History Mystery: June 4, 2025

Photo from two weeks ago, courtesy Columbia Gorge Discovery Center where it’s number 2020.3.3 in the collections, showed Seufert Park and the Winquatt Museum, once located beside The Dalles Dam on the Oregon side. It was on the old Seufert Cannery site, owned by Wasco County/City of The Dalles as an archaeology museum, providing exhibit space, storage, and training workshops regarding artifacts collected from the archaeological dig at Wakemap Mound and   the Columbia River waterfront, submerged when The Dalles Dam went into operation March 10, 1957. Photo likely taken in the late 1950s to early 1960s. Here it is:

You can still see the foundations to Winquatt Museum at The Dalles Dam Visitor Center, said registrar Susan Buce. Follow the split rail fence and you’ll walk by the old stone wall. Gary Elkinton, who visited the museum as a youngster, and Gary Conley, who remembered the government tearing down those buildings to put in fresh ones, also recognized this place.