The Springwater Corridor Trail is a bicycle and pedestrian

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

in the

Portland metropolitan area The Portland metropolitan area is a metro area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington centered on the principal city of Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identifies it as the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, United States. It follows a former railway line from Boring through Gresham to

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, where it ends south of the

Eastbank Esplanade The Eastbank Esplanade (officially Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade) is a pedestrian and bicycle path along the east shore of the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. Running through the Kerns, Buckman, and Hosford-Abernethy neighb ...

. Most of the corridor, about long, consists of paved, off-street trail, though about overlaps city streets in Portland's Sellwood neighborhood. A large segment roughly follows the course of Johnson Creek and crosses it on bridges many times. Much of the corridor was acquired by the City of Portland in 1990; remaining segments were acquired by

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

thereafter. The trail is part of the Portland area's

40-Mile Loop The 40-Mile Loop is a partially completed greenway trail around and through Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was proposed in 1903 by the Olmsted Brothers architecture firm as part of the development of Forest Park. One greenway expert c ...

trail system. It connects to many adjacent or nearby parks, including Tideman Johnson Natural Area,

Powell Butte Powell Butte is an extinct cinder cone butte in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is part of the Boring Lava Field, which includes more than 80 small volcanic edifices and lava flows in the Portland–Vancouver metropolitan area. The region ...

, and others.

History

The Springwater Division rail line was named for a planned connection to

Springwater, Oregon Springwater is an unincorporated rural community in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States, about three miles south of Estacada on Oregon Route 211. So-named since pioneer days, it was one of the first places on the upper Clackamas River to have ...

. The Portland Traction Company operated rail service from Portland to Boring from 1903 until 1989. Passenger service peaked in 1906 and ended in 1958.

Oaks Amusement Park Oaks Park is a small amusement park located south of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The park opened in May 1905 and is one of the oldest continually operating amusement parks in the country. The park includes midway games, about tw ...

—and five other city parks—were built to encourage weekend passenger traffic. Freight trains brought farm produce into Portland. When the

Oregon Department of Transportation The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Depar ...

(ODOT) began a project to widen

Oregon Highway 99E Oregon Route 99E is an Oregon state highway that runs between Junction City, Oregon and an interchange with I-5 just south of the Oregon/Washington border, in Portland. It, along with OR 99W, makes up a split of OR 99 in the northern part of the ...

, a new, expensive overpass was required for the rail line. Citing low traffic volumes, construction was refused and the line was put up for sale. This was of great interest to the 40-Mile Loop Trust, a conservation effort formed in 1981 to build a trail around Portland connecting its many parks. Planned since 1904, it had made little progress. The Trust proved effective at getting many key governmental agencies to work with each other. Its representatives called upon the

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

and

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

railroads, co-owners of the abandoned line, to transfer the land to the Trust. This matter was subject of a battle between on-line railroad shippers and

. However, by 1990, the deal was completed, and represented a significant step in the completion of the Loop. During master planning in 1991 for conversion, the projected use of the corridor was 400,000 people annually, distributed as 56% bicycling, 36% walking, 9% jogging, and 3% equestrian. By 2003, usage was expected to exceed one million users per year. Prior to paving, much of the trail was suitable for mountain biking. Construction of the east–west segment of the trail between Oregon Highway 99E and Gresham was completed in 1996. An additional mile east of Gresham was built in 2000. In 2005, a north–south "Springwater on the Willamette" segment opened between central Portland and the

Sellwood Bridge The Sellwood Bridge is a deck arch bridge that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The current bridge opened in 2016 and replaced a 1925 span that had carried the same name. The original bridge was Portland's firs ...

along the Willamette River. Unlike the other sections of the trail, the rail line remained, separated by a fence. The line is currently operated by the Oregon Pacific Railroad. Oregon Pacific RR track and Springwater Corridor Trail from Hwy 99E

