GEOLOGY OF THE GORGE
The Columbia River is 1243 miles long and carries the second largest volume of water in the United States. It is the only river flowing through the Cascade Mountains, thus providing a natural east-west route.The history of the Columbia River Gorge goes back 30 million years through the ages of lava, ice, and tectonic activity.
Around 12,000 to 15,000 years ago a series of great floods occurred. As ice sheets advanced into Canada and northern Washington, gigantic ice dams were formed. When these dams broke, huge amounts of water were unleashed. The most recent, and possibly the greatest, dam retained a 3,000 square mile lake extending 250 miles into Montana. When the dam gave way, an estimated 380 cubic miles of water poured out during a 40 hour period. Known as the Bretz Flood, it spread water over 16,000 miles of Central Washington before pouring into the Columbia River. It scoured out the Columbia River Valley to the depth of 1,200 ft. at Wallula Gap, exposing towering basalt cliffs. At Crown Point, water reached a depth of 600 feet.
The most recent natural catastrophe helping shape the present day Columbia River Gorge, was a huge landslide called the Cascade Slide, which occurred about 700 years ago. The slide covered an area of about 5.5 square miles, damming the Columbia River. The river was dammed long enough to give rise to the Indian Legend of the “Bridge of Gods,” called the “Cascades of Columbia,” which were impassable by boat.
The backed up waters of the 300 foot lake, created by the Cascade Slide drowned the forests on the banks upriver. Lewis and Clark reported “What is however, the most singular is there are stumps of pine trees scattered for some distance in the river, which has the appearance of being dammed below and forced to encroach on the shore.” Remnants of both rapids and the tree snags were submerged behind the waters of Bonneville Dam in 1938.
NATIVE AMERICANS AND “THE BRIDGE OF THE GODS”
The Cascades of the Columbia have been an Indian fishing site since the great landslide over 700 years ago. The Indians of this area were probably of the Chinook tribe. Lewis and Clark called them the “Wahclellahs” and noted that they were very often blind, but “know not what cause to attribute this prevalent deficiency of the eye except it be their exposure to the reflection of the sun on the water to which they are constantly exposed in the occupation of fishing”.
They, as was the custom of many Indians of the Northwest, flattened the foreheads of the infants and were commonly called “Flatheads.” They lived in houses made of cedar, traveled in wonderfully crafted canoes, and fished off the rocks with spears and nets. Between 1829 and 1832 the Indian population was decimated by the disease commonly thought to be malaria. Consequently, they could offer little resistance when the pioneers began to appropriate their lands.
The Indian myth of “Tahmanhnaw” or “The Bridge of the Gods” is based on the archeological evidence of a great landslide which blocked the river for a short time. One version of the Indian story tells of Coyote, who asked the Great Spirit for a tunnel under the landslide so that salmon could come up the river and feed his people. For many years the salmon came and Coyote’s people crossed over the Tahmanhnaw by foot and traveled under by canoe on peaceful waters.
Eventually, two princes of the tribe, Wy’East and Klickitat, became rivals for the love of Loo-Wit, a beautiful maiden. They caused so much trouble and strife among the people that The Great Spirit turned them into mountains, Wy’East became Mount Hood and Klickitat became Mount Adams and Loo-Wit was changed into beautiful Mount Saint Helens. Even after becoming mountains, they continue their fight, throwing white-hot ashes at each other and shaking the earth so hard the great arch broke and fell into the river.For Centuries native Americans have fished at the great Cascades of the Columbia River. Today, native Americans of the Yakima, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Nez Perce tribes have in-lieu fishing rights at Cascade Locks. They continue to fish with nets, often from platforms built much like those their ancestors used.
CROSSING THE RIVER
The Great Cascade Landslide, which occurred around 1260 AD, dammed the Columbia River, creating the Indian’s Bridge of the Gods.” An Indian legend tells of being able to cross the river with dry moccasins. With or without “The Bridge of the Gods” native Americans have been crossing the Columbia River for centuries. Using cedar canoes, they crossed in slack waters above the rapids.
Later, as the river became an east-west travel route, it was necessary to portage around the rapids, a distance of about 5 miles. Portage railroads were built on both sides of the river and settlements grew around the landings. When the OSN Company acquired both portage lines, the Oregon route was used exclusively for a short time until the easier-to-maintain Washington route could be lengthened and rebuilt. With settlements on both sides of the river, crossing by rowboat above the rapids became a perilous adventure.Small, steam-powered ferries later carried passengers and goods between the town of Cascade Locks, Oregon and Stevenson, Washington.
In 1926 a privately owned company, the Wauna Toll Bridge Company, built a bridge across the narrowest portion of the gorge at the west end of Cascade Locks. A fifty cent toll was charged to cross this man-made “Bridge of the Gods.” In 1938, the bridge was raised 36 feet to allow clearance above the reservoir created by the Bonneville dam. Today, the Bridge of the Gods is owned by the Port of Cascade Locks and the toll is still only fifty cents.
