Lewis and Clark's Columbia River
Lewis & Clark's Columbia River - "200 Years Later"
"Hamilton Island, Washington"
Includes ... Hamilton Island ... "Strawberry Island" ... Hamilton Slough ... Hamilton Creek ... Fish Hatchery ... Wildlife Ponds ...
Image, 2006, Hamilton Island looking towards Hamilton Mountain, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Looking across Hamilton Island, Washington, towards Hamilton Mountain. Image taken July 2, 2006.


Hamilton Island ...
Hamilton Island lies along the Washington shoreline of the Columbia River, upstream of Pierce and Ives Islands and Beacon Rock, and downstream of Bonneville Dam and the former Cascade Rapids. Hamilton Island use to be an island, however it is now landlocked. In the 1970s the upper part of "Hamilton Slough", bordering the northeast side of Hamilton Island, was filled in with debris from the construction of Bonneville's North Powerhouse. The lower part of Hamilton Slough became part of Hamilton Creek, which borders the west and northwest side of Hamilton Island. On the east and south is the Columbia River. The city of North Bonneville lies on the northeast side of Hamilton Island. Lewis and Clark called the island "Strawberry Island". Hamilton Island is home to the Fort Cascades Historic Site.

Lewis and Clark and "Strawberry Island" ...
In 1805 Lewis and Clark called the island "Strawberry Island" after the many vines covering the ground.

"... immediately below this rapid the high water passes through a narrow Chanel through the Stard. Bottom forming an Island of 3 miles <wide> Long & one wide, I walked through this Island which I found to be verry rich land, and had every appearance of haveing been at Some distant period Cultivated. at this time it is Covered with grass intersperced with Strawberry vines. I observed Several places on this Island where the nativs had dug for roots ..." [Clark, October 31, 1805]

"... passed a rapid at 2 miles & 1 at 4 miles opposite the lower point of a high Island on the Lard Side, and a little below 4 Houses on the Stard. Bank, a Small Creek on the Lard Side opposit Straw berry Island, which heads below the last rapid. ..." [Clark, November 2, 1805]
The "high Island" on the left is Bradford Island and the "Small Creek" on the left opposite Hamilton Island is Tanner Creek.

Early Hamilton Island ...
Early Hamilton Island was called "Strawberry Island", named by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805.

Edmund S. Meany wrote in "Origin of Washington Geographic Names" (1923, University of Washington Press):

"Strawberry Island ... in the Columbia River, near the town of Cascades in the south central part of Skamania County. It was named by Lewis and Clark, who camped there on November 1, 1805."

Today's Hamilton Island, Hamilton Creek, and nearby Hamilton Mountain were all named for Samuel M. Hamilton of Lower Cascades, who took a Donation Land Claim on the Hamilton Creek in 1850.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office (GLO) Records database, shows a Samuel M. Hamilton being issued a land title on September 20, 1870, for parts of T2N R7E Sections 29 and 30, under the 1862 "Homestead Entry Original".

Robert Hitchman wrote in "Place Names of Washington" (1985, Washington State Historical Society):

"Hamilton Creek ... The head of the stream heads at Three Corner Rock, southeast Skamania County; flows 9 miles south by east to Columbia River at Hamilton Island near Greenleaf. It was named for Samuel M. Hamilton of Lower Cascades, who took a Donation Land Claim on the creek in 1850, and survived the 1856 Indian attack at the Cascades."

Hamilton Island (T2N R7E, Sec.29) ... Island in Columbia River, 3 miles below Bonneville Dam, southwest Skamania County. (see Hamilton Creek).

The 1910 "Railroad Commission Map of Washington" shows "Hamilton".

The 1911 U.S. Geological Survey's "Mount Hood and Vicinity" topographic map shows "Hamilton I.".

The U.S. Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database (2019) lists only "Hamilton Creek", "Hamilton Island", and "Hamilton Mountain", with no mention of "Strawberry Island".


Early Maps ...

