Historic Hood River
Upper Valley
Notes
We looked at the Valley Crest School last week, which caused me to take a look at a part of the 1911 county map I hadn’t examined carefully before. I’m a big fan of maps. I’m guessing a few of you are too, so here’s some detail of the Upper Valley. I recommend you click here to see it at higher resolution in a “swiper” alongside a more recent map.
There are some great details. You can see the Valley Crest school and church, the “Old Miner’s Trail to the Dalles,” the old irrigation ditches and the old wagon road up to Cloud Cap. I’m surprised to see Pollalie Creek is called Sand Creek, and there is a Sand Canyon, which I thought was the name of the upper reaches of the Sandy River on the other side of the mountain. Please share any other interesting details you see.
Gladys
I think the canyon that Pollalie Creek comes down has always been Sand Canyon.
I am curious about Ditch Camp. Does anyone know what it was? I see two of them labeled on this map.
ArthurB
My guess is Ditch Camp refers to construction camps for the irrigation ditches. The map also shows some log camps, and the newspapers reported news from these work camps which could house tens to hundreds of people, rivaling established population centers.
L.E.
I love old maps. Thanks Arthur.
ArthurB
I should have mentioned that features on the 1911 map aren't all located with the same accuracy. I aligned the 2014 map using the section lines, which mostly match. I've found lakes and rivers in the wrong section, and I'm pretty sure they didn't move that far.
Beth H
Very cool map!