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4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL AUGUST 2, 2017 O PINION Offbeat Oregon History: Multnomah Falls By Finn JD John For The Sentinel William C. Griswold surely thought he had a fortune in tim- ber on his hands. Griswold had homesteaded a heavily timbered 142-acre plot of land high on a bluff over- looking the Columbia river. And, even better, there was a large creek running through the property, for powering fl umes to take the logs to the river below — where they could be easily and cheaply fl oated downstream for sale to one of the many saw- mills there. There was a problem with his plan, though. He quickly found out that the most power- ful people in Portland were dead set against his plan, and were pulling every string they could reach to stop him. The reason? Scenic beauty. Specifi cally, the creek that ran through Griswold’s property was the creek that runs over Multnomah Falls — at 620 feet, the tallest waterfall in Oregon, and already widely known as the “jewel of the Gorge.” In Oregon at the turn of the 20th century, scenic beauty was not usually a highly prized com- modity. But Multnomah Falls was an exception. This was partly because of its unusual character; but the main reason was because it was making some very powerful people a whole lot of money. As the city of Portland had grown larger and more squal- id over the years, the residents there had started looking for nearby places to get away and drink in the scenic beauty of na- ture. One of their favorite Sun- day afternoon pastimes was to board a steamboat or excursion train and travel east on the Co- lumbia River Gorge, drinking in the scenery and maybe stopping for a picnic lunch or a short na- ture walk along the way. And the highlight of that short excur- sion was Multnomah Falls. This had been going on since the late 1870s. By the early 1880s was a steamboat dock in the river, and a stopping spot for outbound excursion trains. A well-developed trail led from those points up to the falls, crossing a wooden bridge be- tween the upper and lower falls along the way. Would those upper-mid- dle-class Portlanders don their Sunday best and board an ex- cursion train for a trip to picnic in a stump-strewn fi eld by an al- most-empty streambed, noshing on their lunches to the rumbling sound of logs passing over their heads on leaky, rickety fl umes? The Oregon-Washington Railway and Navigation Com- pany and the Union Pacifi c rather thought that they would not. And so these most powerful of Portland industrialists were dead set against Griswold’s plan. Finally, Griswold and his in- vestors ran out of money and had to give up on the scheme. Griswold moved back east and gave the land to his daughter, Jennie Griswold, an artist from Washington, D.C. She, quite sensibly, gave up on the tim- ber-harvest fantasy and started charging the visitors 10 cents each (a lot of money in those days) to visit and picnic there. Then, in 1904, a Colorado mining lawyer named Lafayette “Lafe” Pence moved to Portland and, before anyone knew what he was about, claimed the water rights to every creek in the west hills of Portland — including, famously and very briefl y, Bull Run, the city’s water supply. Pence’s plan was to use the water to wash and blast the northwest hills down to fi ll in Guild’s Lake, a scheme that ended in dismal failure just a few years later; but it gave Portland land developers a real education in water-rights law. It turned out you didn’t have to own a piece of property to claim water rights on it, or even get permission from the person who did; you just had to fi le. So, the very next year, a Port- land developer named George Wetherby did just that: claimed the water rights in Griswold’s land. Then, having thus gotten his foot in the door, he negoti- ated a lease from Griswold in early 1906. He claimed he was planning to install a water-pow- ered sawmill at the foot of the waterfall. It isn’t clear just what Weth- erby was trying to do here. Oregonian writer Joseph Rose takes his assertion at face value, calling him a “ruthless indus- trialist”; but this claim is hard to buy. Although most times of year Multnomah Creek pro- vides enough water power for a modest sawmill, its location is extremely inconvenient for any timber not harvested directly up the hill from it. It is remotely possible that Wetherby planned to use the falls to generate elec- tricity, which would then power a sawmill on the Columbia; but that seems a tremendous ex- pense to undertake to do what a moderate-sized boiler and steam engine could easily and cheaply do, partly powered by the sawmill’s own trimmings and waste; moreover, a steam engine could be made as large as necessary, whereas there was only so much power available from the creek. Indeed, with a few massive exceptions like the mills at Willamette Falls in Or- egon City, water-powered mills were very rare by this time. Possibly this was the story Wetherby had to tell Griswold to get the lease approved, that with the sawmill in place it would fi nally be possible to harvest her father’s timber. Possibly the sawmill was his cover story for having claimed the water rights (under the law, the proposed use had to be “benefi cial”). Or perhaps he was trying to use the sawmill as leverage to get the railroad to buy the place for an infl ated price. If that’s the case, it didn’t work out quite like he planned. In- stead of buying him out, the railroad pulled some strings and the state Legislature promptly passed a law forbidding the di- version of Multnomah Creek for any reason. That was the end of the sawmill idea — and, most