Tanner Creek is a small tributary of 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 ...

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 ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

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 ...

. Named after a tannery owned by one of the city's founders, it begins in what is now the Sylvan–Highlands neighborhood in the

Tualatin Mountains The Tualatin Mountains (also known as the West Hills or Southwest Hills of Portland) are a range on the western border of Multnomah County, Oregon, United States. A spur of the Northern Oregon Coast Range, they separate the Tualatin Basin of Washi ...

(West Hills) west of downtown. In the 19th century the creek flowed on the surface, running northeast across the city, past what later became

Providence Park Providence Park (formerly Jeld-Wen Field; PGE Park; Civic Stadium; originally Multnomah Stadium; and from 1893 until the stadium was built, Multnomah Field) is an outdoor soccer venue located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. ...

and into a shallow lake (Couch Lake) and wetlands in what became the

Pearl District The Pearl District is an area of Portland, Oregon, formerly occupied by warehouses, light industry and railroad classification yards and now noted for its art galleries, upscale businesses and residences. The area has been undergoing significan ...

, bordering the river. Late in the century, the city began re-routing Tanner Creek and other West Hills streams into

combined sewers A combined sewer is a type of gravity sewer with a system of pipes, tunnels, pump stations etc. to transport sewage and urban runoff together to a sewage treatment plant or disposal site. This means that during rain events, the sewage gets dilute ...

and filling their former channels and basins to make flat land for homes and businesses. In the 21st century, Tanner Creek is nearly invisible, flowing through a conduit (but not a combined sewer) that empties into the Willamette at Outfall 11, near the Broadway Bridge. Structures along the former course of the creek include

Vista Bridge The Vista Bridge (officially, Vista Avenue Viaduct) is an arch bridge for vehicles and pedestrians located in Portland, Oregon, United States. It connects the areas of King's Hill and Vista Ridge (the entire southern hillside is also referred to ...

and Tanner Springs Park as well as Providence Park.

Names

Daniel Lownsdale, an early Portland

settler A settler is a person who has human migration, migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a ...

and one of Portland's founders, built a

tannery Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

along the creek in 1845. The creek was named for the tannery. Canyon Road, important to Portland's early development, was built along Tanner Creek canyon. First opened in 1849, the road connected Portland to the

Tualatin Valley The Tualatin Valley is a farming and suburban region southwest of Portland, Oregon in the United States. The valley is formed by the meandering Tualatin River, a tributary of the Willamette River at the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley, ...

. Lownsdale was the surveyor on an improved version, a

plank road A plank road is a road composed of wooden planks or puncheon logs. Plank roads were commonly found in the Canadian province of Ontario as well as the Northeast and Midwest of the United States in the first half of the 19th century. They were oft ...

, two years later, which began near the future site of the

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it one of the oldest art museums on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the US. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum becam ...

. Couch Lake was named for John H. Couch, another early settler and one of the city's founders. Couch built a home on the west side of the lake.

On the surface

The creek's headwaters lie in what is now the Sylvan–Highlands neighborhood in the

(West Hills) west of downtown. The creek flowed down the canyon that now accommodates Southwest Jefferson Street and Canyon Road (U.S. Highway 26). Its course continued across the site of the later Civic Stadium (Providence Park) and down a ravine. The ravine or gulch was up to deep in places and as wide in places as several city blocks.

in the Goose Hollow neighborhood crosses a remnant of the Tanner Creek gulch. Pavement markers near Providence Park indicate the creek's former course in that vicinity. The creek emptied into Couch Lake, near today's

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

. The lake, which no longer exists, was up to deep and covered 22 city blocks. In 1888, after the Northern Pacific Terminal Company bought the lake, it began filling it with sand and

ship ballast Ballast is used in ships to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the hull. Insufficiently ballasted boats tend to tip or heel excessively in high winds. Too much heel may result in the vessel capsizing. If a sailing vessel needs to voy ...

Underground

Between 1887 and 1891, the City of Portland built a Tanner Creek

combined sewer A combined sewer is a type of gravity sewer with a system of pipes, tunnels, pump stations etc. to transport sewage and urban runoff together to a sewage treatment plant or disposal site. This means that during rain events, the sewage gets dilute ...

to carry the creek as well as storm runoff and sewage from the West Hills and its homes to the river. Constructed in three stages, the sewer, about in diameter, was at that time "one of the largest trunk sewers ever built by the city." In 1904, the sewer collapsed near the

Multnomah Athletic Club The Multnomah Athletic Club is a Social club, private social and Sports club, athletic club in Portland, Oregon, United States. Located in the Goose Hollow, Portland, Oregon, Goose Hollow neighborhood, it was originally founded in 1891 as the M ...

and flooded property downhill. Investigation of the subsequent sewer reconstruction and repair led to a scandal during the administration of Mayor

George Henry Williams George Henry Williams (March 26, 1823April 4, 1910) was an American judge and politician. He served as chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, was the 32nd Attorney General of the United States, and was elected Oregon's U.S. senator, and serve ...

and to the firing of the city engineer and chief deputy city engineer on grounds "that they had a part in a general conspiracy to slight the work." The Tanner Creek trunk sewer ran from Southwest Taylor Street to the river near the intersection of Front Avenue and Pettygrove Street.

21st century

Tanner Springs Park, at Northwest 10th Avenue and Marshall Street, commemorates the creek. Opened on land acquired in 2003, it is an "urban waterscape" built on fill that rises higher than the former lake surface. The wetlands in the park are not connected to Tanner Creek but depend mostly on recycled rainwater. In 2006, the city completed a pipeline that removed Tanner Creek from the combined sewer system and carried the creek water directly into the Willamette. This was part of a much larger project designed to keep sewage from entering the river during storms. The outfall into the river is about a quarter-mile downstream of the Broadway Bridge and upstream of the Willamette's confluence with the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

References

Works cited