Historic Hood River
???
5-24-2021

Notes
We haven’t had a Monday Mystery for a while. This undated Alva Day image has me scratching my head. Clearly he was very proud of the electrical delivery infrastructure, but what was the purpose of this building? Why is there a bridge to bring a doghouse on tracks to a large structure perched on the hillside?
L.E.
At first I thought maybe Alaska, but I am not sure there was electricity there at the time Alva visited. Also, that looks like an Oak tree on the right, so nix on the Alaska idea.
Lower Columbia?
nels
Winter, the river is low, no snow and a second building behind the front one. Anyone recognize that sloped land across the river? Possibly the top of a flume to shoot logs down to the lower mill?
Arlen L Sheldrake
Most interesting photo…while I don’t have the answer, I do have a possibility….in our April issue of the Pacific NW Chapter, National Railway Historical Society we published an article about a wood tippler that was located in Drain, Oregon that was used to supply wood to passenger train locomotives. This tippler however required men to throw wood up two levels to the tippler that could be tripped by the loco crew dumping the wood into the tender…..could this be an electrified version of either a wood or coal tippler? (the freight locomotive staff "got" to hand load their locos)
L.E.
I was wondering about coal. But what is the dog house?
kmb
I was thinking some type of material handling operation associated with mining. Can anyone even positively identify the body of water in the background? Arthur, are you able to read the sign to the left of the No Admittance sign? This is a case where you need to see the negatives in the series of pictures taken to make sense of what and where this is.
ArthurB
Unfortunately I don’t think there are any other images in this series. Next to the "No Admittance" sign is a "Danger High Voltage" sign. I tried all my tricks but I can’t tease anything out of the sign below the utility pole.
val
I feel like this is the west side of Mosier.! Can barley see in the left corner the Washington Cliff.