PlacesPages: The Dalles, Oregon

I originally posted the The Dalles, Oregon PLACES page on my old website on December 18, 2009.

The City of The Dalles marks the east end of the Columbia River Gorge. It was once the end of the Oregon Trail and the seat of the largest county in the United States. Today it remains the seat of Wasco County and is one of the largest communities in eastern Oregon.

History

The area that is now The Dalles, Oregon was a major trading center for Native Americans for at least 10,000 years, where tribes from both sides of the Cascades and farther east met peacefully to fish, trade and socialize. The Native Americans living here called the area Win-quatt, meaning a place encircled by rock cliffs. The presence of the nearby Celilo Falls and the rapids below, impeding travel on the Columbia River, meant that the Native Americans who used the river to travel had to stop here to portage their canoes around the falls. The falls were also an important fishing spot, where the Native Americans built wooden platforms over the water to catch fish with nets and spears as they tried to jump the falls.

Captain Meriwether Lewis and William Clark camped at the mouth of Mill Creek with the Corps of Discovery on October 25-27, 1805. They recorded in their journals and maps the Native American name for the area around the creek: Que-nett, which was a word for salmon trout. On their return trip, Lewis and Clark camped here again on April 15-18, 1806, and named the place "rockfort camp."

Lewis & Clark called Celilo Falls "The Great Falls of the Columbia." Downriver of the falls were two areas where the river narrowed into swift rapids in a narrow channel of flat basaltic rocks. Lewis and Clark called the first the Short Narrows and the second the Long Narrows. When French-Canadian fur traders began using the river, they called the Short Narrows Les Petites Dalles and the Long Narrows Les Grandes Dalles de la Columbia. These names were first used around 1814. The French word dalle means flagstone, and can also refer to a stone used to flag gutters, which the rock formations of the narrows reminded the traders of. Though the dalles of the Columbia River are the best known, the term is used elsewhere in America as well. Other well-known dalles are on the St. Louis, St. Croix and Wisconsin rivers. Other names used for the Short Narrows and the Long Narrows were Tenmile Rapids and Fivemile Rapids, respectively.

Reverend Jason Lee established the Wascopam Methodist Mission in 1838. The name comes from the Wascopam Indian tribe. The mission was built by Daniel Lee and H.K.W. Perkins in Jason Lee's absence. In 1847, the mission was sold to Marcus Whitman and was abandoned after Whitman was killed by Indians in the Whitman Massacre near Fort Walla Walla later that year. The remains of the mission were burned by the Army when Fort Dalles was built.

Historical Photos:
Depiction of Wascopam Methodist Mission (CGDC)
Depiction of Wascopam Methodist Mission, 1849 (CGDC)

The Dalles was the end of the Oregon Trail from 1843 to 1846. Those traveling further west had to float perilously down the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver or Oregon City. In 1846, the Barlow Road opened, establishing an overland route for wagons over the Cascade Mountains to Oregon City.

Military troops established Camp Drum in 1850. It originally occupied a 10-mile-square area. There was only one cabin in The Dalles at the time. Camp Drum was renamed Fort Dalles in 1853, and the area was reduced to a one-mile square. Due to wars with Native Americans, the military garrison at Fort Dalles under Colonel George Wright was strengthened in the fall of 1856 with 3 companies of the 9th U.S. Infantry.

The post office was established on November 5, 1851 with the name Dalles, with William R. Gibson as the first postmaster. On September 3, 1853, the name of the post office was changed to Wascopum. Wasco County was created January 11, 1854, with The Dalles as the county seat. Fort Dalles was officially incorporated as Dalles City on June 26, 1857 by Colonel N.H. Gates and is the third oldest incorporated city in Oregon. Though incorporated with the name Dalles City, the city has always been commonly called The Dalles, and on March 22, 1860, the name of the post office changed to The Dalles, choosing that form to avoid confusion with Dallas, in Polk County, Oregon. Over 100 years later, the city's official name changed from "Dalles City" to "City of The Dalles" on June 7, 1966, though it is still almost always referred to simply as "The Dalles."

Historical Photo:
Umatilla House during flood, June 6, 1894 (CGDC)

Map of The Dalles