One of the fun parts about wandering through various archives, looking for history story ideas, is occasionally coming across random photos and drawings that not only show the way things were but the way they could have been.

One recent find was this 1912 schematic illustrating the idea of turning Ross Island into a park. To get oriented, note that "North" is the left side of this drawing. That means the top of this image is now known as the Brooklyn/Westmoreland/Sellwood neighborhoods.

At the time, it appears, the island was still whole. But these days, much of the middle no longer exists, having been eaten away over the decades for the gravel that's gone into concrete that, in turn, has built much of Portland and the surrounding area.

Also, currently the "island" is actually four separate islands: Ross, Hardtack, East, and Toe.

If you were able to enlarge this drawing to full screen, you would see the plan included tennis courts, croquet courts, a large playfield and an "overlook" on the north end, which would have been joined to both shores by a pair of bridges spanning the two channels of the Willamette River.

The idea of turning Ross Island into a park was part of the Olmstead Portland Park Plan presented to the city in 1904. Many parts of the plan – such as Terwilliger Boulevard and Laurelhurst Park -- were executed. But other ideas, such as a park on Ross Island or a parkway that would have run along the bluffs of the Willamette River, from Sellwood to the current site of OMSI, were not.

While Ross Island may never look like it does in this drawing, efforts to do something to restore parts of the island go back to at least 1979. While the effort has been a struggle, and has evolved several times, the current idea is to turn about 45 acres donated by Robert Pamplin Jr., owner of Ross Island Sand and Gravel, to the city of Portland several years ago into in a natural area.

That doesn't mean tennis courts or croquet courts or a playfield. In fact, human access is likely to be heavily restricted once the work is done. But it will mean it will be an area used to support rare or endangered plants and animals that otherwise might not have a home.

-- John Killen

503-221-8538; @johnkillen