1934 Oak Grove Fork View

[Splintercat]

Ran across this view of the Oak Grove Fork from the Oak Grove Butte LO, taken in 1934:

Click for Large Photo (1800 px)

Some familiar features: Mount Hood and Mount Mitchell. But I was curious about the wide swath of cleared ground along the Oak Grove Fork. Is this the original powerline/road/aquaduct corridor associated with Three Lynx/Oak Grove? I don't think the Oak Grove Fork is (was) volatile enough to disrupt the floodplain to that extent -- e.g., not a glacial stream, not an especially huge watershed compared to the main stem Clackamas.

Also liked the band of cliffs showing up so nicely along the NE flank of the Fish Creek Divide (on the far left) -- cliffs that Pablo has scaled and whose waterfalls Brian has explored. Some still show, but the forest has grown a lot over the past 80 years..!

Tom

[BrianEdwards]

Being that the dam at Harriet was complete in 1923, is this just the clearing for the big pipe installation to the Oak Grove hydro Project? Maybe things were still fresh at that point from the construction. I bet you already considered that though Its on the correct side of the river for the pipe.

[BrianEdwards]

The line of the clearing matches up well with the line of the Pipe. The Clearing is definitely up the hill, especially further downstream by the big bend.

I highlighted the pipe



The river stays in a relatively straight line, if anything bending to the left slightly. I don't think the railroad line to the dam required such a clearing.

[Splintercat]

That makes sense, Brian - I was just surprised at the size of the clearing! Looks more like a powerline corridor, but I suppose they were moving a lot of equipment (and workers) around when they were building the pipeline, so needed the space. Amazing!

Tom