This picture of the steamer Bailey Gatzert shows the ancestors of today’s docks at the food of Union Street, and “tells the story of the great days of steamboating on the Columbia River,” according to the Camera Club’s caption. “Originally the Gatzert was built in Seattle and was placed on the run from Seattle to Olympia. Later she was brought to the Columbia River, plying between Portland and Astoria, and finally between Portland and The Dalles. The Gatzert was one of the finest boats ever on the river. The cabins were furnished luxuriously and the engines were so powerful that the trip from Portland to The Dalles and return was made easily in one day.”
The Umatilla House stood in Lewis and Clark Festival Park, a convenient coach ride away.
The whole enterprise brings back memories.
“My family has got a hunting cabin up in Eastern Oregon and the men who bought it in the 1940s purchased stuff that had been auctioned off from the old Umatilla House,” said Buce. “So I grew up with ... objects that they had once been part of the Umatilla House. And that kind of, when I began developing an interest in local history.”
A Chronicle print of this image in 1964 is more precise: “BAILEY GATZERT swinging into the current after her 15-minute stop at The Dalles for cordwood for her furnace and a cargo of passengers and freight is a scene that remains fresh in the minds of Wasco Crichton and a few other old timers, including Hal Francher and Tom Hudson,” ran the caption.
“. . . we’ve been unable to find a reference work that chronicles with dates the decline and final disappearance of steam navigation on the Columbia River . . . Quite a few remember 50 years and more ago the Bailey Gatzert was queen of the river,” a columnist wrote, “and her chime whistle at 3 p. m. as she came around Crates Point was a never-to-be-forgotten experience.”
EZRA MEEKER AND HIS OXEN AT “THE END OF THE OREGON TRAIL” dedication at the Union Street Park in 1906,” the Camera Club caption to this photo reads. “Meeker, Mrs. Wentworth Lord and Henry Steers are easily recognizable.”
Unfortunately, the writer didn’t specify which of the many faces they recognized. They continue, “The Dalles is the real ‘End of the Oregon Trail.’ Other places have no right to such a claim.”
“So you know, the other piece of that story is his ox threw a shoe and my great-great-grandfather [Lewis Johnson] did the blacksmith work for him,” Buce said. “I don’t remember which one of the oxes through the shoe, but it pissed Ezra off because he had just paid to re-shoe those oxen. ... He was not happy.” Her grandfather, Roy Johnson, is one of the kids in the picture.
“That was a March day,” Buce added. “And that was a gathering of the Court Street Academy school. All the school children had come across the street to witnesses and you know, that rock still stands in city park.”
The marker was made by several local women, who also founded Sorosis Park and City Park.
Buce’s grandfather, she said, is one of the boys on the far right.
“This is a good picture of the old shoe factory promoted by O. D. Taylor which stood across the river just East of the ferry grades,” reads the Camera Club caption. “A brief note cannot tell all its background. Taylor was the minister of a local church in The Dalles and was active in local affairs. He conceived the idea of going into land booming on a large scale. In addition to the shoe factory (which never made a shoe) he built buildings for a glass factory, newspaper, corset factory and several other projects. None materialized. He sold lots amounting to thousands of dollars and the investors lost all their money.
“The shoe factory burned down one day and made a spectacular fire.”
“It was this guy was gonna get rich off of this shoe factory, which never made a shoe. So he kind of was a scam artist,” Buce said.
“THE 1984 FLOOD AT THE CORNER OF COURT AND THIRD STREETS in front of the J. W. French residence,” the Camera Club caption reads. “The first boy on the raft at the left was George Ruch Jr., next to him was Paul French. The remaining two are not identified. The water touched Fourth Street and stood nine feet deep on First Street. The river’s total rise was 59.6 feet.”
