History
An ancient hearth was discovered under many layers of gravel under the Dalles Dam which was deposited during a flood 12,800 years ago at the end of the last ice age. This information tells us people have inhabited the area for at least 12,800 years but who, when, and how they died were lost because of the great flood. The oldest known people to inhabit the gorge witnessed the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805. Smallpox and other disease had killed off half of the first population by the time Lewis and Clark came around. Smallpox epidemics happened in 1700s, in 1801, 1824-25 and 1853 and in the 1830s "fever and ague" as what we now know as malaria also took a toll in the population of the area. On May 11, 1792, Captain Robert Gray named the river the Columbia River after his boat Columbia Rediviva which he used for coastal trading. Lewis and Clark arrived in the gorge in October of 1805 and firmly established their claim of the land before their British rivals "the Corps of Discovery". Three other great explorations were David Thompson in 1807-11, David Stuart in 1812, and George B. McClellan surveyed a potential railroad route in 1853. By the 1840s fur trade went down and a small amount of immigrants arrived in the area, three years later 900 immigrants arrived off the Oregon trail, then in 1844 1,100 immigrants and in 1845 1,765 all arrived in the Gorge. Even though the gorge wasn't the final resting place of the Oregon Trail, many travelers remained not wanting to go the final distance to Oregon City. Fort Dalles was the most important US Army garrison and Oregon's oldest museum. In 1838 the first church was established and in 1846 a rugged route to the Willamette Valley was established. The first steamship was built above the cascade rapids was the Eagle and the first railroad line to Portland was built in 1883. Timber, Salmon fishing and ranching overtook fur trading but fishing was depleted when over fishing and loss of habitat began. The Logging industry also started fading due to over logging but not until the 1990s. The first highway was created in the 1920s and small towns formed off them including Cascade Locks, Bingen, Lyle, Hood River, Stevenson and other communities which disapered off the maps a while back. Two main events in the Gorges history came in the later half of the 20th century when Interstate 84 replaced highway 30 and in 1986 the passage by Congress Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.
"The Columbia River Gorge is a spectacular river canyon, 80 miles long and up to 4,000 feet deep, cutting the only sea level route through the Cascade Mountain Range. It is more than a natural wonder; the Gorge is a critical transportation corridor and is home to over 75,000 people"
-Columbiarivergorge.info
-Columbiarivergorge.info