Historic Hood River
White River Falls
8-2-2019
Notes
It’s been a five years since I posted this picture of White River Falls, south of the Dalles. It’s been on my list of places to visit but I never seem to make it. Maybe this summer?
Alva Day was visiting to see this power station, which is now derelict.
JKG
From the looks of the roof, I'd say the building was derelict then, too. Any idea of what is happening there?
ArthurB
If you click on the “White River Falls” tag you'll see the turbine had suffered a catastrophic failure and blown out the roof. That's probably why Alva Day was visiting.
nels
I usually combine a trip to the Dufur Threshing Bee and then over to the White River Falls, a stop at Kramer's Market, and then back on scenic highway 44.
Was that area not a serious impediment to the wagon trains coming through there?
kmb
Been there, seen that myself. It is definitely something to see if you are in the area.
Kyle
We went last year – I have a photo from this same spot, though mine only overlaps the upper half of this photo. Looking at them both, I can see that the left wall has eroded a bit since then, looks much more undercut now than back when Alva took this. About that roof hole – I'm surprised to learn it came from a blowout, because there's a pretty huge boulder laying in that corner now, which made me assume the boulder made the hole on its way in. I guess the boulder came in later. And Arthur, you're going to LOVE the inside of that building. It's chock full of old machinery.
kmb
I was there in Oct. 2015, and I don't remember a boulder in the building, nor does it show up on any of my interior pictures – but I don't have any interior pictures in that corner so it may be my faulty memory. It is hard to tell from the photo above how long the building is – but the existing building is about two and a half times long as the section we see in the picture above. Made me think maybe they added on later, added a second turbine train. Also, I see the rails in the foreground in the picture above which I assume they used to lower the equipment down to the power house, or haul it back up on top. I don't remember seeing those rails when I was there, so maybe they are gone.
Judy
I have a friend who worked there. There were homes where the park is now & he & his family lived in one of them. I think he said there were three or four other houses.
There were swimmers coming up from the water beside the old turbine building when we visited.
Kenn
Still exists but in sad shape. I believe it was built to supply power to a flour mill in The Dalles. Power was sold along the way when the mill was down for the night allowing the Balch Hotel in Dufur to have the first electric lights in that area
Please excuse my many posts today, been down for eight weeks.