Skamania, Washington | |
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 Fish wheel on a scow near Skamania on the Columbia River, June 1924 | |
  Skamania  Skamania | |
| Coordinates: 45°37′02″N122°02′30″W / 45.61722°N 122.04167°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Washington |
| County | Skamania |
| Elevation | 102 ft (31 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-8 (Pacific (PST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-7 (PDT) |
| GNIS feature ID | 1508378 [1] |
Skamania is a small unincorporated community in Skamania County in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Washington.
The Stevenson area has been home to Native American settlements for thousands of years. [2] Their villages were focal points for commerce and social gatherings as they came to trade and fish along the riverbanks. [2] Some of the first explorers and missionaries in the area included Lewis & Clark, David Thompson and Dr. Spaulding. [2] They used the Columbia River to get through the Cascade Mountains on their way to the Pacific Ocean. [2] In 1843, the Oregon Trail brought the first settlers there. [2] Pioneers portaged around the Cascade Rapids on their way to the Willamette Valley. [2] Some of these pioneering families chose to stay there. [2] The Stevenson family, who settled there in the 1800s from Missouri, founded the town of Stevenson on the old Shepard donation land claim. [2] Under the supervision of the Stevenson Land Company, George Stevenson purchased the original town site for $24,000 in 1893, building the town along the lower flat near the river. [2] Settlers expanded the original dock to serve the daily arrivals of sternwheelers unloading passengers, cargo and loading logs. [2]
Skamania is located within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area on Washington State Route 14. The community lies between Prindle to the west and North Bonneville to the east.
Beacon Rock State Park is located east of Skamania. The town is also near the Sams Walker Day Use Site, which is maintained by the US Forest Service. The community is sandwiched between Pierce National Wildlife Refuge and Franz Lake National Wildlife Refuge, home to wintering grounds for tundra swans and 35 acres (140,000 m2) of wapato, previously extinct in Washington and endangered in Oregon, now scarce but stable in both states.
Young students attend Skamania Elementary School.
Clark County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 503,311, making it Washington's fifth-most populous county. Its county seat and largest city is Vancouver. It was the first county in Washington, first named Vancouver County in 1845 before being renamed for William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1849. It was created by the Provisional Government of Oregon in Oregon Country on August 20, 1845, and at that time covered the entire present-day state. Clark County is the third-most-populous county in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon.
Skamania County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,036. The county seat and largest incorporated city is Stevenson, although the Carson River Valley CDP is more populous. Skamania County is included in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Scouting in the U.S. state of Oregon includes the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and Girl Scouts (GSUSA) youth organizations, as well as newer organizations like the Baden-Powell Service Association and Vegan Scouts.
Cascade Locks is a city in Hood River County, Oregon, United States. The city got its name from a set of locks built to improve navigation past the Cascades Rapids of the Columbia River. The U.S. federal government approved the plan for the locks in 1875, construction began in 1878, and the locks were completed on November 5, 1896. The locks were subsequently submerged in 1938, replaced by Bonneville Lock and Dam, although the city did not lose land from the expansion of Lake Bonneville behind the dam some 4 miles (6 km) downstream of the city. The city population was 1,144 at the 2010 census.
Stevenson is a city in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area along the Columbia River in Skamania County, Washington, United States. It is the county seat of Skamania County and home to the Skamania County Court House and Sheriff's Office. The population was 1,491 at the 2020 census.
The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Up to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) deep, the canyon stretches for over eighty miles (130 km) as the river winds westward through the Cascade Range, forming the boundary between the state of Washington to the north and Oregon to the south. Extending roughly from the confluence of the Columbia with the Deschutes River in the east down to the eastern reaches of the Portland metropolitan area, the water gap furnishes the only navigable route through the Cascades and the only water connection between the Columbia Plateau and the Pacific Ocean. It is thus that the routes of Interstate 84, U.S. Route 30, Washington State Route 14, and railroad tracks on both sides run through the gorge.
Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane, the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the fertile farmlands of the Yakima Valley and the Palouse. Unlike in Western Washington, the climate is dry, including some desert environments.
