Historic Hood River
Dock Grade Dock
12-14-2017
Notes
It may be obvious there once was a dock at the end of “Dock Grade Road,” but it’s hard to find a good picture of it. This is a detail from an Ella May Davidson photo circa 1915. I believe the dock was rebuilt a few times. One of the earliest account I can find of it describes how it was destroyed by high water soon after construction.
Longshot
Did both the grades coming down from the bluff have used the same dock?
Longshot
Also several small gable roofs that don’t sit much higher than the level of the dock. Any guesses on their use?
Arthur
@Longshot, we saw a photo at my presentation last night which showed both roads coming down to the same point.
I’m guessing the gable roofs are storage at the dock. The HR dock also had warehousing to store material waiting for the steamer.
Longshot
Just seem like very small buildings for storage, but in the horse and wagon day a single wagon load didn’t amount to much. Maybe each individual freighter had his own little building?
Arthur
The storage at the HR Regulator dock was about the size of a single modern shipping container.
L.E.
I have seen a photo of the Fisher’s steamboat landing between Camas and Vancouver. It has those little shacks on it.
Some more photos of the landing.
http://community.gorge.net/ghmuseum/DockGrade.htm
A 1913 map of the area.
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~westklic/r10t3map.html
I think in earlier years, the landing was a little farther east in the area of the Joslyn farm.
I was wondering if ferries and steamboats generally had separate landings since they would have been separate private enterprises.
L.E.
I hope the unscripted Sense of Place lecture was a big hit. Next year try not to have it on the night of the school Christmas Program. Tough decision between watching grandkids perform and an Arthur/Scott history lecture.
Buzz
Enjoyed Sense of Place presentation. Am now able to match some comments to faces.
museum bound
What a great photo. We have stationary at the Gorge Heritage Museum from this company. Their invoices even have "191_" on the upper right side so they only had to fill in the last digit. When I asked the granddaughter of one of the owners if she had any more information, she said sadly these were in my mom’s things. I didn’t realize we had anything to do with this. I wish I had known so I could have asked the right questions.
L.E.
I think Bingen/White Salmon were able to have a more permanent steamboat landing than Hood River. Perhaps because of the sand bar.
From the June 18 1914 HR Glacier:
River Boats Land East of Hood River
The waters of the Columbia have subsided 25 days earlier than usual and the Bailey Gatzert and other river steamers are no longer landing at the high water wharf site at the foot of First street. The wharf boat has been removed to the old location east of Hood River, and the Regulator line is now operating a free bus service.
The ferry boats are still landing at the foot of First street.