Forest Park

Forest Park's extensive system of trails, fire lanes and roads provide excellent opportunities for hiking, walking, running, and simply escaping the urban atmosphere. An abundance of wildlife (more than 112 bird and 62 mammal species) can be found in the park. The 30.2 mile long Wildwood Trail, a National Recreation Trail, is part of the region’s 40-Mile Loop system that links Forest Park to pedestrian and other routes along the Columbia River to Gresham, to Southeast Portland, along the Willamette Greenway, and back to the Marquam Trail in Southwest Portland. Native American settlement of the area now known as Forest Park is believed to date back 10,000 years. The first Euro-American explorers arrived in the Willamette Valley with the Lewis & Clark expedition in 1806. By the mid-1800's, most Native American people living in the area had been removed by state and federal authorities in favor of Euro-American settlers. In 1903, John Charles Olmstead and his brother Frederick Law Olmstead, sons of the designer of New York's Central Park and many other iconic green spaces in the United States, proposed that the densely wooded hills above northwest Portland be designated by the City as “a forest park." In the early 20th century, the park narrowly avoided large-scale residential development, largely due to its geologic unsuitability. After nearly half a century of advocacy and hard work by visionary community leaders, Forest Park was eventually dedicated in 1948. That same group of civic-minded individuals formed an organization that continued to advocate and work for the preservation and protection of Forest Park; that organization is now known as The Forest Park Conservancy.