Instructor

Tour Portland's pioneer monuments. Visit downtown sites on foot, and then continue the tour via car or bicycle.

The United States National Bank building opened for business in 1917, and roughly doubled in size in 1925. The company eventually merged with U.S. Bancorp, but continues to operate as the bank's main Portland branch. United States National Bank was established in Portland in 1890. It soon acquired several other banks and outgrew its available space.&nbsp;The 1917 building and its 1925 expansion were&nbsp;designed by A. E. Doyle. Doyle apprenticed in the&nbsp;prominent Portland architecture&nbsp;firm Whidden &amp; Lewis and later studied&nbsp;at Columbia University. He also designed other prominent Portland buildings, including&nbsp;Reed College, three major department stores, the Benson Hotel, the Central Library, and the Pacific Building.&nbsp; The US Bank building combined classical architectural design with new construction materials: steel frame and reinforced concrete. Exterior decorative elements were made from glazed terra cotta. The lobby interior&nbsp;is decorated extensively with marble.&nbsp;A.E. Doyle&nbsp;designed the addition to blend seamlessly with the original building. The bank later expanded to other locations, most notably the 42-story U.S. Bancorp tower that opened in 1983, but maintained this 1917/25 building. A third-floor museum displays artifacts from the turn of the twentieth century. The bronze lobby doors were designed by Avard Fairbanks. Fairbanks taught art at the University of Oregon, before returning to his home state of Utah. Fairbanks' design for these doors&nbsp;was inspired by the famous Renaissance-era "Gates of Paradise" doors to the Baptistry of Florence. Doors facing Broadway emphasize 19th century transportation and technology. Scenes include the Lewis &amp; Clark Expedition, a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail, Captain Robert Gray exploring the Columbia River in his ship "Columbia," a steam ship, drawbridge, and automobile. Native Americans appear in several of these scenes as uncivilized observers of manifest destiny. The Sixth Avenue doors emphasize progress through science and enterprise. These scenes resonate with Fairbanks' monumental&nbsp;Pioneer Mother sculpture for neighboring Vancouver, Washington, and other pioneer monuments erected in Salem, Oregon, and throughout the American West. (Lobby doors are only visible when bank is closed for business.)

Grand bank designed by Albert E. Doyle and constructed in 1917 and expanded in 1925. Constructed of reinforced concrete and clad in terra cotta, it is the first edifice built in Portland with a steel frame. The bronze lobby doors were sculpted by Avard Fairbanks.

U.S. National Bank. Photo by Cynthia Prescott.

United States National Bank Building

The Oregon Trail Coordinating Council commissioned this statue to mark the 150th anniversary of the Overland Trail in 1992. Some Portlanders objected to the statue, arguing that it glorified white settlers’ seizure of Native lands. Meanwhile, many smaller Pacific Northwest towns declared their desire to prominently display the controversial piece within their communities.In 1992, the Oregon Trail Coordinating Council (OTCC) commissioned Oregon artist David Manuel to sculpt a $200,000 bronze “memorial to the spirit of the pioneers”1 to commemorate the trail’s sesquicentennial. Manuel’s design utilized imagery common to the dozens of pioneer monuments erected across the United States over the course of the twentieth century. It featured a strong male pioneer guiding his family westward, a nurturing Pioneer Mother, their sturdy young son, a wagon wheel, a rifle, and a Bible. In many ways, it resembled 15 other pioneer family monuments that had been welcomed in communities throughout the American West since World War II. But Manuel’s design quickly sparked controversy in its intended home of Portland, Oregon. Portlanders could not agree where to place the OTCC’s gift. In March 1993, the statue was placed in a temporary location in front of the Oregon History Center. The statue appeared right at home in front of Richard Haas’ much-respected 1989 mural celebrating the Lewis and Clark Expedition. That mural sought to be inclusive by featuring Lewis, Clark, their African-American slave York, indigenous translator and guide Sacagawea, and her infant son. However, owing to concerns of some residents and staff, the History Center was hesitant to install the piece permanently.A site committee including representatives of the OTCC, the Oregon History Center, Portland city agencies, and neighborhood association met biweekly for three months. They unanimously approved a proposal to install The Promised Land in one of the downtown Portland’s North Park blocks. Around the statue they planned to display quotes from Oregon Trail diaries and interpretive signs explaining the significance of the Trail to modern visitors.But strong opposition to siting the statue in the North Park blocks quickly arose. The Public Art Advisory Committee (PAAC) of Portland's Metropolitan Arts Commission (MAC) voted unanimously to reject the site proposal because <blockquote>“the depiction of subject matter was found to be [an] inappropriate and inaccurate portrayal of the settlers of Oregon, excluding the many other races and religions of those who have come to call Oregon home. It is also insensitive to the history of the indigenous peoples of the area.”2</blockquote>Artists and art historians also challenged the statue’s artistic merit. But most of the controversy focused on the perceived culturally insensitivity of the monument during an era that favored racial diversity. Both scholars and the general public began to question the appropriateness of a statue celebrating white westward expansion.News of the controversy quickly spread nationwide, with pundits and politicians eagerly weighing in while others hoped to avoid the issue. For example, conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh displayed a scale model of The Promised Land on his television show. An Oregonian poll found that Portlanders supported placing the statue in a prominent downtown location by a two to one ratio. Nonetheless, the controversy raged on.Reflecting the ways that opinions about the monument reflected a partisan divide, residents and city officials from smaller communities in the Pacific Northwest did not share Portlanders’ angst about Manuel’s design. Other Oregon towns that were heavily invested in heritage tourism lauding Oregon's frontier past expressed a desire to display the statue, including Baker City, Medford, and The Dalles. But even in these smaller towns, not all Oregonians embraced Manuel’s statue.While many Portlanders appeared willing to accept the statue, the controversy about where to place it raged on. A second site committee, which included local community stakeholders as well as historians and members of the PAAC and MAC, ultimately rejected the OTCC’s preferred location in the North Park Blocks as being too prominent and beautiful. They settled instead on Chapman Square as the statue’s final destination. During construction on that downtown business district site, The Promised Land moved to a second temporary location across the Willamette River in the Lloyd District, where it stood overlooking a light rail stop. The statue’s opponents hoped that, after languishing in the Lloyd District several years, the piece would be forgotten and remain in that less noticeable location. But it was not to be. Ironically, over the next fifteen years both the North Park Blocks and Lloyd District would decline in importance, while the newly renovated Chapman Square flourished along with Portland’s financial district.Chapman Square has a long history of struggles over inclusivity and popular memory. It was home to anti-Chinese riots in the 1880s. By the 1920s, it was designated for women’s use after working women complained of repeated sexual harassment in Portland’s downtown parks. More recently, the homeless have built protest camps in the square. The statue was installed near a monument to the imperialist Spanish-American War and a massive bronze elk celebrating the conquest of western lands.Site Committee II sought to make the monument more inclusive by installing bronze footprints and wagon-wheel tracks crossing Chapman Square. They also replaced the OTCC’s planned Oregon Trail diary excerpts with a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson. But those lines were supposedly spoken to Osage leaders on the eastern Great Plains to justify white expansion into native lands. The committee thus sacrificed historical accuracy in favor of an appearance of mutuality. And they used a text that was in fact dedicated to white conquest to do so. In the early 21st century, most Portlanders seemed content to simply ignore the once-controversial statue as they go about their own business in Portland’s business district. But in summer 2020, Chapman Square was once more at the center of public protests. Daily protests associated with the Black Lives Matter movement centered on the Justice Center and neighboring federal buildings across the street from Chapman Square. Amid a showdown with federal troops, protesters placed tape over the mouths of the three people depicted in the Promised Land statue, and set off firecrackers at its base. The City of Portland removed the statue to protect it from further damage.

Donated to the city of Portland to mark the 150th anniversary of the Oregon Trail, this pioneer statue has engendered spirited debate in recent years as residents question whether its title implies that the acquisition of Native land was sanctioned by divine providence. Similar statues that laud the pioneering spirit of people who moved into and acquired land once controlled by Native tribes have led to similar controversy and debate in recent years, with opponents pointing to the way that the monuments celebrated white settlers who took land that had once been occupied by Native peoples. While many might believe that this interpretation of Western history is recent, the 1992 dedication of this monument was opposed. With some residents questioning the aesthetic value of the monument and others protesting against its uncontextualized depiction of a complicated and often violent and tragic history, civic leaders decided against placing the monument in the North Park blocks. The statue was placed in temporary locations for about two years before finally being installed in Chapman Square. In summer 2020 it was targeted by Black Lives Matter protesters, and was removed by the City of Portland.

