Vanport Historical Marker

Vanport, nicknamed Kaiserville, was a World War II boomtown established in 1942-43 on the south bank of the Columbia River by industrialist Henry Kaiser. Kaiser persuaded the Maritime Commission to fund the nation’s largest housing project to house all of his new shipyard employees and their families coming to Vancouver and Portland. At a time when most workers in the United States had no health insurance, Kaiser partnered with a group of doctors to provide prepaid health care.  Today’s Kaiser Permanente grew out of that wartime health plan.

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National Geographic