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Beaver State #2
Far Out Story of Vortex I No CD
Part Two of the Beaver State trilogySummer 1970, Portland, OregonPresident Nixon was to speak at the American Legion Convention. The FBI told Governor McCall he should expect 25,000 Legionnaires and 50,000 anti-war freaks to clash in the Rose City and make Chicago '68 look like a "tea party."A few hippies proposed a rock festival to give peace a chance. They asked McCall, a Republican battling for re-election, for a place to hold it. He gave them a state park and told the cops to lay off. Did they ever."I've just committed political suicide," said McCall after approving the only state-sponsored rock festival in American history. It's Vortex A Biodegradable Festival of Life.What a short strange trip it was for the 100,000 who attended... far out in a way that only Oregon used to be. Vortex I, now a legend; now documented for the first time; now even more legendary.The book includes over 150 photographs and a bonus CD of McCall's historic Vortex I speech and circa 1970 music from the first band to play the festival, Jacob's Ladder.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 17, 2010
a far out story indeed. matt love's book, the second in his beaver state trilogy, is the nearly unbelievable history of the largest rock concert ever to be forgotten. with the vietnam war still raging, and the recent kent state shootings on everyone's mind, the summer of 1970 was promising to be a turbulent one. portland, oregon was set to host the national convention of the american legion, a veterans organization founded in 1919, with richard nixon invited to be the keynote speaker. the people's army jamboree, a local anti-war group, was promising protests and marches to counter the presence of the american legion. nearly everyone (from local officials, to the media, to the fbi) was anticipating as many as 50,000 people to converge on portland, and the growing fear was over the violent demonstrations that would inevitably ensue. a small group of hippies proposed to republican governor tom mccall a rock festival to draw would-be protestors out of downtown. inconceivably, he agreed, "i've just committed political suicide."
governor mccall offered milo mciver state park (800+ acres), about 30 miles southeast of portland in estacada, and vortex i: a biodegradable festival of life was born. also known as the governor's ball, the concert lasted over a week, with crowd estimates ranging from 30,000 to 100,000 people in attendance (it remains the longest traffic jam in state history). while there was a promise of national bands on the bill (santana, the grateful dead, jefferson airplane), it was only local bands that ended up performing. with instructions from the governor's office to let the concert progress unpoliced (from the inside, that is), nudity and drug use were rampant. by all accounts vortex i was a success: the park grounds were left spotless, the american legion convention protests saw no violence (save for a single broken window), and governor mccall was reelected by a larger margin than he had first been put into office with.
matt love's book is not a traditional narrative of the event. instead, the book is mostly a collection of relevant documents, oral biographies, newspaper excerpts, and the like. the far out story of vortex i is an exhaustively researched book, as love conducted over 300 interviews with nearly every relevant player. still, 40 years after the event, contention remains about the event's origins, its purpose, and its effect. whatever one makes of it, to read this historical account is to witness a long-forgotten chapter in american history, the only state-sponsored rock concert ever. the oregon summer of 1970 was surely a strange one, and matt love captured its essence ever so thoroughly.
for the not easily satiated, oregon public broadcasting just aired a short documentary on vortex i, currently archived on their website at http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonexp...
governor mccall offered milo mciver state park (800+ acres), about 30 miles southeast of portland in estacada, and vortex i: a biodegradable festival of life was born. also known as the governor's ball, the concert lasted over a week, with crowd estimates ranging from 30,000 to 100,000 people in attendance (it remains the longest traffic jam in state history). while there was a promise of national bands on the bill (santana, the grateful dead, jefferson airplane), it was only local bands that ended up performing. with instructions from the governor's office to let the concert progress unpoliced (from the inside, that is), nudity and drug use were rampant. by all accounts vortex i was a success: the park grounds were left spotless, the american legion convention protests saw no violence (save for a single broken window), and governor mccall was reelected by a larger margin than he had first been put into office with.
matt love's book is not a traditional narrative of the event. instead, the book is mostly a collection of relevant documents, oral biographies, newspaper excerpts, and the like. the far out story of vortex i is an exhaustively researched book, as love conducted over 300 interviews with nearly every relevant player. still, 40 years after the event, contention remains about the event's origins, its purpose, and its effect. whatever one makes of it, to read this historical account is to witness a long-forgotten chapter in american history, the only state-sponsored rock concert ever. the oregon summer of 1970 was surely a strange one, and matt love captured its essence ever so thoroughly.
for the not easily satiated, oregon public broadcasting just aired a short documentary on vortex i, currently archived on their website at http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonexp...
June 19, 2021
After watching the Oregon Experience episode about Vortex I, I wanted to learn more about this really unusual event. Matt Love and this book are mentioned in the OPB special and I think both feature many of the same interview subjects.
While the book does supply a lot more information than the 30-minute episode, not all of it was interesting to me. Rather than writing a cohesive narrative, Love has collected every scrap of information about Vortex and the surrounding events, interviewed people who were there or otherwise involved, organized them somewhat chronologically, with footnotes and an occasional thought of his own interjected. Allowing people to speak for themselves is interesting, especially when one person will recount an event that involves someone else and then immediately after, that person is quoted as saying that never happened. (I mean, memory is fallible, Vortex was 30+ years before the book was written, and some of these people took a lot of drugs.) But including every police report and official document was a bit much.
