Historic Hood River
Mt. Hood Railroad Depot
8-26-2014
Notes
I think these passenger disembarking from an excursion on the Mt. Hood Railroad may be associated with the GAR encampment we saw previously. Many of them are wearing the same sort of ribbons.
We have Samuel Blythe’s GAR ribbons in the museum collection. It’s an odd thrill to hold a physical object that we see in a 100 year old photograph.
charlott
GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) conventions were a big part of the Civil War veterans life. The old soldiers were either very involved with their involvement in the Civil War, old comrades and GAR, or they totally wanted to forget the ghastly experiences that they had been involved in for four long horrible years. The counterpart to the GAR was the Woman’s Relief Corp,which was still active in Hood River in the 1950’s
Many of these women were probably involved in that. Can’t say so much for the child in the man’s arms, either asleep or protesting to being involved in the celebration. Even as time went on Confederate veterans were invited to some of the functions.
GAR organizations in various towns were named for some general, someone else famous during the war, or in some instances for a local soldier, who gave their life in the war, or a local war hero.
Love those hats.
ralph
Are the near side train tracks covered with sand and a wood board? Looks like the woman with the umbrella is also wondering the same thing.
Bill Seaton
I wish I could have seen this picture in the 1940’s. Then I could have understood the backyard of the Downing Bldg. (Yasui Bldg.) a little better.
Arlen Sheldrake
A classic view of the unique MHRR depot and the OR&N main line and bridge over the Hood River. Love the hats and the "street sweeper" dresses….
Kenn
For a date on the photo, the new or present RR bridge is in place and the old bridge not yet removed. The present bridge has the date on both portals.
Arthur
I was wondering where Kenn saw a second bridge, but then figured out he observed the tracks heading off towards the new bridge, hidden from view, bypassing the old bridge which we can see. Kenn tells me the old bridge was built in 1882. I think the new one is 1906, but someone will have to walk down and check it out.
Arthur
The Mt. Hood Railroad was built in 1906, as was the "new" OR&N bridge, but the big GAR encampment at HR was in 1904. I don’t know if there were any later GAR encampments, or if this was some other sort of gathering. A close look shows what looks like an apple on the ribbons, so maybe this is an agricultural event.
Charlott
I am fairly sure there was only the one GAR gathering in Hood River. This could very well have been one of the fruit fairs.
Now that you mention it, if you look at the people, most of them would be much too young to have been Civil War vets and their wives. I only pick out the one man with the gray beard. Just wish we could see further to the right and might get a clue of what was going on. We shall probably never know, but such a great photo of the times.
RCam
Unrelated yet related"¦
I saw the MHRR’s "ËœBlue Cow Caboose’ railcar on a flatbed trailer slowly crawling up Country Club Drive the other day! Anyone know where it was headed / why it was headed?
RCam
Hah!
HR News answered my question today. The caboose was headed for the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum. I guess I’ll see it there this Saturday at the WAAAAM Fly-in!