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A Selection of Blog Posts on Portland Waterfront History: 

 

The Turks of California, Part 1 The Turk's pre-Portland past uncovered here for the first time.

The Turks of California, Part 2 The story no one in Portland knew.

The Last Word on Shanghai Tunnels - Including 14 reasons why the stories are bogus
This would have been the last word on this ridiculous subjecet but I came up with even more reasons in the appendix of The Oregon Shanghaiers: Columbia River Crimping From Astoria to Portland.
Shanghai Dock in Black and White
This "mysterious" dock appeared in the early 1920s and disappeared just before WWII
A Sea Captain's Daughter and the Shanghaiers of Astoria
A young sea captain's daughter tells of the shanghaiing evil in a winter visit to Astoria and Portland in late 1889 and early 1890.
The Events Prior to the Winter of 1889 - 1890
The same period as above, only from the veiwpoint of newspaper articles.
How Deep Is My River? Part 1
Captain Robert Gray, the discoverer of the river that he named, Columbia, was unable to sail any further upstream than the start of a ten mile long sandbar, about 13 miles from the river's mouth.
How Deep is My River? Part 2
In the 1840s the Wilkes expedition takes soundings of the Columbia and Willamette rivers. These charts show the original shape of these rivers. Later in this decade John Couch brings a load of cargo to open a store at Oregon City. The cargo must be canoed from the mouth of the Willamette-the river being too shallow for the vessel to enter.
How Deep is My River? Part 3
The U.S. Army Engineers' ambitious project of dredging, sluicing, and building jetties and dikes to deepen the river channel was never ending as the vessels grew, over the years, from draughts of 17 feet to 45 feet. Today we are faced with a "new Panamax," as the new channel of the Panama Canal opens to vessels drawing more than 50 feet. The seaport 113 miles from the sea was a vision that worked because of rail connections. Will it continue to work on into the 21st century?
How Deep is My River? Part 4 What port city is the furthest from the ocean?
M.M. Dee and the Giant Fake
The Astoria shanghaier Matt Dee became a big boxing promoter in Portland, but it had its downside.
The Steel Bridge and the Railroad
Who built this bridge anyway?
The Cowboys Who Came to See the Elephant
A true tale of when the riders of the sage came to the big seaport.
The Baggage of War—The Repatriation of Japanese-Americans
Why were we not taught in school about this shameful period of our history? Sure, we hear about the camps, but we do not hear about the repatriations.
The New Sailor's Home Harry and Annie Lynch, (the forgotten "shanghaiers").

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The Last Word on Shanghai Tunnels - Including 14 reasons why the stories are bogus

I have never been on a tour of Portland's so-called "shanghai tunnels," so I am unable to comment on this attraction, except that I have heard that the tour is quite entertaining. Neither have I been to the Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland,  the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, or the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, for that matter. The closest I have come to this sort of tourist entertainment was while visiting the ancient city of York I took my family on the "York Ghost Walk." This tour is a bit of innocent fun with some old ghost stories mixed in with distorted history—just for the tourists.  It may be true that I have no experience with the tourist tours of these basements in the northwest regions of downtown, but I do know a bit about them. There is a great deal of documentation in the newspapers, and in old court records. They were built by Chinese back in the days when Chinatown was the center of gang activity related to the different tongs

The Chinese Ghost in the Grain Elevator

A photo I took of T5 from a water taxi while doing stowage area exams on ships anchored in the Columbia In my book, "Portland's Lost Waterfront," I have a section devoted to the O. R. & N., Pacific Coast Grain Elevator System, often called the "great grain pipe." This was a system of grain elevators following the rail lines up the Columbia River basin, with tendrils reaching out as far as Idaho . Today this system is duplicated in many ways by the Japanese owned, Columbia Grain International, a company with elevators reaching as far as North Dakota . Since the 1970s this company has operated the gargantuan Terminal 5 grain elevator near the mouth of the Willamette. This one grain elevator is responsible for a large percentage of Oregon's total exports, and a surprisingly large percentage of the entire nation's wheat exports.   This industrial giant pulls grain from hundreds of railcars each day—up its whirring and rattling &qu

Asthmatic Weakling Writes Book on Prizefighting in Portland

It is true, an asthmatic weakling, who used to regularly give up his lunch money as tribute to bullies, has written a book on prizefighting. Not only this, History Press has just published it! Oregon Prizefighters: Forgotten Bare-knuckles Champions of Portland and Astoria , will hit the shelves on Monday. What was it that made someone like me, born without the “sports gene,” to become interested in the bare-knuckles prizefighting of yesteryear? It was the people: brash, naïve youths, wracked by passions, ruined by limelight. Then there is the model Portlander, Dave Campbell, for many years “Our Dave,” beloved chief of the Portland fire department. He was self-educated, intelligent, measured, and fearless, and gave up a sure championship career as a boxer to fight Portland’s fires. Add to the mix the original all-time champion, Jack “Nonpareil” Dempsey (died 1895), and “Mysterious” Billy Smith—both legends in the world of boxing history—and you soon begin to wonder why these fellow