Historic Hood River
Castle Rock
9-18-2014
Notes
Cross and Dimmitt published a beautiful series of postcards to sell to travelers on the Columbia River Highway. This one is titled “Castle Rock” though today it is more frequently called Beacon Rock. This image shows wonderful detail of the fish wheel which fed local salmon canneries. It also shows signs of a major fire on the Washington side.
Category: default
Tags: Beacon Rock, Castle Rock, Columbia River, Columbia River Highway, fish wheel, fishing, postcard
Tags: Beacon Rock, Castle Rock, Columbia River, Columbia River Highway, fish wheel, fishing, postcard
charlott
Do we have a date of any kind. It appears to what I see that it is prior to the trail being put up Beacon Rock. It looks as if this fish wheel in the foreground has seen better days. It is tragic that one wasn’t preserved to show exactly how they worked. The last one was "Big Eddy" at The Dalles and I remember seeing it as a child. If they had of saved one, in working condition, they could have taken the fish and then just dumped them back in the river.
Lots of fishing going on on the Columbia right now. I went from Hood River to Biggs the other day and couldn’t believe the number of boats at the mouth of the Klickitat and Deschutes. Pretty much solid netted on the Oregon shore from just above The Dalles Dam to the Deschutes.
spinsur
That was probably part of the Yacolt Burn.
l.e.
This is where Lewis and Clark first noticed an influence by the tide. Seems a long way from the ocean doesn’t it?
Those fish wheels must have been susceptible to spring flood damage.
When I was growing up, the hills were covered with those big tall snags. The view was wide open. I think it was in the 1960’s that Honor Camps were built and the residents began falling the snags.
l.e.
My husband says there is a place near Beacon Rock where the river is swift, shallow and the bottom is lined with gravel. He says the fish like to spawn there.
l.e.
According to State Park History, The rock is 848 feet high. Henry Biddle purchased the rock in 1915 and changed the name from Castle Rock back to Beacon Rock. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was going to blast it for jetty rock. After Biddle’s purchase he began the trail, which took three years to build.
Tom Kloster has a blog about the Warrendale Fish Cannery which these fish wheels supplied and is across the river from Beacon Rock.
There is an 1894 Dodson v. Dodson court case concerning fish wheels in the Warrendale area.
Frank Warren, owner of the cannery, died on the Titanic. His wife survived and tells her story here.
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/portland-woman-describes-wreck.html
In 1930, this site was considered for the Bonneville Dam.
Arthur
My best guess on date is 1920 -1930. The Cross and Dimmitt cards were very popular with early travelers on the highway.
Bill Seaton
I’ve gone up to the top of Beacon Rock several times back in the 1950’s. It was one of our favorite picnic spots and it has a nice view of the Oregon side of the river.
Buzz
Never knew there was a trail up Beacon Rock, or I sure would have been up it. And surprised to hear that salmon spawned that far down the Columbia.. Would have guessed they all got into the smaller rivers and streams to spawn. They couldn’t have been fit to eat that close to their spawning grounds.
Jill
Thank you i.e. for the link to the Titanic story by Mrs. Warren. Very gripping! I did not know that Warrendale was named after that family.I’ve been to the top of beacon rock via that trail. Pretty thrilling.Although that was in1975 – I read, I believe, that vandals had all but destroyed the trail a while back.
Charlott
When I was a child my Uncle Ken demolished the Warren home at Warrendale. How it came about I don’t know, but I went down there. I remember it was a big house and wished I were older and more into wonderful old homes like I am now, so I could recall more. I know he hauled truck loads of lumber to Hood River. Some of it may have well gone into the house he was building at the time on the ranch. I can still see from the freeway where it was located.
Kenn
The full size replica fish wheel in the interpretive center at Stevenson shows how they operated even though it is turned by electricity rather than water.
kenn
My mistake above, the fishwheel at Stevenson does not operate but is full size, it is the the mill steam engine that now operates on electricity.