The Remains of Vanport

If you're not from the Portland area odds are you've never heard of Vanport or the tragic flood that destroyed the town on Memorial Day 1948. An almost precursor to the dyke break and flooding that occurred in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Vanport was a small village put up to house workers for the massive Kaiser Shipyards in north Portland. Never intended to stay up after the war effort, the two was shabbily built and after the war ended the town proved to work as affordable housing, especially for GI's returning home. However the town was several feet below sea level and several weather factors culminated in a piece of land giving way. The town was flooded in minutes leaving thousands homeless and a whole town permanently vanished.

[@mshscienceclips2179]

Vanport also has an important racial heritage. My mother lost her home in the flood. Nicely done.

[@billinrio]

Thanks for showing us this. Manly Maben, my history teacher at Fort Vancouver H.S. wrote a very good book about Vanport.

[@johnriley215]

Thanks for the great video and the walkaround. My parents lived in Vanport when it flooded. They both worked at the shipyards during the war. My dad was a work, but my mom was home and barely made it out by hitching a ride on a running board. My dad joined those in boats with garden hoses saving as many as possible. Some died in the floating (and sinking) houses and were recovered weeks later. My grandparents had a large house in North Portland and took in as many as they could.

[@KCRUBYWOO]

Whenever I would go to Delta Park back in the 90’s I would always think about Vanport, OR. Thanks for the video.

[@cielphantomhive609]

Just found out about Vanport from a ww2 vet who lived and escaped. Thanks for the video!

[@barbiepickel7046]

I want to thank you. My grandmother's as well as my husband's grandmother and all of our grandfather's and my great uncles worked at vanport. My husband and I followed this to step in our family historical footsteps. We could not find the movie theater concrete but we found everything else. Thank you for bringing us closer to our ancestors. My grams never called it Janzen Beach. It was always vanport

[@greeceuranusputin]

I found a piggybank on the bank of one of the ponds back in the '70's. All of the coins predated the flood but condition was poor due to being buried in the mud for so long.

[@JP-lu9ed]

Very cool.

[@MutethatBozo]

I had an uncle and aunt that lived in Vanport for a while, during and shortly after WW2. It would be fun to see you tackle the old Jantzen Beach amusement park and history sometime too. Peace :)

[@lorenheard2561]

Really refreshing look on history,and geography.Looks like a neat place to ramble about.Beautiful job filming it! Thank you for your efforts! Came here by suggestion of photographs of old Portland,then a side shoot to Vanport.

[@paulthomas2337]

Steve next study up on the castles on the top of the Portland Hills. My grandmother used to work up there as a maid during the WW2. She once went down a long stair case which went all the way to the ship docks where people were shanghaied. Going down that tunnel she saw hundreds of expensive paintings which were imported from Germany for protection. Best way for Germany to protect their paintings was under the nose of Americans. The people up on the hill were German. My grandmother feared for her life, but she kept working there because jobs were hard to come by during the war. I believe Portland had many German spies and hidden secrets of the past.

[@CaramelKittenz]

I didn't learn about Vanport until after I left Portland in 1979. Great film.

[@gapeachnw4786]

Thanks for doing this. You could say my kids spent their summers in Vanport through the eighties, watch race car at PIR. I had never heard of Vanport at that time.

[@Idahoguy10157]

Building a community on a floodplain ensures it’s eventual demise. Temporary housing for WW2 defense workers. Buildings were on wood foundations and slapped together. Before the war the site of Vanport was seasonal farmland and river swampland

[@wonder7798]

Exactly "they" knew what would happen to the beautiful town. I have been researching where other floods have occured. Engineering!!

[@davidunderwp8566]

Intriguing...loved the Heron too, thanks Steve. 🇬🇧

[@ladybug5093]

Very impressive footage! I lived off of N. Denver and Argyle street for many years. I love the Columbia Slough and it’s historic beauty. Thanks for sharing!

[@dominikz.1376]

This was cool following like a pbs style documentary on the flooding, thanks

[@allenreynolds1300]

Thanks for your video... was a very Interesting one...

[@jennifers6435]

My parents lost everything in the flood, but me

[@lorenheard2561]

Then they didn't lose the most important creation in their life! It stinks to lose all you own,but at least they didn't lose their baby!

[@janiceian1767]

Cool video. We walk around their all the time. My dog always wants too swim in that lil lake.But next time we will look for the movie theater.

[@MrJeep75]

One of the roads at PIR was originally roads from vanport

[@Rosarium2007]

The straightaway.

