PLSO Oregon Surveyor July/August 2020

25 What primary benchmarks west of the Willamette River in downtown Portland still exist today? Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon  |  www.plso.org The Lost Surveyor Question Continues on page 26 T Photo 1: Portland’s second benchmark, likely established in 1914. R ecently while working on a project, I found the need to dive deeper into the history and datums within the city of Portland. Since COVID-19 has kept me close to home, this Lost Surveyor is not about a surveyor at all, but about the results of some of that research. This article focuses only on the benchmarks themselves, but not on the full history behind them. I hope to save that for another more complete article about the origins of the current city datum. There have been three primary benchmarks west of the Willamette River in downtown Portland, two of which still exist today. The first benchmark in the city, set in about 1864, was a stone water table at the northeast corner of the J.L. Parrish building on the southwest corner of SW Front and SWWashington streets. This mark was specified in Ordinance Book 1 Page 237 in August 1864. The elevation of this benchmark was