I woke up this morning, opened the curtain, crawled back in bed and watched the scenery go by! There is nothing more wonderful than waking up to beautiful mountains, rolling hills, sharp rock cliffs and farm fields out your window and the scenery keeps changing. That is the beauty of a river cruise! If you can, give it a try.
This whole trip has been wonderful from the fabulous views out our San Francisco room to the wine country and then up the coast of California with its varied coastline. Being a Maine girl, I loved the rocky parts, but it was all beautiful. Then the magnificent views of Crater Lake! It was a beautiful day with beautiful reflections off the lake. Even though we could only see two spots because the roads were still closed for snow, I will remember the amazement I felt when I walked up to the viewpoint and said wow!
Along with the beautiful scenery on the river I also enjoyed the opportunity to unpack and still keep seeing the world around me. On this trip we have also gone through at least six locks, which is always fun to watch. The museums, learning about the Native Americans, seeing the dams and of course the wonderful talks by Bill Wiemuth. He took us completely through the Lewis and Clark Exploration, the story of John Jacob Astore and the pioneers as they came across the Oregon Trail. These were all wonderful opportunities to learn with the ease of having it all scheduled for us. A bonus was Bill’s lovely wife, Laura Sable, a professionally trained singer who performed many evenings for us. Last night she honored women singers from every genre including an opera piece.
This last day of the cruise we took a 5-hour jet boat ride up the Snake River. What a beautiful ride we had and a wonderful conclusion to our week!
Day 16 – Snake River
Not much to tell about today. Just a 5-hour trip up the Snake River and Back with lunch on the way. Mountains, river, big-horn sheep, bald eagles, turkeys and petroglyphs dating back 2,500 years. The usual. See the pictures, which I probably won’t get around to posting until tomorrow on the way back. It’ll give me something to do on the plane.
A two-fer bus tour today visiting sites dedicated to the history of Pendleton and Umatilla County.
Pendleton is the county seat of Umatilla County, one of the leading producers of grain, vegetables and cattle in Oregon. We’re in farm and ranch country here in eastern Oregon. The terrain on our 45-minute ride to Pendleton was dominated by gently rolling fields in various stages of planting and growth. Many were equipped with irrigation systems. Pendleton seems to be proud of its cowboy culture, something I didn’t sense so strongly yesterday in Hood River.
We first toured Pendleton Underground, a city beneath the streets of downtown Pendleton. Back in the 1880s and 1890s there were significant Chinese populations in Pendleton and elsewhere (e.g., Portland). The transcontinental railroad had been completed so the need for Chinese laborers was reduced. Discrimination against Chinese people was rampant. In Pendleton, “sunset laws” prohibited Chinese from being on the streets after sundown. Our guide told the story of a Chinese man shot and killed in Pendleton after sundown; the murderer was fined $5 for discharging his gun within city limits but was not charged for the murder.
Chinese people dug underground tunnels and rooms beneath the streets so they could move with less risk. They opened laundries and opium dens. Later on, when cowboys became common in town, the underground network hosted drinking establishments and brothels. Underground establishments became speakeasies during Prohibition. Eventually, Pendleton became an “open city” with something like 87 saloons and 45 brothels. The last brothel was closed in 1955 or so. The tunnels were boarded over and not rediscovered until potholes developed in 1980, leading to the opening of Underground Pendleton as a tourist attraction. It’s a side of history the Discovery/Interpretive centers tend to gloss over.
Our second stop was at the Tamastsikt Cultural Institute just outside Pendleton. It’s on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, which is home to three tribes: the Umatilla, Cayuse, and Walla Walla tribes. A treaty negotiated in 1855 gave the three tribes their own reservation rather than having them sent to two other reservations established as part of the treaty. The three tribes agreed to confederate in return.
This museum was a nice change of pace after the Columbia Gorge Interpretive and Discovery Centers of the past two days. They gave a history that was perhaps 10% natural history, 10% Native history and 80% White history. Tamastsikt told the historical story from the viewpoint of the tribes, with 70% Indian history and 30% White.
Our guide spoke of the difference of interpretation between Indians and Whites over the Whitman Massacre in 1847 in which 14 Whites were killed by Cayuse Indians. The Whites launched the Cayuse Wars in retaliation, which led to the treaty of 1855 and the reservation. From the Indian perspective, Whites, especially missionaries such as the Whitmans, had caused the death of half of the native population due to measles and other diseases. The Whitmans, in treating the disease – acting in effect as shamans – caused, in the Cayuse’s view, the death of the patients. Thus, the attack was, by tribal custom, justified.
This reservation has been comparatively successful in building a viable economy for the tribes. There are about 3,000 members, 1,500 of whom live on the reservation. Located at an exit on Interstate 84, they operate, as do many reservations, a gaming resort. They have had success, however, in developing a number of other businesses, from a golf course, to McDonalds and Subway franchises to a business park and soon a financial services and banking operation.
