Article

Overlanders in the Columbia River Gorge, 1840-1870: A Narrative History

Brief Summary

The banks of the Columbia River were major trading and fishing grounds for Indigenous people from all over the present-day northwestern United States and southwestern Canada. The areas surrounding major rapids were important trading centers, especially around the seasons of the salmon runs. Archeologists suggest that people from as far as northern California and present-day British Columbia came to fish and trade.

Two of the first white men to reach the Columbia River were Robert Gray and George Vancouver. Sent by America and Britain, respectively, both explorers entered the Columbia from the Pacific Ocean in 1792. Gray’s party left after trading with Chinookan people near the river’s mouth. Vancouver, however, proceeded farther up the river and claimed its entire length for Great Britain; a member of the party surveyed and mapped the Columbia as far as its confluence with the Willamette, producing the first printed knowledge of the river. The first US military personnel to reach the Columbia River Gorge was none other than the Lewis & Clark expedition, who arrived from the east via the Snake River in 1805.

The following decade saw fur traders arrive in increasingly large numbers, many coming from Boston. In 1811, British merchant David Thompson (of Montreal’s North West Fur Company) navigated the Columbia from its headwaters in present-day British Columbia to the river’s mouth, where his party encountered Fort Astoria, recently established by John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company. Members of both companies traveled upstream together, relying, as Lewis & Clark had, upon Indigenous communities (Chinookan and Sahaptin, in this case) for knowledge of the river and its resources.

With the approval of Cayuse and Walla Walla leaders, the North West Fur Company established Fort Nez Perces in 1818 near the junction of the Walla Walla and Columbia rivers. Three years later, the powerful Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC)—a British fur company—bought the North West Fur Company, rechristening Fort Nez Perces as Fort Walla Walla. In 1824, the HBC established Fort Vancouver on the north bank of the Columbia between the Sandy and Willamette rivers, eventually establishing a farm there. Up until that point, fur traders depended almost exclusively on local Indigenous peoples for food. American Indian villages lined both banks of the Columbia. In trade, Chinookan-speaking peoples from the lower Columbia served as middlemen between tribes and white traders.

In the 1830s, missionaries began arriving along the Columbia River. Jason and Daniel Lee set up a Methodist Mission in Willlamette Valley in 1834; Daniel would later establish a mission at The Dalles. In 1836, two couples (Marcus/Narcissa Whitman and Henry/Eliza Spalding) received permission from a Cayuse leader to establish a mission at Waíiletpu, near present day Walla Walla, Washington.

Between 1840 and 1870, roughly 500,000 people traveled along the Oregon Trail—also known as the Road to Oregon, or the Emigrant Road—to destinations in what are now the states of Utah, Washington, Idaho, California, and Oregon. Based on a series of Indigenous trails, the 2,000-mile route started from jumping-off towns on the Missouri River, crossed today’s Nebraska and Wyoming, and followed the Snake River through eastern Idaho. The Oregon Trail then crossed northeastern Oregon to reach the Columbia River. From there, emigrants had several options, and a variety of cutoffs and “jumping off” places emerged as traffic grew.

Through the early 1840s, some emigrants built rafts and floated the Columbia from Fort Walla Walla to The Dalles, while others went overland to that location. Until 1846, when an overland route was developed, everyone had to float the river from The Dalles to Fort Vancouver. Between 1848 and 1853, most overlanders took the “main stem” of the Oregon Trail: joining the Columbia west of the Deschutes River (to avoid Waíiletpu), climbing out of the canyon and descending again at The Dalles, and then taking the Barlow Road around the south side of Mt. Hood. Those that took the Columbia route generally did so to avoid winter weather in the Cascades.

The mid-1850s saw a dip in emigration as the US government removed Indigenous groups from their homes along the river, either by treaty or by force. Beginning in 1858, white-run enterprises like portage roads, railroads, and the Oregon Steam Navigation Company’s steamboats sprung up along the Columbia. In the early 1860s, the discovery of gold in Idaho lured settlers upstream into the Snake River Valley. The fourth and final period, 1864 to 1870, saw a slowdown in emigration and the construction of full-scale railroads along the river.