Topo Map, 1911, Columbia River at Bonneville, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Topographic map detail, 1911, Columbia River at Bonneville, before construction of the Bonneville Dam. Original 1:125,000 "Mount Hood" Topographic Map courtesy University of Washington Libraries, 2010.


Bonneville Landslide ...
Hamilton Island, along with Pierce and Ives islands are remnants of the Bonneville Landslide which temporarily blocked the Columbia River and was birth to the legend of the Bridge of the Gods.
[More]

Views ...

Image, 2005, Strawberry Island Trail sign, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Strawberry Island Trail sign, Hamilton Island. Image taken April 2, 2005.
Image, 2004, Hamilton Island looking towards the Columbia River, Oregon side, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Lissa traversing Hamilton Island, 199 years after Captain Clark. Image taken August 1, 2004.
Image, 2014, Hamilton Island, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Hamilton Island, Washington. Looking upstream at the Columbia River. Image taken April 7, 2014.
Image, 2014, Hamilton Island, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Hamilton Island, Washington. Looking downstream at the Columbia River. Image taken April 7, 2014.
Image, 2003, Hamilton Mountain and Hamilton Island, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Hamilton Island, Washington, with Hamilton Mountain in the background. View from Bonneville Dam, Oregon side. Image taken October 25, 2003.
Image, 2019, Hamilton Island, North Bonneville, Washington click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Hamilton Island, North Bonneville, Washington. Image taken July 29, 2019.
Image, 2019, Hamilton Island, North Bonneville, Washington click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Purple Martin, Hamilton Island, North Bonneville, Washington. Image taken July 29, 2019.


Hamilton Island, etc.

  • Bonneville Dam ...
  • Bonneville Juvenile Fish Monitoring Facility and "Outfall" ...
  • Columbia River Basalt Group ...
  • Fort Cascades Historic Site ...
  • Salmon Fishing ...
  • Strawberry Island (Strandberg Island) ...
  • Views from Hamilton Island ...


Bonneville Dam ...
The Bonneville Dam is a hydroelectric dam built across three islands - Robins, Bradford, and Cascade - at Columbia River Mile (RM) 146. Once known as the "Cascade Rapids", this area was a major obstacle to navigation on the Columbia. The Rapids were a result of the Bonneville Landslide, a massive landslide which gave rise to the legend of the Bridge of the Gods.
[More]

Image, 2009, Bonneville Dam, on the Columbia River, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Bonneville Dam as seen from Hamilton Island. Bonneville Dam as seen from Hamilton Island, accessed from Washington State Highway 14. Image taken February 7, 2009.


Bonneville Juvenile Fish Monitoring Facility and "Outfall" ...
The Bonneville Juvenile Fish Monitoring Facility is located near the eastern end of Hamilton Island. The system is a bypass to direct juvenile fish around the Bonneville Dam's turbines. The facilities also enable researchers to monitor the number and condition of the young fish.

Outfall
Juvenile salmon (smolts) enter the bypass system on the upstream face of the pwerhouse. The smolts are carried down stream by a flume to the outfall exit where they reenter the river. The location of the outfall gives smolts an edge over predators. Here, strong currents prevent predators such as Northern Pikeminnow and Walleye from holding position and preying upon smolts returning to the river. Hydro cannons located on each outfall spray jets of water up to 150 feet, deterring gulls, tern and other predatory birds from feeding on the smolts as they exit the pipe and head downstream to the ocean."


Source:    Information sign, Juvenile Fish Bypass Monitoring Facility, visited 2014.

[More]

Image, 2017, Bonneville Juvenile Fish Monitoring Facility, Hamilton Island, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Bonneville Juvenile Fish Monitoring Facility, Hamilton Island. A wildlife pond is on the left. Table Mountain rises in the background. Image taken July 17, 2017.
Image, 2011, Bonneville Juvenile Fish Monitoring Facility, Hamilton Island, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Bonneville Juvenile Fish Monitoring Facility, Hamilton Island. A wildlife pond is on the left. Aldrich Butte and Table Mountain rise in the background. Image taken May 20, 2011.
Image, 2014, Bonneville Juvenile Fish Monitoring Facility, Hamilton Island, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Information sign, Bonneville Juvenile Fish Monitoring Facility, Hamilton Island. Image taken April 7, 2014.
Image, 2006, Bonneville Juvenile Fish Monitoring Facility, Hamilton Island, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Outfall, Bonneville Juvenile Fish Monitoring Facility, Hamilton Island. Image taken April 7, 2014.


