Celilo Falls - Wishram, Washington - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

One-half mile west from Wishram by trail to CELILO FALLS, where the Columbia River plunges 20 feet over a knife-edged precipice extending across the river. The falls mark the entrance to a narrow channel, bordering precipitous cliffs of basalt.

The ancient village of Wishram was a "food emporium" and trading mart of the Indians. Here Indians gathered from east and west to barter with the Klickitats, who fished below Celilo Falls for the salmon struggling up the river to their spawning grounds, and dried and packed the fish in bundles and bales of varied sizes for trading purposes. Washington Irving, in Astoria, explains that tribes from the Pacific Coast brought sea foods, wapato (Ind. wild potato), and other roots and berries. From the interior, along the lane of the Snake and Columbia Rivers, natives drove in with horses, or rowed downstream in canoes laden with bear grass roots and other edibles. This was the Wishram that Lewis and Clark saw when they visited on their way toward the Pacific. They had to stop there and portage around the falls.

Today, during the salmon run, Indians stand on frail scaffoldings, fastened precariously on the rocky sides of the channel above the falls, with ropes fastened to their waists and long-pointed javelins in hand, awaiting the leap of the salmon. In the split second when the fish are arrested in midair, the spears are driven home. Treaty rights allow the Indians the exclusive privilege of taking salmon by this primitive method.

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Sadly, the wild and vibrant falls and the fishing livelihood of the Klickitat people has died. In the late 1940's, just years after the guidebook was written, the Dalles dam was built, flooding the narrow canyon and effectively erasing much of the relics of over 1500 years of inhabitance by the native tribes of the area. The canyon walls surrounding the area of the falls were covered with ancient petroglyphs. Records report there to have been thousands of them. Just before the dam was finished a handful of the smaller petroglyphs were cut from the hillside. They can now be viewed at Columbia Hills State Park on the Temani Pesh-wa (Written on Rock) Trail. See the gallery for pictures of some of these petroglyphs.

To see more petroglyphs, and also other tell-tale remnants of ancient villages, take the trail off of hwy 14 up to Horsethief Butte. Around the base you will see shallow pits where the village was. Up on the butte there are additional petroglyphs.

The historic photos show the falls as it was, but one of the photos shows the much slower, meandering river that the Columbia has become. Be sure to open the gallery to see all of the photos and click on them to read their descriptions.