Click image to enlarge
|
Horsethief Butte and Horsethief Lake.
View from Columbia Hills State Park (Horsethief Lake State Park).
Image taken September 28, 2011.
|
Horsethief Butte ...
|
Horsethief Lake, Horsethief Butte, and Columbia Hills State Park (formerly Horsethief Lake State Park) are located on the Columbia River at River Mile (RM) 194, two miles upstream of Spearfish Lake and three miles upstream of
The Dalles Dam. The waters of Horsethief Lake are the result of flooding of the area from the rising Lake Celilo, the reservoir behind the dam. Upstream of the Horsethief area is Avery Park and Wishram, Washington. In the middle of the Columbia, just upstream of Horsethief Butte, is Browns Island, once a large outcrop which Captain Clark walked upon to observe the rapids of the "Short Narrows".
|
Columbia River Basalts and the Missoula Floods ...
|
The great floods of the last ice age carved the basalts of Horsethief Butte and the surrounding Columbia River channel, creating the features we see today. The basalts themselves were created thousands of years earlier when a series of lava flows emerged from cracks in the earth's crust and blanketed the entire eastern Washington and northern Oregon region. Horsethief Butte is made up of a series of lava flows, visible in the cliffs.
|
Click image to enlarge
|
Horsethief Butte, Washington, as seen from Washington State Highway 14.
Image taken November 11, 2004.
|
Early Horsethief Lake ...
|
Horsethief Lake was created by flooding by the waters of Lake Celilo, the reservoir behind the The Dalles Dam. Early names for the area were"Caldwash Bottom", "Colowelsh Bottom", and "Colowesh Bottom". In 1959 the U.S. Board of Geographic Names made the name "Horsethief Lake" official.
|
Real Horse Thiefs ??? ...
"Oral history states that the park received its former name --
Horsethief Lake State Park -- from workers in the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers who developed the site. The workers thought the
terrain was similar to that of horsethief hideouts in popular 1950s
Hollywood westerns. The abundance of horses kept on the
premises by local Indians apparently gave the workers their
inspiration."
Source:
Washington State Parks website, 2006, Columbia Hills State Park.
|
|
Click image to enlarge
|
Horsethief Butte, Washington.
View from the south.
Image taken September 28, 2011.
|
Lewis and Clark and Horsethief Butte ...
|
Lewis and Clark's campsite of October 24, 1805 was in the Horsethief Butte area, at the head of the Fivemile Rapids ("Long Narrows"). On their return in April 1806 the men camped very near their 1805 camp, above the Long Narrows near the vicinity of today's Columbia Hills State Park.
|
Campsite of October 24, 1805 ...
|
Lewis and Clark's campsite of October 24, 1805 was below Celilo Falls and the "Short Narrows" (Tenmile Rapids). The men had passed the rapids at Browns Island and set up camp at the head of the "Long Narrows" (Fivemile Rapids) in the Horsethief Butte/Horsethief Lake area.
-
"...
proceeded down with the Canoes two at a time to a village of 20 wood housies in a Deep bend to the Stard. Side below which a rugid black rock about 20 feet hiter than the Common high fluds of the river with Several dry Chanels which appeared to Choke the river up quite across; this I took to be the 2d falls or the place the nativs above call timm, ...
I dispatched a Sufficent number of the good Swimers back for the 2 canoes above the last rapid and with 2 men walked down three miles to examine the river Over a bed of rocks, which the water at verry high fluds passes over
...
The evening being late I could not examine the river to my Satisfaction, the Chanel is narrow and compressed for about 2 miles, when it widens into a deep bason to the Stard. Side, & again contracts into a narrow chanel divided by a rock
I returned through a rockey open country infested with pole-cats to the village where I met with Capt. Lewis the two old Chiefs who accompanied us & the party & canoes who had all arrived Safe; the Canoes haveing taken in Some water at the last rapids. here we formed a Camp near the Village, ..."
[Clark, October 24, 1805]
-
"We had a fine morning and proceeded on early, found the water very rapid below the falls; and having gone 4 miles below the narrows, came to other narrows still more confined and the rocks higher. At the head of these narrows we halted about 2 o'clock at a great Indian village, and remained there all night."
[Gass, October 24, 1805]
Lewis and Clark's previous campsite was near Wishram, Washington, and their campsite of October 25, 1805, was across the river at Rock Fort.
|
Campsite of April 19-20, 1806 ...
|
Lewis and Clark's camp of April 19 and 20, 1806 was above the Long Narrows in the vicinity of today's Horsethief Lake State Park, and near their camp of October 24, 1805.
-
"... We deturmined to make the portage to the head of the long narrows with our baggage and 5 Small Canoes, the 2 large Canoes we Could take no further and therefore Cut them up for fuel. we had our Small Canoes drawn up very early and employed all hands in transporting our baggage on their backs and by means of 4 pack horses, over the portage. This labour we had accomplished by 3 P. M. and established our Camp a little above the present Skillute village which has been removed as before observed a fiew hundred yards lower down the river than when we passed it last fall. ..."
