Notes
These kids from Parkdale posed for a class photo at the entrance to Koberg Beach in September, 1937. Koberg Beach, just east of the City of Hood River, was a very popular spot in that era. The sandy swim beach was tucked in on the west side of Stanley Rock, just a few hundred feet north of John Koberg's asparagus fields. Just to the east of this beach was the beautiful dance pavilion that was the focus of Hood River social life on summer weekends. Does anyone remember visiting Koberg Beach as a kid?
Rising water from Bonneville dam covered much of the beach soon after this photo, and what remained of the beach and the dance pavilion were destroyed during the interstate highway construction of the 1950s. Today there is a freeway rest stop at Stanley Rock, but little to remind us of the recreation complex John Koberg built at this spot.
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Tags: 1930s Koberg Koberg_Beach
Comments
Folks would take me swimming there in the fifty's, the foundation of the pavilion was still there, swam there some as a teenager in the sixty's including jumping off the rocks.
The bus looks like the one my Grandmother used to own and drive in the Dee area, she had to be one of the first female bus drivers.
I may have an Aunt and a couple of Uncles in that picture.
Jim Gray on 11th May 2011 @ 4:32pm
So many of the older museum volunteers have great stories of swimming or dancing at Koberg Beach. It was always fun to listen in on them sharing their first hand expierences and memories with visitors to the museum. (The History Museum)
Connie on 13th May 2011 @ 7:40am
My mother learned to swim in the "crib" area at Koberg's, probably in the '30s. She didn't learn too well but could dogpaddle at least. She remembers how beautiful it seemed to her, like a fairytale. She grew up in the Mt. Hood area and it was a big trip to go to Hood River.
Dedilee on 13th May 2011 @ 9:31am
After the swimming" cribs" were gone it actually was not a safe beach to swim at, due to a horrible undertow. Personally know of two deaths due to that, as I was there that day.....
There have been more than one disaster due to people thinking it safe to jump/dive off Stanley Rock. Very unsafe even to this day.
Charlott on 8th June 2011 @ 11:27am
My aunt Vivian spoke this week of her Grandfather Koberg that built a resort at Koberg Beach. She has a picture of it and spoke fondly of a wonderful life there as a teenager. She lives now in SE Portland.
Carol Jarmer on 19th July 2011 @ 5:23pm
I wandered around and through that dance hall in the late '40s. It was still pretty much intact, porches and all. However, the water was RIGHT UP to the porches, and UNDERNEATH them. We would run up the exterior stairway and peer into the locked upstairs rooms, which still looked as though they might come to life on summer evenings. There was sand underfoot everywhere.
Speaking of the undertow, or at least the OUT-tow, Raymond Sanford and I were swept almost to the Interstate Bridge one evening at a Mormon Church bonfire picnic, holding onto one inner tube. While we were struggling for our lives, as we thought, the people on the beach were letting the bonfire die down, so we imagined we were clear out in the shipping channel. We couldn't see people or cars in the darkness, so we had nothing else to measure our distance by. Nobody knew we were out there, as there was no check in/check out system to keep track of us. I was resigning myself to being ground up in the Bonneville Dam generator, and quit kicking in despair. I touched bottom! We had a long walk back in the shallows.
Barbara Parsons Bernstein on 24th March 2013 @ 10:24am
Thanks for sharing that story Barbara.
Scary but interesting.
l.e. on 24th March 2013 @ 11:03am