A part of Albany’s history is buried under Thurston Street from Sixth Avenue north to the Willamette River. It’s what used to be the Thurston Street Canal.
Up to about a century ago, the canal was one of the main drivers of Albany’s early industries, supplying the water that powered turbines along the south bank of the Willamette River. In the early 1980s the canal was covered up and most of its remaining flow diverted to an underground pipe.
I didn’t pay too much attention at the time, when my family and I were still new in town. But for a story on hh-today three years ago, I went to the online newspaper archives to reconstruct what happened. You can read the story here…