likely, Wetherby’s water right as well, since he no longer had a “benefi cial” use for it. But Wetherby was still leas- ing the property in 1913, when the Columbia Gorge Highway was platted. At that time, with the encouragement and spon- sorship of Simon Benson, the City of Portland opened negoti- ations to buy the property. Wetherby, of course, prompt- ly exercised his option to buy the place, anticipating marking it up sharply before selling it to the city for a tidy windfall profi t. Or, rather, he tried to do this. Griswold, no doubt excited by all the interest and hoping to make a much larger profi t than she could have made by deliv- ering on her deal with Weth- erby, refused to comply, and a brief court battle ensued, which Wetherby lost. Just like that, he was out. Griswold now claimed the place was worth $50,000. Ben- son thought $2,500 was more like it. And there things stood until suddenly someone fi gured out that the City of Portland could actually condemn the property under Eminent Do- main. With that threat in the air, Griswold settled for $5,250 and the city offi cially acquired the falls. (A persistent version of the story claims Benson bought it from Griswold and then do- nated it to the city, but he did not; he just acted as a broker in the deal.) I haven’t been able to learn what Wetherby’s lease-option price was. It would be deli- ciously ironic if it were more than $5,250. After that, Multnomah Falls as a public park was all but in the bag. The railroad donated the land at the foot of the falls, with the stipulation that a lodge be built there costing no less than $12,500. This was done (the enthusiastic city actually spent $40,000 on it). The wood- en footbridge having long since decayed and fallen away, it was replaced with the bridge that’s there now — one of the fi rst continuous-pour bridges ever built, and named after Simon Benson. And in early 1915, in- spired by a speech from legend- ary highway engineer Samuel Lancaster, the Progressive Busi- ness Men’s Club of Portland took on as a fund-raising project the construction of what would become Larch Mountain Trail, the fi rst 1.1 miles of which are the trail to the top of the falls. The City of Portland owned the park until 1939, when it was transferred to the U.S. Forest Service (Benson Park was trans- ferred to the state of Oregon). And so it has been ever since. Dr. Fuhrman: For young, healthy looking skin look to your diet The skin is the largest or- gan of the human body and a barrier that protects us from microbial pathogens and other damaging elements. The health of our skin is a re- fl ection of our overall health, and the skin’s resilience to sun exposure and outward appearance can be enhanced with high-nutrient foods. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the U.S., affecting one out of every fi ve Americans.1 Ultraviolet radiation from the sun promotes skin aging and cancer via oxidative stress, infl amma- tion, and damage to DNA. Ultraviolet (UV) expo- sure also leads to alteration of the skin’s structural proteins, causing sagging and wrinkling. Taking proactive measures such as using a safe mineral sunscreen and limiting mid-day sun exposure are crucial to protecting your skin from the sun’s UV rays. Phytochemicals from natural foods can pro- vide an extra source of protection, by enhancing the body’s natural defenses to help prevent sun damage and slow the aging of the skin. Carotenoids are one class of phytochemicals that offer photoprotection. After we consume ca- rotenoid-rich foods, carotenoids accumulate in the skin, where they oppose UV-induced oxidative stress. Individual carotenoids, mixed carotenoids, and carotenoid-rich whole foods have been shown to have photo-protective qualities that prevent or repair DNA damage to the skin caused by the sun.2,3 For exam- ple, lycopene, found in tomatoes and pink fruits such as watermel- on, grapefruit, and papaya, helps to protect the skin from sun dam- age.4 Similar results have been found for lutein and zeaxanthin, found in leafy greens, and be- ta-carotene, found in yellow and orange vegetables.2,5 In addition to carotenoids, an- other class of antioxidant nutri- ents—polyphenols—may have Administration photoprotective actions. There James Rand, Regional Publisher are hundreds of polyphenols, and Gary Manly, General Manager ................................................. Ext. 207 they are present in most whole gmanly@cgsentinel.com plant foods.6 Polyphenols from Aaron Ames, Marketing Specialist ........................................... Ext. 216 cocoa and green tea, for example, aames@cgsentinel.com have been shown to counteract Tammy Sayre, Marketing Specialist ......................................... Ext. 213 UV-induced skin damage in hu- tsayre@cgsentinel.com man studies.7,8 C ottage G rove S entinel (541) 942-3325 Wrinkles and other signs of skin aging are re- lated to chronological age but also strongly infl u- enced by UV rays. It is estimated that 80 percent of the visible aging in the face is due to sun ex- posure.9 The phytochemical-rich foods that offer sun protection also offer some protection against wrinkles. In one study of older adults, higher in- takes of vegetables and legumes and lower intake of dairy and sugar were associated with less vis- ible sun damage.10 Another study assessed skin aging in middle-aged American women, and found that higher dietary vitamin C intake was associated with fewer wrinkles.11 In a study of Japanese women that related dietary variables to “crow’s feet” wrinkling, higher intake of green and yellow vegetables was associated with few- er wrinkles.12 In studies on green tea and