“THE DALLES METHODIST MISSION—The Methodist mission at The Dalles, Oregon was founded by Jason Lee in 1838,” reads the Camera Club caption. “The mission was situated at the corner of Washington and East Twelfth streets directly east of the present High School tennis courts. ... This sketch was made by an army officer who was here directly after the mission became inactive. Until a comparatively short time ago the basement excavations could be seen back of the present Fred W. Bayley residence, 308 East Eleventh Street.”
The artist was likely William H. Tappan, who passed through with the army in 1849. The mission, sold to Marcus Whitman two years prior to that and occupied by the armed forces after its new owner’s death in the Whitman Massacre, was burned down by the army to prevent any members of the Tribes using it, Buce said.
“STATE G. A. R. [Grand Army of the Republic] CONVENTION—visiting delegation in march. Dalles people along the sidewalks,” reads the Camera Club caption.
The location is Second and Washington streets looking east, Buce said, showing the old French & Co. Bank building.
“I will tell you, one of the things when you’re going through the old history pictures, you don’t give a crap about the people in the parade, you want to see the buildings,” she said. “We have so few pictures that record the history of the businesses that were in these buildings at the time.”
The triumphal arch was likely constructed just for this convention.
This picture of the steamer Bailey Gatzert shows the ancestors of today’s docks at the food of Union Street, and “tells the story of the great days of steamboating on the Columbia River,” according to the Camera Club’s caption. “Originally the Gatzert was built in Seattle and was placed on the run from Seattle to Olympia. Later she was brought to the Columbia River, plying between Portland and Astoria, and finally between Portland and The Dalles. The Gatzert was one of the finest boats ever on the river. The cabins were furnished luxuriously and the engines were so powerful that the trip from Portland to The Dalles and return was made easily in one day.”
The Umatilla House stood in Lewis and Clark Festival Park, a convenient coach ride away.
The whole enterprise brings back memories.
“My family has got a hunting cabin up in Eastern Oregon and the men who bought it in the 1940s purchased stuff that had been auctioned off from the old Umatilla House,” said Buce. “So I grew up with ... objects that they had once been part of the Umatilla House. And that kind of, when I began developing an interest in local history.”
A Chronicle print of this image in 1964 is more precise: “BAILEY GATZERT swinging into the current after her 15-minute stop at The Dalles for cordwood for her furnace and a cargo of passengers and freight is a scene that remains fresh in the minds of Wasco Crichton and a few other old timers, including Hal Francher and Tom Hudson,” ran the caption.
“. . . we’ve been unable to find a reference work that chronicles with dates the decline and final disappearance of steam navigation on the Columbia River . . . Quite a few remember 50 years and more ago the Bailey Gatzert was queen of the river,” a columnist wrote, “and her chime whistle at 3 p. m. as she came around Crates Point was a never-to-be-forgotten experience.”
EZRA MEEKER AND HIS OXEN AT “THE END OF THE OREGON TRAIL” dedication at the Union Street Park in 1906,” the Camera Club caption to this photo reads. “Meeker, Mrs. Wentworth Lord and Henry Steers are easily recognizable.”
Unfortunately, the writer didn’t specify which of the many faces they recognized. They continue, “The Dalles is the real ‘End of the Oregon Trail.’ Other places have no right to such a claim.”
“So you know, the other piece of that story is his ox threw a shoe and my great-great-grandfather [Lewis Johnson] did the blacksmith work for him,” Buce said. “I don’t remember which one of the oxes through the shoe, but it pissed Ezra off because he had just paid to re-shoe those oxen. ... He was not happy.” Her grandfather, Roy Johnson, is one of the kids in the picture.
“That was a March day,” Buce added. “And that was a gathering of the Court Street Academy school. All the school children had come across the street to witnesses and you know, that rock still stands in city park.”
The marker was made by several local women, who also founded Sorosis Park and City Park.
Buce’s grandfather, she said, is one of the boys on the far right.
