Historic Hood River
Future Beach
2-28-2019
Notes
Remember this? Hard to believe it was 2008 when construction started on the Hood River Waterfront Park. That fundraising sign had marked the bare, windswept lot for many months, and then suddenly heavy equipment showed up and dirt started moving. In a couple of months “Phase 1” of the construction was complete.
Those of you who follow Historic Hood River will know why I like to think a little bit of the spirit of Koberg Beach lives on in this modern creation. It may not have a dance pavilion, but I suspect in the past decade many Hood River children got their first taste of Columbia River water splashing around at the Waterfront Park swim beach.
Buzz
I accept the inevitability of change in this world. For many kids/teenagers from my and previous generations, Kobergs cannot be replaced. I hope future generations can look back with the same nostalgia on the man made park as the beach that God gave to us.
L.E.
Well said Buzz. I am of the opinion that with man made Bonneville Dam, the local younger generations will never know the natural process of changes that a river and its banks seasonally experience.
I am not against the dams. I like my electricity and the benefits of irrigation, but I do think we have lost something in that we not longer can observe and experience the natural changing river system.
One of my favorite HHR photos is Ella Mae Davidson walking across the blowing sand, perhaps on her way out to the ferry. A way of life, living with River.
https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org?showimage=259
Charlott
Even though Bonneville was put in place long before I was born, I , at least , got to see some of the natural beauty that was afforded us before real "modernization" set in. So many of the old photos I have been seeing I can relate with as they were still there during my growing up years.
Celilo is the one feature, robbed from these later generations that is the dearest to me. I still love to go sit at the edge of the boat launch in that park and just close my eyes and see, hear and smell. Then I open my tear laden eyes back into the stark reality of the modern world…………