Historic Hood River
Flood Stage
2-19-2026
Notes
This image is undated, but there’s good reason to believe it is the 1948 (Vanport) flood event. Hood River is pretty fortunate in that most of its infrastructure is high above the Columbia River flood stage. We’re looking at the south (Oregon) end of the Hood River White Salmon Bridge where the toll booth is today. This particular junction was raised sometime after this event– I’m not sure if it was part of the 1960’s or 1970’s fill projects which created the Hood River Inn property, or if it happened a little earlier.
You can see “Button Bridge” which is the formal name for the route which takes you over the railroad and up to the junction of SR 35 and SR 30/ Columbia River Highway.
L. E.
One year, at our local history meeting, the topic to share stories was our memory of growing up with a barn. One of the gentlemen, who had grown up on the Bingen bottom ground, said he was a young boy during the 1948 flood. His family had driven down river to help out another family. As they were driving back home, they saw their barn floating down the river.