Overall, it's a good collection of information and photos (many containing nudity) about an iconic Oregon event that I'd never heard about until six months ago.
(I actually attended a music festival in Estacada -- Big Stink 2 in 1996 -- where security & cops were busting attendees for smoking pot and the food was definitely not free.)
While the book does supply a lot more information than the 30-minute episode, not all of it was interesting to me. Rather than writing a cohesive narrative, Love has collected every scrap of information about Vortex and the surrounding events, interviewed people who were there or otherwise involved, organized them somewhat chronologically, with footnotes and an occasional thought of his own interjected. Allowing people to speak for themselves is interesting, especially when one person will recount an event that involves someone else and then immediately after, that person is quoted as saying that never happened. (I mean, memory is fallible, Vortex was 30+ years before the book was written, and some of these people took a lot of drugs.) But including every police report and official document was a bit much.
Overall, it's a good collection of information and photos (many containing nudity) about an iconic Oregon event that I'd never heard about until six months ago.
(I actually attended a music festival in Estacada -- Big Stink 2 in 1996 -- where security & cops were busting attendees for smoking pot and the food was definitely not free.)
June 9, 2011
Matt is one hell of a guy. His teaching style and ethic sets the standard for what is right with public education. His love and respect for the local history of our great state of Oregon, shows in the blood, sweat, and tears that he dedicates in his works. I am honoured to call him my brother from another mother. That being said, it is easy to tell that I am a fan and a friend.
In Vortex I, Matt tells the little known history of the Vortex music festival that was in the Portland, Oregon area in the early 70's. It was our own Woodstock in many ways, but stands in its on light, as one that was strongly supported by the Governor of Oregon at the time, Tom McCall. Tom was a true "maverick", not some bastardized, and watered down version that some politicians claim today.
Matt presents all sides of the story...the good, the bad, the hazy, and the ugly. In an amazing flow of public documents, interviews, and photos, Matt gives us a glimpse back in time when the nation was at "war", the government was out of control, people were fed up, and the police state mentality was at a high point. Sad, how history repeats itself. This could describe us today. Vortex shows the reader humans at their finest, their most vulnerable, stoned, motivated, paranoid, and power hungry. It is an interesting case study in how power can corrupt, even when the "least powerful" damn the status, while in-fighting to gain the most of it.
Listen to the "groovy" CD that comes with the book and add Jacob's Ladder to your playlist.
In Vortex I, Matt tells the little known history of the Vortex music festival that was in the Portland, Oregon area in the early 70's. It was our own Woodstock in many ways, but stands in its on light, as one that was strongly supported by the Governor of Oregon at the time, Tom McCall. Tom was a true "maverick", not some bastardized, and watered down version that some politicians claim today.
Matt presents all sides of the story...the good, the bad, the hazy, and the ugly. In an amazing flow of public documents, interviews, and photos, Matt gives us a glimpse back in time when the nation was at "war", the government was out of control, people were fed up, and the police state mentality was at a high point. Sad, how history repeats itself. This could describe us today. Vortex shows the reader humans at their finest, their most vulnerable, stoned, motivated, paranoid, and power hungry. It is an interesting case study in how power can corrupt, even when the "least powerful" damn the status, while in-fighting to gain the most of it.
Listen to the "groovy" CD that comes with the book and add Jacob's Ladder to your playlist.
January 7, 2012
Long story shortish: In the summer of 1970 the American Legion had a conference in Portland, Oregon. When the long hairs heard that Nixon was to be the guest, planning began for a big confrontation. Some folks decided it'd be a good weekend to get out of town and avoid the insanity. The Governor (McCall) thought that was a great idea so he, and many big Portland-area businesses, threw heaps of resources into facilitating a drugged out lightly-clothed "biodegradable festival of life" in a state park outside of town to draw the hippies away from the convention.
This book is a rambling compilation of first person accounts and documents. It's a pretty amazing story but you'd probably have to be from Portland to get the most of it. I read it just after Occupy Portland had been evicted from downtown. Fascinating to reflect on the similarities and differences between this time and that.
This book is a rambling compilation of first person accounts and documents. It's a pretty amazing story but you'd probably have to be from Portland to get the most of it. I read it just after Occupy Portland had been evicted from downtown. Fascinating to reflect on the similarities and differences between this time and that.
February 26, 2013
This is one of those virtually unknown events in American history that had large and long range impacts. It also raises many questions about how we live today, both personally and in the public sphere. You owe it to yourself to read this interesting book. If that is impossible, at least Google it!
February 17, 2014
Matt has assembled a one-volume archive of an Oregon event in a time of freedom surging--a time that's being forgotten. The public domain letters he's assembled and reproduced make the book unique. I'd be careful in recommending it, depending on the tastes of the recommendee.
July 27, 2009
The technical issues I had with this book prevented me from giving it three stars.
April 24, 2011
Vortex 1 is a fascinating story, told well by Matt, and his interview-ees. The footnotes are at first annoying, then distracting, then I grew to love them. You'll see.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews