Canyon Road
Canyon Road (Great Plank Road at inception) is a road connecting Beaverton and Portland, Oregon, United States. It was the first road between the Tualatin Valley and Portland and contributed significantly to Portland becoming the area's major deep water port, and subsequent early growth of the city. The total modern length is 6.5 miles (10.5 km).
By 1851 a dirt road, which was often muddy, ran between Portland and the Tualatin Valley—starting on Jefferson Street at the Willamette River then passing through Tanner Creek Canyon that cuts through the Tualatin Mountains. A plank road was suggested by Portland entrepreneur and proprietor Daniel H. Lownsdale as a means to transport abundant Tualatin Valley farm produce and grains to California Gold Rush-inflated markets in San Francisco, California. Col. William Williams Chapman, another proprietor, expended time and expense providing the basics for fledgling Portland in an effort to counter competition by other upstart towns and Hudson's Bay Company. He founded The Oregonian, enlarged Portland's platt, improving the city's streets, and ushered construction of Canyon Road. Others already invested in the city contributed to help make Portland the prime seaport of the region, including persuading others to join them, removing river obstructions, and importing goods from Asia and beyond.
The Portland & Valley Plank Road Company was chartered in January 1851 by the territorial government. Editor of the Weekly Oregonian newspaper, Thomas J. Dryer, immediately invested $500 and promoted the project.Stephen Coffin and William W. Chapman pledged $3000, with Daniel H. Lownsdale pledging $2,000. Ultimately over $35,000 was pledged but not all was paid, with Coffin, Chapman and Lownsdale likely to have not paid in full.
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