Mt. Tabor Reservoirs History Project
Welcome!
We’d like to tell you the unparalleled story of Portland’s Bull Run watershed drinking water system, and the monumental role Mt. Tabor Park and its historic reservoirs played in that system. You’ve found the community-driven history program, and we have 8 brief stories we’d like to share with you as you make your way around the park and the historic Mt. Tabor Reservoirs. This is a compelling tale ... imagine feats of strength (these reservoirs mark the invention of reinforced concrete!) and marvels of engineering (our water travels under the power of gravity alone for the 25 miles in to town?).
Each of these stories is meant to live (but does not yet) on a sign in a specific spot in the park. Explore the interactive map below to reveal these stories. Eventually, clicking a blue oval will reveal a sign. Read them in any order, and at your own leisure as you walk around the park… or from your couch! Or your classroom!
For now, only 2 signs have been fully designed, and you can see those called out on the map below.
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Give us feedback
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Some background on this proposal
MAP KEY - interactive elements
BLUE OVALS - these mark where signs will go in the park. Eventually you will click a blue oval to read a story, and click all 8 to read them all!
THUMBNAILS - these highlight the 2 fully designed signs available here now. Clicking expands the sign so you can see it better. These signs have some must-see old photos and drawings! (The text is about 350 words.)
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MORE - Obviously most people don’t come to the park to stand around and read signs, so we’ve chosen only the choicest bits of the story to include on the signs in the park. Click the "M" icon if you are keen to read a bit more. (This text is similar in length to a newspaper article.)
What about the missing signs?
As you can see, only 2 of the 8 signs have been fully written so far. But never fear, the story arc is fully crafted and is just awaiting the resources to be written. If you’d like a peak at the outline of the stories we will tell across the 8 signs, click here.
Like what you see?! Say so!
Want to see more? Show support for this program or offer other feedback by sending a comment here: MtTaborReservoirHistory@gmail.com , subject line: feedback
Have an idea for how we might get funding to finish the writing portion of this project? Drop us a note: MtTaborReservoirHistory@gmail.com , subject line: funding ideas
Some background
What you see here is the community-proposal for an interpretive sign program for the historic Mt. Tabor Reservoirs in Mt. Tabor Park. This community-proposal has thus far not been embraced by the city, but we remain hopeful. Someday maybe it will be fully funded and our grand vision — with so many cool features, like NFC chips that read content aloud in multiple languages — will come to life!
How did this proposal come about?
In 2015 the Portland Water Bureau (PWB) was directed by the Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC) to create an interpretive program, to capture for Portlander’s of every generation, the enthralling story of our drinking water system and Mt. Tabor Park’s historical role in that system. Shortly thereafter, City Council wrote Council Resolution #37146, which codifies the Mt. Tabor Neighborhood Association (MTNA) as a partner in that program design.
We at MTNA were thrilled. As neighbors who live with some of the first reservoirs into which Bull Run water flowed, we find ourselves proud story keepers of Portland’s innovative water system — from its beginnings to its priceless legacy. We assembled a team of highly skilled community members — with deep knowledge of these historic structures, of the water system’s history, of how to design impactful public art and interpretive programing — and we got to work. At first, we were welcomed as equal partners on the PWB working team designing the signage program. However, with time and water bureau staff changes we discovered our voice increasingly dismissed, as PWB favored the outside-hired-experts over the community’s vision (and our equally qualified experts). Until one day the program was no longer something we could support, or put our names on, or would even want taking up space in the park.
The rich story we know and cherish was lost, as the program was militantly restricted to an arbitrary word count — the bureau staff asserted no story needs more than 100 words to be told, ever.
We agreed with them that brevity was paramount to maintaining attention, but that not every story can be arbitrarily cut off at 100 words. We did not ask for infinite words, we asked for roughly 350 words per sign, as needed to appropriately tell the story. And we crafted a program ourselves to show them just what we meant.
So we made our own version of the program, with only just a few more words, but with infinitely more substance. The community’s program has content you can explore through the many years these signs will live in the park. We outlined the arc of the entire story (see that outline here) and mapped that story to specific signs for specific spots in the park (that's the map above). We researched innovative ways to effectively reach all audiences, not just more audiences… so the visually impaired could hear the signs, so any number of languages could be read aloud, so students could access content from classrooms...
We love the story of our gravity fed, incredibly protected and clean, Bull Run watershed water system and the monumental role Mt. Tabor Park and the Historic Reservoirs have played in that system. And we’d like everyone who has ever lived here, or comes to live here, or just comes to visit our fair city, to learn it.
The Portland Water Bureau has also designed a proposal. But it loses so much of the richness of the story we think it should be scrapped. It’s not worth the money, or the space it will take up in the park. While their signs are attractive visually, they say almost nothing and we find they miss the point of an “interpretive” program (which is to help you see some of what you might not readily see with a quick and cursory glance).
We think the program we’ve outlined here would make a great program for the purpose, and should be adopted as the replacement.