I am about to relay several paragraphs of Portland history, all of which will seem random until you get to the end of the post. Stick with it.

The history of the Willamette Valley, from Oregon City north to the Willamette River's confluence with the Columbia, is one of bald speculation. White guys from places like Ohio and Maine started showing up in the mid 19th century and seizing various plots of land. This is incredibly lush country, and they understood that it wouldn't be long before the two large rivers--with depths accommodating ocean-going vessels--would function as watery highways to ship the bounty to points beyond. They also understood that there would be winners and losers and probably only one settlement would become the premier port on the Willamette. The white men who founded the winning city would, they reasoned, become barons in this western paradise.

We now know that Portland won, despite Oregon City's head start. But what of the rivals? I learned of one of these speculative cities today that I didn't even know existed--Albina, which was located on the east bank just north of Portland. And it was a pretty decent rival, too. (In that satellite map above, the downtown area--helpfully marked by the giant "Portland" label--was the original Portland settlement. Albina was on the east side where the 405--or Fremont--bridge now touches down.)

The earliest settlers made claims but died before much happened, and when their land was finally sorted out in 1872, the owners were Englishman Edwin Russell and George Henry Williams. Williams is an enormous figure in Oregon history, serving as Attorney General under US Grant during reconstruction among other roles--but he's germane here only because he and Russell named the new town Albina (pronounced Al-bean-ah at the time) after the daughter of the man from whom they brought the property. Exit Williams. Russell invested heavily in Albina, building a sawmill, iron foundry, and shipbuilding plant on the river, giving the new burg solid bones. (In the 1940s, the adjacent plot, Swan Island, became one of the United States' main shipbuilding sites during WWII.)

The town flourished. in 1880, it had just 150 souls, but by 1888, it boasted 3,000. From a history of the time (the source of which I will divulge in due course):

As had been the case with East Portland to the south, the main stimulus to Albina's raid growth was the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Co. Controlled and operated by railroad baron Henry Villard, and the Failing, Ladd, and Corbett families among other west side interests [ie, Portland], the O.R. & N. Co. became the most powerful corporation in the State. By 1890 the O.R. & N. Co. owned nearly two miles of riverfront and had massive developments on both sides of the river.

Portlanders will be well familiar with the names Ladd and Corbett--and maybe even Failing, a street I once lived very near. These were the founding families--presumably the winners who became barons of sorts.