PORTLAND, Ore. — The Travel Information Council and its volunteer Oregon Heritage Tree Committee will officially induct the Vanport Cottonwoods into the Oregon Heritage Tree Program during a public ceremony later this month, honoring the trees as living witnesses to one of the most significant events in Oregon history.
The dedication ceremony is scheduled for Friday, May 29, at 10 a.m. near the entrance to Portland International Raceway. The trees can be accessed from the parking lot at 1810 N. Broadacre Road in Portland.
The event is being organized in partnership with Portland Parks & Recreation Urban Forestry, the Vanport Placemarking Project, and the Vanport Mosaic Festival.
The Vanport Cottonwoods, scientifically known as Populus trichocarpa, have been designated as Oregon’s 86th Heritage Tree. The stand of trees, estimated to be around 90 years old, ranges from 75 to 100 feet tall with an average crown spread of 34 feet.
Speakers at the ceremony will include Vanport survivors and descendants, Indigenous community leaders, arborists, and Oregon Heritage Tree Committee Chair Dave Hedberg.
Vanport was once among the largest wartime housing projects in the United States. Built in just one year during World War II, the city housed more than 40,000 residents at its peak, many of whom worked in Portland- and Vancouver-area shipyards supporting the war effort. Between 1942 and 1948, Vanport became Oregon’s second-largest city before it was destroyed by catastrophic flooding from the Columbia River during Memorial Day weekend in 1948.
Today, few physical traces of Vanport remain. However, researchers working with Nidus Consulting, Outdoor History Consulting, and the Vanport Placemarking Project identified several cottonwood trees believed to have survived the devastating flood. Using historical aerial photographs from the City of Portland Archives, the team tracked the same stands of trees across decades to confirm their likely survival.
“These trees were likely younger trees growing among clusters of larger trees during the time of Vanport,” Hedberg said. “For over 75 years, they have grown while the landscape transformed. Imagine what these trees have witnessed: construction equipment building a city from farmlands, workers leaving for shifts at the shipyards, kids playing in and around the banks of the slough, and the violent and sudden destruction of the 1948 flood.”
Vanport also played a major role in shaping Portland’s cultural landscape, particularly through the Black and Indigenous communities who lived there. Many residents displaced by the flood stayed in Portland and helped influence the city’s culture and history for generations.
The Vanport Placemarking Project helped prepare the nomination for the trees’ heritage designation and continues working to preserve and share Vanport’s history through educational signage and public storytelling projects.
“As living monuments, these cottonwoods help anchor the stories of Vanport survivors and their families to this place,” said Thomas Meinzen, operations director for the project.
The ceremony will take place as part of the annual Vanport Mosaic Festival, a 10-day event dedicated to honoring and preserving overlooked histories connected to Vanport and surrounding communities.
Established in 1995, the Oregon Heritage Tree Program was the first state-sponsored heritage tree program in the nation. The program recognizes trees with significant historical, cultural, or environmental importance and is administered by the Travel Information Council alongside volunteers from across Oregon.
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