Portland's Lost Waterfront

While looking into the previously mentioned invasion of “Sydney Ducks” into San Francisco, and the subsequent rise of lynchings and other forms of vigilantism, I stumbled on the following brief article in an 1850s issue of the Placer Times. The article stands without comment, other than that provided by the paper’s editor. Something Fresh--Selling Women at Auction.--We learn from the Alta California that a vessel recently arrived at San Francisco from Sydney, New South Wales, having on board three women, who, being unable to "settle their passage," were taken on shore by the captain, and sold at auction to liquidate the debt. Fifteen dollars each was the highest bid for services for five months. the gallant captain coolly pocketed the $45 and walked off, well satisfied with the "live stock" operation. We may be over sensitive about such things, but we must be allowed to say that we consider this a most barbarous and disgraceful proceeding.  Placer...

The title to the first chapter of my book, The Oregon Shanghaiers , is: “Can Any Good Thing Come From San Francisco.” Some readers may have found this either somewhat insulting, or confusing, so I hope this post will help provide a background for my use of this phrase. Some 120 years before the famously overrated “Summer of Love” the city of San Francisco became the center of the universe—a magnet for every fortune seeker, bunko man, moocher, shop lifter, panel worker, prostitute, gallows bird, or any other cove or trollop too proud or degraded to be employed in a respectable manner. As I mentioned in an earlier article a large number of these undesirables came from Australia by the boatload, settling in tents and ramshackle lodgings near the waterfront. This part of the city was called “Sydney Town,” and the inhabitants were labeled, “Sydney Ducks." Very few of these new citizens took up a pan, or a pick and shovel to seek their fortune in the Californian wilderness. ...

--This just in -- It looks like July 10th is a big day for me. --This just in -- It looks like July 10th is a big day for me. I will be giving a talk at Powell's in the evening, and that morning I will be on live television interviewed on KATU AM Northwest.  I am now breaking an unintended period of silence brought on by crashing my new electric bicycle on the first day out. The damage was enough to require open surgery on my shoulder, but that is all I care to say on this quite boring subject. There are a couple of dates ahead I want to mention.   Thursday, July 10th I will be speaking and signing books at Powell’s City of Books (1005 W. Burnside St., Portland) The event will begin at 7:30pm. I sincerely hope that there is a good turn-out of my friends, old and new—and the ones I have yet to meet. August 1 st   and 2 nd I will be at the author’s booth at the Clatsop County Fair. This will be in Astoria, Oregon, one of my favorite places on the pla...