Historic Hood River
Celilo Falls from Bridge
5-22-2018
Notes
This Frank Patterson view of Celilo Falls from the railroad bridge offers an unusual view.
The History Museum of Hood River County
Bringing the Rich History of Hood River County to Life
The History Museum of Hood River County
Bringing the Rich History of Hood River County to Life
This Frank Patterson view of Celilo Falls from the railroad bridge offers an unusual view.
Kyle
It’s beautiful.
Kenn
Beautiful, naturally I refer to the portion of the bridge more than the falls ~
L.E.
I wonder how much blasting was done in this area while putting the bridge in.
I didn’t realize there was this much "chute" geology in the area of the bridge. I thought most of it was east of the bridge and in the area of The Dalles.
Charlott
Now we have to keep in mind that this photo was taken long before there was any dams……….These rocks were possibly not even seen when Bonneville went in and definitely were covered when The Dalles Dam went in. It was just a mass of rocks like this between this location and The Dalles, thus the reason beings they put in the boat canal, as boats could not navigate further than The Dalles.
The main falls is about 1/3 of the way down in the right hand side of the photo. Most of what you see head on in this photo is more rapids than falls.
James
Are not we looking East, up river…., Celilo Falls is to the west of the Railroad bridge. Is this a different bridge? I’m a bit confused by this pic, as the main Rail bridge is far to the East of Celilo Falls….., right?
L.E.
I have been searching around for some good information about this long stretch of rapids and falls.
HHR has a photo of the shipping canal.
https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org?showimage=1766
This site has a before and after of the train bridge.
Definitely lots of rocks in the area.
https://oregonhistoryproject.org/historic-viewers/celilo-falls-dalles-dam/
I thought the diaries of the Lewis and Clark expedition gave some good information.
https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.jrn.1805-10-22
According to other references, the large island is Miller Island and the river on the lard side is the Deschutes.
The diaries are slow reading, but have some interesting information. White men had been there 4 or 5 days earlier. Large sea otters at the falls.
Kenn
James, the falls were upstream from the bridge and all 11 piers south of the Y were poured on dry rock. It would have been much more difficult to build upstream from the falls in deep water ~
kmb
Is the bridge in the picture above the same bridge as the existing "Oregon Trunk Rail Bridge" that crosses the river just west of Wishram, WA? Is it original or has it been rebuilt?
link
Pat A
Picture too large and unreadable comments
Arthur Babitz
Thanks Pat A, I think it is fixed. The site is having a little trouble with long links embedded in comments, so let me know when you see one like this.