Click image to enlarge
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Avery Park, Washington, with Fairbanks Water Gap, Oregon.
Image taken May 24, 2004.
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Fairbanks Gap ...
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Views overlooking Avery Park and
Wishram, Washington, also overlook
Mount Hood and Fairbanks Gap, Oregon. Fairbanks Gap, also known as "Fairbanks Water Gap", is a water gap in the Columbia River Basalts through which waters of the Missoula Floods flowed into Fifteenmile Creek Valley, just east of The Dalles, Oregon. In 1965, the U.S. Board of Geographic Names made "Fairbanks Gap" the official name for this Missouls Flood feature.
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Click image to enlarge
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Fairbanks Water Gap and Mount Hood, Oregon.
Looking downstream from Washington State Highway 14 at Mount Hood, Oregon, visible through Fairbanks Gap.
Image taken May 24, 2005.
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Missoula Floods ...
Between 80,000 years ago and 10,000 years ago ice sheets of the "Wisconsin Glaciation" covered much of North America, including Northern Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Towards the end of this glaciation a large ice dam blocked the Clark Fork River, creating "Lake Missoula", a massive lake 2,000 feet deep and containing more than 500 cubic miles of water. Lake Missoula stretched eastward more than 200 miles and contained more water than Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined. Periodically, the ice dam would fail. These failures were often catastrophic, resulting in a large flood of ice- and dirt-filled water that would rush down the Columbia River drainage, across northern Idaho and eastern and central Washington, through the Columbia River Gorge, back up into Oregon's Willamette Valley, and finally pour into the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River.
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Views of Fairbanks Water Gap ...
Click image to enlarge
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Mount Hood as seen through Fairbanks Water Gap, Oregon.
View from Washington State Highway 14.
Image taken May 24, 2005.
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Click image to enlarge
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Fairbanks Water Gap, Oregon.
View from Washington State Highway 14.
Image taken May 24, 2005.
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Click image to enlarge
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Fairbanks Water Gap, Oregon.
View from Washington State Highway 14.
Image taken May 24, 2005.
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Fairbanks, Oregon ...
South of the Fairbanks Gap lies the Oregon community of Fairbanks.
A brief history of Fairbanks was given by William H. McNeal in his 1953 publcation "History of Wasco County, Oregon":
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"...
The post office of Fairbanks, 12 miles east of The Dalles, on lower 15
Mile creek and the old Great Southern Railroad; was established
October 31, 1905 with Cyrus C. Cooper, son of Daniel Cooper, Civil War
veteran pioneer settler of Fairbanks, the only postmaster. The office
was closed July 31, 1909 at the time R.F.D. No. 3, The Dalles, was
established. The station of Fulton, on the
Great Southern Railroad was only 1˝ miles up 15 Mile creek from
Fairbanks; and Brookhouse, the next station was only 4 miles above
Fairbanks. The early history (before 1905) of these three stations, on
the Great Southern, was treated as and referred to as FAIRBANKS,
because that stage station on the Old Oregon Trail is as old as The
Dalles!
The Fairbanks Crossing, on lower 15 Mile, was known to emigrants of
the Old Oregon Trail as far back as 1843, 111 years ago! before that
it was an important camping grounds for the Indians, who fished at
Celilo, "for so many moons" that even the oldest Indian never knew
when it was first used? That crossing, on the Old Oregon Trail road
was approximately 10 miles from The Dalles, and for that reason early
emigrants and settlers of that portion of lower 15 Mile creek
referred to it as "10 Mile"; but by modern highway roads it is 12
miles east of The Dalles.
When John Heimrich built the Great Southern railroad up 15 Mile to
Dufur, when he got to "10 Mile Crossing" he needed a name for his
station. Daniel J. Cooper, Civil War Veteran settler at Fairbanks
suggested the name of FAIRBANKS, in honor of Charles Warren Fairbanks,
Vice-President of the U.S. under Theodore Roosevelt (1905-1909). His
daughter Mildred Galloway, Wasco County Treasurer says, "Dad was a
National Republican Delegate who helped nominate the
Roosevelt-Fairbanks ticket and helped all he could with their
successful election and was a great admirer of both Theodore Roosevelt
and Charles Warren Fairbanks." ..."
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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