Portland's Lost Waterfront

The big announcement/reminder is this: Tomorrow  I will be interviewed on  KATU Channel 2 AM Northwest at 9 AM Then that evening I will be speaking at Powell's City of Books downtown at 7:30 I will be so happy to see you there Barney and Ralph in time warp In pondering how to describe myself, and my work to people who know nothing about me, or the subjects I write about I decided that I am a time traveler.   When I went to work on the Portland waterfront I entered an entirely separate reality that coexisted with the rest of Portland. I worked side by side with Portland longshoremen, a group so set apart unto itself that there was even an anthropology book written about them. Then when I started digging into the history of the things around me—the docks, the old warehouses, the bridges—I stumbled into a completely different version of the waterfront. I discovered an unknown city, a Portland that wasn’t the Portland I knew. It was a city where the...

I have noticed how mistakes will sometimes be picked up and repeated in history books and articles. One mistake that is repeated in a number of books and articles on Oregon’s shanghaiers is L.M. Sullivan’s middle name. For the record, it is Malachi, just like the minor prophet in the Jewish scriptures.  Caption in an unnamed history journal I could offer any number of exhibits as proof, but I shall let his tombstone suffice. This monument, set high up near the top of Mount Calvary Cemetery in the West Hills, is where Larry Sullivan’s daughter, Winnie came to weep at night in the months following her father’s death. Can you image a young lady in her early twenties, walking up the mud and gravel Burnside Canyon Road and then the winding mud path up into the pitch dark graveyard. It was a dark night in October 1918 when she was discovered by a policeman and returned to custody of her brother. Here is the monument before which she wept . ...

 Kick Ass Interview For you who missed the broadcast here is the interview I did with Doug Kinck-Crispin dispelling some myths of old Portland. Give it a listen! Coming up! Thursday July 10 th In the morning I will be interviewed on KATU's AM Northwest   at 9 AM . I have no idea what this will be like, I just pray that I don’t make a fool of myself by going all “deer-in-the-headlights” because of the alien environment.   I haven’t watched broadcast TV in years and am on the verge of becoming one of those addlepated old men that one sees talking to pigeons in the park. I will be giving a talk and signing books 7:30 PM at Powell's City of Books on Burnside. I encourage all my friends who are able to make it to come down and keep me company while I pontificate and (possibly) read selections from my latest book, The Oregon Shanghaiers.  The author suffering a bad case of deer-in-the-headlights

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...