9 Beacon Rock

Beacon Rock was first described and named by Captains Lewis and Clark on October 31, 1805 while they were enroute to the Pacific Ocean. Henry J. Biddle purchased Beacon Rock in 1915 for posterity and built a trail to the top. His son and daughter in law gave the landmark to the State of Washington in 1935; and it became the key landmark of Beacon Rock State Park.

We came to it shortly after leaving the Interpretive Center.

Since the rock sits on the north shore of the Columbia and the road cuts behind it, the sun and silhouette dramatize its presence; and your proximity exaggerates its bulk.

The trail begins benignly enough as a series of switchbacks in the trees.

But not long after, the switchbacks have been cut into the rock face itself.

There’s gradually more construction, especially bridges;

  

but there are also key points at which the trail re-anchors itself to the rock.

  

Along the way, you rise literally up through the trees. It was hard not to notice that some of them – as in many parts of the NW – are not in good shape.

Closer to the top, the construction becomes more elaborate in order to scale the increasingly vertical face (we were glad for the railings);

but the views also expand, here to the east along the river.

And here, also east but further inland across the park.

This gives a sense of the ruggedness of the rock face up which the trail was built. The legend we heard is that it was done by one man and a donkey; but we weren’t sure that a donkey would have helped much given the steepness – maybe a mountain goat.

Some of our friends had gotten to the top ahead of us. As is true in most outdoor settings, humans arrive with big FOOD signs written all over them.

From this elevation the Columbia seems a benign presence as it flows past Beacon Rock; but I suspect that in Lewis and Clark’s day things were more dramatic.

And to put things in perspective, a view from the boat landing that is also part of the park, just downstream from the Rock.

From Beacon Rock we headed home, passing one last dramatic Columbia River Gorge sight – the Bridge of the Gods.

The (Indian) legend holds that at some point in early volcanic time there was a real land bridge at this point along the Columbia River. Current research suggests that there may have been validity to this claim in the form of flood debris that pile up and for some period of time made it possible to cross – or more likely cross over – the river on foot. But then at some later time another flood washed most of it away. In any case, today there is a tectonic bridge of the gods, which you can walk across; and if you’re Cheryl Strayed you can do that and then write “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail”. In the movie, the story ends at this bridge.

In our movie, we drove on. See you next time.

8 Skamania and Stevenson

Heading west from Maryhill along the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge we experienced a much more direct and simplified view of the dramatic scenery.

Without the curving switchbacks of the Oregon historic highway, the broad gestures of the river valley assume more importance and the smaller details get lost. After a moderate amount of time we arrived in Stevenson, just to the right of Skamania Lodge on the map below.

We still needed a place to stay for the night and assumed – correctly – that we’d be able to find a room at the Skamania Lodge. I’d like to be able to say that it was truly a lodge in the grand sense – like Timberline Lodge or Yellowstone – but it’s more of a pleasant hotel, lightly styled as a lodge and used for conferences and meetings as well as for general travelers like us.

It does sit far enough from the river to gain a view from the elevation.

And when you have one big view, all the big rooms take advantage

Some of the open space around the lodge has been dedicated to a nice looking golf course – which also makes it a different level of destination.

I’m not sure what drives the desire to have art trinkets pop up out of the lawn, but here is Skamania’s – a metal and boulder sundial, which was done well enough to keep the time – both standard and daylight.

Finally, here’s the lobby / lounge, a comfortable enough space but also a bit generic and without the charm and craftsmanship of the real lodges.

We had discovered on our way to the hotel that there was an interesting looking Interpretive Center just across the road. It was the one that balances the Discovery Center near the Dalles at the eastern end of the Gorge. The ‘take’ on both the building and its contents varied from the Discovery Center in scale and character.   For example, whereas the Discovery Center used an intimate walkway, water-wall and agrarian inspired architecture, this Interpretive Center adopted a bold, industrial character, combined in an equally bold way with references to volcanic history of the area. I liked the change, though I hope the entry lawn area gets more attention. Right now the display of vehicles seems unfinished or left over.

