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Just a few miles west of downtown Portland, two lines intersect to form the origin—or initial point—of a grid system by which all lands in Washington and Oregon are divided, surveyed, and recorded. A baseline running east-west extends from the Pacific Ocean to the Idaho border. The north-south axis—the Willamette Meridian—crosses the Columbia River just upstream from Kelley Point Park. The Treaty of Paris of 1803, which ended the Revolutionary War, and the ceding of the original 13 colonies’ western lands between 1780 and 1802 left the U.S. government with an enormous amount of land to keep

Contemporary paddlers on the Columbia River get a perspective of the river that few travelers between Portland and Vancouver have had since the current northbound span of the Interstate Bridge opened in 1917. Before then people crossed in rowboats and ferries—within arm’s reach of the waters of the Great River rather than seventy feet above and well removed from them. When nearly 2,000 people had to wait for ferries to take them from Vancouver to the 1905 Portland World’s Fair, Vancouver’s mayor and residents decided it was time to build a bridge across the river. After several years of

Located near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, the Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area is an oasis of wildness in industrial North Portland. The wildlife area is managed by Metro, a regional planning agency for the Portland metropolitan area. At nearly 2,000 acres it is the largest protected wetland within the limits of any American city. The Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area is home to over 100 species of birds, including osprey, bald eagles, cormorants, egrets, horned owls, and red-tailed hawks, and, most notably, one of the largest remaining populations of the

The Columbia Spring Environmental Education Center is an 82-acre facility located on the site of the Vancouver Trout Hatchery on the banks of the Columbia River. When the hatchery was slated to close because of budget cuts in 1997, Clark Public Utilities and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife partnered to keep the facility open and start the environmental education center. Evergeen School District, the City of Vancouver, Clark County, and Clark College have joined in to advance the Center’s mission 'to engage the community in environmental education within an historically

When the City of Vancouver was just a village of 600 people that supported the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Vancouver, water pollution was not a significant issue. But as the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area has grown to over two million people in the last 175 years, the threats to its water resources have become a greater concern. In 1996 the City of Vancouver opened the Water Resources Education Center to "teach people of all ages to better care for and make wise decisions about water." The Center offers a variety of programs and displays to educate visitors about the water treatment and

In 1905, Lincoln Beachery made the first aerial crossing of the Columbia River in the dirigible Gelatine and landed on an open grassy field between the river and Vancouver Barracks. This landing was the beginning of the end for the barracks polo field and was the first of many milestones in aviation history that would be associated with Pearson Airfield. Named in 1924 for Lt. Alexander Pearson, a local pilot who won the first cross-country air race and was the first to make an aerial survey of the Grand Canyon, Pearson is one of the oldest operating airfields in the country. The first airplane

In 1846, the governments of Britain and the United States signed the Oregon Treaty, establishing the 49th parallel as the border between their territories. Three years later, the U.S Army established the Vancouver Barracks, the Pacific Northwest’s first American military post. The post was located just uphill from the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Vancouver, and when the HBC moved its headquarters to Victoria, British Columbia in 1860, the Army took over the Fort. The headquarters of the Department of Columbia was charged with keeping the peace in present-day Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho

Fort Vancouver was established as the Pacific headquarters of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1825. At the time, it was believed that the Columbia River would become the southern boundary of Britain’s territory in the contested terrain that was the Pacific Northwest. John McLoughlin was assigned the task of moving the fur trading empire’s office from Astoria, an American post on the south side of the river, to a more agriculturally self-sufficient location on the north side. He chose Vancouver Point, named several decades earlier by Lt. William Broughton in honor of British Captain George

Formed in 1996 by an act of Congress, the Vancouver National Historic Reserve is a cooperatively managed 366-acre historic area that includes the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Vancouver Barracks, Officers Row, Pearson Field, the Water Resources Education Center, and portions of the Columbia River shoreline. The City of Vancouver, the Washington State Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Army work together, with the support of The Historic Trust, to preserve and interpret this collection of historic sites that were critical in the

This museum, operated by the Skamania County Historical Society, features eleven thousand square feet of exhibits that explain the natural and cultural history of southern Washington and the Columbia River Gorge. Native American history, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the role of Japanese immigrants, and logging, fire, fishing, hydroelectric, and river transportation history are explained and interpreted in award-winning displays designed by Jean Jacques Andre of Victoria, British Columbia.