Warren Falls... LIVES!

[jaimito]

Awesome Zach, it's funny I was home all day yesterday and they were showing Mult. Falls on the news and how much water was coming over and I couldn't help but wonder about Warren Falls. Good work.

[chameleon]

Thanks Jamie. Yeah, it was neat to see. Kind of gives you a little bit of an idea of what it could look like if Tom succeeds with it.

[Splintercat]

Thanks, Zach - very nice photo! I took my brother-in-law up there on Monday, and the flow was already down by a third from what you captured (plus, I didn't have my big camera -- just got more video).

Scott, I'm working on it -- I've been trying to coax some of our local conservation groups into making it a cause, with a couple nibbles. In my mind, it would be a great flagship project for a group like Friends of the Gorge, and I also like the idea of tying it to the anniversary date. In fact, this segment of road (trail) is scheduled for restoration/re-creation in 2014, if funding comes through, so I'm hoping to simply hook the falls restoration to the larger project. If not, then I'll just drag a very large cork up there, sometime...

Tom

[Lurch]

There was a reason published in 1971.

... to answer your question, J.E. Peck, resident engineer, designed that. I think it was sometime between 1936 and 1942. That loose rock you saw at the top would pile up and dam the creek, then when there was high water it would all flush down across the road. Sometimes it created enough force to pull some big boulders down too. Peck came up with the idea for a tunnel, and the grid up there, and saw to the construction. It's been very effective.

[chameleon]

Interesting! Nice find with that article.

It seems to have satisfied the author's curiosity. I think there's probably a bit more to it, but the name of an engineer who had something to do with it is a good place to start! I think the writer was a bit quick to decide he'd found a definitive source.

Still, its something to think about. I don't know that I buy the boulders and debris came down theory...the top of historic Warren Falls seems about as stable as any other waterfall along the highway. And above is flat for a good long ways.

Still - that engineer's name is a good research point!

[Splintercat]

Thanks, Lurch -- I'll forward that along to the ODOT engineer working on the highway restoration in the area. I'm still lobbying on that front, having failed to really draw a lot of interest from some of the advocacy groups (I've given a couple personal tours, but no real bites -- despite the possibility of a lot of money to tap into for this project).

Oral Bullard was a top-notch local writer in the 70s. He published books on the Tillamook Burn and one called "Crisis on the Columbia" from the same printing house (Touchstone Press) and editor (Tom Worcestor) responsible for Don and Roberta Lowe's hiking guides in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Based on his published status, I take this account at face value -- and it seems to be the source for modern writers like Sullivan, who describe this origin of the tunnel.

I've found the "Warren Creek Tunnel" listed as an asset in ODOT documents (which is a good thing, since it means it's a liability for them), but no mention of the construction date. Still working on that....

Tom

[CuriousGorgeGuide]

Hey Tom, you "owe" us a deluxe Splintercat Blog update on all you/I/we found out about Warren Falls due to the helpful Oregonian article dredged up by Lurch... which you then brought to the HCRH Advisory Committee meeting, which we then put Kristen Stallman up to digging int0 via the ODOT archives....and voila, a few weeks later the long-standing mysteries of the Hole in the Wall became much much much clearer.
Bring it on Splinter...the GorgeGeek squad eagerly awaits!!!..... scott

[Splintercat]

Thanks for the kick in the butt, Scott! Okay, here's my bargain: if I don't get this posted before Warren Falls flows again (or by Christmas, whichever comes first), I'll pose al fresco under the temporary winter flow for a photo op, pokin' around style..! On second thought, maybe the world isn't quite ready for that..?

-Tom

[AlexanderSupertramp]

Nice!

[BrianEdwards]

While at Kohls, I was walking through the photo frame section and this caught my eye.