Council Crest Park is a city park in southwest Portland in the

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. Amenities include paved and unpaved paths, a dog off-leash area, picnic tables, public art, a view point, and a wedding site that can be reserved. The park, operated by Portland Parks & Recreation, is open year-round from 5 a.m. to midnight. It was the site of an

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

from 1907 until 1929.

Description and history

At above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

, Council Crest is one of the highest points in the Tualatin Mountains (West Hills) that run parallel to 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 ...

in Portland, and is well known for its views of Portland and its environs. The hill was part of a donation land claim by John B. Talbot and was first known as ''Talbot Mountain''. Later, the hill became known as ''Glass Hill'' and then ''Fairmount'', the name of a road that encircles it. In 1898, delegates to the Triennial National Council of Congregational Churches met on the hill and decided to name it ''Council Crest''. A later assertion that Native Americans held councils on the summit remains unsupported by evidence.

Streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

service to the site began on September 20, 1906, when the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company (PRL&P) opened a newly constructed streetcar loop that extended the "Portland Heights" line (later renamed the "Council Crest" line) to the summit of the hill.Labbe, John T. (1980). ''Fares, Please! Those Portland Trolley Years''. Caldwell, Idaho (US): Caxton. . Soon after, in 1907, an

built by PRL&P was opened,Thompson, Richard M. (2006). ''Portland's Streetcars'', pp. 78, 113–114. Charleston, South Carolina (US):

Arcadia Publishing Arcadia Publishing is an American Publishing, publisher of neighborhood, local history, local, and regional history of the United States in pictorial form.(analysis of the successful ''Images of America'' series). Arcadia Publishing also runs th ...

. . and it featured a

merry-go-round A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (International English), or galloper (British English) is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders. The seats are tradit ...

, miniature railway,

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a big wheel, giant wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondola ...

and other entertainments, served exclusively by the streetcar line. Named Council Crest Amusement Park, it closed in 1929, and the city acquired the property in 1937. By the time of the Portland vice scandal, the hillsides of Council Crest were frequented for gay cruising. The amusement park's wooden observation tower was torn down in 1941 and replaced by a steel water-storage tower. Streetcar service ended on August 9, 1949, with the abandonment of the uppermost section of the Council Crest streetcar line, the service being cut back to the intersection of Vista Avenue and Patton Road.Thompson, Richard M. (2010). ''Portland's Streetcar Lines''. Arcadia Publishing. . Removal of the rails along the line's private right-of-way began the next day, and a road was then built along the former rail-only right-of-way. The line had been one of the most famous and scenic trolley lines in North America. (The remainder of the Council Crest line was abandoned six months later, on February 26, 1950, with the closure of the city's last three urban streetcar lines.) Today, the Council Crest neighborhood is served by

TriMet The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) is a Transit district, transit agency that serves most of the Oregon part of the Portland metropolitan area. Created in 1969 by the Oregon Legislative Assembly, Oregon legi ...

Line 51, but the bus service does not reach Council Crest Park. One of the streetcars which had served the line, car 506, was on static display at Council Crest Park for more than 20 years, from November 1950Katauskas, Ted (2009). ''Portland: Yesterday & Today'', p. 59. Lincolnwood, Illinois (US): Publications International, Ltd. . until 1972, when it was removed after being damaged by vandals. It was later acquired by the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society and is preserved at that group's museum. The former streetcar line is also memorialized by replica-vintage streetcars which provided the

Portland Vintage Trolley The Portland Vintage Trolley was a heritage streetcar service in Portland, Oregon, United States, that operated from 1991 to 2014. It operated on a portion of the MAX Light Rail, MAX light rail system, and for a brief time also operated on the Po ...

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service from 1991 to 2013, and on the Willamette Shore Trolley line starting in 2014. The ends of these cars display the same slogan as was displayed by the streetcars serving the Council Crest line: ''See Portland from Council Crest''. Although the observation tower erected in 1907 was dismantled in 1941, the city later built an observation area in the park from which it is possible to see

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier ( ), also known as Tahoma, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest in the United States. The mountain is located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With an off ...

, Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams,

Mount Hood Mount Hood, also known as Wy'east, is an active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range and is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast and rests in the Pacific N ...

, and Mount Jefferson in the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington (state), Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as m ...

. The peak encompassed by the park is commonly known as the highest point within the Portland City Limits, but there are higher points just inside the city limits along Skyline Drive in NW Portland (the elevation around 414 NW Skyline Blvd. is at approximately 1160' (355m)), although those locations do not have the publicly-accessible views offered by Council Crest Park.

References

External links

Council Crest
at PdxHistory.com – History of former amusement park, illustrated by vintage postcards {{Southwest Hills, Portland, Oregon 1937 establishments in Oregon History of Portland, Oregon Parks in Southwest Portland, Oregon Amusement parks in Oregon Protected areas established in 1937 Urban public parks Southwest Hills, Portland, Oregon

Description and history

See also

References

External links