Category Archives: General Pacific Northwest History

MIST FALLS – GAINING THE SECRETS OF THE GORGE’S DIAPHONOUS PRINCESS

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Mist Falls turned down - from Hartmann Pond in Benson State Park.
Mist Falls turned down – from Hartmann Pond in Benson State Park.

In Scott Cook’s wonderful round-up gem of places lesser known in the Columbia River Gorge, Curious Gorge, Mist Falls is uncovered and revealed. This waterfall moods changes dramatically with the seasons, from a solid waterfall after a rain to one with mists dancing in the wind. Mists never seeming to be in any hurry to settle back on the ground as they enjoy their brief moment of freedom. It sits as a nearby neighbor to the king, Multnomah Falls. The waterfall is most visible to the motorists ripping along Interstate 84. Those motorists – the drivers, anyway – only get a fleeting glance. Their attentions quickly focus on cars using the left-hand exit for the nearby huge parking lot at Multnomah. Mist Falls is a true overlooked gem in the midst of Waterfall Alley.

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LINNTON TRAIL – ASCENDING INTO THE PRIMEVAL MAGIC

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As Portland grew during the 19th and 20th centuries, smaller towns were annexed along the way.  Some of those towns were substantial, like East Portland.  Others were much smaller, like the little town of Linnton across the Willamette River from St Johns. The last post touched on the Lower Columbia River Highway. This time we will come back closer to the beginning of that road.

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LOWER COLUMBIA RIVER HIGHWAY – MAGIC IN THE REMAINS

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Dogs water in the plunge pool beneath Beaver Falls.
Dogs water in the plunge pool beneath Beaver Falls.

After posts on Samuel Hill, Samuel Lancaster, and Henry Bowlby it was time for me to revisit some of the projects they inspired and oversaw.  The Columbia River Highway remains the magic the three men. That magic best shared along the Upper Columbia River Highway, known today as the Historic Columbia River Highway.  A couple fine books have been written on this road.  And while in the future, I may hit upon some of the highlights (Shepperd’s Dell is one such case), today it is the Lower Columbia River Highway.

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HENRY BOWLBY – FLYING BISCUITS TO THE COLUMBIA

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The two Samuel’s – Hill and Lancaster – get all of the attention for the building of the Columbia River highway in the Gorge where the mighty river bores through the Cascades Range. The highway project proposed by Sam Hill included a highway from Portland downriver to the ocean at Astoria. Enter Henry Lee Bowlby.

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SAMUEL LANCASTER – CREATING THE FRAME TO THE BEAUTIFUL PICTURE

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Samuel Lancaster plaque on the Vista House.
Samuel Lancaster plaque on the Vista House.

Samuel Lancaster established himself one of the pioneers of modern American highway construction with his connection to the Columbia River Gorge highway project in 1915.  That highway was only one of a myriad of programs involving Lancaster over a busy lifetime.

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SAM HILL – NEW WORLD STONEHENGE DREAMER

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An appropriately masked guitarist makes music at the altar stone of Stonehenge

To say Samuel Hill lived a fascinating life is almost an understatement.  A frenetic Quaker, Sam’s life is magnificently on display online where you can find his excellent biography Sam Hill, The Prince of Castle Nowhere written by John Tuhy.  Among his many interests was his participation in the Good Roads movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Hill was instrumental in the development of both the Pacific Highway, a route linking the three Coastal States to each other from Canada to Mexico.  He pushed for the development of a true coastal highway paralleling the Pacific Highway – today’s US 101 – as well.  But Hill is best known for his role in the development of the Columbia River Gorge Highway, now over a hundred years old.

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SHEPPERD’S DELL – MAGIC, AWE, WONDER BUT, NO SHEEP

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Falls and bridge at Shepperd’s Dell.

Magic is a word overused in the Columbia Gorge.  Magic, awe, wonder all terms liberally employed by visitors and writers when trying to describe the majesty of the Gorge.  One of those sites spectacularly earning such accolades is Shepperd’s Dell.

Shepperd’s Dell is one of those places I never seem to have time to stop for.  There is very little parking – always full on the weekends – and only a small waterfall to be fleetingly glanced at as you cross over a bridge.  The Dell lies along one of the most scenic stretches of the Historic Columbia River Highway – HCRH – a true highlight between Multnomah Falls and Crown Point.

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FINALLY, THE RIVER! LAST MILES ON THE OREGON TRAIL

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Watering at McDonald's Crossing
Watering down on the John Day River at McDonald’s Crossing.

Just a few miles before the potentially difficult crossing of the Deschutes River, Pioneers – also known as Overlanders – got their first glance of the mighty Columbia River.  A little over 1900 miles lay between Independence and Oregon City, the beginning and terminus of the Oregon Trail.  Until 1846, the end of contiguous overland journey was not at Oregon City. The end of the wagon journey ended at Wascopam Mission. The mission would later give rise to the town of The Dalles, milepost 1819.

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AURORA, NEW DAWN FOR WILHELM KEIL IN OREGON

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Keil Family Cemetery just outside of today’s town,

From a European birth, Wilhelm Keil made his way in fits and starts, all the way from one coast to the other, finishing his days in the communal town he founded, Aurora, Oregon. The story of his life was unusual to say the least.

Keil started out in what would soon be the Prussian province of Saxony. Born 6 March 1811 in the town of Bleicherode, just a year before the Royal Saxon army was marching off as part of Napoleon’s Grand Armee on its date in Russia.

NOTE: This is the first post of four moving backwards in time from the German-American communal town in Oregon of Aurora to other like settlements from which the Aurorans sprung out from.

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LIFE-SAVING SERVICE TRANSFORMS TO THE COAST GUARD – OREGON COAST

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US COAST GUARD COMES TO OREGON

The Life-Saving Service had a long impact on the new Coast Guard in terms of drills and rescue organization for many years.  With even better equipment, helicopters, better boats, better training, the Coast Guard has continued to build on the service of their forebears in the Life-Saving Service serving the mariners of Oregon.

47-foot motor lifeboat going out over the Pacific surf.

Now, life saving, falling into the category of search and rescue today, is an important function of the Coast Guard, especially along the coast of Oregon. But it is only one of many jobs tackled by the Coasties – smuggling interdiction, law enforcement, navigation aids are all some of the other many jobs the Coast Guard is entrusted with.

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