Once the streetcar line looped around Council Crest in 1906, it became a far less remote destination and almost immediately plans began to be formulated as to how the site could be commercially exploited. Some called for it to become a city park, while others wanted to build a grand summer hotel at the summit.
In March 1907, promoter Arthur Duchamp took down the observatory tower that he had operated on Portland Heights during the Lewis & Clark Exposition and rebuilt it on Council Crest, along with a photography studio and cafe. By July 1907, a dance pavilion had also been constructed. Mr. Duchamp took out a 20-year lease on the site in January 1908 with the aim of improving it further and providing additional attractions – by May 1909, this had become a fully-fledged amusement park with observatory, carousel, scenic railway (an early roller coaster) and flume ride among other attractions.
Disaster struck immediately, however: a car on the scenic railway overturned on the first day of operation, injuring eight passengers. The Portland Railway, Light & Power Company felt the need to clarify that the incident had not occurred on the Council Crest streetcar line, often referred to in publicity as the “scenic line,” as opposed to the amusement park’s “scenic railway.”
Mr. Duchamp had an antagonistic relationship with the City Council, battling with them over undesirables causing trouble in and around the park, license fees to be paid to the city, and whether or not the park should be permitted to have a dance pavilion (as dancing was often seen as “immoral”). His license was revoked and then restored more than once, and the city also threatened to just take over the site as a city park.
Despite these underlying troubles, the park was popular, with more than 40,000 visitors a week in the summer of 1912. Mr. Duchamp renewed and added to the attractions at the park over the years – there was briefly even an ice skating rink in 1911, though this seems to have quickly become a roller skating rink as that craze swept the nation.