Historic Hood River
“Lyle, Wash from Rowena Loops”
2-13-2023
Notes
Alta Walter took this image of Lyle Washington from Rowena Crest on the Columbia River Highway. Circa 1922. There certainly are more trees on the Lyle hillside today than back then. It looks like a large area was under cultivation, but it’s hard to imagine what was growing there. Perhaps grazing land?
L.E.
Another Lyle photo to compare. In that photo you can see the orchards on the hillside.
https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org?showimage=532
nels
Looks like a large island in the old picture but not visible in the recent one.
JMSR
I’m guessing the large roof is the sheep shed?
nels
Can anybody comment on what looks like a large island in the 1922 picture?
If it’s sand it could have been washed away with the 1957 dam actions.
But if it’s basalt, the…?
Cecelia
Interesting to see a picture with only a train track at river level on the Oregon side. There are certainly a lot of trees on island nels is referring to..obviously all their roots didn’t hold the land in place but maybe it was eventually logged and then experienced what has happened during several floods at mouth of the Hood River. Does one say Hood River river?
Stever
Sheep sheds spied near the shore line ..
http://w3.gorge.net/davee/firstLyle.htm
" Around 1910, two combined sheepsheds were built on the south side of the railroad tracks and operated by a man named
Hopkins, who came from Yakima. About 1915, Art Bohosky purchased Hopkins interest. They had a capacity for 30,000
sheep, which were winter-fed, sheared of their wool in the spring and shipped out by rail to various markets. Lyle became, for
the next decade, an important point in the sheep and wool industry of the Northwest. Later, during the winter of 1921-22, a
heavy snow fell and one of the sheepsheds collapsed. The industry could not survive the loss, and dwindled away. In 1968, the
remaining sheepshed was burned as a public service. "
L.E.
Before the gates were shut at Bonneville Dam, I think all the trees that were in the flood zone, were cut down.
The James Lyle farm, for whom the town is named, is on the west bank of the Klickitat River. It later became the Balfour Ranch. The Balfours were two wealthy brothers from England. They built a large mansion on that hillside.
There was no road along the Columbia. Highway 8 came down that west hillside from White Salmon, crossed the Klickitat then climbed back up the hillside on its way to Goldendale.
http://columbiariverimages.com/Regions/Places/lyle.html