[@d.bcooper7819]

I recently learned that over 40,000 people lived in what was Oregon’s 2nd largest city at the time, Vanport.

[@brucecunningham2944]

i like your documentaries my dued, but we need to get you a microphone. other than that, great job.

[@ladybug5093]

I could hear everything very well actually

[@jim-lorellamonroe1123]

We use to live in Portland and were told that a building next to us was one of many homes that were part of Vanport. Our address was 7855 SW 67 Ave. Portland . The apartment building just before - where we rented address was 7835 SW 67 Ave. Portland. The Main Street close to us was Garden home rd. Thanks for doing video, we had wondered what happened. Looked it up first time tonight.Opb had "Oregon experience "a segment about Vanport.

[@Rosarium2007]

The housing at Vanport was pretty much two level apartment buildings. I have yet to see any old photos of Vanport with single family housing. I'm familiar with that avenue and maybe the house was built with some of the materials from the apartments that were dismantled after the war and before the GIs moved in, but if so, the garage in the front doesn't look like late 1940s architecture, so maybe the home has been seriously renovated. As to the housing and other buildings left in Vanport in 1948 when the flood hit, none of those buildings survived. What didn't end up going downstream to the Pacific was eventually burnt.

[@paulthomas2337]

I believe that your pond used to have a channel which connected it to the Columbia River bringing people in and out from the city for the workers during the war, to work in steel mills and also ship yards. Not everyone had cars back then and they used shuttle barges for the people. That was a big rocky dock for the boats.

[@lorenheard2561]

Also..smooth parting shot of your Heron? Not sure of most big bird species.😃☘💖

[@Rosarium2007]

The movie theatre in Vanport, like the child care facility, was open 24/7.

[@MrJeep75]

Very cool

[@rdbjrseattle]

Those aren’t original Vanport rooftops.

[@rdbjrseattle]

Craig Colby I mean they’re not original rooftops dating back to the 1940s. They’re reproductions representing flooded homes.

[@greeceuranusputin]

Artwork, nothing more.

[@The-Portland-Daily-Blink]

Looks like it was a picnic area, the bricked area with the rounded walls...

[@paulthomas2337]

Steve next look back at the huge carnival park which used to be high up on the hills in early 1900's. Also, Portland had a huge worlds fair in early 1900's too! boats and trains would take people to top of the mountains over looking Portland and worlds fair. The hills were alive! The old Washington park had a zoo where there were big pits with bears inside the bottom of the pit. there was a metal bridge that crossed the bear pit where school kids could walk across while bears would reach up and try to grab children to eat! I know! I was there as a child! This why Portland created the new Portland zoo. People got killed often in the old zoo!

[@paulthomas2337]

My mother lived there during the war welding on navy ships at Swan Island! She lost our home in the flood! That sucked and we had to start all over again.

[@Janiac1968]

My friends and I used to hang out at the first location back in the 80s when we were teenagers, and we were able to see the race cars on the track from this location.

[@jizbotika]

I worked on that sculpture.

[@MrJeep75]

Those aren't original roof tops, represents them

[@l.l.2463]

Did your feet stick to the theater floor? :)

[@twenty3electronics]

There are still occupied buildings from Vanport

[@jennifers6435]

Roof tops a little too small to be houses

[@Rosarium2007]

And they wouldn't have used metal for roofing during the war.

[@deletist_]

Affordable Housing.... Alas.

[@juniejams3729]

Where exactly are you? What max stop?

[@stilldank101]

Vanport structures were made with wood only.

[@thhomasmarks]

Rooftops are reproduction for affect:>)

[@ladybug5093]

I doubt that... they look real... why would they reproduce something so random??

[@rdbjrseattle]

CorTen steel replica rooftops.

[@wonder7798]

I have my beliefs on why and how this intention disaster occured, what about you?

[@MrJeep75]

Those aren't real roof tops

[@jackehli621]

The last movie to play at the theater was NOAH,,, (Just Kidding)

[@freedomisthechoicesyoumake8594]

Don't forget about the racism and beatings that occurred there.

[@denniscarsner]

Because that's all you newschool racists care about .

[@ericscarburry8637]

I though it was in NW Portland

[@MuricaTurkey]

It is, on a map/compass. But as far as Portlanders officially describe it, it's North. NW would be just south across the river, where all the streets are marked as "NW ". Everything on the peninsula and up to the border with WA is considered North Portland.

[@Rosarium2007]

The temp wartime worker housing in NW was at Guild's Lake near NW St. Helen's Road.

[@ike420]

Cool.