The entry walkway contrasts older pole construction against a contemporary glass-enclosed lobby. It’s not clear what produced the curved roof. Some thematic basalt column type forms (in concrete) begin a sequence here that carries into the building.

The plaza outside the lobby features some poles carved by Dudley Carter to honor the indian heritage of the area. I think I might have set them in the ground instead of on concrete. The braces are unfortunately necessary and are perhaps symbolically appropriate in showing the remaining indian cultures held up by a modern structure.

The concrete wall arcs across the lobby, defining the connection to the main exhibits with a coarse punched opening that effectively increases the drama of the space.

This carries to the other side of the lobby as well.

Some carved stone with petroglyph markings gives a more organic contrast to the straight lines of all the concrete.

The ruggedness of all this construction carries through to the exhibits as well. This museum clearly focuses on the energy involved in ‘conquering’ this rugged land – and extracting its wealth.

Here’s a really dramatic before and after presentation. First this, now familiar, indian fisherman, presumably at Celilo Falls, using a dip net for salmon,

and then this fish wheel, a contraption constructed to be mounted out in the river and driven by its currents to catch migrating salmon and automatically dump them into containers off to one side. These salmon would then be taken ashore to basic warehouse processing plants where (mostly) immigrants from Asia would cut them up to be packed in cans for shipment around the country.

It’s another reminder of the state of the art technology that came with the settlement by white immigrants of this part of the world – a shock to both nature and the indians.

This Interpretive Center also included many of the domestically scaled elements of settlement, and did not shy away from showing Asian contributions, such as this lovely kimono.

Other examples show the merging of Indian and white cultures. Beads, buttons, and coins were highly prized, along with shells, as decorative elements.

Once the area began to grow out of its raw and rugged phase, people took pride in showing that they knew about finer scaled and crafted household items.

And of course, quilts were created to capture meanings and memories

I love the way the black background brings out the decorative richness.

After this dose of delicacy we finished up outdoors again. Here it appears that the collection of items goes well beyond the 19th century. I didn’t expect to see a diesel engine; so it may be that this museum means to continue to extend the collection farther towards the 21st century.  If so, they’ll need an addition !

For me, this last picture sums the place up.

In the next post I’ll wrap up our trip with one more geologic adventure – Beacon Rock

7 Hood River to Maryhill

Hood River is located at the confluence of the Hood River and the Columbia River in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge. The city is about 30 miles north of Mt Hood, the tallest peak in the state. It is across the Columbia River from White Salmon, Washington, and, farther north, Mt Adams in Washington.

South of the city is the Hood River Valley, known for its production of apples, pears, and cherries. Hood River’s economy has traditionally been based on three industries: agriculture, tourism, and sports recreation, but since the late 1990s, high-tech industries, such as aerospace engineering (e.g. Insitu and Hood Technologies), have become some of the largest employers. Long an agricultural center of the Pacific Northwest, Hood River is home to numerous apple and pear orchards, as well as many wineries.

Hood River first experienced a boom in tourism after being discovered as a site for world-class windsurfing, and more recently kite boarding. Unfortunately, the days we passed through were not very windy, and it was still early in the season, so we didn’t get to see any action on the river. Hood River County also has some of the best kayaking, mountain biking, skiing, and hiking areas in the United States.

We stayed in a B+B, converted many years ago from one of the many comfortable residences built on the hillside overlooking the river and the town.

These other examples were all within a couple of blocks of the B+B

 The town itself slopes diagonally down to the river, producing lots of awkward intersections and juxtapositions but also lots of views – this being the Three Rivers Grill and its river-facing terrace where we had dinner.

“Downtown” consists mostly of one or two streets where the old highway passes through, and from which you can get one of those iconic NW views – a small-town framing big mountains beyond.

Properly fueled up with espresso we headed east on to another stretch of the historic highway. The initial part of the old road has been set aside as a hiking/biking trail, so we drove parallel to it to the point that we could turn off for Rowena Heights. This part of the highway aims for another high granite bluff above the river, winding sinuously up and down to the east and west. At one point the road winds around a sharp ravine that presents a dramatic contrast.

