Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/473



street lines. The stones used in this wall, which is still standing, came from the building formerly used as a state penitentiary and now occupied as a ma- chine shop by the Smith Bros, and Watson Iron Works at Front and Hall streets.

In 1876 the pumping station at the foot of Lincoln street was enlarged, a brick building erected, larger pumps installed and the reservoir at Seventh and Lincoln streets also enlarged. This reservoir was in continuous use until 1895, when pumping operations were discontinued.

In 1883, the company, foreseeing that the rapid growth of the city would soon require an enlargement of their plant, decided upon the construction of a new pumping station. The location selected was at Palatine hill, about five miles south of the city and on the west bank of the river adjacent to the deep water channel. Here a large brick building was constructed and two compound duplex Worthington pumping engines were installed, each having a capacity of 5,000,000 gallons daily. A 30-inch wrought iron main was also laid to a con- nection with the city distributing system.

So far in the growth of the city the water supply had been taken from the river and little wet weather creeks, the Mill street spring and the Willamette river, and had been supplied by private parties. This was not a satisfactory service. The water from the creeks was polluted by decaying vegetation and the water from the river was polluted by the increasing sewage of the city. And action was taken by the city in favor of municipal ownership of the water supply and the means to deliver and distribute it ; and an act of the legislature was secured in 1885 authorizing the municipality to purchase the ex- isting works or construct other works to supply needed water. At this time the population of west side Portland was about 25,000, and the daily consumption of water four million gallons. The water committee under the above act was composed of John Gates, F. C. Smith, C. H. Lewis, Henry Failing, W. S. Ladd, Frank Dekum, L. Fleischner, H. W. Corbett, W. K. Smith, J. Lowenberg, S. G. Reed, R. B. Knapp, L. Therkelsen, T. M. Richardson and A. H. Johnson. This committee conducted all the negotiations to purchase the old water works.

The first and most important matter after getting possession of the old works was to secure a supply of pure water that would be adequate to the future growth of the city. Many propositions were submitted to the city : The Hawthorne springs in East Portland, the Crystal springs on the Ladd farm south of East Portland, Sucker lake west of Oswego, Johnson's creek and the Clackamas river. Each had their friends and advocates more or less pecuniarily interested. All were carefully considered, and all turned down as either not furnishing the best obtainable quality of water, or not furnishing enough of it. Chemical analysis tests were applied to all samples of water proposed. And the committee finally selected the proposition offered by A. G. Cunningham and C. B. Talbot — water from Bull Run, thirty miles east of the city. This source of water supply had been discovered by Mr. Talbot on a hynting expedition around the base of Mt. Hood, about as wild, rugged, unknown and inaccessible region as could be found west of the Rocky mountains. Mr. Talbot was a civil engineer and quickly per- ceived that the foaming river of water roaring up out of the boulders of the mountain side, clear and sparkling, must sooner or later be of inestimable value to the future city of Portland if it ever became the expected center of population hoped for. And accordingly he interested Mr. Cunningham with him and they filed a claim on the stream for its water for household and city uses.

And it was upon this inchoate right of Talbot's to the Bull Run water that the water committee next gave attention to. And after exhaustive chemical analysis of the water and observations of the flow of the water for many months, the committee acquired for the city the right to that water; and in the course of two years brought it to the city through a great steel tube three to four feet in diameter laid eight feet deep in the ground ; and have thus provided for Port- land for all time the best water supply of any city in the Unit