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Sign along railway line, Scappoose, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2012.
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Scappoose, Oregon ...
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Scappoose, Oregon, is located along Oregon Highway 30, approximately 5.5 miles west of the Columbia River at River Mile (RM) 94. North of Scappoose along Highway 30 is the Oregon communities of St. Helens. South along Highway 30 is the small community of Linnton. Due east of Scappoose before reaching the Columbia are located the "Scappoose Bottoms", the Multnomah Channel, and then Sauvie Island.
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"Scappoose Bottoms" ...
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Once referred to as the "Scappoose Plains", the area between Oregon's Highway 30 east of the community of Scappoose and west of the Multnomah Channel is today known as the "Scappoose Bottoms" (among the birding community anyways).
The area stretches over twelve miles from Scappoose Bay on the north to Joy Creek on the south. The area is a rich farming land and host to numerous raptors and songbirds.
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Views around Scappoose Bottoms ...
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Golden Eagle, Scappoose Bottoms, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2012.
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Weathervane on barn, Scappoose Bottoms, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2012.
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Old Ford truck, Scappoose Bottoms, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2012.
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Mount St. Helens from Scappoose Bottoms, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2012.
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Early Scappoose ...
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According to Oregon Geographic Names (McArthur and McArthur, 2003), the Scappoose Post Office was established April 25, 1872, after first being called Columbia Post Office. Samuel T. Gosa was the first postmaster of the Scappoose Office as well as the former Columbia Office. It's location was at a spot now known as Johnson Landing, some two miles southeast of today's Scappoose, Oregon. It was moved to the present community in 1886.
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Johnsons Landing to Dike Road sign, Scappoose Bottoms, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2012.
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Scappoose and Scappoose Bottoms in 1940 ...
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From the Oregon State Archives "A 1940 Journey Across Oregon":
"... The hills (L) recede and the highway enters the Scappoose Plains, a fertile district devoted to potato culture, truck gardening, and dairying.
SCAPPOOSE (Ind. gravelly plain), 20.9 m. (56 alt., 248 pop.), is on the site of an old trading post and farm of the Hudson's Bay Company, under the charge of Thomas McKay. Chief Kazeno, mentioned in the annals of the Astorians and of many other later writers, had his village close by. It was here that the great Indian highway, later the Hudson's Bay trail between the Columbia River and the upper Willamette Valley, had its beginning. When Lieut. W. R. Broughton of the Royal Navy, visited the Columbia River in H. M. S. Chatham of Captain Vancouver's squadron in 1792, he found at Warrior Rock, on Wappato (Sauvie) Island opposite Scappoose, Indians with copper swords and iron battle axes. These Indians said that they had obtained these axes from the other Indians many moons to the eastward. Scappoose appears to have been a great trading center for the Indians on the lower Columbia during many centuries. The virulent disease which almost wiped out the Indians of the Sauvie Island region began among the Indians at Scappoose Bay and was attributed to "bad medicine" administered by Captain Dominis of the brig Owyhee, which had been trading in the river.
The first white man to settle on Scappoose Plain was James Bates, an American sailor, who probably deserted from the Owyhee in 1829. The town of Scappoose had a slow growth and was not incorporated until July 13, 1921. In 1934 fire destroyed several buildings. Today it is a trading center for a prosperous farming community with large potato warehouses and a pickle factory. ..."
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Street Scene ...
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Street scene, Scappoose, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2012.
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"Peace Candle of the World" ...
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"The giant "Peace Candle of the World" is located in Scappoose, Oregon on what was previously a farm owned by the Scharf family. Darrel Brock purchased the property and built a candle factory, Western Candles Ltd., which was quite successful. As a way of drawing attention to their enterprise, they ran a natural gas line up through the center of an existing 50-foot silo on the property and put over 45,000 pounds of brilliant multi-colored wax on the outside, transforming it into a massive candle for peace. If the winds were just right, fragrances from the wax could be smelled in downtown Scappoose.
The official dedication and lighting ceremony took place on the afternoon of May 9, 1971. Oregon Governor Tom McCall and his wife, Audrey, flew into Scappoose on a helicopter, the Scappoose High School Band played “America the Beautiful,” and over 5,000 people looked on as Governor Tom McCall, Scappoose Mayor Forrest Sanders and Darrel Brock lit the world’s largest candle, “The Peace Candle of the World," with the help of a cherry picker and a 60-foot match that had been specially constructed for the event.
The dedication and lighting ceremony brought people from all over the country, including Canada. Free parking was available on the farm and cars lined U.S. Highway 30 for two miles in each direction. A 2:30pm Burlington Northern Railway freight train that normally passed the candle factory was rescheduled.
Ironically, the candle was intended to be "eternal," but when the natural gas bills started to come in, the candle became "terminal." The wax was eventually stripped, the candle painted yellow and then red, and the eternal flame replaced with a neon flame.
Source:
"waymarking.com" website, 2012
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"Peace Candle of the World", Scappoose, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2012.
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"Peace Candle of the World", Scappoose, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2012.
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Crown Zellerback Trail ...
The 17-mile-long Crown Zellerback Trail is built on the remains of an abandoned logging road and railway line and stretches from the Multnomah Channel just south of Scappoose to the Oregon community of Vernonia, located in Oregon's Coast Range, northwest of St. Helens.
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"... In 1906, Fred and Simcoe Chapman began constructing a railroad from Chapman landing up into the woods past Camp 8. Where the grade became too steep, a tunnel was built in 1910. The Nehalem Divide Railroad tunnel between Champan and Pittsburg is 1712 feet long. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, but it is not part of the trail and it is not open to protect the public and the tunnel.
In 1943, Crown Zellerbach acquired the rail line, and converted it into a logging road. The tunnel could not be converted for log trucks, so its use was discontinued and a road was built through a different pass.
In 2004, Columbia County purchased the Crown Zellerbach Logging Road from the Hancock Timber Company with grants from the Oregon Department of Transportation and Oregon State Parks. ..."
Source:
"waymarking.com" website, 2012
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Along the Crown Zellerback Trail, Scappoose Bottoms, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2012.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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