On the old railbed of the Des Chutes Railroad with the river below.
Type in a query for ‘railroad wars’ and you will find three events under the Wikipedia entry for “railroad wars”. The last event was the “Deschutes Railroad War”. Of the three, this is the shortest entry. The entry focuses on the actual building difficulties of the two Deschutes railroads erected on either side of the river. But to really understand the real reason for the enmity between the competing rail companies, we need to go further back before the 1912 construction of the two lines.
Corgis mix it up in Ecola Creek at Cannon Beach Corgi Day.
My wife, our Corgi and I recently escaped the summer heat of the Willamette Valley for a day at the beach, Cannon Beach to be exact. Home of the annual Corgi Day at the Beach. It was an awesome day made more mystical by swirls of fog lying along the shore. Over 500 Corgis were running up and down through the sands.
Nestucca Spit – saved from realignment of US 101 by then Secretary of State Robert Straub.
US 101 is the main focus for would-be tourists to Oregon. The Oregon coastline is truly spectacular. The Oregon Coast Highway provides the main access for those wishing to see the magic. Driving the length of the magnificent road gives one an excellent window into the wildness, beauty and changeability of a unique environment.
Erosion continually reshapes the landscape at Cape Kiwanda.
The Oregon Coast spans some fantastically beautiful scenery. Driving along US 101 in the summer can be a bit frustrating at times stuck behind the travel trailers and rvs making their way north or south along the highway, but there is a reason so many are there. People ask me what the favorite spot I have along the long coastline. That is a lot like the question what your favorite travel place in the world is. There are simply too many. One recent spot I discovered was the mystical charms to be discovered atop the Great Dune of Cape Kiwanda.
Waterfalls in Oregon means the Columbia River Gorge to most people. That in spite of the beautiful falls found in the Coast Range and other parts of the western slope of the Cascades – then there is Mt Hood, as well. The obvious second choice for the newcomer would be Silver Falls State Park.
Former site of the Coast Guard Lifeboat station on the end of the Tokeland Spit.
Tokeland is a small spit sticking into the northern entrance of Willapa Bay. The estuary is an amazing body of water. Some write the bay as the second largest estuary on the Pacific Coast. That depends upon one’s definition of an estuary. Some include the Puget Sound in the estuary category. While parts of the Sound are estuarine, the Sound is an inland sea.
Definition of an estuary reads a partially enclosed body of brackish water with one or more rivers flowing into and an open connection to the sea. The freshwater-saltwater intermix provides high levels of nutrients in both water columns and sediment making an estuary a wildly productive natural habitat. West Coast Estuary Explorer also includes the Columbia River as an estuary. They have split the river reaches into eight separate interconnected sections, from the river mouth to the furthest point of tidal influence, Bonneville Dam. The enormous amounts of freshwater flowing through make the Columbia a special case.
Boat in permanent drydock in front of the Pillar Rock Cannery.
A recent trip took us downriver to the one of the only remaining salmon canneries along the lower Columbia River. Pillar Rock is literally at the end of the road. To go further east, you have to get in your boat. The cannery dates to 1877 when it was built over the previous spot where Hudson’s Bay employees used to have an operation which salted salmon. The salmon were then transported to the Sandwich Islands – Hawaii – for sale there, with so-so success. Lewis & Clark also camped here both coming and going along the river. Local Native Americans had long used the site as a place of encampment for years before.
Chester Moores was a member of the first party to complete a loop around Mount Hood in an automobile in one day. They did it as part of an expedition he wrote about in a wonderful article written in the 18 July 1915 edition of The Sunday Oregonian. They spent eleven hours out on the roads, starting with the Columbia River Gorge Highway only completed in parts the year before. Construction of that road in Hood River and Wasco Counties would not be completed for several years. They ended up on earlier roads, much steeper and narrower. He writes of encountering grades of 25 to 30%. The actual Mount Hood Loop would take longer.
Ollie checks out the view over the river, the railroad and the current highway from the former roadbed built by Washington convicts in 1910-1911.
Oregon and Washington have used prison labor for various projects throughout their history. Convicts have been working on a variety of projects from laundry to license plates to agriculture. They also worked on convict road projects, though that only arose in the early 20th century. Penitentiaries hoped to relieve overcrowding in the prisons while at the same time providing employment not conflicting with free labor. They saw the employment also as a form of reward to their better behaving prisoners. Prisoners had marks of degradation such as stripes, chains and shaven heads done away with. Here, they gained a certain amount of freedom. The work, done in the public good, was also seen as reformative.
One road above the other in the Columbia River Gorge; Ollie looking down from the 1876 wagon road on the late 1960 freeway.
Funds for The Dalles – Sandy Military Road gained appropriation from the Oregon legislature in 1872 – $50,000. The road finally finished in 1876 after another $50,000 infusion. The road suffers from memory – too windy and parts too steep (20 % grades!). Much of the road was said to have been destroyed by the 1880 building of the railway through the Gorge. Some areas remained to be incorporated into the subsequent Columbia River highway. Other areas were abandoned, though only one section of the old wagon road – Shellrock Mountain – remains known from its day.
