COUNCIL CREST

Highest Point in Portland
Elevation: 1,077 ft

Total ride distance: 100.7 miles
Total ride time: 10 hrs, 45 min

Council Crest was one of the few hills in Portland that I hadn't yet tackled so I thought it would be a great way to break up the 100-mile ride around the city that I had set out on that morning

Historical Information

Council Crest is the highest point in Portland at 1073 feet above sea level. This spot was originally called Talbot's Mountain, after its pioneer settlers, but was also once known as Glass Hill and later called Fairmount, the name of the road that encircles it. According to legend, it got its name because it was here that Native Americans held meetings and built signal fires. Others say that it was named in 1898 by delegates to the National Council of Congregational Churches, who met on the top. The water tower that now stands atop Council Crest used to be a 77-foot tall wooden observatory. This observatory was part of the Council Crest Amusement Park, which was torn down in 1941.

In July 1956, a welded, sheet bronze drinking fountain featuring a mother and child was installed in the park. Sculpted by Frederic Littmann, an associate professor of art at Portland State College, it has been mistakenly identified as a pioneer woman. The sculptor said the statue did not represent a particular era; it was simply a mother and child playing in the park and depicts joy. The fountain was made possible by a $6,000 bequest to the city in 1949 from the estate of Florence Laberee, widow of local builder and contractor George P. Laberee.

In the 1980s, the statue was stolen in the middle of the night by vandals who used hacksaws to dismantle it from its base, sawing through the mother's ankles. Nearly 10 years later, during a narcotics raid on a home in northeast Portland, officers found the rusty statue in the backyard under a cover. The statue was re-erected in the center of the park near the entrance, as opposed to its original location on the eastern side of the park, and to this day continues to refresh thirsty park visitors.