Three federally funded lock systems developed in Oregon with only the one at Willamette Falls remaining in some sort of functional capacity today. Cascade Canal and Lock -1878-1896 – submerged by Bonneville Dam; Dalles-Celilo Canal – 1905-1915 – lies under water from The Dalles Lock and Dam since 1956. Yamhill Locks closed in 1954. Gates and dam removed leaving the lock walls in place. The move to build the lock took over forty years. By the time of completion, time moved on, and the lock served little purpose for most of its fifty some year lifespan. 

Yamhill Falls – a grand name given to the small rapids here with a drop of a couple of feet – was a longtime ford over the river. Here, the water was shallow enough as it crossed over a bedrock shelf. Native Americans and fur traders used the ford for a north-south route pushing through the Willamette Valley on the west side of the river.

JOEL PERKINS

Joel Perkins was a young man traveling with his family to Oregon from Indiana in 1844. At the age of 25, he established the town of Lafayette – though the town remained commonly known as “Yamhill Falls” until a post office became established in 1850 given the name Perkins originally went with, a name from his original Indiana home. The town boasted 800 people by 1850 – Portland only had 700 in 1853. 

Perkins did not stay around long, heading towards California during the Gold Rush with much of the rest of the Oregon male population. He stopped long enough to establish a ferry – 1851 – across the Rogue River in southern Oregon where the town of Grants Pass eventually developed. Perkins took out a Donation Land Claim on the east side of where the city exists today. He also earlier bought land in downtown Portland, established a trading post at Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento and ran a 100-acre ranch near Los Angeles.

MURDEROUS LOVE TRIANGLE

The Perkins family decided to return to Oregon in the summer of 1856. The family were staying at a ranch on the south side of the Siskiyous along the Klamath River. An Irishman by the name of John Malone worked for Perkins at the time helping drive cattle north. On 24 July, Perkins went out to first check on his livestock before continuing out to hunt for deer. Malone followed him.  Malone returned and Perkins did not. The ranch owner became concerned while Malone said Indians must have killed Perkins. The following morning, Malone and Joel Perkins’ wife, Laura, insisted on pushing the stock north since obviously Joel had met an unhappy ending. A small boy begged the ranch owner to keep him because he was afraid Malone and Perkins would kill him since he overheard them talking about killing Joel.

A search party rounded up with Malone to help guide them in searching for Joel. They got Malone to confess when threatening to lynch him. “He began to curse Mrs. P as a traitor, and acknowledged the crime” according to a local newspaper. Malone went off to the jail in Jacksonville after saying he killed Perkins because he had fallen in love with his wife. Laura was also taken into custody as an accessory to murder. Her charges became dropped after Malone managed to hang himself in his cell – 23 August. Without Malone’s testimony there was no other evidence linking her to the crime. Laura returned to Lafayette where she delivered Joel’s second child. She went on to a short marriage in 1850 before marrying David Patterson in 1862. They eventually moved to The Dalles where they both lie buried.

AN IDEA IS BORN

Christopher Switzer, a friend of the flatboat captain and original owner of the Elk, filed with the territorial government of Oregon to incorporate the Yamhill Water-Lock and Transportation Company. He hoped a lock could “be built at or near the mouth of Yamhill river, … sufficient in size to admit and pass boats of sixty tons burthen.” Sixty tons was the size of the Elk. He looked to haul grain from the Yamhill Valley and charge fees for the passage of the lock. 

the Elk

The Elk, however proved too large for the route and Switzer sold it to the flatboat captain, James Miller. Switzer still looked to realize his lock idea, but he died in a steamship accident off the coast of northern California 5 January 1860. Soon after, the Civil War erupted, and ideas of the lock became placed on the back shelf.

After the war ended, businessmen from Portland directed the attentions of the Army Corps of Engineers to improving the transportation on both the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. Planning for the construction of the Cascades Canal and Lock began in 1876.  And on the Yamhill, another article of incorporation became filed for the Yamhill Lock and Transportation Company. Two locks became planned this time, one at the mouth of the river and the other at the falls. This would make the river navigable to McMinnville. Two dams went up along the river, but the upper dam quickly failed. With that, the company funds dried up.

MORE MOVEMENT

On the Willamette, the Willamette Falls Canal & Locks Company formed. That venture succeeded and in just two years, the locks over the Willamette Falls began allowing non-portage transportation from the upper Willamette to Portland.

