Oregon State Parks

The original tract for the park was a gift of 3.71 acres in 1962 by the Portland Women's Forum to the state. This had been the old Chanticleer Inn property with a magnificent view of the Columbia River Gorge. The additional tract was purchased after litigation in 1970. The Portland Women's Forum was made up of representatives of the principal women's organizations of Portland. For many years under the leadership of Mrs. Gertrude Jensen, the Forum was very active in the preservation of natural beauty along the Columbia River Gorge. The group was responsible for appointment of the first Columbia Gorge Commission in the 1950s.

Acreage: 7.26

Annual day use attendance: 267,540

"Chanticleer Inn burned in the 1930s. Subsequently, the Portland Women’s Forum, which was active in preserving the Columbia River Gorge’s natural beauty, gained title to the property. It donated the parcel to the state for a park in 1962. Additional acreage was acquired in 1970."

"In 1956, the Portland Women's Forum purchased 3.7 acres of the Meier's estate including the main overlook."

"The park consists of a northward oriented parking area bordered by sidewalks. Attention is directed eastward toward the Columbia River Gorge. Several plaques are found along the park’s eastern edge. They include memorials to the Portland Women’s Forum."

Hallie Wiggins, A Brief History of Portland Women's Forum (1999)

The Portland Women’s Forum was organized in 1946 for the dissemination of information concerning civic, state, national and international affairs.

In 1950, after a Sunday drive up the Columbia River Highway, Gertrude Glutsch Jensen came to a Portland Women’s Forum meeting and told us that the loggers and mills were despoiling the “Great Gorge of the Mighty Columbia River”, as she called it. She was heartsick over what she had seen. She felt that the State of Oregon or the federal government could help in exchanging timber land in the Gorge for timber elsewhere. The Portland Women’s Forum established the Columbia River Gorge as it’s principal and permanent project. We wrote letters and went to meetings with the Oregon State Legislature asking for their help. Gertrude was the powerhouse behind all this. She even went back to Washington DC at her own expense to get help from Congress.

In 1953, the Oregon Legislature created a three member Columbia River Gorge Commission with Gertrude Glutsch Jensen as chairman. She served in this capacity for sixteen years. Thousands of acres of land were acquired by public agencies through donations to the state, and land exchanges by the Bureau of Land Management, Mt. Hood National Forest and Hood River County.

In 1956 the Portland Women’s Forum purchased 3.7 acres at Chanticleer Point -- one of the world’s famous viewpoints -- from Julius L. Meier, Jr. In order to pay for it we held teas, fashion shows, doll shows, Blue Room shows and sold life memberships guaranteeing that all those who bought life memberships in the Forum before a certain date would have their names on the memorial marker at the Portland Women’s Forum State Park in perpetuity.

In 1963 the property was turned over to the State of Oregon “reserving to the Portland Women’s Forum the right to erect and maintain a memorial on the property”.

PWF installed a drinking fountain at the park in memory of Gertrude Glutsch Jensen.

In 1991, when the Historic Columbia River Highway was celebrating it’s Diamond Jubilee, the Portland Women’s Forum furnished the brass cover to a time capsule planted at the Columbia Gorge Hotel to be opened in 100 years.

When the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center opened in Stevenson, Washington, in 1994, the PWF donated three hand-crafted fir benches in memory of Gertrude Glutsch Jensen to be placed in the lobby.

In 1998 we paid Caswell Galleries to repair, clean and polish the monuments and markers at the park including the Sam Lancaster Memorial marker at the entrance.

Since 1950 to the present, the preservation and beautification of the Columbia River Gorge remains the principle and permanent project of PWF. The Forum is non-political, non-partisan and non-profit.

Links

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