Protests against racial injustice and police brutality projected Portland into the national stage in 2020. In winter, the city’s prominent downtown White Stag sign lights up with a red nose.Īnd true to its history, Portland also faces deep-rooted civil issues. In summer, people ride bikes without any clothes. There are festivals and markets galore, including many celebrations of local craft beer. The city’s music scene is growing in recognition – with talents such as Esperanza Spalding, Pink Martini and The Decemberists. City residents can point to creatives who have called Portland home, from authors Chuck Palahniuk, Ursula Le Guin and Beverly Cleary, to Darcelle, the world’s oldest drag queen, to James Beard, who launched Portland onto foodies’ radar. Popular culture portrays Portland as a quirky, artsy city, a reputation businesses and travel agencies have leveraged to tourists.Īnd visitors see that Portland is indeed pretty weird. Funnily enough, the phrase was borrowed from “Keep Austin Weird.” The Portland that got its name from an East Coast city in Maine had yet again drawn inspiration from a faraway city. “Keep Portland Weird” has become an unofficial slogan. When Portland comes up in media – news or entertainment – the city is typically followed by a progressive or campy description. Stephani Gordon/OPB ‘Keep Portland Weird’ OPB’s Timber Wars podcast dives deep into this part of Oregon’s identity.Īerial view of the Burnside Bridge and downtown Portland, Oregon, March 20, 2020. It inspired Timber Jim, the first lumberjack mascot of Portland’s professional soccer team. Oregon’s timber industry can be called an economic backbone of the state. Oregon still produces the most wood building materials of any state. During the latter half of the 1800s, trees were cut down in droves to build homes and other structures, and Portland earned the nickname Stumptown.īy 1938, Oregon led the nation in wood production. People of color populated the city to seek industrial jobs, to reside and to start families.Ī city of stumps in a state built with treesĪs Oregon’s population grew, so did the need for infrastructure. With ships and trains, commerce traveled through Portland and the city grew to accommodate. laws prohibited new immigration from China, banned interracial marriage, and kept Chinese people from participating in many aspects of civic life.īy the end of the 19th century, Portland was true to its name as a very active port city, as well as becoming a railroad hub. From the early 1880s through 1942, during what was known as the Exclusion Period, U.S. The arrival of people from Asia brought on new racial restrictions. Immigrants opened businesses and created neighborhoods in the city. During the 1890s, an influx of people from Japan arrived in Portland for labor opportunities. From 1880 to 1910 Portland’s Chinatown was the second largest in the country, only behind San Francisco. A steady flow of Cantonese-Chinese people came to Oregon from 1860 to 1885. Constitution.Īs settlers came from the West to Portland, so did Asian immigrants from the East. Five years later, the exclusion of African Americans became absolute, under laws that stayed in place until they were overturned by post-Civil War amendments to the U.S. In 1844, the government of the territory simultaneously banned slavery and required all African Americans to leave. Oregon was founded with laws designed to exclude people of color. It is the whitest large city in the nation.Īs settlers arrived in the Oregon territory and displaced Native Americans, what some have called a “white utopia” took shape. Just over 77% of Portland residents are white, according to the 2020 U.S. Front Avenue eventually became Naito Parkway.Ĭity of Portland Archives and Records Center / Courtesy A very white city The ship in the background was at a docking area. Portland in 1851, the year the city was incorporated. Settlers claimed 2.5 million acres of tribal land, including the sites that formally became Portland a year later. The federal law stripped tribes of their land, giving it to whites who stepped foot in the region less than a generation earlier. In 1850, Congress passed the Oregon Donation Land Act. Thousands of new arrivals quickly poured into the territory. White settlers began the venture west along the Oregon Trail in the 1840s. Today, Portland has the nation’s ninth largest urban Native American population. Long before that fateful coin toss, and before there was a anniversary of incorporation to celebrate, the land now designated “Portland” was first home to the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, bands of Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya and Molalla tribes who established communities and seasonal traditions along the Willamette and Columbia rivers. The “ Portland Penny” is on display at the Oregon Historical Society. 8, 1851, the city was officially incorporated under the name it had become known by.
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