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180 CONCLUSION Oregon As Utopia Y Y Y In a 1943 letter to his literary agent accompanying the manuscript for a utopian novel he was submitting for her consideration, Ellis F. Lawrence (1879-1946), founding Dean of the School of Architecture and Allied (Fine) Arts and campus architect at the University of Oregon, wrote: “I feel the times call for some positive idealism to renew faith—perhaps another ‘News from Nowhere’—‘The Great Good Place,’ or ‘Utopia’.”1 Although Lawrence’s manuscript, titled “The City of Good Will,” was never published, the fact that he sought to create a “dream world,” as he called it, is reflective of an attitude about how to deal with issues confronting not only society as it was in the middle of a world war but also those confronting him personally. That he alludes to earlier works by William Morris, Henry James, and Thomas More suggests his awareness of these examples of utopian literature but also reveals that he saw this means of expression as presenting some “positive idealism” that was much needed. Lawrence’s “City of Good Will” is just one of a number of examples of attempts by individuals and groups in Oregon to create some positive idealism for themselves and the world around them. Most of these attempts were in the form of communal societies, as previously examined, but others, like Lawrence’s, were of a literary nature. Lawrence’s fantasy “city,” in fact, combined the two by writing of an attempt to establish an ideal place along the Oregon coast. Beyond the Edenic nature of its landscape and the regenerative qualities that drew settlers from the nineteenth century to the present, and beyond the nearly three hundred known attempts to establish a communal Eden within the state, Oregon has been home to other utopian undertakings, from literary efforts to practical applications such as city planning. Portland As Utopia One of the more intriguing of these came from the pen of Portland author Jeff W. Hayes (1853-1917).2 In 1913 two identical compilations of stories by Hayes were published, both including a forty-page utopian story— “Portland, A.D. 1999”—that projects what Portland would be like at the end of the twentieth century.3 Using a convention common to many utopian authors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Hayes presents a mysterious eighty-six-year-old woman who has the ability to see into the future. She begins her prophecy, as do many other prognosticators in the 181 Oregon as Utopia utopian literature, by noting changes in transportation. The locomotive and trolley car have become too slow and have been replaced by “aerial” cars, fueled by “electricity, gasoline, compressed air, or perhaps still another potent agent, at present undeveloped, which will usurp the place of all others, be cheaper, safer, and more reliable than any known energy.” The vehicle will travel “at a height of 500 feet” and those riding “will look down and express a feeling of sympathy for those who must brave the dangers besetting life on the surface of this mundane sphere.” She also points out that “The death dealing automobile will be a thing of the past and even the merry motor cycle will have gone the way of the equine.” Hayes’ perception of the possibility of alternative fuel is noteworthy, as is his assessment of the safety of the automobile. 4 Wooden homes have been replaced by “warm concrete dwellings” and in lieu of bridges across the Willamette River there are now 75–foot-wide tubes across the water. Without automobiles the need for hard surface pavements was eliminated and these were removed “so that the city of Portland is one perpetual system of parks, where the youngster may play to his heart’s content.” All the hills within and around Portland, except for Council Crest, have been leveled, giving “a vast area to West Portland which is vital to its business supremacy.” While some of these prophecies seem outrageous, the accuracy of others is intriguing. Hayes’ seer notes, “Portland embraces the entire county of Multnomah and a portion of other adjacent counties and extends in an unbroken line from Oregon City to the South to the delta of the Columbia river on the North, East to the foot of Mt. Hood and West to Hillsboro.”5 Women play a more critical role in government, and “the name of Abigail Scott Duniway is held in much reverence by these women officials.” Many laws...

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