Historic Hood River
Early Dam
9-28-2020
Notes
This is a nice view of the early Copper Dam, also showing the wood stave pipeline which fed the Powerdale hydroelectric generator downstream as well as the Mt. Hood Railroad tracks. I’m sure there is a technical name for this sort of dam– it’s just high enough to create a pool to capture water for the pipeline, and the rest of the water spills over continuously.
Dale Nicol
Arthur, do you know the spot where this photo was taken?
It appears this early dam is up river from the higher dam that was removed a few years ago.
Kyle
Is this a "spillway"?
JKG
The top right of the photo appears to be a plateau and orchard. Given this and the way that the river is bending, it could be just north of Cedar Creek (immediately south of what is known today as ‘Helicopter Hole’ where the RR attempted to b build a tunnel).
nels
That looks like snow on the tracks in the lower left from a snow slide?
Andy B
That looks like a weir to me. Designed to raise the level of the upstream water.
Definitely not the exact location of the actual Copper Dam. It looks to me like it may be just upstream of the pipeline bridge which is still there today.
Is that cribbing in the bottom of the photo? Perhaps to keep the floods off the tracks?
ArthurB
Interesting, so you think this dam was basically where the pipeline "ends" now? I don’t know if I have a pre-1920’s map which would show the location for sure.
ArthurB
The 1911 map has a note "Dam 168 ft" in this general area, but no arrow pointing to a precise location. It also has a road crossing the Hood River from Eby Road connecting with West Side Road at Panorama Point. The 1912 USFS National Forest Map shows the same road, which clearly never existsed. It follows the quarter section line so I wonder if it was a boundary that accidentally got marked as a road.
L.E.
Arthur, did you remove the link to the LIDAR map on this photo, https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org?showimage=2488 or do just not see it?
ArthurB
LE, the LIDAR link was a day later.
Dale Nicol
Arthur, I wonder if the note "Dam 168 ft" means elevation or length?
For a reference, the elevation of the floor, of the Farmers Irrigation hydro building, located just south of the old Copper Dam is 299.0 FT MSL. I am guessing the river is about 20 Ft. below this point…..so about 279 FT MSL. If the weir’s elevation is 168 FT MSL, then perhaps JKG could be correct.
ArthurB
Dale, I suspect "168 ft" is the elevation so people could calculate the head of the hydropower source. The nearby switchback on the MHRR tracks is labeled "Switchback 397" and we have "Tucker Bridge 426." They also label the flow of streams and rivers and even some of the springs. The map was intended to attract investors and settlers to the valley, so water and power were important.
JEC
I believe the word you were looking for to describe this type of dam is barrage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrage_(dam)