Locals on the Yamhill next tried to get federal assistance. Oregon Senator Henry W. Corbett received a petition signed by several hundred people to help with the situation on the Yamhill River. He got the Corps of Engineers to help remove logs and stumps from several Oregon rivers, including the Yamhill, between 1872 and 1873. 

the army involved

The following year, a survey of the river took place. Major Nathaniel Michler, the Corps of Engineers man in charge of the survey, recommended one dam and lock to go at the river’s mouth.  He noted a 15’ fall in the river at extreme low water from the beginning of a 17-mile stretch to the mouth. Yamhill Falls measured at 6,000’ in length with a 9’-foot drop.  Michler noted the region boasted of recent increases in cereal grain shipment on the river of which about half went by the Oregon Central Railroad from the little town of Saint Joseph, a town in between Lafayette and McMinnville, built up by the railroad to spite the two towns.

He recommended the lock to be 16’ high – 210’ long and 40’ wide – which would make the river navigable to almost Saint Joseph. To make it navigable to McMinnville, the lock needed to be 20’ high, but he saw the river above Saint Joseph as too narrow and dangerous to warrant the increased costs. Instead, he suggested the building of a substantial road from McMinnville to Saint Joseph.

In addition to the federal response, a couple more private initiatives went forward. These moves ran aground because of laws stipulating “open rivers” and private efforts turned more towards more rail improvements. The westside railroad extended to McMinnville in 1878 bypassing Lafayette. Another narrow-gauge company put together by local farmers – the Dayton, Sheridan and Grand Ronde Railroad Corporation, quickly ran into financial difficulties. Track finally extended into Lafayette in 1881 with that line ending in the hands of Southern Pacific by 1890, shortly after the loss of the county seat from Lafayette to McMinnville in 1888.

political pushes and shoves

Congressman Binger Hermann and Senator John Mitchell, both of Oregon, pushed for federal funds to open for the construction of two locks on the Yamhill.  Money for another survey gained appropriation in 1892, but most of the money allocated to Oregon went to the construction of the canal and locks on the Columbia at the cascades. 

The new survey done under the auspices of Major Thomas Handbury noted most of the area’s grain shipping by the rails and even if a lock and dam became built on the Yamhill, railroads probably would continue to ship most though prices might come down with river competition. To make the river navigable to McMinnville – 17 miles from the mouth – for about five months during the year was difficult, especially the last three miles into McMinnville. 

He also warned that floods on the river sometimes reached heights of 60 feet.  To cross the Yamhill Falls, he noted an expensive dam-lock system hardly warranted the amount of commerce present. Major Handbury recommended no further money should go to the proposed project, especially in light of a lack of interest in locals supplying local roads down to the river or storehouses along the banks.

go ahead in spite of recommENDATIONS

But Senator Mitchell and Senator Joseph Dolph pushed ahead in spite of the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Corps. Mitchell and Hermann later played large roles in the Oregon Land fraud scandals in 1905. Under strong Congressional and local pressure, a new engineer in charge, Major James C. Post, bowed to the inevitable by proposing a 15.3’ high, 265’ long and 40’ wide lock which could make the river navigable to McMinnville with a year-round draft of 3.5 feet. 

He put the amount of project cost at $69,000 including $55,272 for the lock, $4,419 for the dam, land and residence for a lockkeeper at $2,000. He held out a further $7,000 for other excavations and contingencies. The modest proposal was cheaper than the proposed budget by Michler ($222,500) in 1875. So, on 3 June 1896 Congress approved spending of $200,000 on improvements to both the upper Willamette and Yamhill rivers including a snag boat and the lock and dam on the Yamhill.

BUILDING THE LOCK

Plans for the lock-dam on the Yamhill finished by the end of March 1898.  Captain Walter L. Fisk – first captain during his time at West Point – headed the operations from 1896 until 1899 when he gained promotion to major and a new job. During his time here on the Yamhill, he also oversaw on-going construction at Fort Stevens. Construction began in May 1898.  Supposed to finish at the end of the year, work went slower than expected as expenditure rose. 1898 became 1899. A war fought and won with Spain but on the Yamhill, a late high-water season gave the construction company more leeway with an extension to the end of 1899. Lock walls finally completed by the end of July – 7,618 cubic yards of concrete – with the gates and valves installed. 

a dam to be made

Only the dam remained to be finished. The river was diverted through the lock while the dam was being built. Diversion was accomplished by building a cofferdam from the east end of the lock to the opposite bank. Three attempts were made, each time the structure washed away from the pressure placed upon it. 

