Historic Hood River
Bridal Veil, Circa 1913
5-2-2014
Notes
Here’s a good image to end a week of followups to questions raised by previous images.
Bridal Veil is one of several mill towns in the Gorge that vanished with scarcely a trace. When this postcard was mailed in September, 1913 it was a thriving mill town fed by lumber from a mill upstream. Last week we saw the flume which fed this mill.
Category: default
Tags: 1910s, Bridal Veil, Columbia River, flume, logging, lumber, mill, postcard, railroad
Tags: 1910s, Bridal Veil, Columbia River, flume, logging, lumber, mill, postcard, railroad
charlott
Went by the wayside just like all the fish companies along the river.
Looks like there was even a good sized church back up the hill there. Would be interesting to have some sort of idea at it’s peak how many people actually lived there.
I would assume there would have had to have been a school of some type.
l.e.
What a busy place. Looks like a good "where’s Waldo?" scene.
It even has several railroad sidings.
When I was a kid, we would visit an elderly gentleman across the river at Cape Horn. He told about rowing across the river, good weather or bad weather, to work in the mill at Bridal Veil. He probably wasn’t the only one.
Thanks to the reader involvement on the previous flume photo. It is exciting when the mysteries here are solved.
spinsur
Arlen gets a steam engine, too!
Arlen Sheldrake
YEA!!!! a steam cloud!!! I continue to be amazed at all the history that the lowly postcard provides…..I think if I weren’t train focused, I would join the postcard club. What an amazing complex…yes, one wonders where all the workers boarded.
That could well be our OR&N 197 steam locomotive pulling a fast passenger train as it was built and purchased in 1905 to pull the passenger loads attending the Lewis & Clark Exposition in Portland.
You know Arthur, if I paid for all the enjoyment you are providing me it would be one hell of a bill. Thank you! Yes, donation time.
Bill Seaton
In my younger days, I loved to hike in the Columbia Gorge. If I had seen this picture back them, I would have spent a lot more time in Bridal Veil.
Arthur
I hate to tease Arlen, but next week you’ll see a speeding steam train– with a flume! Two of the most popular HHR themes in one image.
Kenn
Church, school, hotel/boarding house, Bridal Veil had it all. The church was about the last to go, it was there until a few years ago. It is all well covered by Tom Cowling, a one time resident, in his books on Bridal Veil. The curved track in the center of the photo with boxcar was the original main line before 1910. Just below the picture is the original trestle over Bridal Veil Creek where a well known picture "Relief Train at Bridal Veil" was taken, a train bound for the snowed in train at Starvation Creek..
Steve R
Given the creek location- One would guess then that the present Post office is near the back in this picture- and the trees in the back and center would be the approx location of the cemetary visible from I-84- not far from the church.
Kenn
Immediately west of the creek at bottom of this picture is Bridal Veil bluff, At the point of this bluff at track level there remains one of the original RR blasting tunnels with laterals. After drilling straight in the laterals were packed with explosives to blow the rock into the river, apparently this hole was drilled deeper than necessary. This process just might be frowned on in present times.