Historic Hood River
Industrial View
Notes
This view of the Hood River waterfront from the 1990s shows a side of the city most people don’t think about very much. Most people probably don’t even realize the railroad and the freeway switch sides here. You can see the narrow trip of the city’s old industrial waterfront, starting on the center right with the Union Building, then the Big 7 Building, and the Waucoma Center. This is where the Wilson Reservoir waterline was routed, powering not only the refrigeration at the Union Building but also a flour mill and abattoir.
The freeway follows the path of the old Hood River Slough. From this view you can see how convenient it was to dump chemical waste from lead arsenate pesticide manufacture west of the Waucoma Center into the slough where the wastewater treatment plant sits today. You can see how the “hook” remains unfilled after an Oregon Court of Appeals decision (discussed here) ended the Hood River Waterfront fill operations.
You can see the railroad spur which still goes to Hood River Distillers, and you can see the Wastewater Treatment plant which has been upgraded since this view. The rectangular swimming pool-like area west of the plant is a low area for temporary waste storage (overflow) in case of a plant failure.
You can see the “Expo Center” opposite the Event Site, and the remains of the Clark Door Factory.
You can see the large lot which became the Hood River Waterfront Park. Finally, there is the Nichols Boatworks.
Tags: 1990s, Big 7, Hood River delta, Port of Hood River, Union Building, Waucoma Center
L.E.
I was looking at this pre Bonneville Dam photo, trying to figure out where that little Island, in today’s photo, was located.
https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org/hood-river-aerial-view-circa-1935/
There is a big difference in water access to town. Evidently the RR did not have to be moved for the Bonneville pool?
j nelson
Would be interesting to see how far out into the river the present outwash goes now. When barges clear the bridge west bound, they quickly turn northwest to stay in adequate depth.
Thorn
I was curious about the little island too. Apparently google calls it Island Parkland, but was formally known as Wells Island and possibly Morrison Island before that. Here’s the search thread HHR’s tagged pics: https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org/?s=wells+island
ArthurB
Thorn, Wells Island is the larger island a couple of hundred yards west of this one. It was inhabited by Dr. Wells for many years– this one is much to small to be inhabited. This is;and appears as a rocky bump in the Columbia River Slough in the 1935 Bonneville Dam Survey.
I think Wells Island is made of material from the White Salmon River and has changed significantly over the years. This island is rocky outcrop which has been pretty much unchanged.
Joby
I have an aerial image of the waterfront from before Bonneville dam construction with a line added into the photo to represent the modern shoreline(2004ish) It was given to me by a friend who worked at the USGS.
The photo shows the outwash from the Hood River. This photo was also taken prior to the construction of Nichols Basin, which was the actual channel of the Hood River, prior to the construction of the jetty road that leads to “the spit”.
The photo also shows that outwash from the Hood River forms a river delta and extends to the north to approximately where it is today. It also extends to the west quite a ways past Wells Island. So, Wells was actually a part of the sand bar. I believe this shows that historically that the main channel of the Columbia has enough energy/flow to keep the outwash from extending further north. This flow also carries the material from the outwash to the west where it settles along the Oregon side of the Columbia.
What we see today is roughly 90 years (post dam construction) of outwash rebuilding itself.
I will see if I can find the photo and post it here for y’all to see.