Proposed Site for Lewis & Clark Centennial Expo

This 1902 survey map of what is now Portland’s northwest industrial district shows how the Guild’s Lake area looked before it was used for the 1905 Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition and Oriental Fair. Portland’s wealthy merchant leaders planned the fair to promote the city to potential investors, immigrants, and tourists. The fair, which attracted almost 1.6 million people between June 1 and October 15, 1905, commemorated the 1804-1806 exploring expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

Using a plan drawn up by landscape architect John Olmsted, engineers Oskar Huber and William Maxwell (who created this map) worked to transform the shallow, swampy Guild’s Lake area into an elaborate fairground. They leveled the ground, installed a plumbing system, and set up a system to pump twenty million gallons of Willamette River water into Guild’s Lake daily during the fair. Contractors built airy, white temporary buildings, mostly made of wood frames, wire mesh, and plaster. The forestry building, constructed with more than 300 Douglas fir trees, survived the fair, but was destroyed by a fire in 1964.

Further Reading:
Abbott, Carl. The Great Extravaganza: Portland and the Lewis & Clark Exposition. Portland, Oreg., 1981.

McClay, Pauline Oelo. “My Trip to the Fair.” Oregon Historical Quarterly 80, 1979: 50-65.

Young, F. G. “The Lewis and Clark Centennial: the Occasion and its Observance.” Oregon Historical Quarterly 4, 1903: 1-20.

Written by Kathy Tucker, © Oregon Historical Society, 2002.