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Two
weeks ago I began a brief account of the history of the Columbia
River. This history is brief on several counts, not the least of
which is the fact that I am only considering the sections of the
river that form the Oregon-Washington border. As Lewis and Clark's
voyage down the river dovetails neatly with this history, I will
include snippets from their journals as well. As I mentioned last
week, these journals are best read in their original format even
though the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are all
problematic. Any added annotation is mine. The river, historically,
had changed very little for thousands of years before Lewis and Clark
recorded what they saw. This week the story brings us to the first
rapids of the river below its confluence with the Snake River.
WHITE WATER
Before
the dams, fourteen named rapids made navigation difficult between
Beacon Rock (RM 142---River
Miles
are charted from the mouth of the river just beyond Cape
Disappointmment to the north and Clatsop Spit to the south) and
Wallula Gap (RM 312). Some were mere riffles; others, like Celilo
Falls, were big drops with hazards at every hand.
These
days, four major dams harness the Columbia below the confluence with
the Snake River. The first, built in 1936, was Bonneville (RM 146).
Then followed McNary Dam (RM 292) in 1954 ; the Dalles Dam (RM 192)
in 1957 ; and the John Day Dam (RM 216) in 1971. Each of these dams
was built at the sight of a rapids, and the reservoirs they created
filled the gorge with hundreds of feet of water and eliminated the
river and shoreline as known by Lewis and Clark.
The
first rapids the explorers encountered they named Mussel Shell[s]
Rapid. As was often the case, their name did not last, and those same
rapids in modern times were called Umatilla Rapids. They were flooded
out of existence by the construction of McNary Dam.
From
Clark's notes of October 18, 1805:
we
came too on the Lard [larboard] Side to view the rapid before we
would venter to run it, as the Chanel appeared to be close under the
oppd. Shore, and it would be necessary to liten our canoe, I
deturmined to walk down on the Lard Side, with the 2 Chiefs the
interpreter & his woman, and derected the Small canoe to prcede
down on the Lard Side to the foot of the rapid which was about 2
miles in length ... This rapid I observed as I passed opposit to it
to be verry bad interseped with high rock and Small rockey Islands,
here I observed banks of Muscle Shells banked up in the river in
Several places, I Delayed at the foot of the rapid about 2 hours for
the Canoes which I could See met with much dificuelty in passing down
the rapid on the oposit Side maney places the men were obliged to get
into the water and haul the canoes over Sholes ...
While
Lewis and his best watermen were attempting to negotiate the rapids,
Captain Clark hiked up a butte on the south side of the river and saw
two mountains in the distant west. He misidentified Mt Adams as Mt St
Helens, but correctly spotted the 'conical' Mt Hood. Both St Helens
and Hood had been charted by Lt Broughton, under George Vancouver's
command, on his exploration up the river in 1792.
Between
the Mussel Shell Rapids and the John Day Rapids, the Corps of
Discovery had 85 miles of fairly easy water, and covered that
distance in six days. They camped on the Washington side of the river
near an Indian village. An oddity in what otherwise is a fairly
meticulous account is their failure to mention the John Day River.
They
camped in the same location on their return journey in April of 1806.
They note the high bluffs and rocky arid landscape. They comment on
the more hostile attitudes of the Indians they encountered. Condors
and geese and ducks are mentioned. The John Day goes unnoticed.
mouth
of John Day River from Washington side
An
obvious explanation for the oversight is that Lewis and Clark were on
the Washington side, the Columbia's river level was several hundred
feet lower than it is today, and the John Day might well have been
taken for an insignificant creek.
Next
week: On to Celilo
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