Upper Bridal Veil Falls

[CuriousGorgeGuide]

Hey, I thought I'd chime in a couple things here, since it seems all the PH waterfall nuts are nicely clustered on this thread (hey Sore Feet, where are ya??). Anyhow, that Amato book is a gem--everyone into Gorge arcana should own it. Especially interesting is on page 50 the picture of Wahclella Falls before the huge 1973 landslide that brought down the huge boulders now choking the streambed near the falls. Frank Amato was a huge gorge history fan, but now most of their books deal with fishing....except when last year they gave John Harrison a break and published his Mona Bell (Hill) biography simply for historical sakes. Good on 'em!
Another tidbit I thought i'd toss in here, not knowing if it's a well-known bit of trivia or not....is about Latourell Falls (since Brian's 2nd picture triggered my memory). It seems that Viggo Mortensen went skinny-dipping in Latourell Falls in the middle of the movie "The Road". Who knew?? That's some pretty chilly Pokin Round the Gorge I'd say!! I had never heard a peep about the falls being in the movie until Kirby, the editor of the Hood River News, mentioned it in passing one day after he had read my Gorge Movies appendix in my latest Curious Gorge. Sure enough, he was right. And hey, is that the wreck of the Peter Iredale near the end?? Check it out!!
cheers, scott

[Sore Feet]

The Amato book is actually what drove me to near obsession trying to figure out exactly what / where Upper Bridal Veil Falls was at, because the book captions it just "Bridal Veil Falls". I think I first went to BV when I was about 10 years old, and one of my local libraries has a copy of the book, so I immediately recognized it as not being the same waterfall after I had visited. I don't think I had any idea that there might be an upper falls for maybe 9+ more years when I got regular access to the topo maps. That book is also single-handedly responsible for the identification of Dalton Falls, or at least pointing out the general area where it occurs and that it actually was named.

[CuriousGorgeGuide]

Bryan, did ya ever see Viggo in Latourell?? Hey, i just flipped thru the Volume One of Amato's book and didn't see any Dalton falls at all....is there a Vol II I don't have, or am I missing something??

[Sore Feet]

Yes, I saw The Road and recognized it immediately. Its not the only time a Gorge waterfall has been used in a movie either - Bridal Veil Falls is shown in an aerial shot in "The Ring".

Regarding Dalton Falls, look carefully on the hand-drawn isometric map at the beginning of the book - you'll see it labeled just east of Angel's Rest. Its not actually photographed in the book, but its clearly marked on the map.

[Splintercat]

Here's another 1920s era map that shows Dalton Falls:



...and Wahe Falls, which I find most strange, given the difficulty in reaching it from the highway, above another falls:



-Tom

[chameleon]

Tom - I think I've figured the Wahe thing out. Wahe was intended for Moffett Creek Falls. It was the name of a small Chinook tribe nearby. What we know as Wahe today was un-named. The mistake occurred when it was mapped. H.H. Riddell gives a description from 1916 of Wahe Falls (and describes Moffett Creek Falls), and goes on to mention the waterfall beyond it (Wahe). So, it seems to have been named by pure accident. I'm kind of glad it did though. It is a much more interesting waterfall, and being more remote than the other map-named falls, gives it a bit of mystique. I'm fairly certain that the name Wahe was arrived at when the Mazamas did that major renaming (including Wahclella and Wahkeena).

[Splintercat]

I agree, Zach. I've always felt that Wahe and Oneonta falls were mislabled on the USGS topos, causing a lot of confusion in subsequent years. IMO, it was really unlikely that off-trail waterfalls that were that far from the highway would have been well-known, much less named. There are very old photos of early visitors wading up Oneonta Gorge (there are steps leading down from the old highway bridge to the creek, after all), so that's why it's hard for me to believe that the middle falls that carries the name is actually correct. Ditto for Wahe, as you point out.

Here's the 1911 topo of the Oneonta area -- note that the waterfall locations are only mapped generally at this stage. The lower Oneonta trail bridge is located at approximately the second "n" in Oneonta, so it's quite plausible that the gorge falls is Oneonta Falls.



Tom