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 ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

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 so ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. 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 Wa ...

(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 significa ...

, 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 and

Tanner Springs Park Tanner Springs Park is a pocket park in Portland, Oregon's Pearl District, Portland, Oregon, Pearl District. It is the second of a series of three parks in the area including The Fields Park and Jamison Square that were laid out in the 2001 plan f ...

as well as

Names

Daniel Lownsdale, an early Portland

settler A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

and one of Portland's founders, built a

tannery Tanning, or hide tanning, is the process of treating skins and hides of animals to produce leather. A tannery is the place where the skins are processed. Historically, vegetable based tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound derived fr ...

along the creek in 1845. The creek was named for the tannery.

Canyon Road Canyon Road (formerly known as Great Plank Road) is a major road and partial state highway, which serves as a connector between Beaverton and Portland, Oregon, United States. It was the first major road constructed between the Tualatin V ...

, 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. The valley is formed by the meandering Tualatin River, a tributary of the Willamette River at the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley, east of the Northe ...

. Lownsdale was the surveyor on an improved version, a

plank road A plank road is a road composed of Plank (wood), wooden planks or wikt:puncheon#Noun, puncheon logs, as an efficient technology for traversing soft, marshy, or otherwise difficult ground. Plank roads have been built since antiquity, and were comm ...

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

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum (PAM) is an art museum in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The Portland Art Museum has 240,000 square feet (22,000 m2), with more than 112,000 square feet (10,400 m2) of gallery space. The museum’s permanent c ...

. Couch Lake was named for

John H. Couch John Heard Couch ( ; February 28, 1811 – January 19, 1870) was an American sea captain and pioneer in the Oregon Country in the 19th century. Often referred to as Captain Couch, he became famous for his singular skill at navigation of the ...

, 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

(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. Vista Bridge 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, union terminal, joint station, or joint-use station is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway company, railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently bet ...

. 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.

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 surface runoff, urban runoff together to a sewage treatment plant or disposal site. This means that during rain events, the se ...

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 (MAC) is a private social club, social and sports club, athletic club in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1891 as the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club, a coordinating body for team and individual spor ...

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 serv ...

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

, 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. Although early plans included bringing the creek back to the 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 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 ...

References

Works cited