Why was The Dalles important to the Oregon Trail?
The Dalles became a critical stop for pioneers following the Oregon Trail. Emigrants had to portage their freight one and a half miles around ‘les dalles’ over a rough, rocky trail. It was here, just past The Dalles, that the wagons were loaded on rafts or bateaux and floated west to Fort Vancouver and Oregon City.
What was significant about the Dalles?
As the center of navigation on the Mid-Columbia River, The Dalles is the county seat and was known as the Gateway to the Inland Empire, a jumping-off spot for pioneers, soldiers, gold miners, and adventurers.
Why Do They Call It The Dalles?
James Birney of the North West Company established a short-lived fur trading fort here in 1820. His French-Canadian trappers are responsible for giving the place its name, The Dalles, a French word for rapids of a river through a narrow gorge.
What was the importance of The Dalles to the native tribes in the region?
In its heyday, Fort Dalles was the most important US Army garrison in the region, serving as a source of troops to maintain peace between the settlers and Native Americans, and also as an emergency source of supplies for the settlers themselves.
What is the last fort on the Oregon Trail?
Kearny and served as a Way Station, Supply Depot, Freighting Station and Home Station of the Pony Express. Until the 1860s, there were no fortifications around the buildings and it was the last fort along the emigrant trails until Fort Laramie in Wyoming.
What Rivers did Pioneers cross on the Oregon Trail?
The trail. Topography and climate largely dictated the course of the Oregon Trail. Access to water was of paramount importance, and, for the greater part of its length, the trail followed the region’s three great rivers: the Platte (and its tributary the North Platte), the Snake, and, finally, the Columbia.
What does the Dalles mean in French?
The slabs
In French, “Les dalles” means “The slabs”. When a river flows over hard flat rocks, it becomes shallow, and rapids are created.
What does Dalles mean in English?
the rapids in
: the rapids in a river confined between walls of a canyon or gorge.
What does The Dalles mean in French?
How much power does the Dalles Dam produce?
9.2 billion kilowatt hours
The dam is 192 miles upriver from the mouth of the Columbia River and two miles east of the city of The Dalles, Ore. Since its construction, the dam has generated more than 9.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and passed up to 10 million tons of river cargo annually.
How big is the Dalles or?
17.97 km²
The Dalles/Area
How did The Dalles on the Oregon Trail get their name?
The Dalles. The Dalles was named by fur trappers for the French word for gutter. Here emigrants floated down the Columbia River in rafts through the stony river gorge. The passage, with emigrants and their wagons crowded onto a small wooden raft, was often perilous. As N.M.
Where is The Dalles City in Oregon located?
The Dalles is one of the oldest permanently occupied places in Oregon, significant to Native people for over ten millennia and to Euro-American settlers since the 1830s. The city, the largest in Wasco County, is located on a bend of the Columbia River at the east end of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.
What was the main route of the Oregon Trail?
The most famous is the Oregon trail, the primary route emigrants took across the country to Oregon – to the Dalles, where they then rode and portaged down the Columbia and Willamette Rivers to settle. The Barlow Road was developed as an alterative to river transport.
When did the Americans arrive at the Dalles?
In 1855, at the end of the Cayuse War, the Indians living near The Dalles were forcibly relocated by the U.S. Army to the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. In the early 1840s American settlers began to arrive in significant numbers, traveling overland via the Oregon Trail. The trail ended at The Dalles.
The Dalles became a critical stop for pioneers following the Oregon Trail. Emigrants had to portage their freight one and a half miles around ‘les dalles’ over a rough, rocky trail. It was here, just past The Dalles, that the wagons were loaded on rafts or bateaux and floated west to Fort Vancouver and Oregon City.
What was the population of Fort Dalles in 1850?
In ten short years, between 1850 and 1860, the sparsely populated outpost of Fort Dalles exploded into the booming western town of Dalles City with a swollen “floating tent” population of 10,000]
What was life like for the Oregon Trail pioneers?
Oregon Trail pioneers were mostly middle class, successful people. Eight hundred to a thousand dollars were required for a wagon, oxen, and enough supplies to live a year. Of the men on the Oregon Trail, sixty percent of the family men were farmers.
Where was the headquarters of the Oregon pioneers?
In 1822, McLoughlin had a new post built near where the confluence of the Willamette River and the Columbia. On the north shore of the Columbia a new headquarters, Fort Vancouver, became the centerpiece of a multi-post system where furs and supplies were funneled in and out of Fort Vancouver.