Mt. Tabor

 Within the city limits,Portland has 26 extinct or dormant volcanoes.  It’s been tens of thousands of years since any one of them erupted, and since so long has gone by, the volcanes are weathered and worn and most people don’t realize what the features they see mean.

Mt. Tabor is one of these volcanoes.  It’s been years since I drove over that way, but it is only a few miles away and it is right in the middle of SE Portland.  After 9/11, some of the city councilmen wanted to cover the reservoirs up on Mt. Tabor, reservoirs that are part of the city’s water system and that hold and distribute water from the Bull Run water reserves on Mt. Hood.  Portland has some of the cleanest, purest city water systems in the US because of Bull Run, and the enlightened city councilmen saw the potential for "terrorists" to poison the city by dumping whatever into the city reservoirs.

 Someone let these nimrods order enough plastic sheeting to cover the acres of exposed reservoirs.  BIG money for plastic sheeting.  Groups were organized to protest, in the great Portland tradition, and words flew and feelings were hurt, and eventually the idea to cover the acres of water reservoirs was shot down and buried.

Not before the plastic sheeting and misc. stuff to cover them was ordered and delivered though.

One enterprising city employee, after the furor over covering the open reservoirs died down, sold most of those materials on Ebay, and lined his wallet with the proceeds.  He and another guy got caught and sentanced to some time in jail, yeah, but the money was not fully recovered and the materials Portland bought disappeared, and some of those city councilmen are still on the council or have moved on the state or National government.

Would you cover this?:

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This is one of the pump houses on the three reservoirs up here on Mt. Tabor.  There used to be other similar reservoirs in the city; the three over off Division Ave in Southeast Portland have been filled in and built over – condos, but the very iconic structures of the reservoirs and pump houses remain there, ghosts of Portland’s past and echoing the architecture of The Old Highway through the gorge.

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Mt. Tabor has (or had.  It’s been a few years since I went there) three reservoirs in the park around it’s volcanic knob.

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Good reflections here.

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A nice stroll around the water.

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Two of the reservoirs are on the west side of the park around them, but this third one is tucked away on the southeast side of Mt. Tabor:

Some maintenance was going on when I shot this.

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The reservoirs make for some pretty dramatic shots:

This shot is looking due west over the reservoir; downtown Portland can be dimly seen in the left center background.

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Really.  Would you cover these?

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We’re pretty proud of our water system, when we think about it at all.  The reservoirs are beautiful, and although things fall or are thrown into the open reservoirs, we do have filter systems that purify the clean, clear Bull Run water.

These pics date back to 2004 or 5… I should probably go and shoot new pictures for the new century there, and it is only a couple of miles from the apartment.

 

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