40-Mile Loop

Last updated May 29, 2023

The 40-Mile Loop is a partially completed greenway trail around and through Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was proposed in 1903 by the Olmsted Brothers architecture firm as part of the development of Forest Park.^[1]^[2] One greenway expert calls it "one of the most creative and resourceful greenway projects in the country."^[3]

The name's "forty" was obsolete within a few decades after it was proposed. The proposed total path is now about 140 miles (230 km) long, and connects more than thirty city parks.^[2] Similarly, "loop" is not entirely accurate. There are several subloops, cutoffs and spur trails within the system. One spur is proposed to connect to the Pacific Crest Trail.^[4]

History

As part of beautification planning for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition of 1905, Portland's recently established Parks Board invited the Olmsted Brothers in 1903. Besides suggestions for Washington Park, their research of existing city parks resulted in a bold proposal for a loop of interconnected parks around the city, instead of a traditional plan of scattered parks: "A connected system of parks and parkways is manifestly far more complete and useful than a series of isolated parks." As the brothers puzzled over a name for the system, one asked the other "What would you call a forty-mile loop?" The firm was famous for its straightforward names, so they left it at that.^[3]

Little action occurred until a $1 million—equivalent to $31.4 million today^[5]—city bond measure in 1907 passed, which was used to develop existing parks. In 1912, another city planner, Edward H. Bennett, also recommended developing a ridgetop park long the West Hills. A $2 million bond issue to acquire the necessary land was voted down. However, shortly afterward, most of the lots sold in Forest Park forfeited to the city or Multnomah County due to high assessments for road building, and a landslide.^[3]

In 1943, influential urban planner Robert Moses was hired, and recommended establishing Forest Park. After several subsequent years of controversy, the park was created in 1948 from tax-delinquent lands, gifts, and purchases. This contained the first portion of the 40-mile (64 km) loop.^[3]

Little more happened until 1978: at the request of Oregon legislators, U.S. Congress stripped the Columbia Slough of its "navigable" status, enabling the land to be dedicated to recreational use, an important component of the Olmsted plan. The Oregon director of the Nature Conservancy responded to withering federal funds for parks and natural areas by reviving the loop plan to enthusiastic receptions by the City, suburban cities, federal agencies, conservationists, and civic groups. The alliance eventually formed the 40-Mile Loop Land Trust which proved most effective at getting the thirteen key governmental entities—which normally did not talk to each other—to effectively work together. It also served as an intermediary to transfer property from one entity to the other.^[3]

One of the Land Trust's major victories was bringing Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads together, which jointly owned the abandoned Springwater Corridor, to transfer the land in 1990 to the Trust.^[3] It represented significant progress in the completion of the loop.^[4]

Trail

The trail has a variety of sections: some are on level ground, such as along the Columbia River; others are heavily forested and/or mountainous, as through Washington Park's Hoyt Arboretum. All portions are suitable for walking and hiking, and most are open to bicycling. There are opportunities for strollers, wheelchairs, skating, skateboarding, horseback riding, canoeing, and kayaking.^[2]

Route highlights

The 40-Mile Loop logo is posted along many types of paths

Future

The 40-Mile Loop spur Springwater Corridor radiates eastward through Gresham and into Boring. Metro has proposed constructing the Cazadero Trail which would extend that spur 2 miles (3.2 km) past Estacada for eventual connection to the Pacific Crest Trail.^[6]

Related Research Articles

Gresham is a city located in Multnomah County, Oregon, in the United States of America, immediately east of Portland, Oregon. It is considered a suburb within the Greater Portland Metropolitan area. Though it began as a settlement in the mid-1800s, it was not officially incorporated as a city until 1905; it was named after Walter Quintin Gresham, the American Civil War general and United States Secretary of State.

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie 100 to 150 miles east of the U.S. Pacific coast. The trail's southern terminus is next to the Mexico–United States border, just south of Campo, California, and its northern terminus is on the Canada–US border, upon which it continues unofficially to the Windy Joe Trail within Manning Park in British Columbia; it passes through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington.

