Part III, riptide on the Columbia: A military community between the wars, Vancouver, Washington and the Vancouver National Historic Reserve, 1920-1942, with suggestions for further research

Sinclair, Donna

This document explores the period from 1920-1942, when Vancouver faced labor strife, Prohibition, Depression, and the beginning of a Second World War. This was a time of technological anticipation and a time of innovation, hope, and despair. During this era aviation matured on the Reserve and the Columbia River channel deepened to thirty feet. The government built big dams on the Columbia, providing power for shipbuilding on Vancouver’s waterfront and for aluminum production at ALCOA. Longshoremen struck along the Pacific Coast, local “milk wars” raged, and the government responded to the depression with public works programs. Some public works programs, including the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration, connected to the Reserve. Vancouver was the regional headquarters for the CCC from 1933 to 1942. From this site the army administered a program that created tremendous economic, social, and environmental benefits for the region. General Stanley Ford organized the CCC district, and in 1936 General George C. Marshall became commander. In 1937, Marshall encountered the Russian aviators whose non-stop transpolar flight from Russia ended in Vancouver, bringing world renown to the town. As Vancouver entered a new decade in 1940, the U.S. prepared for war. By 1942, the Vancouver Kaiser Shipyard transformed the waterfront for shipbuilding, and public housing projects sprouted as thousands moved to a city that grew from 12,637 in 1920 to 18,788 in 1940, and then suddenly to 95,000 in 1944. The purpose of this document is: (1) to provide a social history overview of the Reserve for NPS interpreters; (2) to provide directions for further research, by NPS staff, professional historians and graduate students; and (3) to make the history of the Reserve accessible to the general reader. Two main questions provided the research foundation: What were the relationships between Vancouver Barracks and the region, nation, and world? What were the relationships between the barracks and the nearby community? As a social history, questions of race, class, and gender underscored the inquiry.