Government Island is a island in the Columbia River north of

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

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. Th ...

, 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 sove ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. Though

Interstate 205 Interstate 205 may refer to either of two unconnected Interstate Highways in the United States, both of which are related to Interstate 5 * Interstate 205 (California), a connector in the San Francisco Bay Area * Interstate 205 (Oregon–Washing ...

passes over it on the Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge, access to the island is only by boat. There is a city controlled locked gate in the fence surrounding the freeway. The Government Island State Recreation Area includes 15 miles of shoreline, with two docks on the northern side of the island. The interior of the island is accessible only by permit and contains protected natural areas, such as Jewit Lake. Camping is permitted below the vegetation line around the perimeter of the island. Picnic tables and restrooms can be found in these areas as well. Government Island is home to a variety of animals, notably a great blue heron colony that has been on the island for at least a decade. Many threatened or endangered wildlife species live on the island, including red-legged frog,

pileated woodpecker The pileated woodpecker (''Dryocopus pileatus'') is a large, mostly black woodpecker native to North America. An insectivore, it inhabits deciduous forests in eastern North America, the Great Lakes, the boreal forests of Canada, and parts of the ...

, little willow flycatcher,

olive-sided flycatcher The olive-sided flycatcher (''Contopus cooperi'') is a small to medium sized passerine bird in the family Tyrannidae, the Tyrant flycatcher family. It is a migratory species that travels from South to North America to breed during the summer. It ...

western meadowlark The western meadowlark (''Sturnella neglecta'') is a medium-sized icterid bird, about in length. It nests on the ground in open grasslands across western and central North America. It feeds mostly on bugs, but will also feed on seeds and berri ...

horned grebe The horned grebe or Slavonian grebe (''Podiceps auritus'') is a relatively small waterbird in the family Podicipedidae. There are two known subspecies: ''P. a. auritus'', which breeds in the Palearctic, and ''P. a. cornutus'', which breeds in ...

red-necked grebe The red-necked grebe (''Podiceps grisegena'') is a migratory aquatic bird found in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Its wintering habitat is largely restricted to calm waters just beyond the waves around ocean coasts, although ...

, bufflehead, purple martin, and possibly the endangered Columbian white-tailed deer. Government Island's first documented non-indigenous visitors were British explorer

William Robert Broughton William Robert Broughton (22 March 176214 March 1821) was a British naval officer in the late 18th century. As a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, he commanded HMS ''Chatham'' as part of the Vancouver Expedition, a voyage of exploration through th ...

in 1792 and American explorers Lewis and Clark in 1805. The island acquired its current name after being appropriated by the U.S. military in 1850 to grow

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...

. An old barn and other structures can be found on the interior of the island from when it was privately owned and settled by a small number of families. Most of the island is owned by the Port of Portland. The Port acquired the entire island, along with the adjacent Lemon Island () and McGuire Island (), in 1969 in order to expand nearby

Portland International Airport Portland International Airport is a joint civil–military airport and the largest airport in the U.S. state of Oregon, accounting for 90% of the state's passenger air travel and more than 95% of its air cargo. It is within Portland's city l ...

; a competing plan from the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners proposed using the island for recreational uses instead of airport expansion. Though those plans have been abandoned, the Port continues to control the land to prevent any uses incompatible with its location under the airport's primary flight path. In 1999 the Port sold of the island to

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 urb ...

, a regional government agency, and leased the remainder to the

Oregon Parks and Recreation Department The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD), officially known (in state law) as the State Parks and Recreation Department, is the government agency of the U.S. state of Oregon which operates its system of state parks. In addition, it has pro ...

for 99 years. In July 2014, three people were stabbed on Lemon Island during a party of several hundred people that was hosted there without a permit from Oregon Parks & Recreation.

References

{{authority control Uninhabited islands of Oregon State parks of Oregon Islands of the Columbia River in Oregon Landforms of Multnomah County, Oregon Parks in Multnomah County, Oregon

Further reading

References