Built in a Rush, Watched with Suspicion
In 1942, in just 110 days, a city rose from the marshlands between Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington. Named Vanport, it was built to house thousands of workers drawn to Henry Kaiser’s shipyards during World War II. At its peak, Vanport became Oregon’s second-largest city, with 40,000 residents.
But its rapid growth and diverse population unsettled white Portlanders. With thousands of Black workers arriving from the South, Vanport became home to many who were excluded from Portland’s segregated housing market. City officials labeled it temporary. Many hoped it would vanish after the war.
Floodwaters and False Assurances
On May 30, 1948—Memorial Day—a flyer assured residents, “DIKES ARE SAFE AT PRESENT… DON’T GET EXCITED.” That afternoon, a railroad dike failed, and within minutes, Vanport was underwater. The Housing Authority of Portland had evacuated its records but not the people.
Though the official death toll was 15, rumors circulated that bodies had been hidden to downplay the disaster. Over 18,000 people lost their homes, including around 6,300 Black residents who had nowhere else to go due to redlining and housing discrimination.
A City Never Meant to Last
Though both Black and white workers lived in Vanport, the Housing Authority informally segregated housing. Black families were often assigned to specific streets. Life in Vanport was isolated and difficult, especially after the war, when white residents moved out and the city deteriorated.
By the time of the flood, one-third of the remaining population was Black. The flood’s aftermath forced displaced Black families into the overcrowded Albina district, Portland’s only area where they were permitted to buy homes. Housing discrimination remained entrenched, shaping the city’s demographics for decades.
Traces That Still Remain
The physical site of Vanport is now Delta Park. Signs near Force Lake offer the only public reminders of the lost city. But Vanport left behind more than ruins. It was home to Oregon’s first integrated schools and first Black teachers. Residents like Ed Washington and Beatrice Gilmore remember those classrooms as places of opportunity amid adversity.
Gilmore went on to become the first Black graduate of Oregon’s nursing school. Washington became an educator. Yet Portland’s Black population remains small, a legacy of exclusion rooted in the policies and events that shaped—and erased—Vanport.
It was Oregon’s second-largest city—built in just 110 days, destroyed in less than one.
On May 30, 1948, Vanport was a bustling home to over 18,000 people.
By nightfall, it no longer existed.
A sudden dike failure turned a thriving wartime community into a flood zone…🧵 pic.twitter.com/6AQ8jJmTfr
— Detective Tiger's Stories (@TigerDetective) July 4, 2025