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.
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 making the passage more perilous. Rafts and barges could easily flip causing loss of life and household goods. Today, the rapids lie submerged in the waters of Lake Bonneville at Cascade Locks.
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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. It is 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. A release costing the Bureau of Reclamation over $32 million. The costs repaired spillway tunnels extensively damaged due to cavitation literally ripping apart the insides of the tunnels.
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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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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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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 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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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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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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Thomas Condon, John Day and fossils all come together in the middle of Oregon. The fossils came first. Then, trapper and hunter, John Day, working with the Pacific Fur Company came west in 1810. He spent the final ten years of his life living in the Pacific Northwest. He and fellow fur trader Ramsay Crooks were robbed and stripped of their clothes by Native Americans near the confluence of the John Day and Columbia Rivers. History records four different dates for John Day’s death and posterity has left many geographic features named in his memory.
The best known is the John Day River. Note – there is another smaller John Day River near Astoria close to the Pacific. This river is the fourth longest river in the lower 48 United States without a dam along its entire length. It is the longest within Oregon and the Pacific Northwest – not that there have not been plans for one. The section between Service Creek and Tumwater Falls is part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
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