Balch Creek is a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) tributary of the Willamette River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Beginning at the crest of the Tualatin Mountains (West Hills), the creek flows generally east down a canyon along Northwest Cornell Road in unincorporated Multnomah County and through the Macleay Park section of Forest Park, a large municipal park in Portland. At the lower end of the park, the stream enters a pipe and remains underground until reaching the river. Danford Balch, after whom the creek is named, settled a land claim along the creek in the mid-19th century. After murdering his son-in-law, he became the first person legally hanged in Oregon.
Basalt, mostly covered by silt in the uplands and sediment in the lowlands, underlies the Balch Creek watershed. The upper part of the watershed includes private residential land, the Audubon Society of Portland nature sanctuary, and part of Forest Park. Mixed conifer forest of Coast Douglas-fir, western redcedar, and western hemlock with a well-developed understory of shrubs and flowering plants is the natural vegetation. Sixty-two species of mammals and more than 112 species of birds use Forest Park. A small population of coastal cutthroat trout resides in the stream, which in 2005 was the only major water body in Portland that met state standards for bacteria, temperature, and dissolved oxygen.
Although nature reserves cover much of the upper and middle parts of the watershed, industrial sites dominate the lower part. Historic Guild's Lake occupied part of the lower watershed through the 19th century, and in 1905 city officials held the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition there on an artificial island. After the exposition, developers converted the lake and its surrounds to industrial use, and in 2001 the Portland City Council declared the site to be an "industrial sanctuary".
^Bureau of Environmental Services (2008). "Northwest District Sewer Assets". Portland Maps. City of Portland. Retrieved July 3, 2008.
^ abc"Balch Creek". Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). United States Geological Survey (USGS). October 22, 1999. Retrieved May 5, 2008.
^Source elevation derived from Google Earth search using GNIS source coordinates.
^Cite error: The named reference streetmap was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference zoning was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ abCite error: The named reference flow was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ abThe average annual flow was derived by adding the average summer flow given by the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services to the average winter flow and dividing by 2.
BalchCreek is a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) tributary of the Willamette River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Beginning at the crest of the Tualatin Mountains (West...
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1989, Balch's severed head was discovered on the seventh hole of the golf course. On April 8, 1989, Balch's legs were found in Pequonnock Creek near Jefferson...
Danford Balch (November 29, 1811 – October 17, 1859) (alternate spelling Danforth) was a mid-19th-century settler in what later became the Willamette...
adjacent to the Fanno Creek watershed include those of minor tributaries of the Willamette or Tualatin rivers. Tryon Creek, BalchCreek, and other small streams...
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considered were City Park, now Washington Park; and Guild's Lake in the BalchCreek watershed. Guild's Lake was a site "everyone in Portland was vaguely...
Portland, is on the right at about 10 miles (16 km) from the mouth, and BalchCreek enters from the left. Near Swan Island, the University of Portland is...
sanctuary is open to the public for free. Much of the sanctuary surrounds BalchCreek near its headwaters and contains more than 4 miles (6.4 km) of hiking...
born in 1741 in Harford County, Maryland, along Deer Creek. While he was still a child, Balch's family moved south to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina...
1882. In 1897, Macleay deeded a 108-acre (44 ha) tract of land along BalchCreek to the city to provide an outdoor space for patients from nearby hospitals...
Bloomer Balch was a Presbyterian pastor during the American Civil War. Thomas was born to Stephen Bloomer Balch and Elizabeth (Beall) Balch on February...
George Beall Balch (3 January 1821 – 18 April 1908) was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy who served during the Mexican–American War and the American...
Company, the business added new pipes and pumps to obtain water from BalchCreek and the Willamette River, but failed to meet ever-increasing demand for...
Academy in Georgetown. Balch was born on April 5, 1747, on his father James Balch's holding, "Bond's Hope", on the north side of Deer Creek in what was then...
diversion dam. Shortly afterwards it receives Dinkey Creek, its largest tributary, from the right at Balch Camp, then turns south, flowing into the Kings River...
1970, the area north of Fall Creek held Cornell University's women-only dormitories. Risley (1913), Comstock (1925), Balch (1929), Dickson (1946) and Donlon...
partnership with A.G. Wishon, Alan C. Balch, and William Kerckhoff. Eastwood had great hopes for the Big Creek project, and he planned it to include storage...
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