The Promised Land in Chapman Square as of 2013. Photo by Cynthia Prescott

Portland's "Promised Land" Statue

Coming of
the White Man was originally displayed as part of the Lewis and Clark
Exposition, a&nbsp;1905 fair marking the centennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition's journey from Missouri to the Pacific. Herman MacNeil’s statue features two native men facing
eastward toward wagon trains arriving along the Oregon Trail. Like other
leading artists of his generation, MacNeil thought of indigenous North
Americans as noble savages. But he was one of the first American sculptors to
reject depictions of Native Americans as childlike. MacNeil nonetheless viewed
indigenous peoples as innocents who would necessarily yield way to white
civilization.

In Coming
of the White Man, Multnomah, chief of the local Multnomah Indian tribe,
stands with his arms crossed, staring haughtily as the Lewis and Clark
expedition’s canoes approach down the Columbia River. Beside him, a young
Indian scout points excitedly toward those arriving from the East. 

At the Lewis and Clark exposition, Coming of the White Man had been
juxtaposed against Frederic Remington’s Hitting
the Trail, an ensemble of four exuberant cowboys on horseback, with pistols
raised.&nbsp; These spirited cowboys stood in
for the white-dominated American nation that had indeed come—and dispossessed—the
indigenous peoples of the American West, beginning with the explorations of the
Lewis and Clark expedition.

While some have interpreted Coming of the White Man as depicting
empathy toward native people over the loss of their land and way of life, it nonetheless
declared the inevitable destruction of indigenous populations.&nbsp; Indeed, Portland Mayor George H. Williams professed
both interpretations in the same breath at its 1904 presentation ceremony:

<blockquote>“The
historic significance of this group is the white man’s invasion of the
wilderness home of the Indians. This monument will probably stand here when the
race of people whom it represents has become extinct, and will then describe to
those who come to see it better than any book the form, features, and chief
characteristics of the original inhabitants of this country.”</blockquote>

Williams went on to explain that his late
predecessor, David P. Thompson, had “erected…a splendid representation of our
wild animals” in the form of a massive bronze elk in nearby downtown Portland, which
his family “supplemented…[with] a more splendid representation of the wild men
of this country.”1&nbsp;Portlanders
were confident that both wild Native men would eventually disappear due to the arrival
of white civilization—a process made possible by the Lewis and Clark expedition.After the fair, the statue was moved to Washington Park. It now stands near the&nbsp;Sacajawea&nbsp;statue (which was also displayed at the 1905 fair) and the 1908 Lewis and Clark Memorial Column.

Originally displayed at the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition. It depicts indigenous leader Multnomah and a young brave watching the arrival of white men up the Columbia River into the Willamette Valley.

Coming of the White Man.
Photo by Cynthia Prescott.

Coming of the White Man statue

This 1905 statue by Alice Cooper depicts the famed indigenous woman who served as a translator and guide to the Lewis and Clark expedition. White female suffrage leaders considered the statue to be a fitting memorial to the thousands of white women who brought Anglo-American civilization to the Oregon frontier in the mid-19th century.Portland’s Sacajawea statue was in many ways a feminist project. While most western
public monuments commemorated prominent white men, progressive women actively
promoted pioneer mother monuments, beginning with this statue. The white
Pacific Northwest suffragists that sponsored the Sacajawea statue chose to erect the first bronze public statue of a
specific western woman. They sponsored a regional women-only sculpture competition
to select its design. Instead of an allegorical female figure like those used
in Confederate monuments in that era, the Portland suffragists presented a
heroic depiction of a specific female historic figure. And they scheduled its
dedication to align with a National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
national convention and the Lewis and Clark exposition in Portland. National
and regional suffrage proponents, including Susan B. Anthony and Abigail Scott
Duniway, attended the sculpture’s 1905 dedication.

The white feminist leaders who helped to
erect Cooper’s Sacajawea considered
it a fitting memorial to the thousands of white women who had migrated to Oregon
some half-century earlier. Fundraising materials produced by the Sacajawea
Statue Association declared that Sacajawea (more accurately spelled Sacagawea)
was “[t]he first pioneer mother to cross the Rocky mountains and carry her baby
into Oregon country.”<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Link: null">1</a>&nbsp;Local
writer and historian Eva Emery Dye and Portland suffragist Sarah Evans depicted
Sacagawea as both a nurturer to westering men and children and as a civilizer—roles
that whites typically associated with white women, whom they considered more “civilized.”
Local suffragist Anna Shaw went a step further, suggesting that it was white
men, rather than Indian women, who were uncivilized. 

