Historic Hood River
Rooster Rock and Gorge
6-17-2015
Notes
I know panoramas don’t reproduce well in this website format, but I really like this one. You can see the old cannery at Rooster Rock, as well as Vista House. As Vista House wasn’t complete until 1918 this must be after that date.
Charlott
The cannery at Rooster Rock was owned and operated by Samuel Elmore. However, it didn’t last in that location very long due to silting in that bay. It was finally relocated about 6 miles upriver from Vancouver, Washington.
I don’t know if the cannery building was taken apart or just left there to deteriorate. I know the cannery moved downriver in 1917 and they took the machinery from this place down there..
Kenn
The concrete slab for the machinery end of the building remains. I believe the building was pushed over into the water and buried, pictures place the concrete at the edge of the slope and it is now back about 20′..
Longshot
Interesting to see a panoramic view of the gorge from that time. Between fires, logging, and farming there is amazingly little timber.
L.E.
Talk about timing!!!
Last night I was reading "Cataclysms on the Columbia: The Great Missoula Floods by John Eliot Allen, Marjorie Burns and Scott Burns."
Came across a photo of Rooster Rock and a comment on how it came to be there. I thought, hmmmm, I am going to have to fine an HHR photo of Rooster Rock and add this. So, here you go.
"In the left foreground is the monolith called Rooster Rock. It was once attached to the cliffs behind it (Crown Point), but the Missoula Floods undercut the cliffs and a landslide transported the rock upright to its present location."
No mention about the origins of Phoca Rock out in the middle of the river.
nels
Looks like a lovely pastoral painting so popular in the western discovery period. Wonderful composition. Any info on the photographer and place where this was shot?
Scott Cook
Hey LE, Phoca Rock came from a similar Cape Horn landslide.
Arthur
nels, there is a small "Gifford" imprint on this panorama. Not clear if Benjamin Gifford took the photo himself, but it came out of his studio.
L.E.
Welcome back Scott!
Yes, reading further, it says…
At the west end of the Gorge lies an additional large landslide just to the west of Crown Point. Missoula Floodwaters undercut the cliffs on the south side of the river producing a large landslide that transported part of the Crown Point inter-canyon flow of the Columbia River Basalts to the river bottom, still in an upright position. The resulting monolith was ultimately named Rooster Rock. Even today, this landslide continues to creep, as evidenced by the slowly sinking old highway road at its crest.
"Another large rock (also transported by a Missoula Flood landslide) lies in the middle of the river close to the Cape Horn basalt flow…."
Beacon Rock which you can see in the distance is the neck or feeder pipe of an ancient volcano composed of basaltic andesite ….dated to be approximately 56,000 years of age. Erosion by the Floods removed the outer sediment.
They conclude the crests of the Missoula Floods to be just over 700 feet and topped Crown Point but not Mt Zion which is just out of this photo on the left side.
So…enough geology for today. I think this is one of the most interesting photos I have seen of this area.
Thanks Arthur for reproducing.