Category Archives: General Pacific Northwest History

BORDERS TO THE BATTLE LINE – FEDERAL REGULAR ARMY AND THE CIVIL WAR

Posted on by
Reply
Popular view of the men making up the US Regular Army.
Mick Moloney’s version of “The Regular Army O!“. The song provided a popular view of the men making up the US Regular Army.

For neophytes to the study of the American Civil War, the function played by the pre-war Federal Regular Army before, during and after continues to reside a bit in obscurity.  Officers from the antebellum army played large roles on both sides during the war, though they rarely achieved greatness remaining a part of the Federal Regular Army, even if staying true to their oath as army officers.  Those officers usually took up new commissions in the many militia units raised by the different States – again on both sides.  Rapid promotion and the chance to play much larger roles than they played before the war represented key factors in the exodus.  Which comes back to the question, what role did the Regular Army play during the war?

Continue reading →

SOMETHING’S FISHY – FISH LADDERS ELEVATE TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Posted on by
Reply
Waters fall over Bonnie Falls with the graffitied fish ladder offering an easier way up on the right.
Waters fall over Bonnie Falls with graffitied fish ladders offering an easier way up on the right.

If you have lived in Portland long enough, you will end up making a visit to visit the fish hatchery at Bonneville Dam, home to Herman the Sturgeon.  The dams along the Columbia River system have hugely curtailed the once humongous runs of salmonids up and down the river and its tributaries.  Overfishing definitely has a role to play in the depletion of the huge runs, but the hydroelectric – flood control dams have even more hugely impacted the once vast movements of fish.  A recent visit to a small local waterfall brought to light part of the plight of the fish encountering physical obstructions to their journeys. One answer to the problem, fish ladders.

Continue reading →

DIFFERENCE A CENTURY MAKES – THROUGH THE LARCH MOUNTAIN CRATER

Posted on by
2
Aerial shot of fire damage in the upper Multnomah Creek basin - Franklin Ridge is on the right. Rock slide traversed by the trail in the middle. The dead trees are much more open today.
Aerial shot of fire damage in the upper Multnomah Creek basin – Franklin Ridge is on the right. Rockslide traversed by the trail in the middle. The dead trees are much more open today. The view looks north from the open part of the Larch Mountain crater. State of Oregon photo.

Larch Mountain stands as one of the three big shield volcanoes of the extended Boring Lava Fields. Rising to 4055 feet high, the mountain presents an array of contrasts. Once the site of intense logging industry, the mountain shows an amazing natural renewal a century after most of the timber production came to a halt. Pockets of old growth, wonderful views from the top and remnants of past industry all make Larch Mountain and its crater, a fascinating walk in the woods.

Continue reading →

DEFT OF HAND AND A KEG OF WHISKEY: MAGIC AT CUMBERLAND GAP – JOHN DE COURCY IN AMERICA

Posted on by
Reply
Drawing by a Union soldier of Federal camps at Cumberland Gap after its capture in 1864.
1864 Drawing by a Union soldier of Federal camps at Cumberland Gap after its capture by John De Courcy.

I knew before that a certain Captain George Pickett, a thirty-four-year-old veteran of the Mexican War and graduate of West Point – albeit, last in his class – served on San Juan Island in the Puget Sound just before the American Civil War.  What I did not know, was one of his opposites in the whole Pig War ordeal in 1859 was an Anglo-Irish peer by the name of John De Courcy.  Like Pickett, De Courcy would figure in the next war, as well.  Pickett’s role would be bigger and better known, but De Courcy’s role was big enough for someone involved in command. And not even as a citizen of either side.

Continue reading →

A WALK IN THE TREES – THE LARCH MOUNTAIN CRATER RIM

Posted on by
Reply
View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.
View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.

We saw earlier how to climb to the top of the Larch Mountain crater from the Columbia River on the 1915 historic Larch Mountain Trail. But you don’t have to gain 4,400 feet over the 6.6-mile trek up to Sherrard Point. You can actually cheat and start at the top. Simply drive up Larch Mountain Road to its end. Fourteen miles up from the Columbia River Highway just west from Crown Point. Park in the large lot near the summit.