The Snake River Confluence to Deschutes River Confluence

This upper portion of the river was relatively easy to navigate by boat. Despite this, most overlanders enlisted the help of Indigenous people to navigate the river, help procure food, and carry messages between forts. The HBC’s Fort Walla Walla also provided essential services, like food, supplies, and boats; travelers would sometimes sell livestock to the fort or leave their animals in the fort’s care, returning when passage would be easier. Although the land route along the Columbia’s southern banks avoided rapids, it was challenging—especially with livestock. Those traveling by land usually enlisted Indigenous help crossing the Deschutes.

In 1847, a measles outbreak brought long-simmering disagreements to a boiling point. Cayuse men attacked the mission at Waíiletpu, killing Marcus and Nacissa Whitman, along with eleven other people. From that point on, travelers generally avoided Fort Walla Walla and joined the Columbia farther downstream, either at Spanish Hollow (present-day Biggs Junction) or the confluence of the Umatilla River. In the early 1850s the route to Spanish Hollow became the most popular way to access the Columbia River Gorge along this section of the Oregon Trail. Steamship travel along the upper Columbia became an option in the late 1850s, but it was too expensive for the average overlander. Steamboat travel increased exponentially in the early 1860s during the gold rush in Idaho. Steamship towns emerged at Deschutes Landing and Wallula.

The Deschutes River to the Columbia River Narrows

West of its confluence with the Deschutes, the Columbia narrowed and became much more difficult to navigate. One of the most formidable obstacles in this stretch, Celilo Falls, served as a dividing line between Chinookan- and Sahaptin-speaking peoples. The falls marked the start of a stretch of treacherous water where the gorge narrowed significantly—hence its name, “the Columbia River Narrows” or simply “The Narrows.” Roughly three miles downstream of Celilo Falls lay the Short Narrows, followed by the Long Narrows, which was terminated at the Big Eddy—a deep, water-carved basin that represented the end of a ten-mile stretch of rather turbulent water. The riverbanks in this stretch of the Columbia hummed with human activity, especially during salmon runs. Notable along this stretch was the village of Nixlúdix, a significant trading center near that held up to 3,000 inhabitants. However, after the US forced Indigenous nations onto reservations in the 1850s, canneries, steamships, and gold seekers came to dominate this stretch of river.

After Samuel Barlow opened a new wagon route around Mount Hood in 1845 and developed it into a toll road the following year, most covered wagon emigrants went that way in lieu of paying for commercial boat passage to The Dalles. For this reason, many overlanders opted for Indigenous footpaths between the Deschutes River and Wascopam Mission (at The Dalles). Although it required a steep climb to reach the plateau above, this segment became part of the “main stem” of the Oregon Trail; white settlers and explorers such John C. Frémont, whose expedition hired an Indigenous guide, began taking it as early as 1843. The trail to The Dalles forked about six miles east of the town, and after 1846 many emigrants turned left (south) here towards the Barlow Road.

The Dalles to the Cascades

Downstream from The Dalles, the Columbia flowed smoothly for about forty miles due to a major landslide that created the Cascades Rapids. About halfway through this particular stretch, the Hood River entered and the canyon walls became steeper and more forested; in fact, tree stumps stuck out of the river’s course at certain points (causing scientific discussion that continues today). Some Upper Chinookan villages lay along this stretch, many located where smaller creeks emptied into the Columbia.

Wascopam Mission at The Dalles, established in 1838, became an important supply stop for overlanders starting in 1841. Although Fort Vancouver was the largest farming operation along the Columbia, the Wascopam Mission produced meagre amounts of wheat, oats, potatoes, and vegetables that they sold to travelers. The Methodists closed down their mission and tried to sell the property to Marcus Whitman in 1847, but his death at Waiiletpu derailed the sale. Later, the US military and local militias used the site as a temporary garrison that eventually became known as Fort Lee. Overland migration via The Dalles slowed after the opening of the Barlow Toll Road and—although the Wascopam Mission deteriorated—it remained an important rendezvous point due to its proximity to the Barlow Road turnoff. In 1850, the US Army established what would become Fort Dalles at the site of the old mission. Its primary purpose was to protect settlers from nearby Indigenous communities.

