The Washington State Public Port Act failed twice before passing in 1911. Its approval gave voters the creation of port districts with the power to improve harbors and to acquire, construct and operate waterways, docks and wharves. Until then, waterfronts were a muddle of piers and wharves owned by private citizens. That year, Seattle and Gray’s Harbor created the state’s first and second ports. The third, the Port of Vancouver, followed in 1912.
A former Confederate cavalryman, Southern attorney and judge, J.A. Mundy, warned Vancouver that its path was clear. It could either “loiter in the shadow of Portland’s skyscrapers” or choose “independent cityhood.” Like many civic leaders, Mundy ardently asked voters to approve the proposal for a Port of Vancouver in the upcoming April election. When the vote was in, election officials counted 632 for and 180 against a port district.
The north bank of the Columbia River for centuries served as a place for Native Americans to trade goods. From Hudson’s Bay Company days until the port proposal passed, the same area served as an entry and exit point for lumber and trade materials. In the late 1800s, individuals constructed docks along the waterfront as businesses. (At one time, Esther Short owned a wharf.)
Private citizens owned Vancouver’s waterfront and profited well from handling its cargo, primarily lumber. Businessmen pooled their money in 1903 to dredge the Columbia River from the Willamette River’s mouth to the Vancouver waterfront, making a channel 14 feet deep and as wide as 200 feet. It was dredged again in 1905. Then, in 1908, the Pittock and Leadbetter mill closed, and waterfront lumber shipments declined.