Columbia River Basalt Group ...
"Flood basalts of the Miocene Columbia River Basalt Gorup (CRBG) are among the most volumninous and far-traveled lava flows on earth. About 10% of the basalt flows that erupted on the Columbia Plateau between 17 and 12 Ma were voluminous enough to pass through the Cascade arc via a wide ancestral Columbia River valley, and some of them eventually reached the Pacific Ocean. Some of the larger flows invaded the marine strata, forming mega-invasive flows on the continental shelf and slope. ...

The basic geologic framework of the Columbia River Gorge has been known for over a century. In the western gorge, the package of Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) flood-basalt flows unconformably overlies volcanogenic rocks of ancestral Cascade volcanic arc. Vigorous and widespread volcanism characterized the arc from its inception 40 Ma until ca. 18 Ma, when activity greatly declines. The arc must have been relatively quiescent during emplacement of the most voluminous CRBG flows, because interflow volcanic sediments are sparse. The larger flows passed through a 50-km-wide ancestral Columbia River valley on their way to the ocean. Owing to late Cenozoic uplift of the Cascade Range and resultant incision by the Columbia River, CRBG flows are now spectacularly exposed in the cliffs and waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge. The modern gorge roughly follows the northern margin of the broad Miocene valley. Grande Ronde flows clearly abut the northern paleovalley wall formed by early Miocene volcaniclastic rocks of the 19 Ma Eagle Creek Formation. ...

The slight southward dip of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) section and the underlying Eagle Creek Formation gives the western gorge an asymmetric physiographic cross section. In Washington, failure of weakly lithified Eagle Creek strata that dip toward the river under the load of superincumbent basalt has produced huge landslide complexes composed largely of CRBG debris. In Oregon, where strata dip away from the river, undercutting of the Eagle Creek Formation instead creates towering cliffs. As a result, the CRBG section south of the river consists of continuous cliffs, whereas to the north the CRBG forms scattered peaks (Greenleaf Peak, Table Mountain, Hamilton Mountain, and Archer Mountain) separated by low-lying terrain underlain by the Eagle Creek Formation or landslide debris. Each of these peaks is actually the southern end of a N-S ridge of CRBG, marking sites where basalt flows backfilled south-flowing tributaries of ancestral Columbia River."


Source:    Wells, R.E., Niem, A.R., Evarts, R.C., and Hagstrum, J.T., 2010, "The Columbia River Basalt Group -- From the gorge to the sea", IN: Geologic Society of America Field Guild 15, 2009.



Fort Cascades Historic Site ...
Fort Cascades Historic Site is located on Hamilton Island, and is reached from the Dam Access Road off of Washington State Highway 14. The site is on the Register of Historic Places, and features a 1.5 mile interpretive trail which leads to the Cascades Townsite and Fort Cascades Compound. The trail follows the bed of the portage railroad as it was in 1836.
[More]

Image, 2004, Fort Cascades kiosk, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Kiosk for Fort Cascades Historic Site, Hamilton Island, Washington. Image taken August 1, 2004.
Image, 2014, Hamilton Island, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		"Cascades Townsite", Hamilton Island, Washington. Image taken April 7, 2014.
Image, 2005, Fort Cascades, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Location of Fort Cascades, Hamilton Island, Washington. Image taken April 2, 2005.


Salmon Fishing ...
(to come)

Image, 2014, Hamilton Island, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Salmon Fishing, Hamilton Island, Washington. Image taken April 7, 2014.
Image, 2014, Hamilton Island, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Salmon Fishing, Hamilton Island, Washington. Image taken April 7, 2014.
Image, 2014, Hamilton Island, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Salmon Fishing, Hamilton Island, Washington. Image taken April 7, 2014.
Image, 2014, Hamilton Island, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Salmon Fishing, Hamilton Island, Washington. Image taken April 7, 2014.


