Historic Hood River
Nichols Boatworks
3-16-2018
Notes
This Joe Kollas image captures a time when “industrial” meant welding steel. Where was OSHA?
Category: Downtown Hood River
Tags: 1970s, Columbia River, Kollas, Nichols, Nichols Basin, Nichols Boat Works
Tags: 1970s, Columbia River, Kollas, Nichols, Nichols Basin, Nichols Boat Works
L.E.
Has anyone read "Kid on the River" by Dean Nichols?
I just ordered it and I am looking forward to reading it.
"….The waters of the Columbia started seeping into the kid’s and his younger brother’s veins almost as soon as they started school. Their dad had moved the family to a little house on the approach to the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge…"
cg
Remember when 13th Street on the Heights was a tree-lined shady residential street? The next Community Conversation will be held Monday, March 26, at 2 pm at the museum. All are invited to share memories of people and places on the Heights as well as those just interested in Hood River history.
Kyle
Very, very cool picture.
J.E. Sheppard
That appears to be a view looking out the big door, down the ways toward the river. I used to help launch with my Caterpillar. They did a half launch routinely. Half of a 300 foot barge was built inside the building. When it was structurally finished, it was eased down the ways and stopped when it was just out the door. Then the remaining half of the barge was built inside the building, onto the first half. When both halves were complete, the first half was filled with a calculated amount of water so the long barge would not break in two when it started to float, and all would be pushed down the ways and into the river. A tug boat would catch the barge and move it to the fitting dock for completion. It appears that we are looking along the side of a finished hull, half outside and half inside, probably doing the final work prep for a launch. But I wasn’t pushing them in 1973 yet. I got to that at a later time.
Barbara Parsons
Teacher Beatrice Vernon’s husband Harve used to be a welder at Nichols’. He would have nightmares that one of the big steel walls would get away and start falling towards him. Looking at this photo I can understand why. When I slrpt over with their daughter Joy, some nights I would hear him yell, and then I’d hear Bea re-orienting him from his bad dream.