Category Archives: History

BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND – WIND FARMS OF SHERMAN COUNTY

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Wheat fields are Sherman County, but then again, so are the wind farms.
Switch off the mind and let the heart decide
      Who you were meant to be
Windpower!

Flick to remote and let the body glide
     There is no enemy
Windpower!

Etch out a future of your own design
      Well tailored to your needs, Yeah
Windpower!

Thomas Dolby - from his song Windpower 1982.

Such is the beginning of Thomas Dolby’s song in a dystopian Britain following years of authoritarian rule following an alternate Axis victory in WWII. Just like the countries of the North Sea, Oregon has seen the development of wind farms over the last quarter century as nations develop new energy sources. In this post, I am talking about the wind farms in Sherman County and Gilliam County. Further to the east, Morrow County, also is the site of wind farms, but everything gets more complicated here.

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COLUMBIA RIVER FROM A MID-19TH CENTURY PERSPECTIVE AND TODAY

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Europeans – albeit in American-form – have only been present in the Pacific Northwest for a little over 200 years.  The main push of emigrants did not start until the mid-1840’s.  Here our focus is on the mid-19th century Columbia River area views. A lot has changed since then. Some things remain timeless, however.  The natural beauty of the landscape a prime example.  Even here dramatic change does not go unnoticed.

A restored version of James Madison Alden’s tryptich view over Fort Dalles.

Fort Dalles Museum.

View over The Dalles today to compare – 160 years later.

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EASIER WAY OVER THE CASCADES? HIGHLIGHTS ON THE BARLOW ROAD

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“Laurels” on Laurel Hill. Pioneers mistook the rhododendrons for laurel bushes since the time of year they came through was early fall, long after the rhodies had bloomed.

Like the beginning, the Oregon Trail had various endpoints.  For most, the overland passage ended at The Dalles.  From here, emigrants with enough cash used barges to float their wagons down the river to the confluence of the Sandy River where they disembarked (Sandy Boulevard is the old route they took to finish the journey).  In 1846, an alternative to the river journey arose – the Barlow Road.

The river route was expensive – $50 or more – and dangerous.  By the time emigrants reached The Dalles, the season was fall.  Water levels in the Columbia River were low meaning rocks in the Cascades Rapids – now submerged in the waters of Lake Bonneville at Cascade Locks – making the passage more perilous.  Rafts and barges could easily flip causing loss of life and household goods.

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GAZING UP IN AWE – RAFTING DOWN THE GRAND CANYON

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Moki Mac rafts running Unkar Rapids as the Colorado River transitions from Marble into the heart of the Grand Canyon.

The man who first led an expedition along the river responsible for one of nature’s most magnificent works offers a perfect description of the Grand Canyon –

The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and illustration combined must fail.

jOHN WESLEY POWELL

I just finished reading Kevin Fedarko’s The Emerald Mile, a book about a trio of river runners who established a speed record for rowing the entire 277 miles of the Grand Canyon.  They were helped by near catastrophic releases of water from Glen Canyon Dam – release costing the Bureau of Reclamation over $32 million to repair spillway tunnels extensively damaged due to cavitation which literally ripped apart the insides of the tunnels.

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WALLACE MCCAMANT – PRICE PAID TO BE KINGMAKER

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TALES FROM RIVER VIEW CEMETERY

Wallace McCamant

There are times when all it takes is for one person to stand up, raise their voice and make a stand to change the way it was. The way it was supposed to be. One of the persons was Wallace McCamant. His big moment was a hundred years ago at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. It was a moment putting him into history’s limelight for a brief flash. A flash with consequences, rendered years ahead not as well recorded. Here is another story lying quietly in one of the secluded corners of River View Cemetery in the hills of southwest Portland.

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LA FAYETTE GROVER AND THE END OF OLD OREGON

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TALES FROM RIVER VIEW CEMETERY

La Fayette Grover as a US senator in the late 1870’s – Matthew Brady photograph.

River View Cemetery is one of two historic cemeteries in Portland, Oregon. Lone Fir was the first cemetery, but filling up in the latter 19th Century, River View was established in the hills just – then – outside the growing city. Here, the families of well-to-do Portland buried their loved ones and still do. Walking through the memorials is a history lesson of the city. Street names come to life – through death. The larger monuments tend to overawe the more numerous plainer ones, as if trying to sum up life as the dead thought of their experience. Stories abound here among all of the graves and it is one of the smaller, lesser monuments we move to today – the grave of La Fayette Grover, third governor of Oregon.

There is a small area in Portland where west-to-east streets are named after old Oregon governors.  The sequence follows a series of Union military leaders from the Civil War – Grant, Sherman, Hooker, Meade, Porter (there is a Caruthers Street thrown in for good measure in between the governors, with a good story to boot.).  In the governor section, there is Woods, Gibbs, Whitaker, Curry, Pennoyer, Gaines, Lane, Abernathy and Mood.  Another governor with a short section of streets is Grover Street.

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TURN OF THE CENTURY COURTHOUSES OF CHARLES BURGGRAF

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The former courthouse of Douglas County designed by Charles Burggraf – 1891

COUNTY COURTHOUSES OF OREGON

Of Oregon’s thirty-six counties, nine featured courthouses designed by Charles Burggraf at the turn of the 19th century.  Burggraf was an Oregon-based architect and German immigrant.  Three of those nine are still in use today, with two still operating as county courthouses while the other is a museum.

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TIGER TOWN BREWERY – RENEWAL FERMENTED IN THE WILD WEST

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Tiger Town on a quiet afternoon during the week in May. A different picture after June 1 and on the weekends before.

Tiger Town Brewing Co. is another one of the many examples of how craft breweries can revitalize a community.  Mitchell, Oregon is and has always been a very small town.  Centered not far from the geographic center of the State, Mitchell’s population since 1900 has always wavered around the 200-person mark, some years over (especially 1950 when the population soared to 415, though ten years later, it was back down to 236) and some years under.  The 2010 census clocked Mitchell at only 130 people though that number rebounded a bit by 1920 with 160 people calling Mitchell “home”.

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HOW TO CLIMB TRIGLAV IN ONE DAY – OR NOT

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Triglav rising with the Krma valley on the left and the Kot in the middle. Peak to Triglav’s left is Rjavina. View is from Jerebikovec.

Hiking route taken on my one day “climb” of Triglav – route is in light green.

There are not many countries thinking enough of their mountains to emblazon them on their national flag. Slovenia is an exception. Triglav, the highest, represents the strength of the Slovene soul. On a summer weekend, the goal of every Slovene seems a whack on the ass – the reward for a climb of Triglav. “Thank you sir. May I have another!” Afterall, Milan Kucan, the first president of Slovenia said, “It is the obligation of every Slovene to climb the mountain at least once in one’s lifetime.

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DOGGIN’ IT IN THE FLOWERS ATOP DOG MOUNTAIN

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The next to last switchback before the summit of Dog Mountain is reached. Indian Point is the tall rocky point in the sunshine on the Oregon side to the right center with Wind Mountain further to the right on the Washington side of the river.

Ahh, Dog Mountain. This seven mile, 2800 vertical foot gain hike is one of the most popular in the Columbia River Gorge. I would guess it to be number three after Multnomah Falls and Angels Rest, both on the Oregon side easily accessed from the freeway I-84. Dog Mountain is on the Washington side in between the towns of Stevenson and White Salmon-Bingen with the trailhead right on Washington Highway 14. The hike is a workout, but the views over the eastern sections of the middle Gorge during the wildflower season of mid-spring are what brings the crowds out.

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