail and buses. I arrived before daybreak and so in the dark I inquired at the buses, asking the drivers whether the one in wait was indeed going to the Multnomah Falls, and it was. About 45 minutes later I made it to the Multnomah Falls parking lot. I walked the tunnel under the train tracks to reach the scenic spot.

The schedule of the public transportation is available on Google Maps. From what I observed, on a weekday the buses only run in three sessions, very early morning, around noon and around 3pm. Please be very aware, because missing the return bus to Portland would result in a waiting of two, three hours before the next round of return pickup comes. Of course, you would always have Uber app with you in case the public buses don’t work out.

Wait at the opposite side of the parking lot for the return bus, at the direction toward the city.

The Falls

At a height of 620 feet, the Multnomah Fall is the tallest waterfall in Oregon. There are three drops of the fall. There is an upper one at 542 feet, and a lower falls at 69 feet, both cascading downpours that loop the infinite power of nature.

The Falls is located in the Columbia River Gorge. It originates from the underground springs of the Larch Mountain. Rainwater throughout the year replenishes the fall’s spectacular roars of downward rapids. I went in the morning after significant rain in the area, and the water moved like a dragon tumbling down the pool from heavens. This water would make its way to the Benson Lake, where it drains, approximately 1,300 feet west of the bottom of the falls. The tall fir trees so typical of Oregon’s scenery line the mount before me, seemingly humming the soul songs of nature.

As a natural phenomenon, the Multnomah Falls is known to exhibit extreme powers of water erosion. It is effectively nature’s chisel, that chips away the cliff wall of the Columbia River Gorge. In the winter, when the falls freeze, the erosive power is only amplified as against the cliff wall. Over time, it has so happened that large chunks of the cliff come hurtling to the ground and the pool below.

Therefore, for the sake of safety, do not venture out of the paved trails in this area. Besides the paths being generally slippery, there is the danger of falling rocks as well. There are hiking trails surrounding the general scenic area. Please visit this website for relevant information.

A Myth of Creation

The Falls is named after the Multnomah tribe. The tribesmen believe that “the waterfall was formed after a young woman sacrificed herself to the Great Spirit to save a Multnomah village from a plague by jumping from the cliff, and the Multnomah peoples were saved. After her death, water began to flow from above the cliff, creating the waterfall.” (Wikipedia).

The Multnomah Falls Benson Bridge

The Multnomah Falls Benson Bridge was constructed circa 1917. The bridge “spans the lower falls at a height of 105 feet (32 m), and provides an expansive view of the upper falls” (Wikipedia).

The Benson Bridge was named after the wealthy lumberman Simon Benson. One day, he was having a walk at the Columbia River Gorge with his friend Samuel Lancaster, and Lancaster suggested that “it’d be nice if there were a footbridge the lower waterfall, with a path up to and across it so that visitors could look up at that magnificent waterfall above…” (Multnomah Falls Lodge website) Upon hearing this, Benson wrote a check for Lancaster and thus began the project.

The engineer’s own recollection explains well what a marvel it was that this bridge could be constructed, “Robert Ringer, the subcontractor, wrote that, ‘the bridge had to be built 135 feet in the air above the base of operations at the foot of the lower falls. It was straight up a rocky cliff’ he added with, ‘water dashing over one side of it. It was a wild tangle of Nature and we had to climb on our hands and knees to reach the building site. We installed an aerial trolley operated by horses to put up all the materials.’ (Multnomah Falls Lodge website)

The beauty of the Multnomah Falls is sung throughout history. According to the Wikipedia, the famous explorers Lewis and Clark have also visited the falls, and it was noted in Lewis’ journal entry.

The Multnomah Falls Lodge

The Multnomah Falls Lodge is itself a heritage building. Built in 1925, the Lodge celebrates its centennial in 2025, when I visited. I decided against having a meal there, because it was yet to open when I visited. If I had a meal there after I visited the Falls, I would miss the return bus to Portland.

But I did have a very early (and much-needed) coffee at the coffee stand, and it was a touch of mercy at that temperature.

I admired the architecture of the Lodge, it has a sturdy, rustic appearance due to its stony exterior. The lodge was “built in a ‘Cascadian’ architectural style using native split fieldstone laid irregularly. The building features a steeply pitched cedar-shingled gable roof with dormers and large chimneys.” (Wikipedia) The stones that give the building a rustic vibe were all locally sourced.

Between the 1930s to the mid-20^th century, the Lodge provided meals and lodging to travelers. To mark the special occasion of its centennial, the Lodge has rolled out their centennial lager and bourbon for their spirited supporters, the liquor was locally produced by Wood Family Spirits and features the Multnomah Falls and the Lodge on its label.

The Multnomah Creek Bridge

The Multnomah Creek Bridge was built in 1914 to bring what is now the Historic Columbia River Highway across Multnomah Creek below the falls. It is 67 feet (20 m) long and it is part of the highway’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Of couse, both the Benson Bridge and the Multnomah Falls Lodge are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Best Time of the Day to Visit

I arrived at the falls perhaps too early. Oregon was raining quite a bit in the three days that I was there, and that morning was very misty with drizzles. The sun has come out then but it was still too dark to illuminate the falls to reveal the truest colors that make it beautiful. I noticed though that as the sun shined more brightly, the scenery came into better focus, the colors acquiring the distinctiveness that really highlighted the roaring water.

Therefore, I suggest that one visits the under the shines of broad daylight. Since the buses only go in three sessions during the day, perhaps then the noon hours would be the best.

Source

The Wikipedia on Multnomah Falls.

Eyewitness Travel Guides, USA (2006).

The website of Multnomah Falls Lodge.