Preservation of the language is a challenge. The three tribes have three languages, somewhat interrelated, but the number of native speakers has dwindled to five or six. There are school programs, including an emersion program for preschoolers, but it’s an uphill struggle.
We returned to the ship around 1:30 after a box lunch on the bus. Bill gave a history lecture on John Jacob Astor’s fur business at Astoria, Oregon – a total failure. Somehow Astor ended up with wealth equivalent to Jeff Bezos and the pre-divorce Bill Gates.
We’ve just left the Columbia and are cruising up the Snake. The ship immediately passed under the US Highway 12 bridge. Highway 12 ran not five miles from my boyhood home in Hillsdale, Michigan and was a quarter mile or so of our home in Orono, Minnesota.
Judy ran into our Captain on deck this afternoon. He said our itinerary has been altered slightly because Washington State isn’t open and won’t accept cruise boat dockings. Tonight, we’ll tie up in Lewiston, Idaho rather than Clarkston, Washington, as planned. Opposite sides of the river so no big deal.
We’ll travel 139 miles on the Snake, passing through four locks, each with a vertical lift of over 100 feet. That’s one steep, fast-flowing river.
We’ll go for a jet boat ride tomorrow and then, hard to believe, our trip will be over!
Judy and I are nothing if not goal-oriented travelers. Today there were four tour stops possible, accessible by shuttle bus, and we hit ‘em all. If there’s a sight to be seen, we’ll see it. One night, many years ago in Newfoundland, we found the last spot on our to-see list after dark. It was a decommissioned lighthouse that we could only find by flashlight.
After Bill, our lecturer, completed the final chapter of the Lewis and Clark story, we set out for the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automotive Museum. As the name implies, it’s full of old cars and planes, mostly from the 1910s through the 1940s. All are immaculately preserved and almost all are in flying or driving condition. A museum guide said that they have so many planes that they’re flown on a five-year rotation.
As interesting as the museum is the guy who founded it, Tony Brandt was equally interesting. We talked with him for a few minutes and he’s rightly proud of his creation. It opened in 2007 and today comprises four hangers and over 350 vehicles. Tony told us most of the content has been donated and new items are received almost daily. In addition to vehicles, there are all sorts of memorabilia from the same era.
The highlight for me was a 1937 Hudson Terraplane. Amelia Earhart christened the first Terraplane in 1932 and my dad, Phil Rick, age 12, was there you can see him in this newsreel clip at around 1:30 into the film. He’s the guy with something in his eye that causes him to blink! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yX83mJ-Wmk
WAAAM is located in Hood River where the Hood River ends its journey from Mt. Hood and empties into the Columbia River.
After a hurried take-out lunch (so we wouldn’t miss the 1:00 PM shuttle) we visited the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, not to be confused with yesterday’s Interpretive center. The two museums were quite similar, tracing the natural and cultural history of the region in well-done displays.
This afternoon’s museums are all located in The Dalles (rhymes with Gals), a reasonably-sized city at the next major cataract on the Columbia, and whose dam and locks we will pass through tonight. And because we’re now in Wasco County the history revolves around local events. Viewed from 30,000 feet the two counties are petty similar but today’s displays makes me wonder what we ever saw in yesterday’s Skamania County.
Next on the shuttle route: The Fort Dalles Museum and Anderson Homestead. Fort Dalles was never really a fort, serving only as a supply depot. The only remaining structure, the Doctor’s House, is crammed full of 19th Century artifacts, including a working 1905 Edison playing machine. It makes quite a racket! I’ll try to include a video clip in tonight’s picture gallery.
There’s also the Anderson Homestead, which has been moved to the site and shows what a Scandinavian farm life was like in the first half of the 20th Century. The man worked for the railroad and never quit his day job, running the farm and raising his family while continuing to travel the country for the railroad.
What makes it really interesting was the guide we had, a 76-year-old man who grew up in The Dalles. His mother and her sisters actually lived in the museum while his dad built their house. Turns out the Dalles Dam was constructed in mid 1950s and he well remembers what the river looked like before it was tamed by the dam. In today’s pictures is a photo of a photo showing Indians fishing from rickety platforms jutting out over the falls. His dad used to go out on the platforms to buy salmon from the Indians. “The further out you went the lower the price. He bought salmon for $1.00.”
Finally, a museum in downtown The Dalles dedicated to neon signs. Don’t ask me, I just tour here. The owner gave us the tour. I asked him what led him to neon signs. He replied, “I started collecting stuff when I was eight years old. In my 20s I found a guy who interested me in neon signs and taught me how to make them. From there I started touring the world building my collection. The town was going to tear this building down, so I was able to buy it for an attractive price. And here we are.” There’s a large ballroom where, back in the day, famous entertainers appeared.
