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10 unusual facts about Willamette River


Charles R. Spencer

Charles R. Spencer (generally called the Spencer) was a steamboat built in 1901 to run on the Willamette and Columbia rivers from Portland, to The Dalles, Oregon.

Jacob Kamm

Kamm moved to Oregon in 1850 after being hired by the Milwaukie founder Lot Whitcomb onto his ship, The Whitcomb, being the chief engineer on the Willamette River.

Jantzen

The founders were members of the Portland Rowing Club, and in 1913, the company was asked to provide a rowing suit for use in the chilly mornings on the Willamette River.

John C. Ainsworth

The Gold Rush did not live up to his expectations, so he found a job piloting a steamer on the Willamette River in Oregon.

KQAC

In 2014, All Classical Portland will move to its new home in the Hampton Opera Center on the east bank of the Willamette River, just south of OMSI.

ODS Tower

The curving facade along the eastern end of the building is supposed to follow a curve in the Willamette River.

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

Expansion at the Washington Park site was deemed infeasible, and in 1986 it was announced that the museum would move to a new location on the east bank of the Willamette River, where a much larger building would be constructed.

Pre's Trail

Pre's Trail, located on the north side of the Willamette River in Eugene, Oregon, United States, popularly referred to as "Track Town USA", is a four-mile-long running and walking trail named after heralded University of Oregon athlete Steve Prefontaine.

Situated to the north of, and across the Willamette River from, the University of Oregon, Pre's Trail is enjoyed by a variety of recreational users in Eugene's urban core.

Sarah Ladd

She then moved to Portland with her new husband, and they soon settled into a very comfortable life with an elegant home overlooking the Willamette River.


Bernard Goldsmith

Goldsmith was the driving force behind the building of locks to navigate around the Willamette River falls across from Oregon City, which allowed boats to travel from the Pacific Ocean to Eugene, Oregon, cutting the cost of shipping Willamette Valley goods to Portland by half.

Dallas, Oregon

Louis Gerlinger, Sr., incorporated the Salem, Falls City and Western Railway Company late in October 1901 and announced plans to build a railroad from the Willamette River at Salem to the mouth of the Siletz River on the Oregon Coast, a distance of 65 miles.

Francis J. Murnane

In 1979, the Portland Development Commission (PDC) and the City of Portland, working with the members of the ILWU's Columbia River District Council, built and dedicated a wharf on the Willamette River as the "Frances J. Murnane Memorial Wharf".

James A. O'Neil

Wyeth’s party arrived in 1834 at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers at present day Portland, Oregon.

James B. Stephens

A cooper by trade, he operated one of the first ferries across the Willamette River at what was East Portland, Oregon.

Portland Railway, Light and Power Sellwood Division Carbarn Office and Clubhouse

After this system was expanded in 1889 from downtown Portland across the Willamette River on the Steel Bridge to Albina, it was gradually extended south along the east bank of the river.

W. S. Salmon House

Development in the area was enhanced by completion of the Morrison Bridge over the Willamette River and the subsequent eastward extension of street car lines.