The AMA comes to Portland

In the midst of some research at work recently, I was flipping through an issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association from January of this year. There is a one-page section in each issue where they look back on some news in the Journal from 100 years ago. The main piece in this look-back was titled "The Portland Session as an Attractive Vacation." I had to check that it was actually referring to Portland, Oregon, and not Portland, Maine, and it turned out that, indeed, from July 11-14, 1905, the American Medical Association held its annual meeting in good ol' Portland, Oregon. Considering I can't even imagine them meeting there now, let alone 100 years ago, is quite remarkable. And the article points this out:

This place of meeting—far to the West—will require a journey of unusual length for those living east of the Mississippi, and especially for those in the New England and Atlantic Coast states. Many who are in the habit of attending the Association sessions will naturally hesitate before deciding to take such a long journey simply to attend the session—valuable as that privilege is—but the occasion offers an unusual opportunity for a splendid vacation, and this was one of the reasons why the date was made a month later than usual.

I wonder how many people ended up attending. I can't imagine how long a cross-country journey would have taken in those days, with the train being the only speedy option. Granted, in Devil in the White City, which I'm currently reading and which takes place in the early 1890s, certain organizers of the World's Fair seem to travel quite often all over the East by train. Not much mention is made though of how long it took them, so it makes it sound like it was quite simple, when, in reality, it probably took at least 2-3 days just to get from, say, Chicago to Boston. Portland must have seemed like it may as well be in Europe in those times. As the JAMA describes, "The vast territory west of the Missouri River is an unknown country to the majority of the members of the Association." It was downright frontier land out there.

I thought that the article would have some insights into 1900s Portland, talking about what was attractive about the city to lure you all the way out there, and also perhaps mention where the meeting would be. But no location is given and unfortunately the news item hardly talks about Portland and instead offers all the things you could see on your way there as the bonus for making the trip:

The railroads of the West are much more liberal than are those of the East in allowing passengers to break the journey at attractive points, and each road is already making preparations to accommodate and to please those who patronize it... One of the great attractions, if not the greatest, will be the Yellowstone Park. If a sufficient number can be secured, The Journal proposes to arrange for a special train to start from Chicago June 30; this will stop six days at the park, arriving in Portland Monday morning. We can promise those who patronize it a most enjoyable outward journey.

And for the particularly travel-eager (and rich, I assume), they offer the following trip options (since you're way out West anyway): "The possibility of visiting Alaska, northwest territories, Hawaiian Islands, California, Mexico, etc., on this trip is also worth considering."

So no mention of what wonders might be awaiting you in Portland, though I don't know what sort of state the city was in at that time. Probably a quite different one than I could ever imagine from its current form. I wonder if many of the attendees got so caught up in the vacation aspect of the trip West that they never even made it to Portland. Their loss.