Maritime writer Peter Marsh let the Ear know that Claudia DeLoff generously donated a photo of fishing for salmon at Celilo Falls to the Pier 39 Hanthorn Cannery Museum (a portion of the photo is shown). Which, of course, piqued the Ear’s curiosity about that long-gone place.

According to the Oregon Encyclopedia, Celilo Falls, a miles-long indigenous fishery and rapids, was about 12 miles east of The Dalles that “dropped the river more than 80 feet in a half-mile.” Village sites that were near the falls dated back at least 11,000 years.

“During the spring flooding, 10 times more water passed over this spectacular waterfall than passes over Niagara Falls today,” the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission website says, referring to the falls as Wy-am.

For many centuries, the area around the falls was a “great market place,” with several permanent villages, and gatherings for various events that could draw several thousand people.

Fishing was regulated by the elders and chiefs, and the daily routine began and ended with a whistle. If someone fell in, which was usually deadly, fishing stopped for the day. In later years,  fishermen secured themselves to the shore.

“All this changed on the morning of March 10, 1957,” the website says, “when the massive steel and concrete gates of The Dalles Dam closed and choked back the downstream surge of the Columbia River. 

“Four and a half hours later and eight miles upstream, Celilo Falls, the spectacular natural wonder, and the age-old Indian salmon fishery associated with it, was under water.”