Located near Mt. Tabor, MTYC has a commanding views of Mt. Hood and Portland. Mt Tabor makes Portland one of only two cities in the continental U.S. to have an extinct volcano within its boundaries; the other city is Bend, Oregon. The volcanic features of Mt Tabor became known in 1912, years after it became a public park. The volcanic cinders discovered in the park were later utilized in surfacing the park's roads.

At the top of the park is a bronze statue of Harvey W. Scott, editor of The Oregonian newspaper from 1865-1872 and from 1877 until his death in 1910. A gift to the city by Scott's widow, Margaret, and family, it was sculpted by Gutzon Borglum in the early 1930s while at work on his monumental sculpture of four American presidents on Mt Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Cast by the Kunst Foundry in New York, it was unveiled in June 1933 with great ceremony.