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Arlington, Oregon.
Arlington lies at the mouth of the Alkali Canyon.
Image taken September 26, 2004.
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Alkali ...
Today's Oregon community of Arlington lies at the mouth of Alkali Canyon, and, in pioneer days the town was known as Alkali.
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Alkali Canyon ...
China Ditch ...
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In 1988 the U.S. Board of Geographic Names made "China Ditch" the official name for the drainage existing in Alkali Canyon. Other names in use at the time were "Alkali Creek" and "China Creek".
According to "Oregon Geographic Names" (2003, McArthur and McArthur):
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"China Ditch (GILLIAM) ... The city of Arlington lies at the mouth of a long draw named Alkali Canyon. Most of the year this canyon is dry but when the Condon branch of the Union Pacific was built in 1904, a drainage ditch was dug alongside the railroad grade. Much of the work was done by Chinese laborers. When the job was finished, one family stayed and built a laundry near the ditch, which soon became known as China Ditch. This drainage was later called China Creek, but at the request of Marion Weatherford, a longtime resident, the anachronism was elimated and the dry watercourse was given back its original name."
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Alkali Canyon and the Oregon Trail ...
Alkali Canyon and the Missoula Floods ...
Flood waters of Lake Condon of the Missoula Floods spilled over the southern bank of the Columbia River and headed south through Alkali Canyon (RM 243), Jones Canyon (RM 239.5), Blalock Canyon (RM 234), and Philippi Canyon (RM 227.5).
The waters rushing through Alkali Canyon flowed to Rock Creek to the John Day River and then northwest along the John Day River drainage back to the Columbia River (RM 217). The waters flowing up Jones, Blalock, and Philippi Canyons created a scabland before entering the John Day River drainage.
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SPILLWAYS INTO THE JOHN DAY CANYON
"Hodge (1931) recognized more than 50 years ago that floodwaters had overtopped the low divides between the Columbia River and the headwaters of Rock Creek, as well as the divide directly into the John Day Canyon. The floodwater poured up Alkali Canyon, south of Arlington (Oregon 19), and scoured a channel westward (now occupied by the Union Pacific RR branch line) into Rock Creek 6 miles above its junction with the John Day River. Farther west, the Floods poured up Jones Canyon, Blalock Canyon, and Philippi Canyon just east of Quinton, where it formed several square miles of scabland and left a high-perched expansion bar on the east wall of the John Day Canyon 10 miles from its mouth. A sixth small spillway lies at 1020 feet elevation, 2 miles northwest of Phillipi Canyon."
Source:
John Eliot Allen and Marjorie Burns, with Sam C. Sargent, 1986, Cataclysms on the Columbia: Timber Press, Portland, Oregon
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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Clark, October 20, 1805 ...
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