Tag Archives: Willamette Falls

MCLOUGHLIN PROMENADE REVEALING MAGIC OF A NEW DAY

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The McLoughlin Promenade rambling atop the cliff rising above the old city-paper mill complex-Willamette Falls Legacy project.
The McLoughlin Promenade rambling atop the cliff rising above the old city-paper mill complex-Willamette Falls Legacy project.

Oregon City is packed full of history.  The first city of Oregon features two fine museums – Oregon Trail Museum and the Museum of the Oregon Territory – besides being home to the houses of two pioneers of the Hudson’s Bay Company, John McLoughlin and Forbes Barclay.  Beyond that, the dramatic power of the Willamette is on display from roadside vista points off Oregon Highway 99E and Interstate 205.  While the views are dramatic enough, that will change in the near future as the plans of the Grand Ronde Tribe come to fruition as the former industrial area reinvents itself to take advantage of the sheer magnificence of Willamette Falls.  Two other nearby sights are not as well known to those outside of Oregon City – Singer Falls and the McLoughlin Promenade.

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YELLOW STACK LINE – STEAMY HURRAH ON THE WILLAMETTE

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Yellow Stack Line's Grahamona loading at Salem.
Yellow Stack Line’s Grahamona loading at Salem.

Steamboats provided the basis of transportation for the Northwest for much of the latter part of the 19th century.  Railroads and, later, truck traffic ended the golden age of river transport.  In Oregon, the Willamette Valley was welded together for much of fifty plus years by little steamboats making their way up and down the river.  They braved high waters and with designs allowing for small drafts, they puffed along their way in periods of low water, as well.  One of the steamboat lines coming late to the game was one of the more dramatic, made so by the yellow smoke stacks sprouting off all of their boats.  This was the Yellow Stack Line.

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WILLAMETTE FALLS LOCKS – OPENING THE DOOR TO THE VALLEY

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Governor Grover transiting through Lock 3 in 1873. OHS

Willamette Landings was a book I originally read in the sixth or seventh grade a long time ago.  The book details the little settlements growing along the Willamette River in the mid to late 19th century when the river served to connect the Valley to each other and the outside world.  The book impressed me so much I was able to convince my parents to take a trip visiting some of the old sites, including rides on the three ferries remaining – still, today, as well – in operation crossing the river.  The key to being able to use the river as a transportation artery was the development of the Willamette Falls Locks in 1873.

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TURNING ON THE LIGHTS AT WILLAMETTE FALLS

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Willamette Falls
Willamette Falls from atop the former Hawley Mills power station foundation – site of observation point for the proposed Riverwalk.

Waterpower attracted the attention of the earliest Europeans to the site of Willamette Falls. John McLoughlin laid a claim to land at base of the Falls as early as 1829.  Listed as the second largest waterfall in North America based on water volume, in the Northwest, the falls only outdone by those at Celilo and Kettle on the Columbia.  Both of those waterfalls now drowned by reservoirs backed up behind dams – The Dalles Dam and Grand Coulee Dam.  Willamette Falls is also the site of the first hydroelectric plant built in the Northwest – 1888.  From here, transmission lines stretched north to Portland fourteen miles to the north.  These lines represented the first transmission of electricity in the United States.  At the time, about the only thing using the generated power consisted of streetlights in the city, but trolley systems quickly came into use.

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WATERFALLS IN THE CASCADES OF NORTHERN OREGON

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WITH A FEW OTHERS LOWER DOWN THROWN IN FOR GOOD MEASURE

North Falls
Inside the veil of North Falls.

After covering waterfalls I enjoy in Southwestern Washington and the Coast Range of northwestern Oregon, we move east of the Willamette Valley to mostly waterfalls in the northern Cascade Mountains of Oregon. Again, no way these lists are anything close to comprehensive and others may have other favorites. There is a two hour limit from Portland to help limit the number of waterfalling excursions. Also recent wildfires limit access to many waterfalls. Abiqua and Butte Falls in the foothills above Scotts Mill are prime examples. One waterfall making the list here – Shellburg – is also presently inaccessible. I included it only because I visited the falls just before the fires and wanted to show some of its former magic.

So, off to the northern Cascades – the name somehow appropriate – of Oregon to visit our first waterfalls. Links take you to the Northwest Waterfall Survey pages which give the waterfalls ratings 0-100. The highest rated waterfall in Oregon is Multnomah Falls with a rating of 89.92, so you have something to compare other waterfalls here to.

Many of these Northern Oregon waterfalls lie in the western foothills of the Cascades, best visited in winter or spring when they flow at their best.

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