This year marks the 60th anniversary of The Vanport Flood. Travel back in time to that fateful day:

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cchouk/vanport/

http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/108.1/skovgaard.html

http://www.ccrh.org/comm/slough/primary/housing.htm

http://www.ccrh.org/comm/slough/vpflood.htm

Sorry, my DeLorean is in Edselher's shop.

Skep, how'd you know I have a free bay right now? Doesn't happen often...

The Vanport flood is a fascinating moment in Portland history. The newly-arrived black families that had moved here to work at the Kaiser shipyards were largely housed in Vanport (along with many poor white and Asian families), creating perhaps the first truly multiracial community in Oregon. The flood displaced these families into nearby neighborhoods, creating the African-American neighborhoods of today.

Portland State University got it's start as a college for residents of Vanport, and it barely survived the flood as well.

There is very little physically left of Vanport. Out in the deep grasses surrounding PIR there are supposed to be some old building foundations. And the course at PIR started as locals racing around on the deserted paved streets of the demolished city. Here's a map of Vanport at the time of the flood. The main stretch of PIR was Cottonwood St., and the back stretch was Victory Blvd. Also note the location of the dike break, and the old KGW tower!

Yes! KGW lost one of their towers and the old wooden KEX tower which was also on the site came crashing down.