It’s the people, not the stuff that makes traveling interesting.
Saw some kite surfing on the river this evening. Rock-and-roll is on tap for the show tonight. Tomorrow is Pendleton day. Send us your orders now!
A busy day, starting with a 1.25 mile hike up the mountain to the top of Multnomah Falls. It was a brisk morning, temps in the upper 40s to mid 50s but we shed our heavy jackets part way up. It was a nice hike but what they didn’t tell you at the beginning is that the best view is had at the very bottom and it gets progressively scantier the further up you go. In fact, the view from the boat yesterday afternoon as we sailed up the river was probably the best of all. At the top all you have is bragging rights. But actually, the walk through the woods was quite pleasant.
By the way, we determined today that the dead trees we saw from the river yesterday died of the Eagle Creek Fire of 2017, evidence of which we saw today at the falls.
We returned to the ship for lunch (really nice salmon burgers) and then back on the bus for the Bonneville Dam. The original dam and lock system was built in the 1903s as one of FDR’s early recession-recovery projects. It was for a while the largest such dam in the West, eclipsed before too long by Grand Coulee Dam.
It was doubled in size in the 1970s. To do so, an entire town had to be moved to make room for the expanded spillway. The tour consists of two parts: a viewing room overlooking eight enormous generators; the second, a viewing room where fish swimming upstream through the fish ladder can be observed. Don’t go to the bank (or fish market) on my information, but I believe the big fish we saw today were Chinook (King) salmon swimming to spawn. Many of us bemoaned the fact that adult fish die after spawning – after all that work swimming upstream for so many miles. Of course, they probably have no idea what fate holds in store for them when they respond to the call of nature. Many of us don’t, either.
From the Dam we went to the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center, a very impressive museum and educational facility. It’s a large three-story building that covers events that have shaped the Columbia River Gorge area we’re in now from glacial ages through indigenous peoples, explorers (L&C slept here), fur trappers, Oregon Trail travelers and 20th Century development including of course the dam. Significant space is devoted to Klikatit and other tribes of the area. Their creation god was the Cougar, who created the physical environment and stocked it with food supplies (Garden of Eden?) to sustain the people who came later.
If I have it right, the Columbia Gorge was south of the glacial ice fields, which extended into northern Washington and Montana. But there has been enormous glacial impact from melting ice and snow that unleashed unimaginable floods that sculpted the geography of this area. At one time melting glaciers to the north created a body of water equal in size to Lakes Erie and Ontario combined. Imagine what happened when the ice dams gave way and the water, silt, boulders and ice chunks flowed down to the Pacific Ocean. The flood lasted 1,000 years.
And the trivia nugget of the day: It is illegal to kill a Sasquatch (Big Foot) in Skamania County, Washington where the Interpretive Center is located.
Judy’s at cocktail hour while I type so that I can do the country-and-western singer after dinner.
Dinner’s done (I had Rainbow Trout, Judy veal shank) and have just returned from the evening show. It was a cowboy/country and western guy. He played a mean Gibson guitar, which he doubled up with doing blue grass. A great singing voice and a great sense of humor. A great show. The most memorable lyric was from a love song:
This is our cruising day with no stops, no excursions and only shipboard entertainment. And there were lots of the latter: two lectures, a “book a future cruise” presentation, bingo, two art opportunities, line dance instruction plus the usual meals and cocktail opportunities.
I did the two lectures. The first covered the middle portion of the Lewis and Clark expedition, from their arrival at the Columbia River through the winter of 1806. The second was a presentation by the wife of our main historian who described the Mt. St. Helens eruption which, coincidentally, occurred 40 years ago today. Laura was a grade schooler and lived in western Washington State and recalled vividly the experience of ash-clogged streets and the pollution from the fallout. She showed a picture of her class, all wearing masks to protect against the airborne ash. They soon cancelled classes for the rest of the year because no one knew the risks of inhaling volcanic ash.
Judy did the promo session and part of bingo. I spent several hours up on the top deck, all most totally alone, watching the scenery pass by and taking the odd photo, the results of which you can see below. We retraced our steps from Astoria to Portland and saw the industrial and shipping infrastructure of the region. Beyond Portland has been mostly wooded mountainous terrain with the occasional factory or town.
We saw a tall monolithic stone structure on the north bank that was formed when a volcanic vent deposited a column of magma. Surrounding softer material has worn away through erosion, leaving the magma deposit standing by itself.
There was significant loss of conifers, mostly on the southern (Oregon) side of the river. Not sure what the cause is, but it’s probably the combined impact of drought and insect infestations.
We’re parked tonight just upriver of the first lock at the Bonneville Dam. Tomorrow we will go by bus back downriver to see the Multnomah Falls and in the afternoon, we have three excursion opportunities.