Dozens more monuments to pioneer women would
be sponsored by local elite women in the following decades. However, later
commemorations would refuse to accept both Sacajawea's
feminist agenda and its use of a woman of color to symbolize frontier
motherhood. 

Sacajawea’s erectors apparently considered the statue to be a racially
progressive project.&nbsp; Cooper’s heroic statue
of Sacagawea celebrated her as a literal and figurative leader to white
men. Her mixed-race son represented
racial mixing. He served as an allegory of the diverse populations of the West
becoming one American people. Yet by choosing Lewis and Clark’s indigenous guide
to commemorate white settler women, the monument also contributed to a national
narrative about progress and the expansion of white civilization to the West.
After all, the statue was erected at the center of the Lewis and Clark Exposition,
which explicitly celebrated white westward expansion. Like The
Coming of the White Man, which also was displayed at the Lewis and Clark
Exposition, Sacagawea became a symbol of indigenous peoples welcoming white
settlers. Her son’s dual ethnic heritage pointed to indigenous peoples
embracing civilized society. In dominant white thinking of the time, no
indigenous woman could serve as an allegory of virtues like liberty. But as the
mother of a young mixed-racial child who paved the way to white settlement of
Indian lands, Sacagawea could—at
least in 1905 Portland—symbolically birth a more civilized nation.

After the fair closed, Sacajawea and The Coming of
the White Man were relocated to Washington Park. They now stand&nbsp;near the 1908 Lewis and Clark Memorial
Column in Washington Park. Sacajawea’s celebration of pioneer motherhood later
inspired the more conservative Daughters of the American Revolution to create
the twelve famous <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow"></a>Madonna of the Trail statues
installed across the United States in the late 1920s.

Feminist leaders gathered in Portland in 1905 to dedicate a statue of Sacajawea in honor of the Native American guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition and to commemorate “the pioneer mother of Old Oregon.” The white female suffrage leaders who helped to erect this statue of the famed indigenous woman considered Alice Cooper’s statue to be a fitting memorial to the thousands of white women who had brought Anglo-American civilization to the Oregon frontier.

Sacajawea statue. 
Photo by Cynthia Prescott

Sacajawea statue

Also known as "Joy" or "Pioneer Woman," this statue and drinking fountain was sculpted by Portland State College art professor Frederic Littman in 1956. The artist depicted a mother playing with her child in the park to symbolize&nbsp;joy. According to a plaque placed near the fountain, the mother and child depicted in the sculpture are the sister and nephew of George B. Staehli, who grew up near the park. The artist intended to&nbsp;depict timeless joy in the mother-child relationship, rather than a&nbsp;particular era. Most artists&nbsp;shied away from sculpting traditional pioneer women in sunbonnets from the mid-1950s through the late 1960s, Fine art of that period was avant-garde and non-representational. But Western films and television shows were popular at that time. Older monuments depicting pioneer mothers stood throughout Portland and the Willamette Valley. And a number of other public fountains erected in the first half of the 20th century in the Midwest and West did feature pioneer women. It is therefore not surprising that Portlanders read the woman on the fountain as a pioneer woman. The plaque beneath the fountain identifies its title as "Joy (Pioneer Woman)." The bronze mother and child stand above two drinking fountains. This fountain's design was a modern spin on public fountains donated by philanthropists to growing cities like Portland in the early 20th century. Elsewhere in the United States, Progressive Era&nbsp;fountains were typically carved from granite, and included a large round trough for work horses. Statues depicting pioneers were sometimes placed at the center of such fountains.&nbsp; Portland has a unique history of public water fountains, though. By the 1920s, it&nbsp;featured dozens of iconic "Benson Bubblers," which were named for&nbsp;businessman and philanthropist Simon Benson. Benson donated $10,000 in 1912 to fund the installation of 20 bronze drinking fountains. Some say that Benson sought to reduce workers' consumption of alcoholic beverages during their lunch breaks. Others claim that he was inspired by the sight of a girl crying from thirst at an Independence Day parade. In the 1970s, the Benson family requested that traditional four-bowl bubblers only be installed within downtown Portland to maintain their uniqueness. This fountain&nbsp;was donated by Florence and George P. Laberee. It stands on&nbsp;Council Crest, which is thought to be the highest point in Portland at 1,073 feet above sea level.&nbsp;The statue was stolen in the 1980s by vandals who sawed through the mother's ankles. The sculpture was recovered a decade later in Northeast Portland and reinstalled near the center of the park.

