Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In 1792, American trading captain Robert Gray discovered the great Columbia River on his journey to become the first American to sail around
the world. Gray claimed the river and its huge drainage area for the United States, naming the river after his ship, the
Columbia Rediviva
(Colum-
bus Lives Again). After Gray's discovery, Vancouver sent William Broughton out to explore the upriver territory for England; Broughton asserted
that Gray hadn't found the true channel and claimed the river for His Royal Majesty, the King. After Broughton's claim, the United States and
Great Britain were unable to come to terms on the ownership of Oregon Country, a fur- and lumber-rich land that included the Northwest Coast
of North America. In 1818, the two powers agreed to share the land until a long-term arrangement could be reached, but seven years later the
British-owned Hudson's Bay Company moved its headquarters from Fort George, at the mouth of the Columbia, to Fort Vancouver, 100 miles
inland, in hopes of solidifying the British claim to the region.
Fort Vancouver became the Pacific Northwest's commercial and cultural center for fur trading from Utah to Hawaii; shops, fields, pastures,
and mills made the fort a self-sufficient, bustling pioneer community. The most famous Columbia River explorers were Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark. Northwesterners won't be surprised to hear that Lewis and Clark recorded 31 consecutive days of rain during their visit to the
region!
The region's historic brush with the Corps of Discovery piqued American interest in what was then called “Oregon Country.” The floodgates
opened in 1843, when the Applegate Wagon Train, the largest wagon train ever assembled anywhere, left Independence, Missouri. Under the
leadership of Dr. Marcus Whitman and guided by mountain man Bill Sublette, the pioneers made it all the way to the Columbia and Willamette
Rivers by September of that year. It had taken six long months to travel the 2,000 miles, but they had shown that the “Oregon Trail” route was
feasible. Thousands of Americans seeking open vistas and economic opportunity would follow in the next two decades. The march west along the
Oregon Trail is regarded as the greatest peacetime migration in America's history.
The Columbia River Gorge lay near the end of the journey for emigrants heading west and posed the last major obstacle along the way. The
narrow confines of the gorge forced them to dismantle their wagons and load them onto log rafts to float down the river as far as the Cascades,
which they portaged before continuing by raft to the area of present-day Portland. Treacherous rapids, strong currents, and high winds caused the
deaths of many people almost within sight of the promised land. Completion of the Barlow Road in 1846—a toll route that avoided the gorge by
heading south around the south shoulder of Mount Hood—provided a safer alternative to the Willamette Valley. It cost pioneers an exorbitant $5
a wagon and $0.10 a head for livestock to use the road.
These droves of pioneering Americans would happily pay the fee, though, as they were drawn to Oregon's fertile Willamette Valley farmland, a
migration that eventually led to the division of the territory along the 49th parallel in 1846—a boundary that put Britain's Fort Vancouver squarely
on American soil. By 1860 all of Fort Vancouver was in the hands of the U.S. Army. Decay and fire had destroyed all of the remaining structures
by 1866. The Army constructed new buildings on the slope behind the fort at
Vancouver Barracks,
including officers' quarters, barracks and
other facilities.
The scenery along the route blends the green forested hills of the western section into the dry basaltic and barren hills of the eastern half. In a
distance of just 40 miles—from Cascade Locks to The Dalles—average annual rainfall changes by 40 inches! The gorge has its own climate, and
temperature extremes on the east side range from zero or less in winter to 110°F of dry heat in summer. It isn't unusual to descend into the Gorge
and into a gale because this narrow gap is the only place weather systems can push through the towering mountains. Sometimes in the winter a
sudden arctic blast comes down the Gorge to create an ice storm, which, around these parts, they call a “silver thaw.”
This stretch of the Columbia River is treasured by residents of both Washington and Oregon. No matter the season, no matter the weather con-
ditions, the Gorge is always beautiful. You can choose your pace: I-84 roars along the Oregon side of the Gorge at river level, blasting through
the rocky hills through a number of tunnels. On the Washington side, things are a little more relaxed. A cross between country road and highway
gently follows the contours of the land and the bends of the river. On the western stretch, the Lewis and Clark Highway (State Route 14) winds
through maple and Douglas fir forests punctuated by stunning vistas into the river valley far below.
The gorge between I-5 and Highway 97 is heavily traveled on both sides of the river, but the area from Highway 97 at Maryhill Museum east
to Paterson is the less so, so expect fewer services. The descriptions in this chapter follow the Washington side of the river from Vancouver to
McNary Dam, where the highway heads away from the river and north to the Tri-Cities area, and on the Oregon side from Troutdale to The Dalles.
Crossing the Columbia
Obviously, in a region centered around a dramatic river gorge, the placement of bridge crossings will play an important part in your trip planning.
From the greater Portland/ Vancouver region to the eastern edge of the National Scenic Area at Maryhill, you'll find six Columbia River bridges
crisscrossing the Washington and Oregon state line. Two of the biggest run from Vancouver into Portland via I-5 and I-205, with the former rolling
into downtown Portland and the latter further east near the Portland International Airport.
