The Lewis River Hydroelectric Projects - PacifiCorp

Lewis River Interpretive & Education Plan
The harvest of wild foods and materials was also important to the homesteaders.
Many fished in the Lewis River during the summer, and canned their catch
for the winter. Coho and Chinook salmon, as well as smelt, were important
subsistence fisheries. Most hunted deer for food, some trapped and sold furs.
Wild huckleberries were popular for jams or pies. Some families made extra
money cutting shake bolts or gathering medicinal plants.
What homesteaders couldn’t grow, they had to buy. Flour, sugar, and cloth
are examples. Some children bought their own school clothes, making money
by picking strawberries (they were paid 1/4 cent per pound in the 1920s),
collecting, drying and selling cascara bark (to pharmaceutical companies
who packaged it as a laxative), or even picking and selling fungi (also to
pharmaceutical companies).
Transportation
The earliest travel along the Lewis River was by foot, along the Klickitat
Trail and subsequent local routes. The heavy timber made overland travel
extremely difficult. As Euroamerican settlers—with their high demand for
transportation—moved in, the river became increasingly important as a travel
route.
Below present-day Merwin Dam lies “Shirt-Tail Canyon”—a narrow stretch
of river named because as boaters descended it, “their shirt-tails were flying.”
This natural feature formed a kind of gateway to the upper reaches of the
Lewis River. Although a number of sternwheelers plied the waters below Shirt-
Tail Canyon, only two ran above, to connect the Lewis River settlers with
Woodland and Portland. These vessels were the Etna and the Speilei (sometimes
spelled “Speillei”). Both vessels traveled as far upriver as Speelyai Creek, and
occasionally higher. Low water presented challenges; at times the captain of the
Etna would have to work his vessel through shallow riffles by tying off to trees
on the bank. Both the boats served primarily the logging industry, carrying
supplies, rails, and equipment, but both also carried passengers and local freight.
The Etna, which served from 1906 to 1919, was owned by Lurlie Gray. It was 60
feet long with a large cabin, and had a capacity of 13 tons. The Speilei, which
began service in 1907 and continued to 1940, was a scow-type sternwheeler,
flat and broad with a sloping bow, built specifically for the logging industry.
Both the Etna and the Speilei burned cordwood for fuel. It could take several
cords of wood—at a cost of $2-3 per cord—to make the round trip from the
Lewis to Portland. This wood demand made for a handy source of income for
enterprising settlers along the river. In 1912, the Speillei was rebuilt, and an oil
engine was installed.
The first wagon road into the valley led from the site of the present-day fish
hatchery below Ariel Dam away from the river around Shirt-Tail Canyon,
Sea Reach Ltd • 146 NE yamhill Street • Sheridan, OR draft 3 • November 2008 • page 62