Dangerous Ground, Oregon City, Oregon
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member Rose Red
N 45° 21.359 W 122° 33.213
10T E 534968 N 5022593
The 6,000+ square feet, old world style house was custom built for the 2006 Street of Dreams near Oregon City, Oregon on dangerous ground created in the aftermath of the Missoula Flood of 13,000 to 18,000 years ago.
Waymark Code: WM19FN
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 03/04/2007
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member Blue J Wenatchee
Views: 286


The 6,000+ square feet, old world style house was custom built for the 2006 Street of Dreams near Oregon City, Oregon on dangerous ground created in the aftermath of the Missoula Flood of 13,000 to 18,000 years ago. Nearly every house inside Hidden Lake Estates, including the Street of Dreams, sits on this ancient landslide. Giant and mostly dormant ancient landslides are everywhere in the area. This is one of the largest in Clackamas County. The ground is slowly moving with little hope of stopping it.

If the massive ice sheet that caused the Missoula Flood had stopped its advance a few miles farther north, the Clark Fork Valley would never have been dammed and the flood would never have occurred. If the flood had never occurred, the entire Portland basin would likely be entirely flat. Mount Tabor and Rocky Butte, a thoroughly defunct volcanic basalt cinder cone, would still be there, but there would be no McLoughlin Heights in Vancouver, no Alameda Ridge in Portland, nothing of any height. The Tualatin, Yamhill and Willamette valleys would not have the estimated 50 cubic miles of rich topsoil stripped from the rolling hills of eastern Washington’s Palouse region. The Oregon Pioneers might have gone elsewhere to farm.

However the Missoula Flood did occur. The waters, 400 to 500-feet-high and dark with muddy sediment, debris, and glacial erratics, flooded an area of almost 11,000 square miles from the Kalama Narrows in Washington to Eugene, Oregon. Landslides that plague this area near Oregon City occur because of the slopes in the Troutdale Formation that were submerged over and over again by the Missoula floods, leaving deposits of sand, clay, and gravel. As the floodwaters left, the slopes moved downhill. Those old slides still creep a little each year. When people intervene, they sometimes cause larger and faster slides. People will continue to build on ancient landslides as cities and countries permit developers to building on them because private engineering firms often put out conflicting reports, and state building codes do not restrict construction on what some experts say is dangerous ground.

For more information: http://www.katu.com/news/specialreports/6131886.html?skipthumb=Y

Hidden Lake Estates, including the Street of Dreams, is a gated development however you can stand at the gates to view the slopes. Instructions for logging waymark: A photograph is required of you (or your GPS receiver, if you are waymarking solo) and the Hidden Lake Estates sign.

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You must actually visit a feature to post a log for it. You must post a picture that you have taken at the feature to have the waymark approved. It has to be in one of the states listed above.
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Recent Visits/Logs:
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PeterNoG visited Dangerous Ground, Oregon City, Oregon 03/20/2013 PeterNoG visited it
HappyFrog (& gang) visited Dangerous Ground, Oregon City, Oregon 05/03/2008 HappyFrog (& gang) visited it

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