Another thing I’ve heard said recently (and over the years) is that the Willamette River was so polluted through Portland Harbor that it caught fire. Like the Cuyahoga River had done. Wow–that’s spectacular, and tragic!
Cuyahoga River fire, 1969. (https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/cuyahoga-river-fires.htm)
It didn’t happen.
I state that with a very high level of confidence, having read at least 700 newspaper articles between 1906 and 1996 and conducted extensive archival research into the records of the State Game Commission, State Fish Commission, State Board of Health, Oregon State Sanitary Authority, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, and City of Portland. With this knowledge, the assertion that the Willamette caught fire seemed apochryphal. Out of curiosity, I then searched the Internet for blog posts or other sources for the urban myth. While I didn’t find any blog posts, I did find quite a few news reports of warehouse, dock, or houseboat fires over the years, but nothing about any grand conflagrations of the kind that occurred on the Cuyahoga.
So, if you ever hear anyone make this claim, you now know it’s not true!
Speaking for the River 