30.9.10

Sepia: Celilo Falls

Lost forever now, these falls on the Columbia were the traditional Native American salmon-fishing Mecca of southern Washington. They were drowned in the 1950s by construction of The Dalles Dam.

Photo from: Wikipedia

Photo from: CCRH.org

I stumbled upon the remains of the site this August.







8 comments:

  1. So the men are fishing from the platforms. They remind me of the whitebait huts we have along our rivers in NZ for catching the tiny whitebait in season.

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  2. It's sad that the whole area was destroyed, sad to see the old abandoned barns about to collapse, but your photos of the buildings are wonderful.

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  3. That first photo showing the men fishing is amazing - I have been told that my American family line is Native American, I would love to know if this is correct.
    Your photos of the derelict hut are wonderful, it's so good that you have recorded it.
    Dams do so much damage - this has been down in NZ and there is a dam proposal in place for the river near our bush block down south, there aren't any buildings to be destroyed but a beautiful natural gorge and irreplaceable bird and fish life.

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  4. A fantastic piece of history - a true sepia creation. Thanks for sharing the story.

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  5. Nice history. I often photo run down barns along our travels, imagining how once they were so useful but time has moved on and their bones are all that's left, for a time. There must be other history and records of that dam going up and stories about it. As civilization encroaches things have to change, long cry from Indians fishing for food!

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  6. I was a little girl when that happened, but I have a vague memory of being taken there to see this bit of history. I don't remember seeing the Indians fishing, just being taken there.

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  7. What a moving series, and the CCRH (Center for Columbia River History) website is a real find--you have to enlarge the sepia photo from there to really appreciate its beauty.

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