[Clark, April 19, 1806]
-
"... This morning early we had our small canoes drawn out, and employed all hands in transporting our baggage on their backs and by means of the four pack horses, over the portage. This labour we had accomplished by 3 P. M. and established our camp a little above the present Skil-lute village which has been removed a few hundred yards lower down the river than when we passed them last fall ..."
[Lewis, April 19, 1806]
-
"...a clear cold morning a little Snow fell on the hills last night. all hands went at packing the baggage past the portage which is about 2 miles towards evening we got all the baggag and canoes carried to the head of the narrows above the village & Camped carried our firewood past the portage also as it is so hard about the village that the Savages value it high. Capt. Clark bought 3 or 4 more horses this day. Capt. Clark and 3 men Set out this evening to go up to the Short narrows at a village in order to purchase horses untill our arival. ..."
[Ordway, April 19, 1806]
Lewis and Clark's previous campsite was near the Big Eddy, today's Spearfish Lake area. Their campsite of April 21, 1806 was two miles upstream of Wishram, Washington, at the base of Haystack Butte.
|
National Register of Historic Places ...
|
For centuries, the area around Horsethief Butte was the site of a Native American village, now flooded by the waters of The Dalles Dam.
In 1972 the "Wishram Indian Village Site", otherwise known as Horsethief Lake State Park, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The site (District #72001278) covers the Native Indian period 1000 to 1499 A.D.
|
Petroglyphs and Pictographs ...
In 1957 when The Dalles Dam was completed and the waters of Lake Celilo were rising, the U.S. Government removed a few ancient Indian petroglyphs from the walls of a canyon downstream of Celilo. This canyon carried the Indian name of "Tamani Pesh-Wa" or "Written on the Rock". Locals called it "Petroglyph Canyon". In 2003 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cleaned and restored the petroglyphs and moved them to the then-called Horsethief Lake State Park, now called Columbia Hills State Park. Today the collection of over 40 Petroglyphs and Pictographs is bordered by a paved trail for easy public viewing, and is less than a mile from the flooded Petroglyph Canyon. More petroglyphs and pictographs, including "Tsagaglalal" ("She Who Watches") can be seen nearby when guided walks are being led. The carvings and paintings are sacred to the local Native Americans but also open to the public "for the benefit of all people as a tribute to all living and non-living things".
[More]
|
Click image to enlarge
|
Petroglyphs, Horsethief Lake Park (Columbia Hills State Park), Washington.
Image taken September 28, 2011.
|
Click image to enlarge
|
"River Spirit" Petroglyph, Horsethief Lake Park (Columbia Hills State Park), Washington.
Image taken June 4, 2005.
|
Click image to enlarge
|
"She Who Watches", Petroglyph, Horsethief Lake Park (Columbia Hills State Park), Washington.
Image taken October 15, 2011.
|
- Basalts near Horsethief Butte ...
- Columbia Hills State Park ...
- Creatures of the Wild ...
- Stone House ...
- Wakemap Mound ...
- Views of Mount Hood ...
|
Basalts near Horsethief Butte ...
Click image to enlarge
|
Washington State Highway 14 at Horsethief Butte, Washington.
View from Columbia Hills State Park (Horsethief Lake State Park).
Image taken September 28, 2011
|
Click image to enlarge
|
Basalts at Horsethief Butte, Washington.
View from Columbia Hills State Park (Horsethief Lake State Park) looking across Horsethief Lake.
Image taken September 28, 2011
|
Click image to enlarge
|
Basalts near Horsethief Butte, Washington.
View from moving car, basalts across the road from Columbia Hills State Park (Horsethief Lake State Park).
Image taken September 28, 2011
|
Columbia Hills State Park ...
(Horsethief Lake State Park) ...
|
In 2003, Horsethief Lake State Park merged with Dalles Mountain Ranch and became Columbia Hills State Park, a 3,338-acre camping park with 7,500 feet of freshwater shoreline on the
Columbia River. Horsethief Butte dominates the skyline.
Below Horsethief Butte is the 90-acre, 0.6-mile across, Horsethief Lake. Horsethief Lake is impounded by the waters of
Lake Celilo, the reservoir behind the
The Dalles Dam.
Some of the oldest Native American petroglyphs and pictographs in the Northwest are found within Columbia Hills State Park.
|
Click image to enlarge
|
Horsethief Lake State Park, Washington.
View from Washington State Highway 14 Overlook.
Image taken May 24, 2005.
|
Click image to enlarge
|
Horsethief Butte and Horsethief Lake, Washington.
Image taken June 4, 2005.
|
Click image to enlarge
|
Trees, Horsethief Lake State Park, Washington.
Image taken June 4, 2005.
|
Creatures of the Wild ...