cocoa polyphenols, in addition to UV protection, these interventions improved appearance factors such as elasticity, hydration, and softness.7,8 Structural proteins in the connective tissue of the skin are also affected by diet. There is evi- dence that beta-carotene reduces the levels of one such protein that promotes skin wrinkling.13 Also, tomato paste supplementation was found to reduce the activity of an enzyme known to de- grade structural proteins in the skin, presumably slowing skin aging.4 In spite of the well-known damaging effects of the sun on our skin, many of us still perceive a suntan as healthy-looking. Food-derived carot- enoids can also affect our skin coloration, and research has shown that carotenoid-colored skin is perceived as healthier and more attractive. In the wild, carotenoids are responsible for the bright feather colors of male birds, which make them more attractive to potential mates.14 There is a much more subtle, but similar phenomenon in humans. An increase in carotenoid-produced skin coloration was consistently found to be perceived as healthier in people of Caucasian, African, and Asian descent.15 One interesting study found that people preferred the skin color caused by eating carotenoids over the skin color from a suntan.16 Another study investigated skin carotenoid color- ation changes in response to increased fruit and vegetable consumption. They found that photos of individuals a few weeks after increasing fruit and vegetable intake by three serving per day re- ceived higher ratings of health and attractiveness than “before” photos.17 Furthermore, the im- provement in appearance has been shown to be a motivating factor for increasing fruit and vegeta- ble consumption.18 Each time the skin is exposed to the sun, some carotenoids are “used up” for their antioxidant activity, so they must be constantly replenished by the diet to maintain the protective effects (smoking and alcohol also deplete carotenoids from skin).2,19 Consistently consuming antioxi- dant-rich plant foods will build up the stores of these protective phytochemicals in the skin. You can even quantify your skin carotenoid levels us- ing a specialized scanner to confi rm the accumu- lation of dietary carotenoids in your skin.20,21 I use one of these scanners in my medical practice to confi rm and motivate patients to eat a Nutrtar- ian diet, rich in these colorful phytochemicals. A nutrient-dense, plant rich (NDPR or Nutritarian) diet is designed to be rich in antioxidant phyto- chemicals and promotes health inside and out, protecting against chronic disease, heart disease and cancer, while at the same time protecting the skin from sun damage while giving a natural, healthy-looking glow. Editorial Caitlyn May, Editor. ................................................................. Ext. 212 cmay@cgsentinel.com Zach Silva, Sport Editor ............................................................ Ext. 204 zsilva@cgsentinel.com Customer Service Carla Williams, Offi ce Manager .............................................. Ext. 200 Legals, Classifi eds .......................................... Ext. 200 cwilliams@cgsentinel.com Production Ron Annis, Production Supervisor ............................................. Ext.215 graphics@cgsentinel.com (USP 133880) Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties: Ten Weeks..............................................................................................$9.10 One year ............................................................................................. $36.15 e-Edition year ...................................................................................... $36.00 Rates in all other areas of United States: Ten Weeks $11.70; one year, $46.35, e-Edition $43.00. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR My kudos to the Sentinel and BMD Com- mittee. As has been pointed out, I have been reader of small town newspapers since a child. I subscribe today to 3 papers, the RG, Sentinel, and Chronicle. In my opinion, the Sentinel is doing a great of covering subjects in the communi- ty, and I applaud Caitlyn and Zack for the effort they are putting in to a small town newspaper – good job! My thanks to the BMD committee for giving me opportunity to be Grand Marshall in the BMD parade. That was certainly un- expected, . As the readers know, I am very support- ive of volunteerism in the community. We are so lucky, as a nation, to have grown up with a way of life that included volunteers. Many years ago, at age 22, I was go- ing to a United Way meeting in Everett. A circuit court judge I had seen in meetings before – I made a remark to him – I valued his volunteer time in the community. His remark was -- Volunteers can do the work more effi ciently and without tax-payers, than government can do it through red tape. If the job is necessary, it will be done, one way or the other. Volunteers do it cheaper. In 1998-1999, when Rotary established clubs in the old Soviet Union, the surprise we all had is – Russian people had no con- cept of volunteerism in a community or city. They had been raised with government con- trol on everything. Don Williams Cottage Grove Letters to the Editor policy In foreign countries, postage extra. No subscription for less than Ten Weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. All subscritptions must be paid prior to beginning the subscription and are non-refundable. Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424. Local Mail Service: If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication, please let us know. 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