Historic Hood River
New Hotel, New Power Lines, New Resource
Notes
The online archive of the Hood River Glacier now extends through December 1922. You can study intimate details of Hood River life between 1889 and 1922, with a few notable gaps. Matt and I are hard at work scanning the last remaining paper copies of issues from the late 1890s that escaped microfilming in the 1960s, and thus escaped this digitization process. When we are done the Oregon Digital Newspaper project will do its magic and add those years to this archive.
Which brings us to this image. We’ve seen an image from this series before, but now we have more context. We know from this issue that in the spring of 1921 Alva Day spent 6 weeks with a crew of 8 installing electrical service for the new hotel. You can see the newly installed power line in this frame. Another frame tells me this picture was taken from the vantage point of a power pole.
Arlen Sheldrake
Amazing picture and context. wow, climbed a power pole with what I’ll bet wasn’t a very small camera.
Arthur, you and Matt are doing us and all future generations a great service. It is wonderful that we have folk like you willing to do these outstanding community service projects. THANK YOU!
l.e.
Everyone, make sure you bookmark the link Arthur has given us for the online issues.
Even the adds are informative. I have heard Spring Chinook called Kings but not Royals.
Such major changes in lifestyle during this time era. They are installing the most up to date, modern electricity, but there is still a horse carriage in view.
And a pre-dam sandbar precedes major changes that will come to the river.
Thanks Arthur and Matt. Did you do a lot of reading while you were scanning?
Arthur
My trick to getting scanning done is to not read the articles or study the photos while scanning. I take home copies on a flash drive to study when I have time.
Buzz
l.e., in Alaska they just use 5 names for salmon: kings, silvers, red, dogs, and humpies. Then they just refer to them as spring, summer, or fall runs for the particular river they run in. Interesting how in different areas they use different names. And Arthur if you are going to reveal intimate details, I hope by the time you get to the 50’s we have passed on. lol
Jill
I don’t think we can ever thank you enough for the work you do Arthur and Matt – I enjoy this website more than anything else on my computer.
Boy oh boy -the breakfasts at the Columbia Gorge Hotel! A memory of the CGH – when my mother (Marguerite "Babe" Peters Stanford) died in 1989, her friend and school chum Leslie Forden was upset he could not go to the reunion there at the Hotel after all, as they had planned to do. I told him I would take him, and I did. Everyone thought I was my mother(I think it was the white hair) which delighted Leslie quite a bit. I enjoyed myself immensely meeting and talking to all the people she grew up with – once we straightened out I was not Babe Peters.
charlott
Oh Buzz, surely you don’t have anything to hide in the 50’s…..
Arlen Sheldrake
One of my Mother’s (Lois Sheirbon Sheldrake) favorite high school memories was her Odell High School home economics class field trip to view the beautiful new stainless steel kitchen at the CGH. She said it was quite the marvel for her and all her classmates.
Our volunteers who work in our railroad archives have the same "problem" Arthur, it is ALL interesting and one would never get anything done if stopping to read everything……
nels
Again, thank you so much Arthur and Matt. It is so mind expanding and making all of us ‘deeper’ citizenry.
Charlott
I took tap dancing lessons from a woman named Fredova Kruger and we had I guess you would call it a recital of sorts there and also we performed on the stage at the Rialto Theatre.
I used to get in on the entire month it took to decorate this beautiful old hotel for the holidays. We would start the day after Thanksgiving and be racing to get it finished by Christmas. We put up 9 Christmas trees in there, totally packed with ornaments…..such fun…..
Fred Kroon
My mother grew up in The Dalles which is close to Hood River. There is an old story that my Aunt Gerti (Fleck) Moore is the one that won the contest to name the Columbia Gorge Hotel-which she named the Columbia Gorge Hotel. Don’t know if this is true but that is what I heard many years ago.