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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1889)
THE WEST SHORE. 3:13 HOOD RIVER VALLEY. IN its broad extent Oregon presents many diverse characteristics of soil, climate and topography. Valleys in some portions of the state differ in a very marked degree from others, and these differences are the result of local conditions, chiefly topographical, so that distance is bat a small factor in the problem. One of the most marked instances is that of Hood river valley, lying but a few miles east of the great valley of the Willamette, from which it differs in many essential particulars. Hood river has its source among the melting snows and glacial streams of the great Mount Hood, from whose spreading base it flows northward in an impetuous torrent, carrying a large volume of water and pouring it into the Columbia twenty-five miles distant from the mountain. In this distance its av erage fall is fifty feet to the mile, thus offering splen did water power along its entire oourse. Bordering on this beautiful stream lies one of the loveliest val leys the eye of man ever rested upon, separated by a range of hills from the high and open plateau of Eastern Oregon, and from the Willamette valley by the timbered summits of the Cascades. Its climate is peculiar to itself, and is a delightful mean between the humidity of the Willamette valley and the aridity of the great eastern plateau. As the moisture-ladon clouds sweep over the region west of the mountains the greater portion of their burden is precipitated in the form of rain in the valley and snow on the higher mountain summits, so that the quantity of moisture retained by the time they reaoh the valley of Hood river is comparatively small. This gives to that love ly mountain valley all the rain necessary to preserve its beauty and promote the growth of luxuriant vege tation, without subjecting it to that oontinual drench ing or overshadowing it with those threatening rain clouds which is the lot of the region west of the mountains during the winter season. On the other hand, as the Cascades protect it from the excessive rains from the west, the enclosing hills on the east shelter it from the warm, dry winds of summer, and the cold winds of winter, which sweep across the great inland plateau. Bholtered in winter from Ko rean blasts, and cooled in summer by the mountain breezes, the cliaate is most delightful and invigorat ing. There are but a few days in the year when the thermometer indicates a temperature as high as nine ty degrees or as low as tero. Winter is short. bo.ng cut off at both ends by the encroachments of fall and spring. Snow falls in the valley in mid-winter, often to a considerable depth, but there are no strong winds to pile it up into drifts, and the warm breaih of the Chinook, that mild tisitor from the sea, soon carries it away. Thus the soil receives all the fertilising benefits of the snow, while the people are exempt from the more disagreeable features of a snowy re gion. It will naturally bo judged from what has been said that the valley possesses a fertile soil, respons ive to the wooings of the husbandman, The soil is chiefly volcanic, a memento of the time in ages past when the great mountain monarch was throbbing with the energy of internal fires. Though not as uni versally adapted to grain culture as the lands of the Willamette valley, careful farming produces excellent crops. Vegetables, also, yield well, both in quantity and quality. It is, however, to the production of su perior fruit that this volcanio soil seems Wit adapt ed. The apples and peaches of Hood rivor have a reputation of their own, even in this land where in ferior fruit is unknown. The exoellonoe of the val ley in this respect is becoming so well known, that many thousands of fruit trees are being sot out, and in a few years the quantity of fruit seeking maiket from the banks of Hood rivor will bo enormous. The market for this in the adjacent fruitless region is large, while the same facilities for shipment east in carload lots exist here as elsewhere in the state. Hood river figures prominently as a touriits' re sort It is the place where most of the travel to that grand old monarch of the Cascades, Mount Howl, leaves the railroad or the river for the mountain ex cursion. A regular route is established and there is hunting and fishing to suit the most fastidious sports man. There is nothing oommonplaoe alwut an ex cursion up the doep gorges and canyons of the moun tains, olambering over the icy fields and broken gla ciers, and exploring the dark crevasse that yawn for the unwary adventurer. Those scientifically Inclined find features of absorbing intorest on every hand. Hood river being so aooessibls by both boat and rail from all quarters, and in the heart of a suction of inch unusual beauty and grandeur, is a moat attract ive plaoe for the pleasure sooker or explorer. It is also growing to be a popular health reaorl The valley of Hood river baa a population of twelve hundred. The town of Hood River is sitaatM near the mouth of the stresm on the Oregon Railway k Navigation Cos main line. It has been built up entirely since the railway was constructed, and now has between two and three hundred people. It is from this station that the wagon road loads to Mount Hood. It has quite a number of mercantile esUb. liihmenU and a healthy trade with the farmers and itockmen in that vicinity. Both the town and valley are characterized by the intelligence and morality of lbs people. There is a strong temperauoe sentiment among them, and no aaloon is allowed to exist In the
