A Gaggle of Geese, A Policeman, and a Gang of Angry Pioneer Women

Sounds like the start of a Dad joke, right? It has potential for sure. There could be a man walking the streets of Goose Hollow right this moment, hiking up his Dad jeans while he starts to spin a tall tale. But we digress. Let’s talk about how Goose Hollow got its name.

Zoom back to 1845. Goose Hollow was one of Portland’s first neighborhoods, founded six years before Portland was incorporated in 1851.

In its early days, Goose Hollow was centered around Tanner Creek, a waterway that ran through the heart of the community creating wetlands filled with lush vegetation.

Tanner Creek would later be redirected into a brick tunnel that ran under the neighborhood to the Willamette River, but in the 1870s, when the “War About Geese” happened, the stream was still burbling along at the surface.

Workingmen’s cottages dotted the neighborhood, hosting a mix of Irish, German and Jewish immigrant residents. The ladies of these cottages who lived near the creek happened to own flocks
of geese.

The geese, of course, really enjoyed mucking about in the creek and the wetlands, where their owners allowed them to strut about without constraint. Each of the birds was… a Loose Goose!

All was well until the geese got a wild hair, um, feather. The gaggle went on a crime spree, devouring gardens in minutes while honking up a storm day and night. The neighbors were not pleased. Apparently, what was good for the goose was not good for the gander!

Police Chief James Lappeus was summoned, and after assessing the raucous bipeds, he decreed that the owners would need to contain their birds within their property. Of course, as Portlanders have always been independently minded, this did not happen.

The Chief sent a young officer, Charles Lawrence, out to the Hollow to drive the noisy flock back to their respective homes, only to be attacked by six goose-owning ladies who pummeled him with sticks and stones until he abandoned his mission.

The Oregonian memorialized the story in an article entitled, “A War about Geese,” creating fun reading for generations to come. Chief Lappeus, while not successful at taming the insolent birds and their equally sassy owners, DID succeed at naming the neighborhood.

And that’s how Goose Hollow came to be.