The Lewis River Hydroelectric Projects - PacifiCorp

Merwin Park—Local Welcome Sign
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Merwin Park
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Merwin Park
Welcome to Merwin Park. This facility is owned and operated by the
power company PacifiCorp, which provides public recreation
opportunities along the reservoirs of the Lewis River.
Merwin Dam is a concrete-arch dam that helps to form Lake Merwin,
which stretches some 14.5 miles eastward through the scenic Lewis River
Valley. Merwin Park features swimming access, picnic sites, and restroom
facilities.
Sidebar:
They call themselves the “Water Babies”—people who were born in the
valley of the Lewis River before the dams were built, whose childhood
homes now lie deep beneath reservoir waters. They are the descendants
of the Lewis River Valley’s first homesteaders.
Pioneers began homesteading along the North Fork of the Lewis in the
early 1860s, claiming land through pre-emption (for unsurveyed public
land) or under the Homestead Act of 1862 (for surveyed public land). But
the big timber and rugged slopes of the North Fork made settlement
extremely difficult. Early logging in the 1880s and 1890s cleared some
lands, encouraging more settlement. By the late 1920s, when Ariel (now
Merwin) dam construction began, there were many small farms in the
valley, between today’s Merwin Dam and Swift Creek.
Although homestead life could be difficult, most “water babies” look
back on their farm days as some of the best of their lives. Families lived in
modest houses and farmed small plots, growing vegetables, fruits, hay,
and sometimes grain. Most families had chickens and a cow or two for
milk and meat; some raised pigs or sheep. They preserved and stored
meat, fruit and vegetables for winter use, sometimes selling the excess to
markets in Woodland. Some families grew cash crops of potatoes, corn,
strawberries, and raspberries.
Many homesteaders fished in the Lewis River during the summer, and
canned their catch for the winter. Most hunted deer for food, and picked
wild fruits such as huckleberries for jams or pies. Children earned money
for school clothes and treats by collecting and selling cascara bark.
Caption: Margaret Colf Hepola, who grew up on a homestead established by her
great-grandparents in 1870 just one mile above present-day Merwin Dam, recalls
the valley as it once was: “Always, as I look at this beautiful, peaceful scene
around Merwin Reservoir, I see so many other things of my past. I see another
valley with old-growth trees, a great variety of wildlife, rich farm land,
abandoned pioneer orchards with an abundance of fruit, weatherworn homes,
Appendix 1: panel profiles Lewis River Draft I&E Plan page 9