Boring is an unincorporated community in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. It is located along Oregon Route 212 in the foothills of the Cascade mountain range, approximately twelve miles (19 km) southeast of downtown Portland, and fourteen miles (23 km) northeast of Oregon City. A bedroom community, Boring is named after William Harrison Boring, a Union soldier and pioneer whose family built a farm in the area in 1856, before Oregon had received statehood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastbank Esplanade</span>

The Eastbank Esplanade is a pedestrian and bicycle path along the east shore of the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. Running through the Kerns, Buckman, and Hosford-Abernethy neighborhoods, it was conceived as an urban renewal project to rebuild the Interstate 5 bicycle bypass washed out by the Willamette Valley Flood of 1996. It was renamed for former Portland mayor Vera Katz in November 2004 and features a statue of her near the Hawthorne Bridge.

Forest Park is a public municipal park in the Tualatin Mountains west of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Stretching for more than 8 miles (13 km) on hillsides overlooking the Willamette River, it is one of the country's largest urban forest reserves. The park, a major component of a regional system of parks and trails, covers more than 5,100 acres (2,064 ha) of mostly second-growth forest with a few patches of old growth. About 70 miles (110 km) of recreational trails, including the Wildwood Trail segment of the city's 40-Mile Loop system, crisscross the park.

In the U.S. state of Oregon, U.S. Route 30, a major east–west U.S. Highway, runs from its western terminus in Astoria to the Idaho border east of Ontario. West of Portland, US 30 generally follows the southern shore of the Columbia River; east of Portland the highway has largely been replaced with Interstate 84, though it is signed all the way across the state, and diverges from the I-84 mainline in several towns, as a de facto business route. Out of all the states U.S. Route 30 traverses, it spends the most time in Oregon. At 477 miles, it is also the longest road in the state.

The Mount Hood Highway No. 26 is the Oregon Department of Transportation's designation for a 96.74-mile-long (155.69 km) highway from Portland east around the south side of Mount Hood and north via Bennett Pass to Hood River. It is marked as U.S. Route 26 from Portland to near Mount Hood and Oregon Route 35 the rest of the way to Hood River.

City of Parks is a municipal project to create a continuous paved pedestrian and biking trail around the city of Louisville, Kentucky while also adding a large amount of park land. The project was announced on February 22, 2005. Current plans call for making approximately 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) of the Floyds Fork floodplain in eastern Jefferson County into park space, expanding area in the Jefferson Memorial Forest, and adding riverfront land and wharfs along the Riverwalk Trail and Levee Trail. There are also plans to connect the 100-mile (160 km) Louisville trail to a planned seven mile (11 km) trail connecting the Southern Indiana cities of New Albany, Clarksville and Jeffersonville.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Springwater Corridor</span> Bicycle and pedestrian trail in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area

The Springwater Corridor Trail is a bicycle and pedestrian rail trail in the Portland metropolitan area in Oregon, United States. It follows a former railway line from Boring through Gresham to Portland, where it ends south of the Eastbank Esplanade. Most of the corridor, about 21 miles (34 km) long, consists of paved, off-street trail, though about 1 mile (1.6 km) overlaps city streets in Portland's Sellwood neighborhood. A large segment roughly follows the course of Johnson Creek and crosses it on bridges many times. Much of the corridor was acquired by the City of Portland in 1990; remaining segments were acquired by Metro thereafter.

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References

↑ "Forest Park". Portland Parks & Recreation Department, City of Portland. 2008. Archived from the original on 12 June 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
1 2 3 "History of the 40-Mile Loop". 40-Mile Loop Land Trust. Archived from the original on 21 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Charles E. Little (1990). Greenways for America. JHU Press. pp. 76–80. ISBN 0-8018-5140-8 . Retrieved 2008-05-30.
1 2 "40-Mile Loop map" (PDF). 40-Mile Loop Land Trust. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-26. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
↑ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–" . Retrieved May 28, 2023.
↑ "Cazadero Trail". Metro (Oregon). Retrieved August 16, 2013.

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[parks-1] "Forest Park". Portland Parks & Recreation Department, City of Portland. 2008. Archived from the original on 12 June 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-30.

[hist-2] 1 2 3 "History of the 40-Mile Loop". 40-Mile Loop Land Trust. Archived from the original on 21 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-30.

[little-3] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Charles E. Little (1990). Greenways for America. JHU Press. pp. 76–80. ISBN 0-8018-5140-8 . Retrieved 2008-05-30.

[map-4] 1 2 "40-Mile Loop map" (PDF). 40-Mile Loop Land Trust. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-26. Retrieved 2008-07-10.

[inflation-US-5] 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–" . Retrieved May 28, 2023.

[6] "Cazadero Trail". Metro (Oregon). Retrieved August 16, 2013.

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