Next, they tried to build the dam above the old one. This dam washed away as well with the riverbanks badly eroded in the process. The next decision was to make the dam deeper and shore up the riverbanks with riprap. Another extension to 1 October 1900 gained a further stay of execution for the construction company. Steamboats still actively plied the river during construction. They would occasionally hit the construction underway causing more problems for the builders. Finally, the entire project finished by 1 September. The lock opened unofficially for business on 21 September with an official opening to navigation three days later. The steamer Bonita became the first boat to officially test the lock walls.

final costs

At a final cost of $72,164 ($12,000 over budget but still far below earlier Corps’ cost projections – $225,000 in 1875) the lock was ready to provide water transport upriver to McMinnville. But the time for water transportation was already slowing down. The railroad and soon the truck would end the days of the steamboats.

The project built was much smaller than earlier propositions.  Instead of two locks – one at the falls and the mouth – only one was completed. The single lock was 175’ long, 38’ wide with a 16’ lift. Concrete walls measure 12’ at the bottom and 8’ at the top. The dam on the east side was 125’ in length. Lock gates were 25’ square on the lower side – 15 tons – and 9 by 25’ on the upper side – 9 tons.

PROBLEMS RIGHT AWAY

Problems occurred already during construction. Steamboats occasionally caused damage to the structures, but also ten floods between November and April 1901 revealed the banks opposite the lock and dam were more unstable than previously thought. More riprap needed to stabilize the riverbanks were brought in.  January saw the river flood to 46’ over low water – 25’ over the lock walls. Luckily for the structures, the Willamette was flooding too backing up water along the Yamhill. The much slower flow and subsidence meant no scouring at the foot of the dam unlike the next smaller floods. Lack of local stone and gravel and the impassable condition of roads during the winter caused delays in delivery of materials to firm up the structure. By 1902, the Corps spent an extra $22,479.27 on repairs and additions.

At high-water stages, the lock gates needed to be in closed positions. Boats still were thought to be able pass over the dam, but experience demonstrated that it was impracticable due to the distance of the fall. Upper and lower pools would not equalize until waters stood at about 12’ above the lock walls. 

OPTIONS

The engineering officer in charge, Captain William C. Langfitt, gave a couple of costly options, including the option of giving up on the project entirely. The lock and dam costs were already about $100,000. Langfitt wrote, “This traffic (on the Yamhill) is neither large in amount nor valuable in money. … neither the present nor prospective commerce, nor the fact that this project as completed does not give all the facilities to navigation that were expected, would justify the additional expense necessary to modify it at the present time.”

An officer reviewing Langfitt’s report, Major Harry F. Hodges noted, the lock and dam “provides a waterway navigable at low stages to the vicinity of McMinnville, an important shipping point 17 miles above the Willamette (the lock was 7 miles above the river mouth) … During the past three years the lock has been closed to traffic, due to high water, for a total of two hundred and thirty-one days.” 

QUIT WHILE YOU ARE NOT TOO FAR BEHIND?

Still, he ordered Langfitt to devise another solution in the face of political pressures. Langfitt came up with a plan to totally rebuild the dam. Finally, Brigadier General George L. Gillespie, Chief of Engineers, concurred with the captain, “I am not convinced that adequate commercial advantages would follow the further expenditure propose, and therefore do not feel justified in recommending it at the present time.” Through the Secretary of War, Elihu Root, the matter went to the Congressional committee on rivers and harbors in December 1903.

DECISIONS

By this time, locals became more worried about building up a road infrastructure than throwing more money at the Yamhill Lock and Dam. The structures had come too late with little traffic building on the river. From the time just before World War 1 until the 1920s, traffic on the waterway was so little that the Corps classified the project “proper for abandonment”.  Two factors staved off death for the lock-dam. First, the water behind the dam came into use for irrigation. Up to 1,000 acres were said to get their water from the river-lake behind the dam.

