Lost: Celilo Falls, Columbia River Gorge, 1949

Dear Readers, this will be the start of a series based on my dad's Kodachrome slides from the 1940s and 1950s. 

In mid-1949, my dad completed a contract where he worked in Guam (Mariana Islands) and returned to mainland USA. He retrieved his car from a garage in San Francisco and headed back to Massachusetts via the northern route. He drove north to Oregon and turned east to follow the scenic highway on the south (Oregon) side of the Columbia River. 

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For millennia, Native Americans fished for salmon, sturgeon, and steelhead in the narrow rock channels near the base of Celilo Falls on the Columbia River. The Falls were a major trading and gathering point for Native Americans from around the western continent. Now underwater, the Long Narrows were located about 13 miles east of The Dalles. According to https://www.historylink.org/file/10010:

Indians fished along the entire stretch of the river from the falls to The Dalles, but were most active near the base of the falls and at the Long Narrows. In the narrows areas, basalt outcroppings provided places to stand along and in the river's flow, and the protruding rocks swirled the river into opaque turbulence that concealed the Indians' nets from the sharp-eyed salmon. Farther upstream, others fished with spear, hook, and net from perches on timber scaffolds cantilevered over the boiling water at the very base of the falls.

From Wikipedia: 

Celilo Falls itself was the first in a series of cascades and rapids known collectively as The Narrows or The Dalles, stretching for about 12 miles (19 km) downstream. Over that length, the river dropped 82 feet (25 m) at high water and 63 feet (19 m) at low water.

The Oregon Encyclopedia has an interesting article on the falls.

In 1957, engineers closed the gates on The Dalles Dam and flooded the river valley upstream. The falls are now underwater, and the historic fishing grounds are gone. (I was about to write forever, but one day, our descendants will be taking down these dams and letting the river flow free again.)

 

When I first saw these slides, I did not know where the falls were located. I would have liked to go and see them. But then I learned they were underwater. Drat, I missed them by 69 years......

The Native American fishermen built platforms that projected out over the water. In the upper picture, I see a small cable car box or platform. I am glad my dad had the chance to see this interesting geologic and cultural feature of our Pacific Northwest.

Columbia River view east from Vista House

This is the splendid view east along the Columbia River from the Vista House. The Vista House was built in 1916-1917 at Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Crown Point (“Thor’s Heights”), part of the State Scenic Corridor. Note how in the 1949 photograph above, Interstate 84 has not yet been built. Today, it blights the view below. 

My dad took these photographs with a Perfex 35mm camera using Kodachrome film. I do not know which model Perfex. These 75-year-old slides are in remarkable condition. I scanned them with a Nikon Coolscan 5000 operated by NikonScan software running on a Windows 7 computer and cleaned some scratches and blobs with the heal tool in Photoshop CS6.

(These are real Kodachrome slides, no Ai fraudulent manufactured pictures.)

My dad's Chrysler Windsor automobile. He modified the back seat so that it lay flat and he could camp in the car. He had many minor issues like leaking brake cylinders and engine overheating.