Weathering Spring - Portland Time-Lapse. About | orhistory.comorhistory.com. (1) Portland Black History-Project. Vanport: Oregon's Lost City from Brian Van Peski on Vimeo. Dave Knows Portland — Portland Noir » TV. Video player requires the latest version of Flash. Portland’s illicit past is filled with tales of shanghaied sailors, opium dens, and open vice. The city’s underground activities began early in it’s history. In the 1800s, Portland was a bustling port town, and the second largest American harbor on the West Coast.
Populated by mostly young male migratory workers, it gained an international reputation for violence and lawlessness. Corruption was rampant: politicians, votes and police were all for sale; prostitutes plied their trade openly; and vagrancy was illegal, forcing many men on the lowest rungs of society into a life of indentured servitude as sailors. When the city was incorporated in 1851 there were 800 residents, more than 600 of them men. That year the city constructed its first municipal building – a jail. By 1870 the population had jumped to 8,000. Over the years stories about the era have become legendary and treated as historical fact, even with little documentation. Resources.