Springwater Corridor

The Springwater Corridor runs 21 paved miles from the Willamette River at SE Ivon Street in Portland to Boring in Clackamas County. It starts along the river past Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge and Sellwood, then turns east up the Johnson Creek floodplain through Lents, past Powell Butte, and into downtown Gresham at Main City Park. From Gresham it climbs at a steady rail grade through farmland to Boring Station Trailhead. The asphalt is wide and the grade never bites, so families and commuters share it with distance riders. A short on-street gap remains in Sellwood between the riverfront section and the Three Bridges section, and a separate soft-surface horse path runs beside the trail east of Interstate 205.

• The Springwater Division line was named for a planned connection to the town of Springwater, Oregon, and neither the railroad nor the trail ever reached it.
• Passenger service on the line peaked in 1906, and the last interurban passenger train ran in January 1958.
• The Cazadero dam, finished in 1907 south of Estacada, generated the electricity that powered the trolleys on this line.
• The Olmsted Brothers proposed a 40-mile ring of parks around Portland in 1903; the loop plan has since grown to about 140 miles, and the Springwater Corridor is its southeast leg.
• Oaks Bottom was named Portland's first wildlife refuge in 1988, and more than 185 bird species have been recorded there.
• Powell Butte is an extinct cinder cone of the Boring Lava Field that tops out at 614 feet, with 50 million gallon drinking water reservoirs buried beneath its meadows.
• Johnson Creek flows 26 miles from east of Boring to the Willamette at Milwaukie, and its floodplain is thought to be a remnant of the Missoula floods that carved the Columbia River Gorge.
• A Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s straightened and rock-lined Johnson Creek; the largest flood on record came in 1964, and a December 2015 storm produced the highest peak flow ever measured.
• Johnson Creek is listed critical habitat for coho and chinook salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat trout.
• Tideman Johnson Natural Area was donated to Portland in 1940 by a pioneer family that had hosted Fourth of July picnics and fireworks on the land.

Electric interurban cars began running from Sellwood to Boring and on to the Cazadero dam site south of Estacada in 1903. The Johnson family's land claim on Johnson Creek predates the rails; the family hosted Fourth of July picnics in its creekside gorge and gave it to the city in 1940. The same year the trains started, the Olmsted Brothers proposed a 40-mile ring of parkland around Portland. The line took the name Springwater Division after a town it never reached. Its power came from the Cazadero dam, finished in 1907. Passenger traffic peaked in 1906. Freight trains hauled farm produce into Portland and served a brick factory outside Gresham. Traffic beyond Boring toward Estacada ended in the early 1940s. The last interurban passenger train ran in January 1958, and the Portland Traction Company carried freight alone after that. In 1989 all trackage east of 17th Avenue was abandoned. Southern Pacific and Union Pacific, joint owners of the corridor, transferred it in 1990 and the City of Portland acquired it that year. The trail opened in 1996 from Sellwood to Gresham. The three mile riverfront section followed in 2002. Three new bridges over Johnson Creek, Highway 99E, and a rail line closed the next gap in 2006. Clackamas County paved the final stretch from Rugg Road to Boring Station in 2013. Portland Parks paved most of the Sellwood Gap in 2019, leaving a short on-street link.

• Ivon Street TrailheadMILE 0Directions
• Oaks Bottom Wildlife RefugeMILE 1.4Directions
• Sellwood Riverfront ParkMILE 2.9Directions
• Tacoma Johnson Creek MAX StationMILE 4.5Directions
• Tideman Johnson Natural AreaMILE 5.5Directions
• Beggars-tick Wildlife RefugeMILE 9.1Directions
• Linnemann StationMILE 13.5Directions
• Gresham Main City ParkMILE 15.5Directions
• Hogan Road TrailheadMILE 16.8Directions
• Boring Station TrailheadMILE 21Directions

• Clackamas County · Springwater Corridor Trail
• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (TrailLink) · Springwater Corridor
• Access Trails · Springwater Corridor East: Overview
• City of Gresham · Gresham Trails
• Wikipedia · Springwater Corridor
• Wikipedia · 40-Mile Loop
• Abandoned Rails · Portland to Cazadero, OR
• Craig's Railroad Pages · Portland Traction Company, Back in the Day
• Portland Bureau of Environmental Services · Johnson Creek Watershed
• Wikipedia · Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge
• Wikipedia · Powell Butte
• Portland Parks & Recreation · Powell Butte Nature Park
• Portland Parks & Recreation · Tideman Johnson Natural Area
• Portland Parks & Recreation · Springwater Trail (Sellwood Gap) Trail Project
• BikePortland · Parks bureau will begin paving key section of 'Sellwood Gap' next month