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Basalt Flow and Union Pacific train, between The Dalles and Celilo, Oregon.
Image taken June 4, 2005.
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"Cape Horn near Celilo" ...
Two famous views of
"Cape Horn near Celilo" exist, taken by photographer Carleton Watkins in the late 1860s. One is "Cape Horn, near Celilo, Columbia River" (Stereograph #1329) and the other is "Cape Horn near Celilo" (year 1867). This last image hangs in many museums around the world. In 2000, a print of Watkin's "Cape Horn near Celilo" went at auction for $236,750 to a San Francisco dealer.
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"...
Watkins settled in San Francisco at the height of the Gold Rush, taking up the still-new medium of photography in the mid 1850s. In his pictures he aspired to capture the vastness and grandeur of the American West for audiences primarily on the East Coast and in Europe. In pursuing this goal Watkins composed images that were astonishingly sophisticated and modern in appearance. Watkins made photographs that are visually immediate, lush in detail, compositionally abstract and psychologically compelling. ..."
"Cape Horn near Celilo" was located at the eastern end of the Celilo Canal. There is an image in the archives of the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center showing the Canal and the basalt flow, with the caption reading "Canal at Cape Horn". (Image #1999.34.2, photographer and date of image unknown).
The Archives have another image of this "Cape Horn near Celilo" taken by B.C. Markham of The Dalles, and is labeled "Applegate Point, on Old Oregon - Trail Highway, near
Celilo Ore." (Image #1999.13.94BB).
Today this basalt cliff appears unnamed on current topographic maps.
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Basalt Flow between The Dalles and Celilo, Oregon.
Image taken June 4, 2005.
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Carleton Watkins ...
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Carleton Watkins' 1867 image "Cape Horn Near Celilo" shows the massive basalt flow of Columbia River Basalt on the right with the Oregon Portage Railroad at its base. Haystack Butte, Washington, is in the left background. See "The Golden Age of Postcards" below.
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Carleton Watkins, Cape Horn near Celilo, Oregon.
Webpage of "masters-of-photography.com" Website.
Image taken June 5, 2005.
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Cape Horn near Celilo, Oregon.
Image taken June 4, 2005.
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"The Golden Age of Postcards" ...
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The early 1900s was the "Golden Age of Postcards", with the "Penny Postcard" being a popular way to send greetings to family and friends. Today the Penny Postcard has become a snapshot of history.
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Penny Postcard: Cape Horn near Celilo, by Carleton Watkins, 1867.
New "Penny Postcard", "Cape Horn Near Celilo, Columbia River, 1867.". Image created in 1867 by Carleton Watkins, Postcard from 1983. Oregon Historical Society Columbia River Gorge Postcard Series II (Watkins Series). Carleton E. Watkins No.456.
Published by Western Imprints, the Press of the Oregon Historical Society.
In the private collection of Lyn Topinka.
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Penny Postcard: Cape Horn near Celilo, Oregon, ca.1946.
Penny Postcard, Postmarked 1946, "Cape Horn, Oregon Trail Highway, Oregon".
This is not today's Cape Horn, but is the "Cape Horn near Celilo", made famous by Carleton Watkins in 1867.
Sawyer Scenic Photos Card #C13121.
In the private collection of Lyn Topinka.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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