Praying for Portland Neighborhoods: East Portland
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters. Psalms 23:2
Grace Community Church, Gresham, OR
We are still in the midst of holiday celebrations.
Happy 2023 everyone!
The quadrants and neighborhoods of Portland can be a
bit confusing. East Portland was once a separate city in the 1800’s before the towns
on the east and west sides of the Willamette River merged. Now "east" can mean
areas we have already covered in Southeast or Northeast Portland. Today we are
referring to the area just to the east of the city of Portland, around Gresham
and Troutdale, just before I-84 takes us into the Gorge and Hood River County.
Much of my father’s family was based in this area,
beginning in the early 20th century, so this is familiar territory.
Gresham was established in the mid-1800’s and was
first known as Powell Valley. A school was established in the valley in 1857
and a religious camp meeting ground in the 1870’s. This led to it being a
popular stop for those traveling to Portland. Searching for more information on
the camp meeting grounds has so far revealed little, but it’s an interesting
historical note. Powell’s Valley came to be called Gresham when a local
merchant petitioned for a post office and offered to name it after U. S. Postmaster
General Gresham.
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| east of Portland, OR |
If you take Highway 26 out of Gresham to Sandy, then
turn left – about 16 miles – you reach Bull Run. The Bull Run Watershed is an
area about 30 miles east of Portland that supplies the city water.
In about 1912 my grandparents had a baby that passed
away shortly after birth. Family documents indicate my grandparents were living
at Bull Run at the time. Later, my grandfather would leave a small farm near
Bull Run to my uncle. There is little left of the community that existed at the
time my grandparents lived there.
The engineering to bring water from Bull Run into the
city of Portland began in the late 1800’s, and the first water flowing through
pipes that ran through miles of old growth forest and rugged mountains reached
the city on January 2, 1895 – 128 years ago. The Bull Run Watershed Management
area is highly protected. The Bull Run Trespass Act was signed by
President Teddy Roosevelt in 1902 to protect the area from grazing and other activities,
and more restrictions have been enacted since. Two dams on the Bull Run River
create reservoirs to hold water for the city, capturing it during heavy rainfall
in the winter and being closely monitored and released over the dry season. The
system supplies over a million people with safe drinking water.
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| Bull Run Reservoir |
The name Bull Run came from the wild cattle that used
to run above the river, probably escaped from pioneers that came west on the
Oregon Trail.
Troutdale is
another town to the east of Portland, named by Captain John Harlow after a
trout pond in a dale near his house.
How do we pray for the communities east of Portland?
You visit the earth and water it, You
greatly enrich it: the river of God is full of water; You provide their grain,
For so you have prepared it. Psalm 65:9
Pray for the Bull Run Watershed, its continued
protection and purity for the Portland water supply.
Pray for the police and other first responders in
Gresham as they deal with increased property theft and other issues.
Pray for Gresham Police Chief Travis Gullberg. In 2021
the former Chief was forced to resign after allegations of misconduct. Chief
Gullberg was elected to fill the opening. His department has a Deputy Chief,
two captains, and four lieutenants.
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