Strawberry Island (Strandberg Island) ...
"Strawberry Island" is a local name used for Hamilton Island, in use today (2019). In 1805 Lewis and Clark referred to the island by the name "Strawberry Island".

The 1908 obituary of Mrs. Mary J. Hamilton, printed in the "Sunday Oregonian" (May 17, 1908) erroneously called the island "Strandberg Island".

"In 1950 with their children, Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton started on the long journey to Oregon, with a little band of friends and neighbors. They reached this state in October, 1850, and settled on a donation claim on what was named by Lewis and Clark, Strandberg Island." ["Sunday Oregonian", May 8, 1908, courtesy Historic Oregon Newspapers Archives, University of Oregon Libraries.]


Views from Hamilton Island ...
Hamilton Island provides good views of Hamilton Island, Bradford Island, and Bonneville Dam. Along the Oregon shore can be seen Munra Point, Moffett Creek, and the mouth of Tanner Creek. Downstream is Ives Island and Beacon Rock.

Image, 2004, Hamilton Mountain, from Hamilton Island, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Hamilton Mountain, Washington, as seen from Hamilton Island. Image taken October 27, 2004.
Image, 2004, Bradford Island, from Hamilton Island, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Bradford Island, downstream tip, as seen from Hamilton Island. Image taken August 1, 2004.
Image, 2013, Bonneville Dam, from Hamilton Island, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Bonneville Dam, as seen from Hamilton Island. Image taken February 19, 2013.
Image, 2006, Bonneville Dam Spillway, Oregon side, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Spillway, Oregon side, Bonneville Dam. View from Hamilton Island, Washington. Image taken April 22, 2006.
Image, 2004, Munra Point, from Hamilton Island, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Munra Point, Oregon, as seen from Hamilton Island. Image taken August 1, 2004.
Image, 2006, Spring colors, Munra Point, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Spring, Munra Point, Oregon. View from Hamilton Island, Washington. Image taken April 22, 2006.
Image, 2004, Moffett Creek drainage, from Hamilton Island, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Moffett Creek drainage, Oregon, as seen from Hamilton Island. Image taken August 1, 2004.
Image, 2005, Tanner Creek drainage, Oregon, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Tanner Creek, Oregon, from Hamilton Island, Washington. Image taken April 2, 2005.
Image, 2005, Beacon Rock from Hamilton Island, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Beacon Rock from Hamilton Island. Ives Island is just barely visible on the left. Image taken April 2, 2005.
Image, 2006, Ives Island from Hamilton Island, Washington, click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Ives Island from Hamilton Island, Washington. Image taken July 2, 2006.


From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...

Clark, October 31, 1805 ...




Clark, November 2, 1805 ...



Columbia River GorgeReturn to
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*River Miles [RM] are approximate, in statute miles, and were determined from USGS topo maps, obtained from NOAA nautical charts, or obtained from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers website, 2003

Sources:
  • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website, 2006;
  • Hill, R., 1999, "A New Look at an Old Landslide", IN: The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, September 29, 1999, and presented on the U.S. Geological Survey Landslides Hazards website, 2004;
  • Historic Oregon Newspapers Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, 2019;
  • Hitchman, R., 1985, "Place Names of Washington", Washington State Historical Society;
  • U.S. Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office (GLO) Records database, 2006;
  • U.S. Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database, 2019;
  • Wells, R.E., Niem, A.R., Evarts, R.C., and Hagstrum, J.T., 2010, "The Columbia River Basalt Group -- From the gorge to the sea", IN: Geologic Society of America Field Guild 15, 2009;


All Lewis and Clark quotations from Gary Moulton editions of the Lewis and Clark Journals, University of Nebraska Press, all attempts have been made to type the quotations exactly as in the Moulton editions, however typing errors introduced by this web author cannot be ruled out; location interpretation from variety of sources, including this website author.
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July 2017