TRANSPORTATION IN THE COLUMBIA GORGE
The Columbia River Gorge forms the only natural breaks through the Cascade Mountains between California and Canada. For many years this was the main route for Indian and white man alike, passing between the interior of the country and the Pacific coast. However, this highway of water was blocked by the Cascade Rapids requiring an arduous 4.5 mile portage. For centuries, travelers sought to overcome this obstacle.
Native Americans had ancient foot paths on both sides of the river. These were used by Lewis and Clark in their expedition of 1804-1806. Lewis wrote on their return trip in 1806 “.... this portage is two thousand eigh hundred yards along a narrow rough and slippery road… at present the whole distance is extremely difficult of ascent.”After rafting the untamed Columbia River from Fort Dalles, the first pioneers found a nearly impassable barrier at the Cascade rapids. The rutted wagon track around the torrent was little more than a wide foot path.As the tide of immigrants swelleed, shallow draft paddle boats replaced rafts on the open water of the Columbia River. The names of the Columbia River paddlewheelers were familiar in every household along the river as were their schedules. The Oregon Steamship Navigation Company, OSN, operated 26 boats on the Columbia. However, the Cascades remained a barrier around which people and goods had to portage.
The first portage railroad was built around the Cascade rapids in 1851 on the Washington bank of the river. A second line followed on the Oregon shore. At first mules pulled simple flat cars along wooden tracks built on trestle work at the rivers’ edge. In early 1862 the Oregon Pony, the first steam locomotive in the Oregon Territory, was put to work on the Oregon portage line. Later that year the Oregon Steam Navigation Company took over operation of both protage railroads, giving it a virtual monopoly over transportation on the Columbia River. The Cascades remained a costly bottleneck to early commerce.
The demand for improved transportation impelled Congress, in 1875, to fund construction of a canal and lock to bypass the Cascade rapids. The US Army Corps of Engineers was charged with the extremely difficult task which was not completed until 1896.
As the canal was under construction, the Oregon Railway and Navigation company completed a mainline railroad east from Portland along the Oregon shore of the Columbia River. This line was later acquired by the Union Pacific as a part of their east-west mainline.
With improvements to river and rail travel, the Columbia River Gorge was gaining the status as a major transportation route. However, roads remained nonexistent.It wasn't until the Columbia River Highway was completed in 1917 that autos gained access to the magnificent Columbia River Gorge. The road, built by Samuel Lancaster, was hailed as an Engineering Marvel of the era. Although replaced in 1950 by an improved water level route, portions of the original “scenic” highway still exist today poised high above the river among the basalt cliffs and waterfalls.
THE CASCADES CANAL AND LOCKS
The need to improve travel in the Columbia River began with the flow of immigrants heading west and grew steadily as that flow swelled into a tidal wave of commerce. Getting around the rapids remained the greatest challenge.
In 1876 Congress appropriated $90,000 to the US Army Corps of Engineers to study construction of a canal at the Cascades. For the next 20 years until the canal opened in 1896, a succession of Corps’ Engineers and private contractors struggled against the forces of nature to complete the monumental project.The canal was originally designed to be eight feet deep, fifty feet wide and 7,200 feet long at low water with two locks. The cost was fixed at $1.2 million.
No sooner had work begun in November 1878 than high winds, rain and floating ice prevented river travel and isolated the work force at Cascade Locks. Nature had given notice that the cost of change would be high.In 1880-1881, it was determined that specifications must be changed because of miscalculations of the low water mark. The plans were revised so that there would be only one lock 90 feet wide and 462 feet long with a lift of 24 feet (later changed to 36 feet).
Work resumed on the canal in 1886. Skilled stonemasons cut stones for the canal walls. Unmortared basalt rocks three feet thick were laid above the high water mark.There were now four sets of lock gates. The guard gates at the upper end of the canal were the largest built to that time. They were 55 feet by 52.6 feet and weighed 325,353 pounds.
Because the river flood crested each year in early June, no work could be done during the dry summer months. Each year, at the beginning of the flood season, all of the equipment had to be removed and then repositioned after the flood was over. Work resumed in the fall but was hampered by heavy rainfall and frequent snows. Workers wore cumbersome oilskin coats and awkward boots, slowing their efforts greatly.
Funds were slow in coming and in 1888 Major Handbury noted that “A generation will have been born and gone to its grave between the beginning and end of (this) enterprise.”At last, after the flood damage of 1894 was repaired, the canal was opened in 1896. 3.8 million dollars had been expended but the cost of human toil far exceeded any dollar amount. Given the isolated and extreme nature of the site, otherwise mundane project statistics are staggering.
Earth & Rock Removal… 817,825 cubic yards
Concrete Poured… 93,275 cubic yards
Stone Masonry Laid… 85,491 cubic yards
Iron & Steel Placed… 3.3 million pounds
21 years under construction
