The Dalles Lewis and Clark Monument

A small but interesting piece of history…

Proposed Monument. Lewis and Clark Memorial Association. c. 1930s

Pg 58 in this 1946 State Parks report discusses the monument in the article.

http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/doc/records/state/odot/pdfs/columbia_gorge.pdf

Location of Lewis and Clark Monument

Monument base before construction of picnic structure. Date Unknown.
Request to nominate the Lewis and Clark Monument for inventory designation to the local Historical Register. City of The Dalles - Historic Landmarks Commission
http://www.ci.the-dalles.or.us/sites/default/files/imported/agendas/planning/historical/PDFs/hlcagenda062613.pdf

Lewis and Clark Monument
Google Street View

The Dalles Lewis and Clark Monument was built prior to World War II starting in 1939. During the War, all work was halted and the project never resumed. In the 1960's, the Dalles Lions Club constructed a picnic shelter surrounding the Monument. Over the past decades, the structure has fallen into disrepair and posses a safety risk for users of the new skate park that is located next to the monument. A decision to remove the structure and donate the usable materials to The Dalles Parks and Recreation for future construction of new smaller shelters was approved.

https://www.facebook.com/TheDallesLewisAndClarkMonumentProject/info

Request to nominate the Lewis and Clark Monument for inventory designation to the local Historical Register. 2013. City of The Dalles - Historic Landmarks Commission

http://www.ci.the-dalles.or.us/sites/default/files/imported/agendas/planning/historical/PDFs/hlcagenda062613.pdf

Via Peg Willis ( Building the Columbia River Highway )

Peg Willis on A.M. Northwest

Building the Columbia River Highway | KATU.com - Portland News, Sports, Traffic Weather and Breaking News - Portland, Oregon | - Portland, Oregon | Recent Shows:

MEET THE AUTHOR

BOOK LAUNCH - Saturday, April 5 at 2 p.m. @ Hood County River Museum, sponsored by Waucoma Books (300 E Port Marina Dr, Hood River, OR)

Thursday, April 10 at 7 p.m. @ Pendleton Public Library, sponsored by Armchair Books (502 SW Dorion Ave, Pendleton, OR)

Saturday, April 12 @ Friends of Vista House Annual Training (Corbett, OR)

Saturday, June 14 from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. @ 8th Annual Gorge Ride, sponsored by Friends of the Historic Columbia River Highway (The Dalles, OR)

Wednesday, June 25 at 7 p.m. @ Powells - downtown (1005 W. Burnside St., Portland, OR)

Thursday, August 7 at 7 p.m. @ The Clark County Historical Museum (1511 Main St, Vancouver, WA)

http://www.katu.com/amnw/segments/Buliding-the-Columbia-River-Highway-253229081.html

 

Old Pavement, Old Lines

Old Lines (2014)
Original Pavement at Patterson Ferry Road Columbia River Highway. Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge.
Irrigon, Oregon. March 28, 2014
Copyright © 2014 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved

The painted lines on the road may offer some clue as to when the various sections of pavement lapsed out of service. 

In many places along the dormant / abandoned sections of the highway, one will find these sorts of stripes, one painted over the other.  Peg Willis explains why:

Sometime between Rexford's innovative striping of the highway and 1954, the centerline color had changed to yellow.  By 1958, the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads mandated white...  But after only two years, the yellow lines were back - at least on the state highways.

Peg Willis. Building the Columbia River Highway: They Said It Couldn’t Be Done. Charleston: The History Press.  2014. 135.

To read more…

Building the Columbia River Highway by Peg Willis

Building the Columbia River Highway: They Said It Couldn't Be Done by Peg Willis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

By far the best book on the old highway that I've read. A great overview for people who are just getting to know the history of the Columbia River Highway and the Gorge in general, but full of new and interesting tidbits for people more familiar with the material.

I really enjoyed the biographies of the "characters" involved with the construction, larger than life individuals that made the highway possible. While these larger than life figures are often mentioned along with a few interesting details about their lives and personalities, Willis takes the time to explore their lives in more detail, which adds an compelling level of insight to the nature of the time period in the region and to the highway itself.

View all my reviews

A Great Pig Story | fiddlepeg

fiddlepeg: "Yeon was a logger – one of the foremost in the Pacific Northwest. He was a “boots on the ground” sort of boss who worked alongside his men in any and every capacity from bull-whacker to cook to sawyer. He led by example, and in the interest of making that example a good one, he controlled his temper when lesser men would have yielded to passion.

          But the day of the pig incident was one of those rare occasions when John Yeon lost it."



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What in the Sam Hill … ? | fiddlepeg

What in the Sam Hill … ? | fiddlepeg: "Sam Hill. There was a real person by that name–at least two, actually–but both of them postdated the expression by a hundred years or more. Even so, the question “What in the Sam Hill … ?” was more than appropriate to describe the elder Sam’s ideas and activities. You’ll read a bit about him in Building the Columbia River Highway, but, as with many of the subjects in the book, he could be a study in himself. In fact, he has been. John Tuhy wrote a great biography of Sam Hill in 1983 and called it, “Sam Hill: the Prince of Castle Nowhere.” And others have written books about some of Sam’s “lady friends.”"



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