城市的扩张与消失的农业-重访坦纳溪农田Tanner Creek Farms Revisited

Tanner Creek Farms Revisited

重访坦纳溪农田

Jason King

坦纳溪沿岸的内陆农业区城市扩张

As a follow up to this post from about a year ago, Farming Tanner Creek, which delved into the history of Chinese farmers in Portland, this post picks that thread up by looking a bit closer at Marie-Rose Wong’s 2004 “Sweet Cakes, Long Journey: The Chinatowns of Portland”. The book is a comprehensive look at the history of immigration and settlement and contributions to the development of Oregon and early Portland, integration into the city and its architecture, and frank accounts of local institutional racism and displacement, most notably the impacts of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

我在大约一年前所写的《在坦纳溪耕种》深入研究了波特兰中国农民的历史。作为后续，本文通过仔细研究Marie-Rose Wongy于2004年出版的《甜蜜的蛋糕，漫长的旅程：波特兰的唐人街》来重访这个话题。这本书全面审视了移民和定居的历史，移民对俄勒冈州和波特兰市早期发展的、融入城市及其建筑的贡献，以及对当地制度性种族主义（尤其是1882年排华法案）和流离失所的坦率叙述。

As the title suggests, there were many incarnations of Chinatowns over the years in Portland focused around two zones. The first is the urban development zone of habitation that shifted shape running along the Willamette River to areas centered on Burnside and running to the north and south. These emerged first as a cohesive enclave, and later into a dispersed ‘non-clave’ that persists somewhat today in the small district of Old Town/Chinatown. The second is a zone of Chinese Vegetable Gardens further upland south of Burnside and west of 14th and provided more informal housing and opportunities for vegetable gardens. My focus here is on the latter, the farming zones inland along the banks of Tanner Creek, which Wong discusses and outlines their evolution over time, and how the fates of Chinese farmers and the creek were linked.

正如这本书的标题所暗示的那样，多年来，波特兰有许多条唐人街，主要集中在两个区域。一是城市居住开发区，沿威拉米特河向以伯恩赛德街为中心向南北延伸。这些街道首先作为一个有凝聚力的飞地出现，后来成为一个分散的“非飞地”，至今仍保留在老城区/唐人街的小区域。二是位于伯恩赛德街以南和十四街以西的高地的中国菜园区，提供了更多的非正式住房和菜园。我在这篇文章里的重点是后者，即坦纳溪沿岸的内陆农业区。Wong讨论并概述了它们随时间的演变，以及中国农民的命运如何与小溪联系在一起。

The three vicinities of Chinatown – From Wong, p.206

三片唐人街区域，图片来自《甜蜜的蛋糕，漫长的旅程：波特兰的唐人街》第206页

双重描述

Much of the backstory here is found in the previous post, which focuses on a 2016 article by Putsata Reang in Oregon Humanities, entitled ‘The Farmers of Tanner Creek’ along with some additional information from Tracy Prince’s book “Portland’s Goose Hollow”. In this case, I was pretty fascinated by the dual narratives of the erasure of the Chinese Vegetable Gardens in tandem with the erasure of Tanner Creek, which is illustrated in the series of maps in Wong’s book, spanning 1879 to 1908.

这里的大部分背景故事都可以在我的上一篇文章中找到。上一篇文章侧重于俄勒冈人文学科的Putsata Reang于2016年的一篇文章，题为《坦纳溪的农民》，以及Tracy Prince的书《波特兰的鹅谷》中的一些附加信息。因此，我非常着迷于“中国菜园被抹去”与“坦纳溪被抹去”的双重叙述，这在Wong的《甜蜜的蛋糕，漫长的旅程：波特兰的唐人街》从1879年到1908年的一系列地图中有说明。

Via “The Farmers of Tanner Creek” – Oregon Humanities “Tanner Creek runs between Chinese gardens and shanties, circa 1892. Providence Park, the Portland Timbers soccer stadium, now stands where these gardens once did.”

照片来自《坦纳溪的农民》——俄勒冈人文学院。“大约1892年，坦纳溪在中国菜园和棚户区之间流淌。普罗维登斯公园（波特兰伐木工队的足球场）现在矗立在这些菜园曾经所在的地方。”

I took the liberty of adding a few items of color to these maps, focusing on the routing of Tanner Creek and the extents of the Portland Chinatown Vegetable Garden Community. As mentioned by Wong the roads “…were needed to serve an expanding population, but the flood-prone Tanner Creek and the gulch that meandered through this area were dominant nature features that controlled much of the building potential of the region.” (211) Thus improvements were required to tame this and create conditions better for development and expansion. Wong continues:

