On November 20, 1882, the first train steamed its way through the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon side of the Columbia River (Morning Oregonian, 21 November 1882).

Traffic by rail was commenced yesterday between the metropolis of Oregon and the tributary empire lying east of the Cascade mountains. There was no hurrah, no confusion, no excitement. One passenger train and two freights left Albina in a plain, matter-of-fact way, as if the practice of running cars into that now prominent railroad town had been established for years.

There may have been no hurrah, but the engine of the train was gaily decorated and the headlight was covered with a portrait of Henry Villard, the owner of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company (O.R.& N.).

Upon encountering stormy weather on November 10, 1805, only a few miles from their Pacific Ocean goal (and possible rendezvous with a trading ship), members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition took shelter in a small cove under steep cliffs on the north side of the Columbia River.

The rain soaked party spent that night and next day, miserable. As conditions again worsened (hail! lightning!) on the 12th, the party moved a few hundred yards to a small point and were pinned down by the weather for another two days. Finally, on November 15, 1805, Clark recorded in his journal their escape:

About 3 oClock the wind luled, and the river became calm, 〈we〉 I had the canoes loaded in great haste and Set Out, from this dismal nitich where we have been confined for 6 days passed, without the possibility of proceeding on, returning to a better Situation, or get out to hunt, Scerce of Provisions, and torents of rain poreing on us all the time—

The dismal nitich is now known as Dismal Nitch, and Lewis and Clark’s miserable few days is commemorated with a surprisingly pleasant little highway rest area.

Intrepid explorers Lewis and Clark faced one of their toughest challenges when, on October 22, 1805, they reach Celilo Falls. The falls were the beginning of a 55 mile stretch of rapids, falls, and generally dangerous river conditions.

It took the explorers two days to portage several miles around Celilo Fall’s 38 foot drop. At The Dalles the non-swimmers portaged, and the foolhardy swimmers decided to shoot the rapids in their canoes . . . and they survived!

Finally, on October 31, 1805, the expedition reached the grand Shute, later known as the Cascade Rapids,

The rapids were the . . .

. . . final barrier to the broad, swift, flat waters of the lower Columbia. What Lewis and Clark called “the great Shute” was a four-mile stretch where the river ran “with great velocity fo[a]ming & boiling in a most horriable manner” (Oct. 31, 1805). ) The party cleared the last of the Cascades on November 2, at times portaging along a well-used Indian trail.