Ideal Base Camp
Wood Village is the ideal base camp to live, work and play in the Portland Area. We are the portal to the region:
15
minutes
to PDX
20
minutes
to downtown Portland
1
hour
from Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood
Wood Village is literally at the edge of the Columbia River Gorge, near the easterly edge of the Portland Metropolitan Area.
Development in Wood Village includes a town center with over 360,000 square feet of retail shopping including:
Fred Meyers
Kohl’s
Lowes
Supporting retailers
Wood Village also has:
- Wal-Mart
- Fast food outlets
- Convenience stores
- Restaurants
- Fuel
- Lodging
- RV specialty support
- A friendly small-town environment in the midst of the metropolitan area
Wood Village is an ideal place to call home and make your base camp for journeys on the scenic Mount Hood Highway or on the Historic Columbia River Highway. We have everything you need in one square mile.
Wood Village History
Early Inhabitors
The Chinook were the first native people to inhabit the hills along the Columbia River.
Hundreds thrived in the village of Nechacokee (now referred to as Nichagwli- “nee chalk lee”) located near today’s Blue Lake Park. They gathered huckleberries and cedar bark for making baskets, fished, and traveled by cedar canoe.
They were annihilated by smallpox and malaria by the 1820s. After signing the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855 with the United States Government, those remaining were forcibly removed to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation.
Read the City of Wood Village Land Acknowledgement (PDF).
1946 Map; Source: QUARTUX: Journal of Critical Indigenous Anthropology
First Immigrants
In 1887
George and Hannah Shaw, both English immigrants, built the 2-story farmhouse that still stands on the northeast corner of 238th Drive and NE Halsey Street.
It now serves as the Wood Village Manor Nursing Home.
The Shaws came to Oregon from Missouri to help build the transcontinental rail link eastward through the Columbia River Gorge.
Their lone house, located on 208 acres, marked the place in the road from which Wood Village would spring.
In 1907
Stephen A. Arata, an Italian immigrant and the largest liquor distributor in Oregon, bought the Shaw house.
He renovated the property with:
- Electricity
- Pillars
- Other frills
- Added fields of oats and vineyards to create his country estate.
Stephen, Francis, and Giuseppe Arata
Shaw House, Then
Shaw House, Now
By 1926
The property also served as an electric interurban railway stop known as Arata station.
War-Time Boom
Wood Village sprang to life on 50 acres of farmland around the Arata Estate in 1942 to house workers from the Reynolds Aluminum Factory during World War II.
W. C. Bauman constructed 183 homes and 264 temporary apartments.
One of the first planned communities in Oregon was born complete with:
- Single and multi-family housing
- Streets
- Stores
- A water system
- A sewage treatment plant
- Street lights
- A community building
Map of Hudson Street Homes, published around 1943; Source: Multnomah County Library
The temporary apartments and the community building, which served as the old City Hall, are gone now, but the Original Village is still a vital part of the community. The road marked as Arata Road on the map (c. 1943) below later became NE 238th Drive.
Incorporation to Today
Wood Village was incorporated in 1951 to meet the needs for regular city services.
The city has grown to include:
- The residential Upper Village
- A large variety of commercial
and industrial enterprises - A diverse community of 4,387
members within 1 square mile
The crown jewel is the Donald L. Robertson Community Park which was named in 2001 for a past mayor who served 22 years on the City Council.
“I’ve said it many times, this is one of the best little cities in the country.”
– Robertson
Special thanks to Sharon Nesbitt and Chuck Rollins for their contributions to maintaining the Wood Village historical record.