Continue reading →

LARCH MOUNTAIN TRAIL – RIVER TO VOLCANIC CRATER AMIDST MAGIC OF THE GORGE

Posted on by
Reply
View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.
View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain Trail.

Look out to the east from Portland and your attention draws to the snows and glaciers of Mt. Hood.  But search a bit to the left and you can notice another bulky mountain with a notch on its northern rim.  This is Larch Mountain one of three shield volcanoes sitting in a line of volcanic vents making up the Boring Lava Field range stretching from Mount Sylvania on the southwest edge of Portland all the way east past Larch Mountain to Beacon Rock standing near Bonneville Dam, almost thirty miles apart in a straight line. 

Larch Mountain sits on the western end of the canyon of the Columbia River Gorge rising just over 4,000 feet above the river running about three straight miles to the north of its peak.  Coming from the east along the river, Larch Mountain is the last significant Cascade peak on the Oregon side of the Gorge before the mountains begin to ease topographically into the northern end of the Willamette Valley.

Continue reading →

JAMES NESMITH, JOSEPH HOOKER – A UNIQUE MIX TOGETHER FOR THE UNION

Posted on by
Reply
James Nesmith from Centennial History of Oregon.
James Nesmith senator and congressman for Oregon friend of General Hooker – Centennial History of Oregon.
Major General Joseph Hooker - photograph by Matthew Brady.
Major General Joseph Hooker – photograph by Matthew Brady.

The union of Oregon Senator James Nesmith and California-Massachusetts rancher-soldier Joseph Hooker worked at high levels within the Federal attempts to quell the rebellion of 1861-1865.  The two men were not necessarily meant for each other.  However, life has twists and turns.  The same turns that brought Hooker into the doghouse with such Federal luminaries as Henry Halleck, William T. Sherman, and Winfield Scott brought Hooker into the light with Nesmith, Edward Baker and most conspicuously, Abraham Lincoln.

Continue reading →

THREE DIMENSIONS TO TWO – THE MAGIC OF GOUSHA MAPS

Posted on by
3
1972 version of road map of Oregon from H.M. Gousha Co. for Shell Oil. End of the era of free road maps.

Maps have a magical ability to allow one to travel to places they have and have not been to.  They offer an experiential taste.  From the late 1920’s until the 1970’s, would-be travelers had options to pick up road maps at no cost from various gasoline stations around the US.  My favorites as a child – and even now – fell to those produced by the H. M. Gousha Maps.  Vibrant colors accompanied by bright fonts set the maps as a peak for other map companies to reach for in my eyes.

Continue reading →

WATERS FALLING IN THE RAIN FORESTS OF THE LOWER COLUMBIA

Posted on by
Reply
Last wintery look at Beaver Falls.
Late wintery view at Beaver Falls, one of the most magnificent found in the Lower Columbia.

Waterfalls abound throughout the State of Oregon, especially in the western hills. Abundant rains fall throughout the forests filling streams cascading over lava cliffs. To catch these falls at their height means an off-season journey. Summer season can mean little or no rain for a month or more at a time making the falls seem much tamer than when they are at their fullest. Here, a small collection of waterfalls taken from the area around the Lower Columbia. This area gets pelted with rains out of summer. Astoria averages 86 inches of rain a year – Portland, by contrast, averages a mere 36 inches.

Continue reading →

SUNSETS ON THE SUNSET HIGHWAY – SHORTCUT TO NORTH COAST MAGIC

Posted on by
2
The Goal – a fast connection to the Oregon Coast from Portland. Enter the Sunset Highway.

Until 1940, there really was no fast and easy way to reach the Pacific Coast from the main population center of Oregon – Portland.  At first, there were river steamers coming downstream from Portland to Astoria.  Then, the train to Astoria with a branch line going further south to Gearhart and Seaside.   The first road connection finally came in 1915 with the building of the Lower Columbia Highway, today’s US Highway 30. 

Continue reading →