Portlanders at Columbia Beach, 1918. Hayden Island and the Interstate Bridge can be seen in the background.
Sometimes called “Columbia River Beach” or “Vancouver Park” in its early days, this was one of the first attempts at an amusement park and beach resort in Portland. It was located on the north shore of Sand Island (later Tomahawk Island), just east of Hayden Island in the Columbia River. The park first opened on August 16, 1903, and initially seemed to be quite successful.
However, the park seems to have closed after the 1905 season—it’s probably not coincidental that it closed at the same time as the Vancouver streetcar line and ferry were relocated off the island—and it seems to have been quite forgotten, as articles in early 1916 announcing a new lease on the property talk about it as if it was brand new and totally undiscovered—“the first time in Portland’s history that a regular bathing beach will be available right at the doors of the city.” This new version of the park was backed by the Portland Railway, Light & Power Company as a way to attract weekend and holiday riders to ride the Vancouver line, especially as a second fare could be added to each ride because the beach park was outside Portland city limits.
Access to the resort was via the streetcar line and its long trestle over North Portland Harbor. A viaduct was built from the trestle across to the island, and a large station platform was built on the trestle for passengers. Newspaper reports are somewhat contradictory about what this looked like – some say the viaduct started on Hayden Island, others say it was only from the streetcar trestle. Automobile access was also provided by the viaduct, as there was no other bridge to Sand Island at the time. A 1926 map indicates that a road ran alongside the streetcar line from Faloma and then crossed over to Sand Island on the viaduct.
A fire destroyed the resort’s dance pavilion on the morning of April 16, 1926, but a new floating pavilion was installed and ready for use by the start of the 1926 season in early June.
The park abruptly closed after the 1927 season when the Columbia Beach Amusement Company was bought out by the Hayden Island Amusement Company and their attention switched to the new—and more easily accessible—Jantzen Beach property on Hayden Island. Newspaper articles report good crowds right up to the end, with large rodeos being held through September 1927.
In 1930, the “Old Columbia Beach” site became the short-lived and ill-fated Lotus Isle amusement park.
See also: Lotus Isle (1930–1932); Jantzen Beach Park (1928–1970)