Sullivan's Gulch is a neighborhood (north of the

gulch A gulch is a deep V-shaped valley formed by erosion. It may contain a small stream or dry creek bed and is usually larger in size than a gully. Sudden intense rainfall upstream may produce flash floods in the bed of the gulch. In eastern Can ...

of the same name) in the Northeast section of

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. The name commemorates Timothy Sullivan, an early farmer in the area. Sullivan settled his donation land claim on January 27, 1851. He was born in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in 1805, received

citizenship in the United States Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constitu ...

in 1855, and most likely received title to the claim around 1863. The compact, densely populated neighborhood borders the

Lloyd District The Lloyd District is a primarily commercial neighborhood in the North and Northeast sections of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is named after Ralph Bramel Lloyd (1875–1953), a California rancher, oilman, and real estate developer who ...

(with which it overlaps somewhat) on the west, Irvington and Grant Park on the north, and Kerns on the south. The gulch extends east from 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 ...

and originally was a forested

riparian area A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...

featuring a spring-fed pool and waterfalls. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

it was home to a "

Hooverville Hoovervilles were shanty towns built during the Great Depression by the homeless in the United States. They were named after Herbert Hoover, who was President of the United States during the onset of the Depression and was widely blamed for it. T ...

shanty town A shanty town, squatter area, squatter settlement, or squatter camp is a settlement of improvised buildings known as shanties or shacks, typically made of materials such as mud and wood, or from cheap building materials such as corrugated iron s ...

. Presently the gulch is a major urban transportation corridor, used by the

MAX Light Rail The Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) is a light rail system serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Owned and operated by TriMet, it consists of five lines connecting the Neighborhoods of Portland, Oregon, six sectio ...

system and a

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

rail line, as well as Interstate 84, the Banfield Freeway. A trail north of the Union Pacific tracks (the Sullivan's Gulch Trail) is in planning, but has been held up by its estimated price of $36 million plus land acquisition costs. The first railroad tracks were laid in the gulch in 1882, by the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, later taken over by Union Pacific, which continues to own the line in the 2020s. The Union Pacific tracks, now used only by freight trains, were also used by passenger trains during 1882–1971 and 1977–1997, lastly by the

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

Pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a person who is among the first at something that is new to a community. A pioneer as a settler is among the first settling at a place that is new to the settler community. A historic example are American pioneers, perso ...

'' until its discontinuation in 1997.

Geology

The gulch itself was formed between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago at the end of the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

when the ice dam containing

Glacial Lake Missoula Lake Missoula was a prehistoric proglacial lake in western Montana that existed periodically at the end of the last ice age between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago. The lake measured about and contained about of water, half the volume of Lake Mi ...

thawed some 40 times, causing some of the largest floods known on earth. The flood waters spilled across Idaho and eastern Washington, surged down the

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

and through the

Gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

, flooding the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, the ...

as far south as

Eugene Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gene Eugene, stage name of Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musi ...

. This flood covered Portland with approximately of water, laying down large amounts of silt and gravel, creating the

Alameda Ridge The Alameda Ridge is a large gravel bar located in Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon, United States. It forms a ridgeline above much of north and southeast Portland, with views of downtown and west side neighborhoods. Alameda Ridge runs through th ...

, as well as carving out Sullivan's Gulch.Waymarking.com
- "Missoula Flood Glacial Erratic, Tualatin, Oregon"

References

External links

*
Sullivan's Gulch Street Tree Inventory Report
{{Authority control Neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon