Historic Hood River
Holiday Break
Notes
It looks like the city got an unwelcome surprise on December 30, 1945. When I was searching old HHR posts to figure out which river crossing we’re looking at, I found this post by Bill Pattison:
In the winter of 1946 – 1947 a large section of the pipe was torn out by a land slide on the hillside south of the present 5 mill. gallon reservoir and the thrust block at the Hood River crossing. In order to repair and replace the pipe the City asked the High School if they could use some of the students to be suspended on ropes over the hillside to assist in the work. I volunteered {without my parents permission} to take on the task, because of my early mountain climbing experience. I recall it was a blast and good pay. No OSHA in those days.
So not only do we know where this was, we know the name of one of the four men hanging by rope off the hillside. The reservoir Bill refers to is the one on Portland Drive. This bridge crosses the Hood River just off Riverside Drive. When it was being replaced in 2014 there was a slide on this same hillside which caused some trouble for the construction company.
nels
What a story. Is Bill Pattison still around?
Norma
Bill, who were the other students?
ArthurB
Bill's doing fine, we just had a nice chat. He passed his comments on to me. Bill thinks he was the guy on the face of the cliff, furthest down the mudslide. He says he was working with the high school climbing students who later became the Alpinees, under the returning men from the 10th Mountain Division. Construction was under the city engineer (Hal Puddy he thinks). He doesn't remember the names of the other guys, but recalls they spent two or three days doing some sort of carpentry– preparing cribbing for the new pipe to rest against.
Norma
Arthur, Makes me feel old. I remember Hal Puddy when he was city engineer.
nels
That's a long slide down into the river if one is not properly tied in. Kudos to the young men who accomplished that task. A real man's job..
L.E.
Sorry for the ignorance, but what was the purpose of the pipe?
I see on Google that Portland Drive, along with Farmers Irrigation Canal is on the north side of the River and Riverside Dr. is on the south side.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Portland+Dr,+Oregon+97031/@45.6481344,-121.5801971,16.51z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x549608d713cdacf1:0xc7d1b5a221427f72!8m2!3d45.6639774!4d-121.5653509
ArthurB
This pipeline carries the City of Hood River water from the spring source near Lost Lake to a storage reservoir near Portland Drive. The water crosses the Hood River at this point, runs up the hill and then cross-country northward to Portland Drive. Most of the pipe is under or next to Dee Highway or Lost Lake Road, but this section runs cross country and has historically been a maintenance headache.
kmb
I assume this is the “bridge” that shows on Google maps with the south end near the home currently located at 4480 Riverside Drive – or has the location changed over time? It's strange because you don't get the sense on Google maps that the north bank is as tall and steep as shown in the above photo. Also, confused by the dates in the Notes: starts by saying the city got a surprise on Dec. 30, 1945, but the recollection by Bill Pattison indicates it would have been December of 1946?
ArthurB
The new bridge is at the same location near Riverside Drive. I think the pipeline up the hill was relocated a little to deal with the local geology.
The date of December 30 1945 is from Alva Day's negative, which was recorded contemporaneously. The 1946 date was Bill Pattison's recollection 75 years after the fact. We can check the newspapers to be sure, but I'm comfortable going with Alva Day's written record.
Kyle
I love the “POSITIVELY FORBIDDEN”