Gifford Pinchot National Forest is a National Forest located in southern Washington, managed by the United States Forest Service. With an area of 1.32 million acres (5,300 km2), it extends 116 km (72 mi) along the western slopes of Cascade Range from Mount Rainier National Park to the Columbia River. The forest straddles the crest of the South Cascades of Washington State, spread out over broad old-growth forests, high mountain meadows, several glaciers, and numerous volcanic peaks. The forest's highest point is at 12,276 ft (3,742 m) at the top of Mount Adams, the second-tallest volcano in the state after Rainier. Often found abbreviated GPNF on maps and in texts, it includes the 110,000-acre (450 km2) Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, established by Congress in 1982.
The Lewis River is a tributary of the Columbia River, about 95 miles (153 km) long, in southwestern Washington in the United States. It drains part of the Cascade Range north of the Columbia River. The drainage basin of the Lewis River covers about 1,046 square miles (2,709 km2). The river's mean annual discharge is about 6,125 cubic feet per second (173.4 m3/s). Unlike nearby Lewis County and Fort Lewis the Lewis River was not named for Meriwether Lewis, but rather for A. Lee Lewis, an early colonizer who homesteaded near the mouth of the river.
State Route 14 (SR 14) is a 180.66-mile-long (290.74 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Washington. The highway travels east-west on the north side of the Columbia River, opposite Interstate 84 (I-84) to the south in Oregon. SR 14 forms a section of the Lewis and Clark Trail Scenic Byway and begins at an interchange with I-5 in Vancouver. The highway travels east as a four-lane freeway through Camas and Washougal and intersects I-205. SR 14 continues east as a two-lane highway through Clark, Skamania, Klickitat, and Benton counties before it ends at an interchange with I-82 and U.S. Route 395 (US 395) near Plymouth.
Silver Star Mountain is a recently uplifted ridge of older Western Cascades volcanic rock, underlain by a granitic pluton of similar Western Cascades age, located in the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Washington. Consisting of late Eocene to Oligocene epoch rock, it lies within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Silver Star is composed of three lithologic units, including the large Silver Star Granodiorite unit.
The Yacolt Burn is the collective name for dozens of fires in Washington state and Oregon occurring between September 8 and September 12, 1902, causing 38 deaths in the Lewis River area, at least nine deaths by fire in Wind River and 18 deaths in the Columbia River Gorge.
Fort Cascades was a United States Army fort constructed in 1855 to protect the portage road around the final section of the Cascades Rapids, known as the "lower cascades." It was built on the Washington side of the Columbia River, between the present site of North Bonneville and the Bonneville Dam in Skamania County.
The Oregon High Desert is a region of the U.S. state of Oregon located east of the Cascade Range and south of the Blue Mountains, in the central and eastern parts of the state. Divided into a southern region and a northern region, the desert covers most of five Oregon counties and averages 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above sea level. The southwest region is part of the Great Basin and the southeast is the lower Owyhee River watershed. The northern region is part of the Columbia Plateau, where higher levels of rainfall allow the largest industry on private land to be the cultivation of alfalfa and hay. Public land within the region is owned primarily by the Bureau of Land Management, which manages more than 30,000 square miles (78,000 km2) including five rivers designated as Wild and Scenic.
Wapato Lake is a restored historic lake located in what became parts of Washington County and Yamhill County in the U.S. state of Oregon. The area was sometimes known as Wapato Lake Bed and Wapato Flat. The lake is located about a half mile east of Gaston at 55 metres (180 ft) elevation. The lake bed soils contain a layer of organic peat that once supported a wetland community dominated by the wapato plant, Sagittaria latifolia, particularly in the upper marsh areas. Wapato plants were reintroduced to the restored lake by tribal people from the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community in preparation for the opening of the Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge in March 2023.
Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains at the base of 12,281-foot (3,743 m) Mount Adams in southern Washington state.
Underwood is an unincorporated community within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area along the Columbia River in Skamania County, Washington, United States.
Dodson is an unincorporated community in Multnomah County, Oregon, United States. It is located about 4½ miles (7.2 km) east of Multnomah Falls and one mile west of Warrendale, in the Columbia River Gorge on Interstate 84/U.S. Route 30. It is across the Columbia River from Skamania, Washington. Dodson is within the Cascade Locks ZIP code.
Prindle is an unincorporated community located within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area along the Columbia River in Skamania County, Washington, United States. The community is located on Washington State Route 14 and lies between Washougal to the west and Skamania to the east.
Municipalities and communities of Skamania County, Washington, United States | ||
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| Unincorporated communities | ||
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