Cascade Locks and Canal; Images of America. Compiled by Janice Crane of the Friends of the Cascade Locks Historical Museum, 128 pages, black and white.
The current Columbia-Snake River navigation is a waterway that begins at Astoria, Oregon, on the Pacific Coast and reaches inland 465 miles to Lewiston, Idaho. It was created in the 1930s when the US Army Corps of Engineers built eight locks and dams that created navigation pools along the river. The waterway was opened to traffic in 1938. Prior to this, smaller boats and paddle wheelers plied the Columbia River on a 170-mile-long route between Astoria and The Dalles. However, roughly 20 miles upstream from Portland, the river passed through a five mile long narrows filled with rocks and boulders, where the river dropped nearly 300 feet. With the exception of a few daring souls, this section was not passable. Shipping lines had to maintain a fleet of boats above the cascades in order to complete the rest of the journey to The Dalles. A portage carried passengers and cargo between the boats.
In 1878, work began on the Cascade Locks and Canal. This 3000 foot man-made cut and two locks bypassed the worst of the rapids, and a section of the river below the locks was canalized by dredging and removing boulders. The work was delayed by seasonal floods which swept through the project and forced the reconstruction of work already completed. The locks were ready to use in 1896, although work continued through 1914.
The new passage was an immediate success, with tens of thousands of passengers and tons of cargo passing through the locks each year. However, the the life span of the works was relatively short, as construction soon began on the current Columbia-Snake River system.
Cascade Locks and Canal takes you through a photographic journey beginning in the 1850s and ending in the present day. Like all the Images of America books, the content relies on period postcards and photographic collections, along with detailed captions, to tell the history of the subject. There is a very short introduction that gives the reader a bit of a history but not in any detail. The chapters take you through the pre-canal river conditions, the construction of the works, it’s use, and what remains today. It is an enjoyable introduction to a topic that many fans of canals and inland waterways may not be familiar with.
The Cascade Locks Historical Museum was founded in 1968 in a lock tenders house located adjacent to the upper lock, which remains visible, albeit with some help by the addition of another 5 feet of concrete block. This additional layer was added to keep the lock walls above the level of the river. The old lock is part of the Cascades Locks Marine Park which is located in the small village of Cascade Locks. The Friends organization was founded in 2013, with the mission to manage the museum. Their website is www.cascadelocksmuseum.org.