Historic Hood River
Hood River Depot, circa 1918
Notes
This newly rediscovered Alva Day image shows a bit of activity at the Hood River train depot in 1918 or 1919. Something about those milk pails seems to be attracting an inordinate amount of attention. Unfortunately the text of their labels is just beneath the resolution of the negative. I can make out the word “Return” and “Game” but little else. Mr. Day was Secretary of the Hood River County Game Protective Association around this time, so perhaps there’s something other than milk in the pails. Another negatives in the collection shows some very early fish stocking efforts, so maybe that’s what we’re seeing here. I hope we’ll discover more about this when we examine the rest of this collection.
[Ed. note:]Thanks to some great detective work by a reader, we have good support to the theory we are looking at a fish stocking effort. You can read about it here in Mr. Day’s own words. Imagine packing those milk pails full of rainbow trout on horseback to our mountain lakes!
As I mentioned Monday, you can help us with the estimated $2000 to process the rest of this rediscovered treasure trove. Send a check to “The History Museum of Hood River County” at PO Box 781, Hood River, OR 97031 with a note that it’s for photo archives. Questions can be directed to the Museum Director, Connie Nice (phone 541-386-6772). If you include your email address with the check, I’ll send you a special preview of one of the photos you’re helping to preserve and share with the community.
I know this kind of appeal is working for Wikipedia, so hopefully it will work for Historic Hood River. $50 will conserve and digitize 33 of these great negatives, $150 will cover 100 of them. I can’t wait to share the rest of the collection with you, but for now the five we’re posting this week will have to do.
Charlott
Two things I noticed in this photo. The old hotel in the upper left hand corner gives a fairly good look at the trellis/covering over the roof garden that was there.
Naturally the three story building in the center of the photo was the Gerdes hotel/boarding house. it was owned by John Henry and Carrie (Jackson) Gerdes. Carrie was the daughter of Capt. Francis Marion Jackson of Pine Grove.
It was there when I was growing up, but naturally had passed out of the Gerdes ownership and was in a pretty bad state. Eventually it was torn down. The Eye Center is on that corner now just before you take the overpass over I-84.
Yes, there is definite interest in the area of those milk cans………maybe the latest booze arrival from somewhere? Or maybe it was some that was whipped up somewhere maybe Whiskey Creek being shipped to the "big city." Whiskey Creek is another interesting story.
Jim Gray
The Gerde Hotel actually burned down in the early 70’s, it was my very first fire as a vol. fireman for HRVFD, boarded up at the time it had become a place of refuge for what we called wino’s at the time.
Charlott
Okay, I wasn’t in Hood River at that time, but yes, it was a ‘wino" place in the late 50’s when I was in my teens. The shape it was in, it doesn’t surprise me that it met the fate that it did. I don’t recall hearing that it burned, so just assumed that it was torn down.
l.e.
Looks like the gentleman on the left is taking bets.
Ellen Dittebrandt
I love Alva eye for composition a very unique view in HR .
Arthur
Thanks to l.e. for tracking down the story in Alva Day’s own words about packing trout into our mountain lakes. I’ve added her link to the main photo notes.
Arthur
I spent some more time looking through the Day negatives today. I ran across some photos from the ’30s showing them pouring milk cans of fish into a big tank with a long pipe coming out of it. The pipe delivered the fish maybe 10 feet out into the lake. Still using the same cans 15 years later.
Charlott
It well could be a ‘fish stocking" situation. But why the train depot, unless they had been shipped in from somewhere, which doesn’t make too much sense as I would think it would be "shocking" to the fish. That would be an excellent way to pack fish into the higher lakes around the area.
It appears you have two types of men. The men in suits who are standing around and then there are a few who are dressed more casually. If you look at the man in the foreground between the other two men, he definitely has hiking boots of the era on, as I have photos of my own Dad in boots that look just like that. I suppose we will never really know what is going on.
Charlott
I was sent an article that explains this…Yes, this is fish being shipped, but they are coming from the Hood River County rivers. The Oregon Fish and Game Commission had what they called "The Rainbow Car." This car was run all over the state, collecting trout fry where they were prevalent and transporting them to areas of lakes and streams for re-stocking.
This car was actually taken up the Mt. Hood Railroad to the area of Dee where people who collected the fish would take them to the car.
The man in charge of this operation in Hood River was Dixon McDonald.
ArthurB
A fresh scan of this image shows the date as 1919 based on the license plate on one of the cars.
L.E.
Note that this is as early as 1912 and they are already planting fish!!
I wonder if this Wm. Stewart is Alva Day’s father in law?
From the Oct. 17, 1912 HR Glacier
TROUT FRY PLANTED IN THE WEST FORK
Another car of trout fry arrived at Hood River last Thursday. In charge of it were the regular men from the the hatchery, and Wm Stewart and W.L. Clark went with the car to Dee. The Mount Hood furnished a special engine for the trip, and the car arrived at Dee before the regular train.
Burnett Duncan had taken his car to Dee the day previous and with Clark’s and Stewart’s assistance made arrangements for the disposition of the fry. It was through the courtesy of Walker West, superintendent of the big mill, that the arrangements were made easy. Nothing was too much trouble for him to have done, and it was done right on time. Me made arrangements for teams, had a special dinner for the "fish car crowd" ready at the hotel, and furnished all the help he could in the work,…
Connaway Mercantile Co., had sent up their truck from Odell, and this made two or three trips to the West Fork. Several wagons from the Dee country did the rest…..
Any one who has been fishing in the Hood River streams the past three years, and come back empty stringed, will appreciate the work that is being done. More fish are yet to be planted this year and the work followed up next. In connection with the stocking of streams, a correct fish ladder is to be placed in the new dam of the Hood River Gas & Electric Co; a fish ladder will be built at the Punch Bowl; the channel of the Hood River changed at the mouth and additional service given in wardenship over the streams, so that the new fish will be allowed to grow big enough to make real fishing.