At the bottom of this ravine a small stream flows north to the Columbia but the ruggedness of the ravine hasn’t deterred a dozen or so people from building a road and homes (one on the left) clinging to the sides of the ravine. In many ways it’s an exotic setting; but this level of suburbanization (these are not farms or ranches) comes at a steep price environmentally. Just down the road the main viewpoint comes up. From below it’s a dramatic form against the sky.

To the northwest, the ravine in the foreground contrasts with the breadth of the Columbia beyond

While to the east the overall gorge character is more apparent

Across from our outlook the small town of Lyle sits comfortably on an effluvial fan produced in some earlier geologic time. Good thing we’re not expecting any Missoula ice dam floods any time soon.

Finally, from a vantage point I didn’t have, a historic view of the highway as it winds down from Rowena point (upper left) going east towards our next stop.

Just past the end of the historic highway we came on a new ‘Discovery Center’, built to introduce people to the Gorge, its geological underpinnings, its native American history, and its settlement by early Americans looking for land and a better chance at the good life that had escaped them during the banking crisis of the 1830’s. (Later, we were to discover that this museum, at the east end of the Gorge, has been mirrored by another ‘interpretive center’ at the west end.)

This project was designed by James Hacker, a Portland architect well known for his libraries and education facilities. It clearly evokes some of the 19th century agrarian structures but then contrasts that with a modern, glassy entrance and galleria.

A long waterwall, designed with water washing out of long slots in the stone, evokes some of the streams we had seen along the road, but in an architectural fashion.

The logo, pinned nicely to the open-joint stone wall, shows in silhouette a native American fisherman working from a platform at Celilo Falls, a few miles upstream from the museum site.

The museum’s collection included the view of the falls below, a major indian fishing and gathering site, especially during the immense salmon runs. The falls created issues, of course, for settlers who were trying to come downstream on their way to Portland and the Willamette Valley, and later for transportation of goods upstream to the inland. All of this was ‘resolved’ when the Dalles dam construction raised the level of the river above the falls and added locks around them for shipping – resolved, of course for everyone but the indians and the salmon. The region has been struggling with these issues ever since.

The main galleria of the museum combines a modern aesthetic with pole barn construction to produce an attractive space leading to the displays, meeting rooms, and services on either side.

The view seems to consciously say ‘here is the gorge’ without any attempt to identify particular features or historic or geologic elements. It’s simultaneously quiet and dramatic, much in character with the gorge itself.

The displays for me were a bit of an eclectic collection of beads on a string – and not the shell/beads on this young indian girl.

While each of the displays had its place, the flow through them felt almost arbitrary, as if to say that we have a lot of good stuff here that we need to pack in.

Given all those pieces of information, maintaining a sensible flow proved difficult.

Even within some of the displays, such as the one below about fruit orchard farming, seemed more a collection of items that the complete lifestyle from which they came.

I was struck by how ‘complete’ this museum is in terms of the various types of facility it includes. I didn’t get a picture; but it houses a handsome auditorium, this dining / meeting space, and substantial office and curatorial spaces in the east wing and on a (hardly noticed) lower level.

The patio off the dining room offers a chance to enjoy a beautiful Gorge day.

Just a few miles from the Discovery Center, through the city of The Dalles we crossed the river and climbed up the hill to the Maryhill Museum.

Here’s some old highway technology, the Samuel Hill bridge, leading across the river towards some more current technology helping us reduce at least a few carbon emissions.

It’s hard to know how to explain the Maryhill museum; but I’ll give it a try. Here’s a view of it from the highway, looking south toward the Columbia and Oregon.

Here’s a view from the arrival area with the original mansion/museum on the right and a recently opened wing reaching out towards the Columbia on the left.

This life-size image of Samuel Hill in his later years, shows an imposing, intelligent man within whom lived a genuine excentric.

From Wikipedia (edited), Samuel Hill, from whose lifestyle we get the expression, “what in the Sam Hill !”

Samuel Hill (1857 — 1931), usually known as Sam Hill, was a businessman, lawyer, railroad executive and advocate of good roads in the Pacific Northwest. He substantially influenced the region’s economic development in the early 20th century.