Second, there was a dramatic increase in traffic by the late 1920s which continued into the early 1940s. The massive Tillamook Burn fires had left large areas of damaged trees for recovery. A later fire burnt a main logging railroad along the upper North Yamhill fork. Logs rafted down the forks of the Yamhill so they could float further downriver to large mills at Newberg and further to Oregon City. By 1912, annual passage through the lock dwindled to only 386.6 tons of freight and 327 passengers. In 1927, 7,230 tons of mostly logs went through in rafts pulled by little tugboats. The revitalization of river traffic led to more calls and plans for refurbishing the structures. In addition, a rudimentary fishway became added in the meantime. Repair bills came to only $4,500 and allotments quickly made.

BEGINING TO AN END

The logging industry in the Coast Range, like in many other areas of Oregon’s mountains, was simply too efficient. Forests were stripped and sawmills eventually closed. By 1950, river traffic was again minimal. In 1953, the Corps offered Yamhill County the right to lease the river lock, the dam and an adjoining park for only $1 a year. But the county did not have a parks division at the time. So, the Corps simply walked away at the end of the year, abandoning the project. A closing ceremony with a “flotilla” of boats was scheduled to transit the lock on the official last day of operation in February 1954. Postponement of the ceremony was required, however, because high-water inundated the lock at the time.

BEYOND THE STEAMBOAT

In 1955, the County finally formed a park commission to take responsibility for the park facilities and the property transferred from the federal government for a nominal fee. People realized that without ongoing maintenance and repair, the dam would eventually fail. That meant the lake waters behind would be lost to irrigation users. It turned out to be sport fishermen who gained the final removal of the dam. The rudimentary fish ladder never worked well, but the Oregon Fish Commission had decided in 1953, the river offered “good potential for silver salmon production”. To realize that goal, either the dam needed removal or a costly, more elaborate fish ladder structure needed construction.

It took until 1963 before – with changes in Oregon law – the dam finally was dynamited with fingers pointed in several directions by upset parties. Post-1963 saw no large increases in the development of salmon runs – only minor coho salmon runs, but neither coho nor fall chinook runs became self-sustaining. Winter steelhead did survive and become established, but sport fishermen, faced by an access problem due to private property abutting the river for much of its course and very steep riverbanks leading down to the water’s edge, the Yamhill never fulfilled a future as a good fishing stream.

VISITING TODAY

The historicity of the site became recognized in 1976 when the State Historic Preservation Office placed the facility on the state inventory.  Yamhill County maintains a nice little picnic park on the east side of the river opposite the lock. Steep boot paths lead down to the river’s edge. Views from the picnic area remain limited by the heavy vegetation growing along the rim and cliffs dropping down.

At low water, one could walk across from the east side, over the “falls” to the east lock. Youtube posts show the possibility of kayaking upriver from the Dayton Landing river access point to the downstream side of the lock. Access with a kayak from the Yamhill Locks Park is limited to probably a folding or inflatable kayak or maybe an inner tube which you could float across the river in. People do get their hard-shell plastic boats down, but because of the steepness of the banks, shorter is better than longer. Lots of log pilings are still visible in the river both below and above the lock. You have to walk over lots of riprap to better see the lock and former damsite from the water’s level.

REFERENCES

By far the best resource to read about the Locks, history and development found in two long articles found in the Oregon Historical Society by Susan Murray Reddick https://www.jstor.org/stable/20614296 – part 1 vol 91 no 1 pp43-80 and https://www.jstor.org/stable/20614296 – from Dream to Demolition part 2 OHS vol 91 no 2 pp154-202 – 1990

Of course, there is always Yamhill River lock and dam – Wikipedia.

Interesting to note, many of the Army engineering officers involved with the Yamhill Locks attained high cadet ranks at West Point – the Corps of Engineers seen as the first choice for a career by many of the top cadets.

Several of the men attained high ranks after their time on the Yamhill. Harry Hodges became the chief assistant to George Goethals during the Panama Canal construction. Hodges designed the gates for the Canal locks. He also commanded the 76th US Division during World War 1.

George Gillespie attained a Medal of Honor for actions in Virginia during the American Civil War as a young captain.

William Langfitt became a major general during World War 1 as Chief Engineer for the American Expeditionary Forces.

Nathaniel Michler, like Gillespie, fought in the Civil War attaining a brevet rank of brigadier general for his services.