我冒昧地在这些地图上添加了一些颜色，重点是坦纳溪的路线和波特兰唐人街菜园社区的范围。正如Wong所说，道路“……为了向不断增长的人口提供服务而被大量需要，但以蜿蜒而过的峡谷和易发洪水的坦纳溪为主的自然特征限制了该地区的大部分建设潜力。”(211)因此，需要对坦纳溪进行改进以缓和这一问题，并为发展和扩张创造更好的条件。Wong继续说道：

“In 1873, the old wooden bridge that spanned the creek connecting B Street to a small number of residences collapses in the rise water fed by winter rains, necessitating replacement and improvement. In July of that same year, the City of Portland contracted Chinese workers to construct a 115-foot cylindrical brick culvert sixty feet below the level of B Street. The culvert was to run along the bed of the creek, with some infill of the gulch to permit construction of a new bridge. At six feet in diameter, the culvert was large enough for a man to walk through and was intended to provide drainage for at least a hundred years. This improvement made it possible to control, if not totally prevent, flooding of the creek and associated erosion along the creek bed and the embankment up to street level.” (211)

“1873年，连接B街和少数住宅的小溪上的旧木桥在冬雨滋养的涨水中倒塌，需要更换和改善。同年7月，波特兰市与中国工人签订合同，在B街水平面以下60英尺处建造一座115英尺的圆柱形砖涵洞。涵洞将顺着河床延伸，并填充一些峡谷以建造一座新桥。涵洞直径为六英尺，足以让一个人穿过，并预计将提供至少一百年的排水功能。这项改进能控制（如果不能完全防止）溪水的泛滥以及沿河床和路堤至街道高度的相应侵蚀。”(第211页)

Between 1879 and 1889 the amount of area for Vegetable Gardens increased dramatically, from 3 acres to over 21 acres, as shown on the map below (page 214). The reduced flooding allowing for farming and Shanties to expand, filling the entire lowland zone.The new plank road to the east and a new wooden bridge spanned new developments towards Jefferson to the west. The Creek was still intact through this zone as well, however starting to get chopped up with development on the edges. The ability of the Chinese to extract maximum production from this space was notable, as Wong mentions: “The immigrant gardeners… acted collectively, sharing the labor and the profits as they continued to farm the low-lying ground and slopes of the Tanner Creek Gulch. The Chinese applied their extraordinary agricultural skills, shared by Cantonese immigrants of rural background, to successfully cultivate the land.” (212)

1879年至1889年间，菜园的面积急剧增加，从3英亩增加到超过21英亩，如下图所示（第214页）。减少的洪水允许农业和棚户区扩大，填满整个低地地区。东面的新栈道和一座新的木桥跨越了西面杰斐逊的新开发项目。穿过这个区域的小溪仍然完好无损，但随着边缘的发展开始被切断。正如Wong所说，中国人从这个空间中提取最大产量的能力是值得注意的：“移民园丁……集体行动，分享劳动力和利润，他们继续耕种坦纳溪峡谷的低洼地和斜坡。有农村背景的广东移民们运用他们非凡的农业技能，成功地耕种了这片土地。”(第212页)

1890s – Trestle bridge, Chinese vegetable gardens, Portland High School Courtesy Oreg. Hist. Soc. Research Lib., bb007389

1890年代–栈桥、中国菜园、波特兰高中。由俄勒冈州历史社会党研究图书馆提供，bb007389

As seen above, at the time, there was some development, but more residents were moving near here and building larger houses, and for a short time the two lived in close proximity with little issue. “Perhaps the year-round beauty of the gardens and the convenience of easily available low-cost produce enable two such economically disparate and cultural distinctive social groups to coexist for many years.” (215)

如上所见，当时有一些发展，但更多的居民搬到这附近并建造更大的房子，并且在很短的时间内，两方住得很近，没有什么问题。“也许是一年四季的美丽菜园和易于获得的低成本产品的便利性使这样两个经济上截然不同且文化独特的社会群体能够共存多年。”(第215页)

逐渐消失的小溪

The 1901 map (below, from page 216) shows the impact of a new resident, The Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club (now the current The MAC ), which displaced some of these gardens by moving into 5 acres to the north of the creek, using the natural slope as a viewing amphitheater and building a clubhouse. They also constructed considerable raised plank infrastructure on Alder Street, which eliminated gardens below there (but did keep the creek free flowing for a while longer). Farmers expanded the Shanties in existing areas, and moved to the area west of Jefferson where they installed new gardens and Shanties. The creek it seems to also have started disappearing more in this period. The drawing doesn’t show a key to connote what dashed lines mean versus solid, but it’s probably not a stretch to imply much more culverting of flows, and the plank roads also serving to visually disconnect the creek from views of residents.