Oregon Pacific RR track and Springwater Corridor Trail from Hwy 99E

In 2003, Portland was one of 25 cities that received a $200,000 grant from Active Living by Design to promote urban planning that encourages physical activity. Some of the money was allocated to a Lents Station interpretive trailhead along the Springwater Corridor. The last significant section of the trail was completed ahead of schedule in summer 2006, when the construction of three new bridges over Johnson Creek, Oregon Highway 99E and a railroad line, allowing users to cross them without having to detour and mix with traffic on busy streets. In 2006, the City of Portland rejected a development proposal for a property that did not include an

easement An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a propert ...

for a greenway along the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

, and would have prevented completion of a planned connection between the Springwater Trail and the Eastbank Esplanade. The easement requirement was upheld by the

Oregon Court of Appeals The Oregon Court of Appeals is the state intermediate appellate court in the US state of Oregon. Part of the Oregon Judicial Department, it has thirteen judges and is located in Salem. Except for death penalty cases, which are reserved to the O ...

on February 13, 2008. As of 2012, a one-mile gap in the Sellwood area remains, but there were plans to reduce it. This segment was one of the parks and trails recommended for funding by a Metro advisory panel in 2001. In 2013, paving was completed on a stretch from Rugg Road to Boring Station Trailhead Park. There is a proposal to continue this trail to connect the 40-Mile Loop to the

Pacific Crest Trail The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie ...

via the

Cazadero Trail The Cazadero Trail is a multi-use trail in the U.S. state of Oregon in a rural area of southeastern Portland. The route connects Boring to historic Cazadero, two miles upriver from Estacada, following the long abandoned rail line of Oregon Wate ...

Homeless encampments

The large homeless encampments along the corridor have led to controversy. In an article published in early 2016 by Bike Portland, aggression by campers toward bicyclists using the trail increased between 2011 and 2016. Cyclists—citing verbal threats, broken glass on the trail, trash in the adjacent greenery, human feces, and signs of illegal drug use—expressed concerns for their personal safety. Bike Portland discussed the communication between one of its readers and a police officer. According to the officer, a brief filed in August 2015 by a district court judge in Idaho (1:09-cv-540-REB) has influenced policing decisions about encampments, and resources devoted to livability issues are limited. The Bike Portland discussion summarized the police position that "enforcing certain laws on people who live outside, when there is not adequate indoor housing available, would be unconstitutional". In September 2016 the City of Portland moved about 100 transients from encampments along a stretch of the corridor in the southeast part of the city. Despite protests by the campers, the removal went "relatively smoothly though many campers said they had no other place to go and it remained unclear what impact the sweep had on the city’s overall issue of homelessness." As of 2015, the total number of homeless in

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thou ...

, including Portland, was estimated at 4,000, including about 1,800 who generally slept outside.

Locations

Gallery

Image:Springwater trail se 45th eastbound P2157.jpeg, This straight portion parallels Johnson Creek Boulevard and crosses many intersecting streets. Image:Springwater trail se 42nd mm 6.5 eastbound P2150.jpeg, Most of the trail is bordered by fields and trees. Image:Springwater trail SE 41st westbound P2149.jpeg, Corridor adjacent to Tideman Johnson Natural Area

References

External links

The Abandoned Portland Traction Company Springwater Division & the Boring Branch
from Abandoned Railroads of the Pacific Northwest
Video on volunteers
working with the Lents Springwater Habitat Restoration Project
Video from bicycle on May 2013 westward
from Boring to SE 17th street in Sellwood
Pre-2013 version of the 40-Mile Loop Map
from the 40-Mile Loop Land Trust {{coord , 45.4762309 , -122.5567588 , type:landmark_region:US-OR_source:gnis-2040370_dim:25000_elevation:64 , display=title Parks in Portland, Oregon Rail trails in Oregon Transportation in Clackamas County, Oregon Transportation in Multnomah County, Oregon Transportation in Portland, Oregon Protected areas established in 1990 Metro (Oregon regional government) Southeast Portland, Oregon