Sam Hill was born into a Quaker family in North Carolina. Displaced by the Civil War, he grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, graduated from Haverford College and Harvard University, and returned to Minneapolis, where he practiced law. James J. Hill, (no relation at the time), hired him to represent his Great Northern Railway, a major force in the development of the northwest. They also became family in 1888, when Sam Hill married J. J. Hill’s eldest daughter Mary.

Hill played an important role in his father-in-law’s enterprises, both at the Great Northern and as president of the Minneapolis Trust Company. However, around 1900 they had some type of cordial falling out and Sam left the business. After a 1901 journey across Russia on the then not-quite-completed Trans-Siberian Railway, Hill settled in 1902 in Seattle, Washington, where he had major interests in the Seattle Gas and Electric Company, which was focused mainly in the coal gas business. He also invested in other utilities, including a telephone system, but did not profit from them. His wife Mary did not take well to the Northwest, and moved back to Minneapolis with their two children without him after six months. Hill stayed in Seattle, and embarked on a number of ventures in the Northwest.

Much of Hill’s attention was devoted to advocating good roads in Washington and Oregon by persuading the states to establish state highway departments and the University of Washington to establish a chair in highway engineering. He personally convinced the Oregon State Legislature to build the Columbia River Highway that we have been driving on this trip.

Starting in 1907, Hill bought land in Klickitat County, Washington near the Columbia River, and named the parcel Maryhill, after his wife and his daughter Mary (who never actually lived there). His original plan was to develop it as a community of Quaker farmers, but he was the only Quaker to ever reside there. The land proved useful for his transportation advocacy. Between 1909 and 1913 he built, at his own $100,000 expense, the first macadam asphalt-paved road in the Pacific Northwest, experimenting over its 10-mile length with seven different paving techniques. The community idea failed from the location being just east enough of the Columbia River Gorge to be too dry to support crops without irrigation.

Hill also began to build a mansion at Maryhill, but the project was not completed in his lifetime, due to a combination of financial reversals and his frustration at the State of Washington’s failure to build a road on the north bank of the Columbia or to otherwise make the area readily accessible. He eventually decided—at the urging of his friend Loie Fuller—to convert the building into an art museum. The museum was dedicated by Queen Marie of Romania in 1926, but did not open to the public until 1940, nine years after Hill’s death.

In addition to Maryhill, Hill constructed two notable monuments, a replica of Stonehenge at Maryhill, and the Peace Arch on the U.S. – Canada border.

Hill’s personal life was as eclectic as his business ventures. After he and his wife drifted apart he had three children by different women and spent significant time with women as varied as Queen Marie of Romania (whose gifts are on display in the museum) and Mona Bell, a bareback rider in the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Show. But he also travelled widely (50 times to Europe), spoke several languages, and corresponded with a wide range of royal and political acquaintances. He was, indeed, a force in his times.

Since we had been to the museum previously, we concentrated on seeing things that were new to us – with a few old favorites thrown in. We passed over, for example, Hill’s excellent collection of Indian baskets and the quirky collection of items given to the museum by Queen Marie of Romania.

We tried out the new cafeteria, located on the lower level of the new wing, and its outdoor terrace facing the river view.

This wing also contains a number of pieces of contemporary sculpture, such as this fish, and appears to be used for rotating shows and special exhibitions.

By contrast, this maquette by Rodin comes from the permanent collection, attractive, in contrast to the drama of the works in the Rodin museum in Paris, in that most of them are small and intimate in scale and detail.

Then there is the collection of chess sets – a personal interest I assume.

The current work being displayed included a couple of galleries of pieces by Indian artists that I had not seen previously. Highly stylized and almost illustrations, they seem to reflect the slow absorption of the Indian tribes into the world of white settlers.

I particularly liked the combination below of a casual, traditional tribal shooting competition and the European style of dress.

Maryhill is a strange find out in the middle of the state, perched on a bluff, all by itself; but if you’re passing that way, it’s definitely worth your time to stop and wander through.