220 NW Second Ave.
Portland OR 97209
503-226-4211

Salem Offices:

3123 Broadway NE
Salem, Or 97303
503-585-6611

NW Natural Gas website: http://www.nwnatural.com/

History of NW Natural Gas

H.C. Leonard and Henry Green would be astounded by the contrast between their first gas utility, started just weeks before Oregon officially became a state in 1859, and the robust energy corporation of today.

The two men's $50,000 venture has evolved from a company that covered an area less than one square mile, serving 49 customers, to an energy supplier with more than 500,000 customers in a 15,000-square-mile territory.

Leonard and Green, merchants from Astoria, Oregon, saw a future in gas lighting that could replace candles and kerosene. The partners called their fledgling firm the Portland Gas Light Company and began the long process of purchasing and waiting for delivery of machinery and pipe from New York. At that time, people were still arriving on the Oregon Trail in covered wagons.

The equipment arrived by sailing ship after traveling "around the Horn" of South America and, in June 1860, gaslights first brightened Portland's streets.

The company's first gas was made by carbonizing coal that had been transported by barge from Vancouver Island in Canada. The first recorded local use of gas for any purpose other than lighting was in 1868, when the company kept the water hot in the boilers of Portland's horse-drawn steam fire engines.

In 1892, the company changed its name to Portland Gas Company and merged its east and west Portland gas systems with a pipe across the Willamette River.

The early 1900s brought growth and technical change both to the gas industry and to Portland. The population rose to 224,000 and the company served gas to 28,500 customers. The gas range, water heater, and furnace became available and the gas industry shifted its emphasis away from street lighting toward providing energy for homes and businesses.

Changing its name to Portland Gas & Coke Company, it built its third and last gas manufacturing plant, Gasco, on the West Bank of the Willamette River in 1913. The new plant made gas from oil, not coal.

In 1956, natural gas was piped into the company's distribution system through 1,500 miles of pipeline from the San Juan Basin in New Mexico. The pipeline was subsequently extended north to Tacoma, Seattle, and the Canadian border.

The changeover from manufactured to natural gas included the conversion of more than 200,000 appliances. The company undertook an intensive educational program including letters, postcards, handbills, and newspaper advertisements. In all, it cost the company approximately $4.3 million to convert its system to natural gas. In December, 1957, the company saw the end of an era. It closed its manufactured gas plant and changed its name from Portland Gas & Coke Company to NW Natural Gas Company. The company's name changed again in 1997 when it was shortened to NW Natural and replaced its blue flame with a new logo.

Compiled by Valerie White, NW Natural Gas Company, 2000