Having spent many hours as a child at Celilo my take on this photo is that it is very early in the spring when the river is still flowing with winter run off. During real fishing season, though I do see fisherman out there, there was more of a drop and rocks showing.

Certainly wild and untamed in those days.

Charlott on 4th February 2016 @ 7:07am

Charlotte, there must have been loss of lives annually, especially at high water as shown here, was it rare?

Kenn on 4th February 2016 @ 8:21am

Wow! That's a lot of water.
What a difference Lewis and Clark would have seen from October when they descended the river to mid April on their return trip.
I think on their return trip the spring salmon run had not yet arrived.

This photo is a great view of what the original scene was like at Celilo.
Seufert Bothers Cannery put in the cable car system that we see in later 1930's photos and gave Indians lumber for scaffolds.

L.E. on 4th February 2016 @ 8:37am

Charlott....are we looking at what was called the Horseshoe?

L.E. on 4th February 2016 @ 8:41am

Great picture...my visit memories are of the smell and noise. The falls were very loud. A S{P&S Wishram railroad worker wrote a nice piece about when the falls went silent and how very weird he and his co-workers felt when the dam pool filled. I agree with some Indian comments that the falls will someday return, they are just waiting quietly.

Arlen Sheldrake on 4th February 2016 @ 8:48am

After seeing yesterdays and todays photos, it is sad to remember and see what used to be. But "progress" must be a wonderful thing Everybody says so.

Buzz on 4th February 2016 @ 10:13am

Photographer? Amazing photo.

nels on 4th February 2016 @ 11:36am

This whole week is Benjamin Gifford photos. Check out Monday's post for some background.

Arthur on 4th February 2016 @ 1:29pm

Oh yes, there was loss of life, but the "outside world" seldom heard about it. Not saying that it happened every year, but did claim lives. Those platforms that they used were pretty unstable to begin with, constructed with all types of boards, probably a lot of them old and scrap. You have this wobbling structure, that the falls keeps wet all the time. Those things you could just look at and see were very slick. That is why you see the photos of fishermen with ropes around them. They had to tie themselves on those things. Those that were fishing from the rocks were standing on wet slimy surfaces. I would think they would be at greater risk than on the platforms. The pull on a huge dipnet like they had had to have been VERY strong when in the water and then if it got a 50 or 60 pound Chinook in it, can you imagine the fight that went on to land that fish.........Remarkable feat..... Bet they slept good at night.... Even down where "white men" were allowed to fish, the air was just full of spray and you came out of there wet.

Rather hard to tell, but that is probably the Horseshoe area.

Charlott on 5th February 2016 @ 7:10am

I am NOT good with google earth. I tried to recreate where Benjamin Gifford was standing when he took this photo and got swept away in the water.
Tom Kloster has done a better job with this panoramic view.
http://www.mounthoodnationalpark.org/MHNPArticles/110228CeliloFallsPanoramaLarge.jpg

He has also written several blogs about Celilo.
http://wyeastblog.org/tag/celilo-falls/

The railroad bridge in Kloster’s panorama was built in 1912. The cable car and scaffold system was provided by Seufert Brothers Cannery to whom the Indians sold their fish.
Even before Gifford’s photo there had been several court cases concerning Celilo and Indian fishing rights. “The United States vs Winans-1905) and “The Tumwater Fishery—1889). Rocks had already been blasted out to place fishwheels and Indians were complaining up river that the salmon were disappearing. (1905)

I think many people today, are under the mis-conception that Indians from all over the west, traveled to Celilo to fish. Only a few select tribes and families were traditionally allowed to fish at Celilo. They had their established allotments as to who could fish where and they decided who in their family those rights would be passed on to. Traveling Native Americans came to Celilo to trade their goods for fish.

There were areas along the Columbia where other tribes had fishing rights. It was an intricate system, some of which still exists in the Klickitat River.
Hood River’s Martha McKeown understood some of this. Her books deal with the Indians who felt they still had a right to establish what tribes and families had fishing privileges at Celilo.
I have read old and new history books, and talked to Native Americans, and my ideas and views are constantly changing. I am always learning something new. All books have differing views and all Indian families have differing views of how it was and how it should be.
And for those who are keen on restoring Celilo, take a trip upstream to the Kettle Falls area, where the desire is just as keen to see the river return to what it once was.

L.E. on 5th February 2016 @ 11:45am

Yes, that is true that not all Indians could fish at Celilo. I know that the Indians in the Warm Springs area traveled there and the Yakima. How far away they actually came I don't know, but when my Grandmother was a little girl growing up at Biggs, right near their house was what she called "the Indian Trail" as that is where the Indians came down river from who knows where to fish at Celilo. I know she saw many a sights there. Her father traded with them and that is how and why he learned the language. NOTE: In his journal of the ferry records where he recorded fares, an Indian was charged .25 cents just like a white man.

Charlott on 8th February 2016 @ 7:07am

If Seufert provided the supplies for the platforms they certainly were not "safety" oriented, as those things were not built of top quality material. I have a hunch that what fish and it certainly would not have been all that the Indians pulled out of Celilo that went to Seufert, they were not paid very much. Keep in mind that the fish they dried and processed in other ways was their main source of food supply for the winter.

Charlott on 8th February 2016 @ 7:11am

We seem to all have such a wonderful feeling about this beautiful long lost falls. If you want to see something very spectacular do a search on You Tube for Last of the Salmon Festivals. These photos are priceless and I was in that long house where they ate and danced that day, such a vivid memory of that day and place. Always etched in my mind.

Charlott on 9th February 2016 @ 7:17am