Lest we forget that our city used to be a little river town, that what’s now called Southeast Portland used to be out in the country, let’s go back to 1866.

Perhaps the best way to visit this serene place is to admire the other trees that have grown around that fir. Three of them are Portland Heritage Trees; the first is a big leaf maple dedicated to Oregon’s first governor; it’s over by the soldier’s memorial. Turn towards Stark Street from there, then left before the fence, and look for an incense cedar on the right plus a gigantic western red cedar on the left.

The markers range from the simple and falling apart to the newest ones with photographs on them. You may also see a fireman’s memorial between four cedars, some markers with Chinese characters, and some you can’t even read.

If you look with just the right set of eyes, maybe you can still see that peaceful, rolling farmland.

Friends of Lone Fir

Crystal Springs may not be too peaceful on weekends when the rhodies are blooming — and forget Mother’s Day! — but it’s an amazingly beautiful place. I mean, assuming you like water and trees and flowers and ducks and geese.

Enjoy.

Water trickling. Kids giggling. Flowers blooming. Tall grass swaying in the breeze. A duck paddling on a pond.

Where are we? The corner of NW 11th and Marshall, in Tanner Springs Park.

One wouldn’t normally associate “Pearl District” with “peaceful,” but over here at the north end we’re kind of on the edge. Over by the railroad tracks, just across from the river. The point where the streetcar turns west and heads into the industrial area. We still have some vacant lots over here.

Yes, I said “we.” I now live at 11th and Northrup, and one of the great finds in my new neighborhood has been the little park across the street, the one with the pond and the grass and the wall of old rail ties. Did you know it’s a water-recycling park? That there really are “springs,” around which you can sit and picnic or read or just lie in the grass? Irises? Ducks?

One might also see wedding parties or fashion shoots in the park, but on two consecutive evening walks, when most everybody had gone home, I saw a beaver in the Willamette (three blocks away) and a heron in Tanner Springs Park, stalking fish, while a mallard slept in the shore grass. A friend who lives on the other side of the park said he saw an osprey come in once. All of this can be seen from Metrovino Restaurant.

Life in the city continues to impress and surprise.

Peaceful Places in Portland is an idea — a quest, even. As I pursue that idea, I shall blog. And when I’ve found about 100 of them, I will make it into a book. That book will be published by Menasha Ridge Press in Fall, 2012. And it won’t be the first.

What’s a peaceful place? For our purposes here, they are in the following categories:

• Enchanting Walks
• Historic Sites
• Museums/Galleries
• Outdoor Habitats
• Parks and Gardens
• Quiet Tables
• Reading Rooms
• Scenic Vistas
• Shops and Services
• Spiritual Enclaves
• Urban Surprises
• Day Trips and Overnights

Got any suggestions for us? Please post a comment.

As I find them, I’ll occasionally mention them here. Maybe even share a draft chapter or two.

So stay tuned for the peace and quiet.

I am working on a new project for Menasha Ridge Press, who published my 60 Hikes book. The book is called Peaceful Places – Portland. They’ve already got titles in the series on San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.

So here’s what I seek from readers: suggestions of peaceful places around Portland. The categories are Day/Overnight, Enchanting Walks, Historic Sites, Museums/Galleries, Outdoor Habitats, Parks and Gardens, Quiet Tables, Reading Rooms, Scenic Vistas, Shops and Services, Spiritual Enclaves, and Urban Surprises.

So email me some ideas, or post them as comments here, and if you tell me something I don’t know, and it makes the book, I’ll thank you in the Acknowledgements and enter your name in a drawing for a signed book.

Thanks!