Mount Adams. Mount Hood. Mount St. Helens. These serene, snow-covered mountains beckon one to come closer. But beware. These mountains were born by repeated, often violent eruptions of ash, lava, and pumice. Their eruptions and landslides created . . . — — Map (db m158995) HM
Gary Rosenquist wanted eruption pictures. On May 17, 1980, he and friends Joel and Linda Harvey, their 10-year-old son Jo-Jo, and William Dilley drove down from Tacoma. They camped here, at Bear Meadow, 11 miles northeast of Mount St. Helens.
. . . — — Map (db m84463) HM
Native people knew her. Their names for the mountain translated to "Fire Mountain" or "Smoker." They watched her erupt repeatedly, building most of the visible mountain over the last 2,800 years. Eruptions and heavy ash fall caused them to abandon . . . — — Map (db m158994) HM
The 1980 lateral blast shot hot rock, ash and debris northward at hundreds of miles per hour. For three minutes, the blast pummeled slopes facing the volcano, like those on your right, leaving few survivors. Slopes closest to the volcano were . . . — — Map (db m190631) HM
This landscape is a monument to the Earth’s power.
The incredible story began on March 20, 1980, when magma began rising into Mount St. Helens. The volcano’s summit diverted the magma sideways, shoving the northern slope outward at a rate of . . . — — Map (db m84949) HM
You are looking at a past and future old-growth forest. On May 18, 1980, the lush ecosystem flanking the north side of Mount St. Helens was buried beneath a massive landslide, and covered repeatedly with searing avalanches of hot gases and . . . — — Map (db m158992) HM
On May 18, 1980, the eastern edge of the searing lateral blast
rolled up and over ridges to your right. It tore through the Clearwater Valley, lifting just behind where you stand. The blast left a gray patchwork of fallen and standing dead . . . — — Map (db m84911) HM
"a remarkable circumstance"
The Lewis and Clark Expedition encountered a mysterious underwater forest at several places along the Columbia River; from west of Stevenson to the Kackitat River including the area in front of you. . . . — — Map (db m310009) HM
"remarkable high detached rock"
While scouting a passage through the "Great Shoote," treacherous rapids that once existed a few miles upstream from here, William Clark and Joseph Field of the Lewis and Clark Expedition . . . — — Map (db m309878) HM
Beacon for Travelers
For thousands of years, travelers on the Columbia River marked their progress by Beacon Rock. For downriver travelers, the rock signified the end of the rapids and the beginning of the tidal influences of the Pacific . . . — — Map (db m309795) HM
"a great orniment...highly prised by them"
On April 10, 1806, the explorers of the Lewis and Clark Expedition stopped for breakfast at the "Clah-dah lab" village located along the Columbia River downstream from here. When the . . . — — Map (db m309881) HM
Beacon Rock is a remnant of a young volcano that erupted just 57,000 years ago. What you see today is its tough inner core of cooled, hardened lava. This lava plug was exposed when powerful Ice Age floods swept around it again and again.
Climb . . . — — Map (db m309877) HM
For centuries, the Columbia's whitewater rapids forced river travelers to beach their boats and portage belongings along the shore. Local Indians held dominion over this key trade route that linked the coast to the inland plateau.
In the . . . — — Map (db m309945) HM
Welcome ...
to the homelands of the American Indian tribes of the Columbia River. Lewis and Clark encountered native people every day while traveling through this region. As you travel the Lewis and Clark Trail and across tidal homelands, . . . — — Map (db m309815) HM
William Clark / Meriwether Lewis
" my friend ... If therefore there is anything...in this enterprise which would induce you to participate with me in it's fatigues, it's dangers and it's honors, believe me there is no man on earth . . . — — Map (db m309794) HM
The Grandeur and History of the Columbia River Gorge
Welcome to Beacon Rock State Park! As you explore the Che-che-op-tin Trail, you will learn about the layers of history that have shaped this landscape.
You will marvel at the . . . — — Map (db m309813) HM
The far off whistle of an approaching train held promise for residents of isolated settlements hugging the north Columbia River shore. Trains linked friends and family, carried crops to Portland's shipping centers, and introduced manufactured goods . . . — — Map (db m309946) HM
Beacon Rock was first described and named by Captains Lewis and Clark October 31, 1805, enroute to the Pacific Ocean.
Henry J. Biddle purchased Beacon Rock in 1915 to preserve it for posterity and completed the trail in 1918. His son Spencer . . . — — Map (db m58810) HM
The February, 1903, edition of the Skamania County Pioneer heralded the arrival of Dr. Thomas Carr Avary from Atlanta, Georgia who "proposed to practice the profession of medicine and to become permanently identified with Stevenson and . . . — — Map (db m158178) HM
"these rapids...extreemly difficult"
On their homeward journey in April 1806, the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the intimidating stretch of rapids William Clark named the "Great Shoote," Unable to paddle through the . . . — — Map (db m158231) HM
The first trains and automobiles chugged through Stevenson in 1908, a few years after Lewis and Christian Aalvik has built these two boilings that share a common roof.
Lewis Aalvik rented the east building to a hardware store in 1912. . . . — — Map (db m158176) HM
Poets, painters, and travelers have been inspired by the rugged beauty of the Columbia River Gorge - beauty that was shaped in large part by a single series of cataclysmic events that ended just 12,000 years ago.
As the massive Cordilleran Ice . . . — — Map (db m158233) HM
(two markers are mounted on this kiosk)
Master Traders
The Lewis and Clark Expedition first met Chinookan tribes as they traveled through the Columbia River Gorge in autumn 1805. At the time, Chinookan society . . . — — Map (db m158244) HM
Bank Open
Stevenson's first bank opened for business in 1907 with William P. Christensen as the first cashier. George F. Christensen, Sr. joined the bank in 1912 and was elected president in 1920.
Great Depression Threatens Bank . . . — — Map (db m158180) HM
October 30, 1805
William Clark recorded in his journal that on this date, “A wet disagreeable evening, the only wood we could get to burn on this “little island” on which we have encamped is the newly discovered ash which makes a tolerable . . . — — Map (db m263959) HM
The shriek of steam through a brass whistle, ringing across the Columbia's waters and echoing off the Gorge cliffs. signaled the approach of a steamboat. In early-day Stevenson, a sternwheeler arrival was a high point of a pioneer's day, often . . . — — Map (db m158230) HM
George Stevenson stood on the north bank of the Columbia River, listening to it roar through this narrow Gorge, and envisioned a community strategically located for commerce. Every person traveling this liquid highway stopped here above the Cascades . . . — — Map (db m158175) HM
The rocks project into the river in many places and have the appearance of having fallen from the high hills…
This part of the river resembles a pond partly drained leaving many stumps bare both in & out of the water…
We can plainly hear the . . . — — Map (db m112268) HM
If you are admiring the view upriver to Wind Mountain, you're in good company. Travelers throughout history have been awed by the grandeur of the steep cliffs and unique mountain formations of the Columbia River Gorge. Early journal entries from . . . — — Map (db m158238) HM
In the early 1900s, lush evergreen forests covered the rugged mountains on either side of the Columbia River, providing a wealths of fuel and building material. In this steep, wet country, water was a perfect conveyance.
Sawmills were located in . . . — — Map (db m158172) HM
