…Continued from First Floor Exhibits.
The Native Americans fished the Columbia River for thousands of years.
At narrows like those at the Cascades and Five Mile Rapids east of The Dalles, men suspended wooden platforms over the water and used dipnets to harvest tons of salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, smelt and eels, which the women then worked for weeks to split, smoke, sun-dry and store.
Waterfall in Memory of Henry Metzger
The museum's artificial indoor waterfall was donated by Louise Metzger Bennett in memory of her father Henry Metzger (1861-1958), who installed the first water system in Carson, Washington.
Fishwheels were first used to harvest salmon in the Columbia River Gorge in 1879. Fishwheels were built at narrow channels where the swift current would turn the wheel to dip into the water and scoop out tons of salmon, steelhead and sturgeon swimming upriver to spawn and deposit them into bins and boxes bound for canneries.
By 1899, there were 72 fishwheels on the river. Oregon banned fishwheels in 1926 and Washington did as well in 1934.
This is a replica of the McCord fishwheel, the third fishwheel on the river, which was built by William Rankin McCord, Frank Warren and William Sargent Ladd on the south shore of Bradford Island in 1882.
William Rankin McCord
(Donaldson & Cramer, 1971)
Thornton Williams and William Rankin McCord each patented fishwheels in 1881 and 1882 respectively, and ended up suing each other.
Patent #257,960, issued in May 1882, was used to design this replica fish wheel, as was a 1914 US Army Corps of Engineers drawing, photographs of the original wheel, and the advice of museum volunteer and fishwheel expert, Frederick "Fritz" K. Cramer (1916-1999) in whose memory a plaque has been placed on the fishwheel replica.
The fishwheel was a gift of the Robert C. and Nani S. Warren Foundation in memory of his forebearers who owned and operated fishwheels on the Columbia River. Structural timber was donated by Wilkins Kaiser Olsen, Inc. of Carson, Washington and engineering & construction services provided by KPFF and Promotion Products, Inc. of Portland, Oregon.
This single-cylinder, 7-horsepower marine engine with reverse gear and original water-cooled exhaust system was manufactured by the Regal Gasoline Engine Company of Coldwater, Michigan around 1900.
It powered a commercial fishing boat on the Columbia River from Astoria, Oregon to Stevenson, Washington from 1909 to 1915. It was restored & donated by Dwight M. Smith of Portland, Oregon.
1907 Corliss Engine from the Wind River Lumber Company
The Corliss steam engine became famous when one was displayed as an exhibit at the American Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1876.
1907 Corliss Engine from the Wind River Lumber Company
Steam engines were widely used in logging to move logs and at lumber mills to power sawmill carriages and saws and the green chain.
1907 Corliss Engine from the Wind River Lumber Company
This Corliss engine was manufactured in 1907 by the Casey-Hedges Company of Chattanooga, Tennessee for the Wind River Lumber Company's former Storey-Keeler Lumber Mill in Cascade Locks, Oregon, where it powered the drove the saws, saw carriages and conveyors.
1907 Corliss Engine from the Wind River Lumber Company
This engine originally ran on steam from three boilers like the one it is displayed with here.
1907 Corliss Engine from the Wind River Lumber Company
In 1926 the Mid-Columbia Lumber Company moved the engine to Washington. Wilhelm J. Birkenfeld acquired it in 1941 for the Carson Lumber Company, where his workers used it to cut cants for decking World War II "Baby Flatop" ships and material for dams on the Columbia.
1907 Corliss Engine from the Wind River Lumber Company
In 1975, Birkenfeld's family donated the Corliss engine to Skamania County as a memorial to him and the industry of the Gorge.
This 1921 Mack AC is an example of the log trucks used in Skamania County from 1921 to the 1950s. The Mack AC was the first to carry the name "Bulldog," derived from the French-style hood that opens straight up, designed and patented by Mack Brothers of New York.
Under the hood is a 40-horsepower 471-cubic-inch 4-cylinder gas engine. The radiator is mounted behind the engine rather than in front. The truck is started by a hand crank, has a chain drive, rides on original hard rubber tires and has a top speed 17.2 miles per hour.
This truck is owned by Ed Callahan of Home Valley, Washington. The load is cedar logs that were blow-downs from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Skamania County received from the USDA Forest Service.
Here is a display of vintage saws and other logging tools
This Caterpillar Ten tractor was manufactured in 1930 at a cost of $3,000. The tractor was originally owned by Mrs. Gibbs of Underwood, Washington, but the sole operator was Paul Newell, who used it exclusively for working in an orchard in Underwood. It was donated by Mr. & Mrs. Paul Newell, Sr. and restored by The Halton Company, the Caterpillar equipment dealer in NW Oregon & SW Washington.
American-LaFrance Foamite Model FM Chemical Engine
This piece of firefighting apparatus is an American LaFrance Foamite Model FM Chemical Engine.
The Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" biplane was the first mass-produced warplane in the United States. Approximately 17,000 were ordered between 1915 and the end of World War I. They served as trainers and surveillance planes as well as early bombers. The pilot carried a small bomb in the open cockpit, which he could drop over the side onto a target. The Jenny was also the type of plane used to deliver the first air mail in the Columbia River Gorge.
The Jenny is powered by a 90-horsepower OX-5 engine, has a 44-foot wingspan, weights 1,400 pounds, carries 22 gallons of fuel and can climb 100 feet per minute. With a top speed of 55 miles per house and a stall speed of 35 miles per hour, there is little room for error, and reportedly the early Jenny squadrons often walked home due to losing control and crashing.
Wally Olsen, owner of the Evergreen Airport in Vancouver, found this 1917 Jenny in pieces in Spokane in the early 1980s. He restored it, flew it, crashed it, and restored it again. Olsen died in July 1997 at the age of 86. He had expressed his desire to have the plane exhibited here, and it is loaned to the center by Eleanor Olsen and family of Vancouver, Washington.
This is one of seven airworthy Jennys in existence. It is decorated for the 9th Aero Squadron of the United States Surveillance Corps.
Continue to Second Floor Exhibits…
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