Historic Hood River
Hood River County Map, 1911
Notes
I’m a big fan of maps, so when the Hood River County Surveyor (and HHR reader) told me about an old map they found in a safe I jumped at the chance to scan it. The map was glued to a piece of cardboard, wrinkled, torn (and “repaired” with scotch tape), but Matt has dealt with much worse. After he scanned it I started cleaning up the digital replica.
This map was prepared for the Hood River Realty Board in the midst of one of the biggest real estate booms in Hood River history. In short, it is a marketing tool for orchard land. Not only does this map capture all sorts of wonderful geographic history of our county, the margin is chock full of boosterism, explaining everything from soil composition to how easy it is to turn a profit as an orchardist to how train signals work. I will be sharing the entire map, margin notes and all, when I finish cleaning it up.
But for now, I wanted to experiment with the “before/after slider” to let you explore some details of this map. When you click on the link below you will see a window with the 1911 map and a 2014 map detail, with a slider control on the bottom so you can compare the two maps. I’ll warn you that the 1911 map, while beautiful and full of information, is not as precise as our modern map. Remember, the mapmaker didn’t have satellite imagery or even a view from an airplane. In many places the maps align perfectly, but many other features are more loosely drawn, especially rivers and streams. I recommend you start exploring at Rockford or Parkdale. I’ll also warn you that the comparison window is designed for displays at least 1600 pixels wide. It’s hard to get any context with a smaller window, so I haven’t tried to do a scalable wiper window.
Here’s the lower valley, and here’s the upper valley. Enjoy exploring, and share what you learn.
charlott
See this reminds me……..Bill Pattison, didn’t you have a wonderful old Hood River Valley map on your office wall?
l.e.
Aren’t maps just the coolest thing ever?
My neighbor loaned me his 1913 Atlas of Klickitat County. It is very hard to read in bed, but I love to lie in bed at night and study it.
The neat and legible printing amazes me.
If anyone is interested….I am reading "Swivel Chair Logger", about Anton Lausmann who came to HR in 1907 to work for Stanley and Smith as a bookkeeper. There is some early HR history. He later went on to own his own lumber and real estate companies. HR Forest Products, Mitchel Point Lumber Co., The Sonny Land Co.
If anyone is interested in reading the book, I will send it to you.
Jim Gray
i.e, I have read Swivel Chair Logger ten years ago or so, very interesting, was looking for my copy to let my son read but haven’t found it yet.
Buzz
I would be interested in reading it l.e. If you will have finished it by the time we get together, maybe I could pick it up then and mail it back when finished. Do you know if we are making any progress on a "get together" to "get acquainted"?
Kenn
Arthur, you mention an interest in maps, would you want me to copy the three I found that indicate flumes previously discussed? I hope to be in Hood River for the air museum fly in or sooner, could bring them at that time.
Jill
It would have been a map quite similar to this that lured my grandfather, as well as Ted Pooley, to Hood River. This is a wonderful map – I will take time to study it.
longshot
Cool that it shows the town of Fir. Have you found any pictures in the museums collection of Fir?
charlott
Very acquainted with Fir. I have photos I think of Fir school. Know the exact location and quite a bit of history about it, if anyone is interested. In fact I think I have an article that my aunt wrote and it was in a newspaper, maybe Hood River.
longshot
If you could get the information you have on Fir to the museum where it could be copied it would be great. I went through their stuff years ago and didn’t come up with very much.
RCam
HHR, Arthur, Matt,
I’ve been visiting HHR for a long time (and reading all the wonderful comments) and today’s offering has prompted me to finally offer my own comments:
First, thank you for all the work it takes to archive and share these images of the places we love and treasure.
Second, this map is awesome! I do hope you will be able to share it in more detail (i.e. margin notes) at some future time.
Third, the before/after slider is almost too much fun! I will be coming back to it again and again. Using the slider feature to compare maps I’ve discovered that the lumber flume from the Green Point Mill passed, what appears to be, right through my house! I will go back in the HRR archives and pursue this further.
Thanks again,
RCam
l.e.
I am back home where I can look at this map on my desk top rather than a little lap top.
What fun and what a creative idea Arthur!
South of Mitchell you can see Newby Mill. F.E. Newby married one of the Davenport daughters.
In the book I mentioned "Swivel Chair Logger", Binns is spelled Benz. Even on this 1911 map it is spelled Binns, so the author made an error when he wrote the book in 1976.
Arthur
RCam, I wouldn’t place too much stock in the exact position of the flume on the map. From what I’ve seen with streams etc., the most accurate spots seem to be at the road crossings. I think some feature may be off by as much as a quarter mile, especially if it was any distance from productive agricultural lands. Note for example that Black Lake isn’t even in the proper quarter section.
Arthur
Kenn, I would very much like to scan your maps so the museum will have a copy. I tried your email but it bounced.
RCam
Arthur,
Yes, the discrepancies are part of the fun.
RCam
Jeffrey Bryant
This is the first place I’ve seen mentioning Hood River county. It had been proposed as Cascade county:
The Hood River Glacier, November 22, 1906, page 5
Still Wants It Changed
Editor Glacier – Having been criticized some for opposing the name Cscade for the proposed new county without offering a better one, let me suggest that magic name that is known round the world in every city, town and hamlet where our big red apples and strawberries have been shipped. The name Hood River is well known, everybody knows where to look for it, but the name Cascade might be looked for any place between California and Alaska; so let’s call the new county Hood River and keep a good thing when you have it.
M. R. Noble
Jeffrey Bryant
The 1910 Hood River Glacier mentions an ownership map of the county. Do you have a copy of this map?
MORGAN FRAZIER
Darn the links do not work anylong!
Arthur Babitz
Thanks for the heads up, Morgan. I fixed the links in this post. This alerted me to a problem with a small number of links on the site which I will need to fix in the next day or so.
Arthur Babitz
Oops, had to take down the “fix” to the link problem temporarily because it broke something else! Should be fixed within a day.
Grayson
Hello, I’m writing a paper on the Hood River Valley and it’s apple industry for a history of US Agriculture class. I was wondering if anyone had gotten around to transcribing the text on the margins as I have tried to little avail and I believe that this map, especially the text on the margins would be extremely useful for my paper.