The Dalles

The land trail stopped here until Samuel Barlow built a road around Mt. Hood in 1846. Getting from Whitman Mission to the Columbia River was not a problem for the travelers. Emigrants who had visited Whitman Mission often went down the Walla Walla River to the Columbia River, while other travelers who took the southern route, the Umatilla Cutoff, through Pendleton and Echo followed the Umatilla River. Once they reached the Columbia River, a major decision had to be made--What now? Some travelers built boats or rafts, while others hired Indian boatmen with their great canoes, or Hudson's Bay Company boats to get them down the river. The weary travelers were facing the challenge of the Columbia, an enormous river carrying the volume of all the rivers they had already crossed combined. This magnificent river was full of rapids, huge rocks, and high cliff walls all posing tremendous dangers to the travelers. Many emigrants lost their lives at this point so near to their final destination.

The more cautious of the travelers carefully worked their wagons down the banks of the Columbia, but then came The Dalles, a place in the river where two great rocks restricted and channelled the flow of the entire river between them. (The Dalles translates literally to "the trough".) There was absolutely no way for the wagons to continue on the riverbank, for it was about to cut through the Cascade Range, creating the Columbia River Gorge. At The Dalles some emigrants carried their belongings around the falls, then traded their oxen to Indians for boat fare downstream. If all went well, they would spend as little as two days on the river, soon after came the end to their months-long journey.

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Last modified on: January 31, 2004