Hayden Island is a wonderful mixture of tax free shopping, light industry, office and retail, restaurants, hotels, condos and apartments, the largest complex of yacht moorages on the Columbia RIver, custom riverside homes, an RV park, two manufactured home parks and the area's largest concentration of floating home moorages. |
A natural divider between Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington, Hayden Island sits between the main channel of the Columbia River and the boat and water sport intensive North Portland Harbor. Hayden Island is the backdrop for the annual Christmas Ships, Fourth of July fireworks display and non-stop maritime and river-based living. A place to get away from it all by just being home. |
Associated Maps of Hayden Island • Hayden Island Maps
Hayden Island is an island in the Columbia River between Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon. The wide main channel of the Columbia (and the Washington/Oregon state line) passes north of the island. To the south, sheltered by the island, is a smaller channel known as North Portland Harbor. Much of Hayden Island (and connected Tomahawk Island to the east) is within Portland city limits, and recognized as one of its 95 neighborhoods.[1]
Hayden Island has had different names through history: e.g. Menzies Island and Painted Image Island. And for a time, both Hayden Island and Tomahawk Island, until that morphed into just Hayden Island when dredge material was deposited between two land masses.
Hayden Island is an island in the Columbia River between Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon. The wide main channel of the Columbia (and the Washington/Oregon state line) passes north of the island. To the south, sheltered by the island, is a smaller channel known as North Portland Harbor. Much of Hayden Island (and connected Tomahawk Island to the east) is within Portland city limits, and recognized as one of its 95 neighborhoods.[1]
Hayden Island has had different names through history: e.g. Menzies Island and Painted Image Island. And for a time, both Hayden Island and Tomahawk Island, until that morphed into just Hayden Island when dredge material was deposited between two land masses.
1792 Hayden Island was first recorded
1805 Lewis and Clark stop by for a visit on their way to Astoria
1917 The first Interstate Bridge opens (the current northbound side), heralding an end to the island's previous use for farming and grazing
1928 Jantzen Beach Amusement Park opens
1958 The second Interstate Bridge (southbound side) is completed
1970 The amusement park closes
1972 Jantzen Beach Shopping Center constructed on the former site of the amusement park
City of Portland annexes the portion of the island east of BNSF Railway tracks
Mid-1990s Jantzen Beach Shopping Center remodeled to accommodate big box retail development; renamed Jantzen Beach Super Center
2006 Portland City Council enacts development moratorium for Hayden Island
2007 City and neighborhood begin development of the Hayden Island Plan
2007 Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals overturns moratorium
2009 Portland City Council adopts Hayden Island Plan
1805 Lewis and Clark stop by for a visit on their way to Astoria
1917 The first Interstate Bridge opens (the current northbound side), heralding an end to the island's previous use for farming and grazing
1928 Jantzen Beach Amusement Park opens
1958 The second Interstate Bridge (southbound side) is completed
1970 The amusement park closes
1972 Jantzen Beach Shopping Center constructed on the former site of the amusement park
City of Portland annexes the portion of the island east of BNSF Railway tracks
Mid-1990s Jantzen Beach Shopping Center remodeled to accommodate big box retail development; renamed Jantzen Beach Super Center
2006 Portland City Council enacts development moratorium for Hayden Island
2007 City and neighborhood begin development of the Hayden Island Plan
2007 Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals overturns moratorium
2009 Portland City Council adopts Hayden Island Plan
Getting To The Island
Interstate 5 provides the only roadway connection to the island, via the northernmost Oregon exit, to the rest of North Portland and, with the Interstate Bridge, to Vancouver to the north. The BNSF Railway crosses North Portland Harbor (via the Oregon Slough Railroad Bridge) and the western part of the island to the west of I-5, before crossing the Columbia via the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 9.6. The east end of the island, often called Jantzen Beach, has highly developed retail areas near the freeway, hotels, offices, manufactured home communities, and condominium complexes. Further east there are several houseboat moorages and marinas.
Until the Interstate Bridge opened in 1917 ferries provided service between Portland and Vancouver from landings on the island's north shore. After the opening of the bridge, streetcar service opened Hayden Island to amusement park developments due to its beaches and strategic location. Jantzen Beach, the last operating amusement park, closed in 1970. Tomahawk Island, just off the east tip of Hayden Island, became another amusement park--Lotus Isle—for a few years in the 1930's.
Interstate 5 provides the only roadway connection to the island, via the northernmost Oregon exit, to the rest of North Portland and, with the Interstate Bridge, to Vancouver to the north. The BNSF Railway crosses North Portland Harbor (via the Oregon Slough Railroad Bridge) and the western part of the island to the west of I-5, before crossing the Columbia via the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 9.6. The east end of the island, often called Jantzen Beach, has highly developed retail areas near the freeway, hotels, offices, manufactured home communities, and condominium complexes. Further east there are several houseboat moorages and marinas.
Until the Interstate Bridge opened in 1917 ferries provided service between Portland and Vancouver from landings on the island's north shore. After the opening of the bridge, streetcar service opened Hayden Island to amusement park developments due to its beaches and strategic location. Jantzen Beach, the last operating amusement park, closed in 1970. Tomahawk Island, just off the east tip of Hayden Island, became another amusement park--Lotus Isle—for a few years in the 1930's.
Etymology
In 1792, the island was discovered by Lieutenant William Robert Broughton, commander of the Royal Navy survey brig HMS Chatham, who named it Menzies, after the botanist of his ship Archibald Menzies and naming Vancouver after his commander George Vancouver. In 1805, Lewis and Clark named the island Image Canoe Island after a large canoe carved with images of men and animals emerged from the opposite side of the island.[2]Hudson's Bay Company called it Vancouver Island. And in the early 1800's it was called Shaw Island for Colonel W. Shaw who owned land on the island.[3] In 1851, the island was renamed for the Oregon pioneer and early Vancouver, Washington settler Gay Hayden who owned the island[4] after settling there in 1851 upon hearing of the Donation Land Claim Act a year after it was passed. He built a grand home and lived on the island for five years with his wife Mary Jane Hayden and twin children.[5]
References
- ^ Most of the neighborhood lies within Portland's North section, though the eastern end is in the city's Northeast section.
- ^ Portland City Walks: Twenty Explorations In and Around Town, Foster, Laura O., Timber Press, 2008, ISBN 0881928852
- ^ Jolotta, Pat. Naming Clark County. Vancouver: Fort Vancouver Historical Society, 1993. Print.
- ^ McArthur, Lewis A., Oregon Geographic Names,Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Sep., 1926), Oregon Historical Society, pp. 295-363, URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20610356
- ^ Hayden, Gay. Access Genealogy. 2010-06-13.