“This is a good picture of the old shoe factory promoted by O. D. Taylor which stood across the river just East of the ferry grades,” reads the Camera Club caption. “A brief note cannot tell all its background. Taylor was the minister of a local church in The Dalles and was active in local affairs. He conceived the idea of going into land booming on a large scale. In addition to the shoe factory (which never made a shoe) he built buildings for a glass factory, newspaper, corset factory and several other projects. None materialized. He sold lots amounting to thousands of dollars and the investors lost all their money.
“The shoe factory burned down one day and made a spectacular fire.”
“It was this guy was gonna get rich off of this shoe factory, which never made a shoe. So he kind of was a scam artist,” Buce said.
“THE 1984 FLOOD AT THE CORNER OF COURT AND THIRD STREETS in front of the J. W. French residence,” the Camera Club caption reads. “The first boy on the raft at the left was George Ruch Jr., next to him was Paul French. The remaining two are not identified. The water touched Fourth Street and stood nine feet deep on First Street. The river’s total rise was 59.6 feet.”
“THE DALLES METHODIST MISSION—The Methodist mission at The Dalles, Oregon was founded by Jason Lee in 1838,” reads the Camera Club caption. “The mission was situated at the corner of Washington and East Twelfth streets directly east of the present High School tennis courts. ... This sketch was made by an army officer who was here directly after the mission became inactive. Until a comparatively short time ago the basement excavations could be seen back of the present Fred W. Bayley residence, 308 East Eleventh Street.”
The artist was likely William H. Tappan, who passed through with the army in 1849. The mission, sold to Marcus Whitman two years prior to that and occupied by the armed forces after its new owner’s death in the Whitman Massacre, was burned down by the army to prevent any members of the Tribes using it, Buce said.
“STATE G. A. R. [Grand Army of the Republic] CONVENTION—visiting delegation in march. Dalles people along the sidewalks,” reads the Camera Club caption.
The location is Second and Washington streets looking east, Buce said, showing the old French & Co. Bank building.
“I will tell you, one of the things when you’re going through the old history pictures, you don’t give a crap about the people in the parade, you want to see the buildings,” she said. “We have so few pictures that record the history of the businesses that were in these buildings at the time.”
The triumphal arch was likely constructed just for this convention.
THE DALLES — "The Dalles is a treasure house of history. From the landing of Lewis and Clark in 1805 to the present day this home town of ours has had a prominent part in the development of Oregon, and parts of Washington, Idaho and Montana, for it was the gateway for transportation to all these regions.
"In full realization of this great fact The Dalles Camera Club is making possible the presentation of pictures which tell the story, and which otherwise might be lost. The enterprise is one which deserves fullest commendation.”
Thus runs the printed copy of a hand-written note from Judge Frederick W. Wilson, preface to an album compiled in 1950 by The Dalles Camera Club.
The prints are not the only copies of these photos, but they are good copies, clear and sharp, having never been reproduced by photocopying. Prints of hand-typed captions accompany each.
Whether or not you believe “the development of Oregon, and parts of Washington, Idaho and Montana” was an enterprise worthy of commendation, the album is an unusual record. The 30-plus prints of well-known photographs show a town quite different from today’s.
“We have to constantly teach the history over and over and over again, because people don’t realize the significance of it,” said Susan Buce, Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Museum registrar. “And, you know, it’s been something that I enjoyed doing is finding little-known facts.”
Wilma Roberts, photographer and The Dalles Camera Club member, later provided a copy to The Dalles Chronicle editor Mark Gibson. Prints and captions, glued to the deteriorating black paper pages, show scenes ranging in age from shortly after 1847 to about 1906; some are undated.
“Every day we lose historians. And you know, someday I’ll be gone but I have memories of Wilma Roberts,” Buce said.
Photographs were taken or supplied by Wanda Muir Gifford; Frederick Wallace Wilson; Walter Blaser; Thelma Cox; William Howard McNeal; and Elite Studio, among others. Some small images, glued to a blank page, have no provenance.
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