Vanport was dramatically destroyed at 4:05 p.m. on May 30, 1948,
when a 200-foot section of the dike holding back the Columbia
River collapsed during a flood, killing 15. The city was underwater
by nightfall leaving its inhabitants homeless.

Vanport, sometimes referred to as Vanport City or Kaiserville, was built as
a city for wartime public housing in Multnomah County, Oregon between the Portland city boundary and the Columbia River. It is currently the site
of Delta Park and the Portland International Raceway. Vanport construction
began in August 1942 to house the workers at the wartime Kaiser Shipyards
in Portland and Vancouver, Washington. The Vanport name was a blending
of "Vancouver" and "Portland". The city home to 40,000 people, about 40 
percent of them African-American, making it Oregon’s second-largest city
at the time, and the largest public housing project in the nation.

Art by Henk Pander, Vanport Mosaic Festival.

The Delta Park area today.

Portland International Raceway.