1901年的地图（下图，第216页）显示了摩特诺玛业余运动俱乐部（现为MAC)的影响。俱乐部将其中一些花园搬迁到小溪以北的5英亩土地上，将天然斜坡用作观景圆形剧场并建造会所。他们还在奥尔德街建造了相当多的高架木板基础设施，清除了下面的花园（但确实让小溪多延续了一段时间）。农民在现有地区扩建棚屋，并搬到杰斐逊以西的地区，在那里他们安装了新的花园和棚屋。在此期间，小溪似乎也开始消失得更多。该图没有显示出虚线与实线的含义的关键，但它应该不是暗示更多涵洞流量。同时，木板路还可以在视觉上将小溪与居民的视线隔开。

By 1908 the map (from page 217) expansion of the city was reducing (to around 11 acres) the area of gardens even more as land became more desirable. The Creek was removed through conversion of bridges and plank roads into surface streets, which filled up gulches.This was a product of one of the “… city’s long-range projects for controlling flooding, raising the grade to accommodate roads, and encouraging urban residential development.” (218) The area near the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club purchased the land and “over the next few years, both Tanner Creek and the land adjacent to it were filled to permit final construction of the athletic club and nearby homes.” (219)

到1908年，随着土地变得更加受欢迎，地图显示（第217页）城市的扩张正在减少菜园面积（减少到大约11英亩）。通过将桥梁和木板路改造成地面街道，小溪被移除，这些街道填满了峡谷。这是“……城市控制洪水、提升地面高度以建设道路、和鼓励城市住宅发展的长期项目”(第218页)的产物之一。摩特诺玛业余体育俱乐部购买了附近的这块土地，“在接下来的几年里，坦纳溪和毗邻的土地都被填满，以便最终建造体育俱乐部和附近的房屋。”(第219页)

Together with a number of ordinances aimed at reducing the number of Chinese vendors selling products, and finally just outright banning street peddlers in certain areas. As Wong concludes:

再加上一些旨在减少中国小贩数量的法令，最后彻底禁止某些地区的街头小贩，正如Wong总结的：

“Portland’s urban growth and expansion into the Tanner Creek area, the filling in of the creek, and the city ordinance that prohibited the rural Chinese from earning a living did irreparable harm to the fragile gardening community. A reporter’s prescient statement in 1889, that the time would likely come when ‘the gulches [would be] filled up and used as building site,’ had come to pass, and the Chinese Vegetable Gardens community disappeared from the record after 1910.” (220)

波特兰的城市发展和向坦纳溪地区的扩张、小溪的填平以及禁止中国农民谋生的城市法令对脆弱的菜园社区造成了无法弥补的伤害。一位记者在1889年有先见之明地指出的“峡谷[即将]被填满并成为建筑工地”的时候已经到来，中国菜园社区在1910年后从记录中消失了。”(第220页)

It’s a wonder as well that it lasted as long as it did, within the rapid urban expansion and the racist undercurrents at the time. The map sequence is a great snapshot in time to see Tanner Creek in the midst of Portland’s urbanization towards the end of the 19th Century. While, it is not totally clear graphically which portions of Tanner Creek were still remaining and which were buried, it shows a valuable sequential picture of the development of this portion of the city and how land shifted from that which had little value to some (and immense value for growing food for others) to becoming more necessary for further development. Gardens and creeks presented barriers to this progress and were slowly eroded and ultimately erased. Wong’s ‘Sweet Cakes, Long Journey’ is an essential picture for understanding Chinese life and contributions to the history in Portland, of which the above is just one story. However, it is a critical one in terms of hidden hydrology, showing the displacement of Chinatown Vegetable Gardens in tandem with development that slowly buried Tanner Creek, forever losing its productivity as a creek and its ability to support agriculture in the city.

在当时快速的城市扩张和种族主义暗流中，中国菜园存在了这么长时间也是一个奇迹。以上的一系列地图是一份很好的记录，可以及时看到19世纪末波特兰城市化进程中的坦纳溪。虽然在地图上尚不完全清楚坦纳溪的哪些部分仍然存在，哪些部分被掩埋，但它作为珍贵的地图序列，显示了该地区的发展，以及土地如何从对一些人毫无价值（对另一些人有重要的种植食物的价值）的地方变为对城市未来发展十分必要的地方。菜园和小溪是这一发展的障碍，被慢慢侵蚀并最终被抹去。Wong的《甜蜜的蛋糕，漫长的旅程》是了解华人生活和他们对波特兰历史贡献的重要图画，以上只是其中的一个故事。然而，就隐藏的水文而言，它是一个关键的水文特征，显示了唐人街菜园的消散与缓慢掩埋坦纳溪的开发同步。坦纳溪永远失去了它作为小溪的生产力和支持城市农业的能力。

关于Farming Tanner Creek——在坦纳溪耕种这篇RESEARCH，同学们可以点击下图跳转链接进行阅读了解。