Scattered throughout Horsethief Lake State Park (now Columbia Hills State Park) are large wooden painted black cutouts of wild creatures. From information provided by the Columbia Hills State Park --- there are SEVEN cutout creatures ... 1) "Connie the Cougar" ... 2) "Oscar the Owl" ... 3) "Sam and Sally Squirrel" ... 4) "Ricky the Raccoon" ... 5) "Mr. & Mrs. Spruce Goose" ... 6) "Paula the Possum" ... and 7) "Wally the Bear".
The cutouts are part of the park's "Junior Ranger" program.
[More]
|
Click image to enlarge
|
"Wally the Bear", Horsethief Lake State Park (Columbia Hills State Park).
Image taken September 28, 2011.
|
Click image to enlarge
|
"Connie the Cougar", Horsethief Lake State Park (Columbia Hills State Park).
Image taken September 28, 2011.
|
Stone House near Horsethief Butte ...
|
The 12x16-foot stone house located on the basalts across from Horsethief Butte was built about 1925 by Lawrence McNary, a railroad attorney, who grew up in the area. Lawrence McNary, cousin to U.S. Senator Charles McNary who was instrumental in building of the McNary Dam and the Umatilla Bridge, purchased 40 acres from the Native Americans who owned the property. McNary hired the Italian stone mason Joe Studenecker. McNary would take the train out from Portland, spending many relaxing weekends at the stone house.
|
Click image to enlarge
|
Stone House near Horsethief Butte, Washington.
View from Washington State Highway 14.
Image taken September 28, 2011.
|
Click image to enlarge
|
Stone House near Horsethief Butte, Washington.
View from Washington State Highway 14.
Image taken September 28, 2011.
|
Wakemap Mound ...
|
"The first white men to see Wakemap Mound and all the country around the Long Narrows of the Columbia were the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition. On October 24, 1805, Lt. Clark recorded in his journal:
(not posted here, see below)
The Mound was Wakemap, and the village was Wishram .... The "Rugid black rock" was the basalt outcrop at the head of the Long Narrows. The native name of the village was Nixluidix; the name Wishram is an anglicized form of the name Wu'cxam, by which the tribe was known to the Klickitat and Yakima Indians. The word Wakemap is also an anglicized word, from Wuq'emap, which means ogress or old woman, and rhymes with "Wok-em-up".
After Lewis and Clark there were a agreat many references to the Long Narrows and the natives encamped there, but none about the strange mound, so foreign in nature to the Columbia. ..."
Wakemap Mound covered an area 350 feet long and 270 feet wide, and up to 20 feet deep. Mounds of this nature are practically unknown on the Columbia River. On the opposite or Oregon shore there was a midden of the same structure and artifact content, 11 feet deep, but it like all other middens did not stand out as a mound; wind blown sand had built up the nearby ground at about the same rate.
The Mound probably got its start as a campsite of simple brush or mat lodges sheltered by a rock outcrop. As the refuse accumulated and became unbearable to the inhabitants, soil may have been carried in to cover it; as the deposit deepened pit houses were probably constructed. The soil used for the roofs would have further deepened the midden as the houses grew old and collapsed, or were destroyed by the ever-present menace of fire. Occasionally floods left layers of silt, and wind blown sand assisted in the accumulation. ...
Near the top of the deposit the artifacts increased in variety, and the sudden appearance of massive stone objects indicated outside influence. ....
The age of Wakemap is still a controversial subject. Dates obtained by the carbon-14 method show an age of only about 1000 years, a figure not generally accepted because of controversial evidence. ... Geological evidence predicted a date of about 2000 years. The art producing culture has been estimated to have originated about 1200 to 1500 years ago, and specimens of both massive stone and delicate bone carvings were found deep in the deposit. ... if the 1200-1500 year date of the art is accepted, the Mound cannot be much older than about 2000 years, and also must be at least that old. ..."
Source:
Emory Stong, (editor), 1959, "Wakemap Mound and Nearby Sites on the Long Narrows of the Columbia River": Oregon Archaeological Society Publication No.1, Portland, Oregon.
|
|
Views of Mount Hood ...
|
A fantastic view of Mount Hood, Oregon can be seen from the Washington State Highway 14 Overlook of Horsethief Butte and Horsethief Lake. Other views of Mount Hood and Horsethief Butte can be seen from turnouts on Washington State Highway 14, upstream of the park.
|
Click image to enlarge
|
Mount Hood, Oregon, from Horsethief Butte Overlook, Washington.
View from Washington State Highway 14, at overlook of Horsethief Lake and Horsethief Butte.
Image taken May 24, 2005.
|
Click image to enlarge
|
Columbia River looking west, with Mount Hood, Oregon, and Horsethief Butte, Washington.
Downstream view of the Columbia River as seen from Washington State Highway-14, upstream of Horsethief Butte.
Image taken April 24, 2004.
|
|
From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
|
Clark, October 24, 1805 ...
Clark, April 19, 1806 ...
|
|
Return to