The Dalles became a bustling trade center. Steamships arrived in 1851, bringing prosperity in the form of travelers headed upstream to the Idaho gold fields. Parties planning on taking the Barlow Road often resupplied at The Dalles. Some overlanders complained, however, that merchants in The Dalles were simply trying to fleece newly-arrived immigrants. The military closed Fort Dalles in 1867, satisfied with the area’s safety.

Most overlanders who traveled this stretch of the river were avoiding snow on the Barlow Road. Although free of rapids, the trip from The Dalles to the Cascades portage was usually windy; many overlanders utilized Indigenous guides. Those that could not obtain a guide or an HBC boat built their own rafts. Unfortunately, livestock was expensive to transport via water, and many parties sent their animals (and some men to drive them) westward via Indigenous trails on the south side of the Columbia. Downstream of Hood River, high bluffs forced overlanders to cross the Columbia, although by 1852 two ferries—likely white-operated—also helped with livestock crossings. Indigenous footpaths, also used by the HBC, continued along the north side of the river.

The Cascades Rapids and Portages

The Cascades Rapids, the significant hazard along the Columbia, were about six miles long. The most significant Indigenous settlement lay at the upper end of the Cascades, with inhabitants crossing the Columbia to present-day Cascade Locks when the fish were running. Like the Narrows, the Cascades was an important fishery that drew Chinookan- and Sahaptin-speaking peoples from surrounding areas. The Upper Chinookan people living here, called ‘Cascades Indians’ by settlers, derived power from their control of the portage—which persisted even as many Upper Chinookans succumbed to disease in the 1840s. Nearly all overlanders in 1843 paid Chinookan people for help circumventing the rapids. At the bottom of the Cascades, many parties camped while waiting for stragglers (or for HBC supplies to arrive).

At the top of the rapids, Upper Cascades Landing served as a rendezvous point as families that had rafted from The Dalles waited for their livestock to arrive. It thus became something like a town featuring a few stores, one house, and development associated with the tramway. In 1848, during confrontations related to Waíiletpu, the US government established Fort Gilliam near Upper Cascades Landing (mostly as a supply depot for operations upriver); other forts were erected in the mid-1850s along the Cascades, only to be abandoned soon after.

Although preferable to the rapids, the portage was rugged and rocky. As disease and US removal efforts stressed Upper Chinookans in the 1850s, white settlers took control of the portage. In 1850, Frances A. Chenoweth began building a wooden railroad on the river’s north side, connecting the portage around the upper rapids with the lower portage (about 2.5 miles in total); settlers also built a wood and iron railroad along the river on the Oregon side. In 1859, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company contracted with the owners of both railroads, effectively gaining a monopoly over travel on the Columbia. By this time, most overlanders avoided the Columbia; those that didn’t usually walked the portage.

The Cascades to the Willamette River

This section had no significant rapids, but constant wind—especially around Cape Horn, just downstream of the confluence with the Deschutes—presented a challenge. Ten miles downstream of Cape Horn, the Washougal and Sandy rivers entered the Columbia from the north and south, respectively. Twenty miles downstream of this dual confluence, the Willamette River entered the Columbia near present-day Portland, Oregon.

Most overlanders traveled by boat from the bottom of Cascades Rapids to Fort Vancouver, where they resupplied for their final push to places like Portland or Oregon City. Chinookan or HBC-affiliated porters in canoes or bateaux, respectively, ferried most overlanders along this stretch. Livestock had to be driven between the Cascades and Fort Vancouver along Indigenous footpaths on the Columbia’s north side. Parties headed to the Willamette Valley had to cross the river near the fort, sometimes swimming their livestock across.

By 1850, steamboats ran consistently between Portland and the Lower Cascades Landing. A few years later, some overlanders that had reached Portland or Oregon City began using the steamboats to return upstream and settle around The Dalles. During the 1860s, most steamboat traffic consisted of goods and people moving upstream towards Idaho’s gold fields. Despite such new industries, however, the Barlow Road had essentially made this stretch of the Columbia irrelevant to most overlanders.

Complete Research Report

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