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

Inset

1: Rorick House
2: Fort Dalles Museum
3: First Wasco County Courthouse
4: Colonel N.H. Gates House
5: U.S. Mint
6: Robert Pentland House
7: Henry Herbring House
8: Edward H. French House
9: Waldron Drug Store
10: Columbia Brewery
11: Ben Snipes House
12: Colonel Nicholas B. Sinnott House
13: Sunshine Biscuit Company
14: Skibbe Hotel
15: The Dalles Iron Works
16: Booth House
17: Klein House
18: Lusher House
19: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
20: Baldwin Saloon
21: Chinese Building
22: Isabella Gray House
23: Caleb Thornbury House
24: Charles Schmidt House
25: Curtis House
26: Zimmerman House
27: French & Company Bank
28: Pioneer Building
29: Pacific Telephone & Telegraph
30: Second Wasco County Courthouse
31: Moody House
32: Egbert House
33: Helen Baker House
34: Carlisle House
35: John L. Thompson House
36: Vogt Opera House
37: McDaniel Building
38: Oaks Hotel
39: Mary Morehouse House
40: Condon House
41: Obarr House
42: Homer Baker Residence
43: St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church
44: 1895 Edward F. Sharp Estate Home
45: 1898 Edward F. Sharp Estate Home
46: 1905 Edward F. Sharp Estate Home
47: Captain William Polk Gray House
48: Wilkinson House
49: The Dalles City Park
50: Stadelman Building
51: The Dalles City Hall
52: Court Street Apartments
53: Elks Temple
54: Lemke Building
55: Edward C. Pease Department Store
56: Stadelman-Bonn Building
57: Foley House
58: Mrs. Monahan's Boarding House
59: Carnegie Library
60: Seufert House
61: Achilles S. Esson House
62: Wasco County Courthouse
63: J.C. Penney
64: Schanno Building
65: United States Post Office
66: Odd Fellows Hall
67: Great Southern Railroad Depot
68: Hudson House
69: Methodist Parsonage
70: Mattie Phelps House
71: Sovereign Grace Baptist Church
72: The Dalles Garage
73: War Memorial Civic Auditorium
74: Vogt Hall
75: St. Peter’s Rectory
76: Bonn House
77: Bonn Duplex
78: Hamilton Hospital
79: Colonel Wright Elementary School
80: Bank Hotel
81: Granada Theatre
82: United States National Bank of Oregon
83: First Congregational Church
84: Chamber of Commerce
85: The Dalles High School
86: Sorosis Park
87: Thompson Park
88: The Dalles Bridge
89: The Dalles Dam
90: Oregon Motor Motel Sign
91: Portland Newspaper Strike Advertisement
92: Columbia Recreation Lanes
93: City Transportation Center
94: Kelly View Point

The Dalles Links:
Historic The Dalles
Wasco County History
Fort Dalles Museum
Columbia Gorge Discovery Center
Oregon State University Library Digital Collections
Swedish Landmarks in Oregon
Wyoming Tales & Trails page on J.C. Penney in Kemmerer
Oregon State Library Photograph Collection
Salem Library Oregon Historic Photograph Collections
University of Oregon Libraries Digital Collections
American Classic Images

Continue to 1: Rorick House…