PlacesPages: Rainier, Oregon

I originally posted the Rainier, Oregon PLACES page on my website on November 3, 2005, and I last updated it on March 17, 2010. I have updated the page with additional photographs and additional research, primarily from the City of Rainier’s online archive of the Rainier Review newspaper, and a few articles from the Columbia River Reader. I have also included some historical photographs from Michael Clark's Written History, Historical Images & Memorabilia of Rainier, Oregon website, used with permission.

Though I wasn't born in Rainier, Oregon, my parents moved there when I was two years old, so I will always consider it my hometown. And because of that, I just had to do a page on it. It took me a while to get around to it, and it took my moving to Salem to really focus on getting it done. I was surprised to find that a lot of Rainier's history had been documented and was readily available. Most of the information on this page that didn't come from my own recollections or on the buildings themselves comes either from archives of the Clatskanie Chief, the Columbia County Historian, or The Story of Rainier 1805-1925 by Anna Zerzyke. I have also taken information from a History of Rainier by Mrs. Grace Reid, written around 1914 and republished in the 2008 Rainier Days in the Park program. Another good reference is Michael Clark's Written History, Historical Images & Memorabilia of Rainier, Oregon website.

Early History

The town of Rainier was founded by Charles E. Fox, who came to the area in 1850. Fox opened the first Post Office in Rainier (though there would not be an established government Post Office until many years later) in 1851. He originally called the town Eminence, but officially changed the name to Rainier on January 6, 1852. The town takes its name from Mt. Rainier in Washington. The mountain was named in 1792 by George Vancouver for Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier of the British Royal Navy. Rainier was incorporated as a town in 1885.

Charles Fox is said to have donated 24 acres in 1852 for a townsite, which he platted in 1855. Rainier's street layout originated with Fox's plat. Starting at the river were Water Street, Commercial Street and Union Street, now known as A, B and C Streets. They were intersected by Quincy Street, New Bedford Street, Virginia Street, Cowlitz Street and Washington Street, now known as East Second through East Sixth Streets.

Fox left Rainier in 1863, by which time the town had very nearly died off. But at the same time, a man named Dean Blanchard arrived. Blanchard had first visited Rainier in April 14, 1854 on his way to Portland. On November 6, 1863, he came to stay and began building business interests, including a mill, a store and an established government Post Office (before 1863, Rainier was just a place to drop mail off from the boats on the river), upon which the city would build.

Blanchard replatted the city in 1888. The layout was much the same as Fox's plat, though Blanchard's had wider streets, and added Harrison Street (now First Street), Alder Street (now D Street) and Ash Street (now E Street). Blanchard's plat would officially replace Fox's in 1907.

Another addition made in 1913, and not shown on my maps, is the area known as Roxy Park, south of the east part of town. Quincy and Virginia Streets (now East Second and Fourth Streets) stretched into Roxy Park.

In 1923 or 1924, the streets in Rainier were renamed to their current naming system of lettered and numbered streets. Interestingly enough, the streets in Roxy Park kept their old names, except for East Second Street. In Roxy Park, East Fourth Street becomes Virginia Street. There is also a New Bedford Street in Roxy Park, approximately in line with East Third Street, though it is not actually connected.

Recent History

Today, Rainier is best known for something that is actually six miles from the city limits. Oregon's only nuclear power plant was the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant. The plant is actually closer to the very small town of Goble, Oregon, but Rainier is the closest town of significance and is where most of the plant's employees lived. Trojan opened in 1976, on a 634 acre site that was once the home of a dynamite factory called the Trojan Powder Works. The plant shut down in 1993, due to minor problems that Portland General Electric decided weren't economical to correct since, at 17 years, the plant was over halfway through its operational life anyway. In 1995, the steam generators and pressurizer were removed, and the reactor was removed in August 1999. The plant's spent fuel rods were originally kept in the ponds on the site, but by 2004 all had been removed from the ponds and encased in concrete casks, which will remain on the site until the U.S. Government opens the nuclear waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The facility is not scheduled to begin receiving Trojan's material until 2013, meaning the Trojan site will not be cleared of all nuclear material until 2018 to 2024. The plant's buildings, including the tall cooling tower, were expected to remain until that time, however demolition of the power plant buildings began in March of 2006. The cooling tower was demolished by implosion at 7:00 AM on the morning of May 21, 2006. Trojan's grounds have been maintained as a public park called Trojan Park by Portland General Electric since the plant opened, and continue to remain as such.

Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, is an Oregonian, and it is widely believed that the nuclear power plant that Homer Simpson works at in Springfield was inspired by Trojan. Also, a minor character on The Simpsons, the Schwarzenegger-esque movie star who plays the character of "McBain," is named Rainier Wolfcastle.

Rainier's other claim to fame is the 2000 motion picture Men of Honor (2000), starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Robert De Niro. The scenes on the Navy base in the movie were filmed near Dibblee Beach on the Columbia River just west of Rainier. The buildings of the base were just sets built for the movie and were demolished after filming.

Now that the basic history is covered, we can start the tour.