History Pub - From Forest to Faucet: How the Bull Run Watershed Built Portland
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McMenamins and Troutdale Historical Society present
History Pub
From Forest to Faucet: How the Bull Run Watershed Built Portland
Presented by Joshua Jeffery
McMenamins Edgefield
Blackberry Hall
Monday, November 9, 2026
7pm/doors 6pm
$5
All ages
By the 1890s, Portlanders had fouled their own water supply with sewage. Typhoid followed. Their audacious solution was to reach into the forests below Mount Hood, capture the cold, clear water of Bull Run, and carry it 24 miles into town. Bull Run water helped drive out typhoid and made Portland’s explosive growth possible. Yet pipes and public health are only half the story. Bull Run became Portland’s forbidden forest: closed, fiercely protected, and wrapped in mystery and civic pride. This is the story of a city that built a water system—and of the remote watershed that, in turn, built the city.
Joshua Ward Jeffery is a historian of American culture and religion. He has taught history, Native American studies, and law enforcement at Navajo Technical University in Chinle, Arizona, where he also managed the Navajo Police Training Academy. In a former life, Josh spent ten years working in the Bull Run Watershed, six of them leading Portland’s Watershed Ranger Unit and protecting the watershed from trespass, fire, and environmental degradation.
History Pub
From Forest to Faucet: How the Bull Run Watershed Built Portland
Presented by Joshua Jeffery
McMenamins Edgefield
Blackberry Hall
Monday, November 9, 2026
7pm/doors 6pm
$5
All ages
By the 1890s, Portlanders had fouled their own water supply with sewage. Typhoid followed. Their audacious solution was to reach into the forests below Mount Hood, capture the cold, clear water of Bull Run, and carry it 24 miles into town. Bull Run water helped drive out typhoid and made Portland’s explosive growth possible. Yet pipes and public health are only half the story. Bull Run became Portland’s forbidden forest: closed, fiercely protected, and wrapped in mystery and civic pride. This is the story of a city that built a water system—and of the remote watershed that, in turn, built the city.
Joshua Ward Jeffery is a historian of American culture and religion. He has taught history, Native American studies, and law enforcement at Navajo Technical University in Chinle, Arizona, where he also managed the Navajo Police Training Academy. In a former life, Josh spent ten years working in the Bull Run Watershed, six of them leading Portland’s Watershed Ranger Unit and protecting the watershed from trespass, fire, and environmental degradation.
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Where is it happening?
McMenamins Edgefield, 2126 SW Halsey St, Troutdale, OR 97060-1026, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherMcMenamins History
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