There was much about the future that Portland’s shipyard workers could not foresee in the halcyon days of World War II. The influx of newcomers never imagined their descendants transforming Portland into one of the most environmentally friendly, or “green”, cities in the world. Due to its transportation networks and efficient land use, Portland, Oregon is a world model for urban environmental effect.
FDR’s War Production Board, established in August 1942 to direct the nation’s economy toward wartime production, forever transformed American cities like Portland, Oregon. When the United States entered World War II, Portland changed overnight into a bustling wartime factory community. Located on two major waterways, the Willamette and the Columbia Rivers giving access to the Pacific Ocean, Portland was the perfect setting for lucrative defense shipbuilding contracts.
Henry Kaiser opened three shipbuilding yards here. A testament to Kaiser’s earlier government contract success was organizing the completion of Hoover Dam in half the time expected. Kaiser Shipbuilding Company completed ships in two-thirds the time and at a quarter the cost of other shipyards. The majority of Kaiser’s wartime workers were women, who collectively became known as “Rosie the Riveter.”
World War II brought both anxiety and excitement to Portland’s daily life. *Rosie the Riveter’s were women who came of age in a pre-feminist world, a world in which women were not permitted to serve on juries until 1954, but America’s shipyards urgently needed workers. One front page headline in the Oregonian, Portland’s largest daily newspaper pleaded, “10,000 Workers Needed!”
Defense plants were recruiting workers from around the country, encouraging women and minorities to apply, providing those willing to relocate, free transportation. Portland’s population mushroomed. Women became the defense plant’s backbone. They were painters, welders and of course riveters.
It was 70-years ago, in August 1942, that “Rosie the Riveter” became a national symbol for women entering the work force. The war cut women free from their apron strings, mobilizing them into taking the place of the men sent overseas. Portland shipyards had more than 100,000 people working around-the-clock shifts, making it and its neighbor, Vancouver, Washington across the Columbia River one of America’s most vital shipbuilding producers.
Between 1942 and 1945, the shipyards teemed with activity, churning round the clock. At night, their bright lights illuminated the rivers as though it were daylight. In the fall of 1942, the Oregon Shipbuilding Yard on the Columbia River built the SS Joseph N. Teal in just ten days.
Recognizing the need for housing, Henry Kaiser built what became Oregon’s second largest city, “Vanport City.” **Vanport City took its name from its proximity between Portland and Vancouver. Vanport was a company town that offered medical care, child care, k-12 schools and even a ***college.
Under President Roosevelt’s War Production Board, American factories produced nearly 300,000 aircraft, 85,000 tanks and more than 70,000 ships. Portland’s three shipyards helped to produce many of those ships by delivering the highest number of ships per slipway and leading in the lowest number of man hours per ship during WW II.
The greatest impact on Portland was the changed demographics, the diversity of nationalities. No longer was Portland’s major population made from descendants of the Oregon Trail pioneers.
In 2011, Portland, Oregon was awarded one of the top five “Impressive City” awards for communities where citizens are making a difference in their environment. Portland’s wartime shipbuilding boom maybe a footnote in Oregon history, as is Vanport, but Portland remains an inviting, exciting, scenic and yes historical city to come and visit.
*The American Rosie the Riveter Association recognizes and preserves the legacy of WW II female defense plant workers. Membership is open to former Rosies and their descendants. Learn more:Log onto rosietheriveter.net
**Memorial Day 1948, Vanport City, Oregon’s second largest city, was destroyed by a massive flood. The Columbia River was high that year with snow melt from nearby mountains. Many lives were lost and Vanport was never rebuilt.
***Following the Vanport flood, Vanport City College, whose students were then mostly veterans attending on the GI Bill, rebuilt in a new location and became Portland State University.