Historic Hood River
White Salmon Outlet
6-8-2020
Notes
I’ve zoomed in to give you some interesting detail from an Ella May Davidson negative circa 1912. This predates Highway 14. You can see the railroad crossing the White Salmon River, and a cluster of structures (several of which still exist). Is this area called Underwood, or does it have another name?
Category: default
Tags: 1910s, bridge, Columbia River, Davidson, railroad, Underwood, White Salmon River
Tags: 1910s, bridge, Columbia River, Davidson, railroad, Underwood, White Salmon River
Charlott
It was always called Underwood, as the land all up behind there had been homesteaded by Amos Underwood and some later his brother Ed came from back east and took out land up there. Amos’ wife was Taswatha (Ellen) the daughter of Chief Chenowith and Ed’s wife was Isabella Lear. Isabella was the daughter of Taswatha and her first partner (won’t say her husband, though considered so, from Indian custom wedding) He was a soldier in the U. S. troops stationed in the area of the Cascades and Fort Vancouver. When Lear got reposted he tried to get Taswatha to go with him, but she knew she would be miserable and would not fit into the "white mans" world, so she remained behind. Just prior to Chenowith’s hanging he asked Amos who he considered a friend to care for Taswatha and Isabella, Underwood took them, eventually married Taswatha, first by Indian custom and a number of years later when Isabella came back from school and married, legally Ed Underwood, Amos and now Ellen were also legally married. They are all buried in the Chris-Zada Cemetery up at the top of that hill. One of my great uncles was married to Amy Dark, the daughter of Grace Underwood.
I think that big tall building, was a hotel at one time.
L.E.
I didn’t realize the original bridge span was that wide.
I think the rock bluff was blasted down to level out the area and make fill for the railroad.
There is a road working its way of the west side of the WS River where a wagon bridge crosses.
This dock and the road were heavily used when work started on the Condit Dam project.
Looks cold and dreary. I did not recognize this one as an Ella May Davidson photo.
Andy B
Is that bridge span and the abutments what is still there today?
Looks like a building on stilts on the left.
I guess at some point they just fill in under the trestle with rail rock like they did on the west side of the Hood River just past the old bridge- less maintenance than a wooden trestle.
Cool photo!
L.E.
After thinking about this, and I don’t want to spend time researching, I think the rock bluff was blasted down to fill in the wooden span and to make level ground for building the Underwood Fruit packing sheds.
ArthurB
It looks like the same bridge span, but someone will need to check it out to see if there is a date plaque on it.
Long railroad trestles at the mouth of the Hood River and White Salmon were replaced with dikes. I know that radically changed the nature of the final reach of the Hood River, letting it fill up with cottonwood trees and other vegetation. The marsh by the depot didn’t exist before the dikes.
L.E.
According the BridgeHunter.com, the railroad bridge that is in existence now was built in 1911 by American Bridge Co. of New York. There is a photo of a metal plate on the bridge with company and date.
Kenn
Great place for a highway, saves going up to Willard to get from Cooks to White Salmon. The RR bridge that replaced this 1908 trestle is now slated for replacement.
Jeffrey W Bryant
The new steel bridge across the White Salmon river was being built in 1920.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn97071110/1920-04-01/ed-1/seq-9/