Also known as "Joy" or "Pioneer Woman," this statue and drinking fountain was sculpted by Frederic Littman in 1956. It is an adaptation of early-20th-century public fountains and Portland's iconic "Benson Bubblers."

Joy (Pioneer Woman). Photo by Cynthia Prescott.

Laberee Memorial Fountain

In 1928, Vancouver, Washington, declared its urban
sophistication by erecting renowned sculptor Avard Fairbanks’ bronze Pioneer Mother in historic Esther Short
Park. Dozens of western cities erected pioneer monuments around this time. For the
former fur trading fort, installing a major bronze statue was a way to shore up
its cultural significance in the area relative to rapidly-growing Portland,
Oregon, just across the Columbia River.

Monuments to white pioneer mothers appeared
throughout the American West in the late 1920s. Among the most famous are the Pioneer Woman in Ponca City, Oklahoma,
and the 12 Madonna of the Trail statues
erected across the nation by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Both
those designs depicted strong young women striding confidently westward. In
contrast, the Pioneer Mother that
Fairbanks sculpted for Vancouver, Washington, rests demurely against a
shoulder-high concrete backdrop. Instead of a sturdy sunbonnet, she wears a
shawl across her shoulders that gently echoes the Madonna-like headscarves
typical of western art produced in the 1840s. She stands with a flintlock rifle
in her right hand but appears unprepared to use it. Her left rests tenderly on
the head of her eldest child. That daughter echoes her maternal touch,
reassuring the youngest child. A son grasps their mother’s skirts timidly. The
sculpture’s gentle domesticity was further reinforced by the waterfall and
flowering shrubs surrounding it in its original location.

Fairbanks adapted his earlier Old Oregon Trail medallion for the reverse of the monument. Those
bas reliefs depict a hardy pioneer guiding his covered wagon and ox team over
rough western terrain, while his bare-headed wife holds their baby in a
Madonna-like pose. For Vancouver, Fairbanks reproduced this image but renamed
it The Pioneer Mothers.

At least one daughter of Oregon settlers disagreed
with the balance Fairbanks struck between celebrating early settlers and
depicting the hardships they faced. Izella Surfus Osterud viewed the Fairbanks
monument in the late 1960s with her granddaughter, telling her:<blockquote>“‘T’wasn’t like that at all. Not at all. First thing is, the baby would be
dead...The danger wasn’t wildcats or Indians, but cholera...Guns weren’t any use
for that. And a mother couldn’t protect
her children, either...Should have waited a couple of years and taken the train.’”1</blockquote>Historical research confirms Osterud’s claim
that communicable diseases carried West by white settlers were more dangerous
to them than were the Native peoples they encountered along the way.&nbsp;But most white westerners
preferred myth to reality, and celebration to commiseration.

Established in 1853, Esther Short
Park had become a center of civic life by the early twentieth century, hosting
the county fair, big band concerts, and baseball games. But, like many American
cities, Vancouver’s downtown area was abandoned by the growing middle class
amid suburbanization after World War II. By the mid-1970s, Esther Short Park
was primarily frequented by vagrants and panhandlers.&nbsp; The park became so overgrown that visitors
would have to climb through the surrounding shrubs to see the Pioneer Mother statue.

Then in the late 1990s, Vancouver’s
massive downtown revitalization effort succeeded in transforming Esther Short
Park into a bustling town plaza. As part of those renovations, Fairbanks’ Pioneer Mother was relocated to a far
less tranquil site facing a busy downtown street that made the statue more
visible to passing motorists.&nbsp;Vancouver residents have reclaimed the renovated
park, but many reject Fairbanks’ shrine to white civilization.The historic
statue has become an obstacle to park visitors rather than a centerpiece of
modern urban planning. Visiting Seattle resident
Holly Burpo told The Columbian in
2012 that found the statue “creepy...Her, with the kids. I don’t know, the
meaning is unclear.”2&nbsp;The
city’s tribute to pioneer motherhood has become at best confusing, and at worst
an impediment to Vancouverites’ enthusiastic return to the once dangerous
downtown park.

&nbsp;

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Monument to white pioneer mothers erected in Esther Short Park in 1928. After World War II, the park fell into disuse and the statue was largely forgotten. Urban renewal brought extensive renovations to the park, and this statue was moved to a more visible location.

Pioneer Mother statue
Photo by Cynthia Prescott

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Portland's Pioneer Monuments

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