Hood River
Early Settlers

Joe Correa
ANTH 310 Week Nine Essay
March 11, 2012

Words: 1535

Hood River Early Settlers
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. So goes the old teaching poem goes. Three hundred years later, in 1792, Lt. William Broughton explored the Columbia River. He is credited for naming the geography along the Columbia River. Under President Thomas Jefferson’s instructions, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark undertook the further exploration of the Columbia River working from the East to the West, ending where Lt. Broughton had started. The map from the British gave them an idea of what to expect. Thirteen years later, Lewis and Clark would see the same landscape, make a new map, and give some of the places that Lt. Broughton had already named new names.
On October 29, 1805, Lewis and Clark discovered a stream on the south banks of the Columbia and called it the Labeasche River after one of their members, Private Francois Labiche. It is near this glacial river that the current site of Hood River is found. The river itself has changed names twice to become Hood River. It was called Dog River for a while after some pioneers became stranded here and had to eat a dog for sustenance. It was again changed to Hood River with time and the name Dog River given to a small stream upriver. The name Hood being from the mountain that was given the name by Lt. Broughton honoring Lord Hood of the British Admiralty. The area first appears on a map as early as 1856.
In the narrative of their travels, Lewis and Clark record houses along the Columbia River from The Dalles to the East. These settlements were often no more than four or five houses on either side of the bank. He saw 14 houses near the Labeasche River. He noted that they were Indian villages, and stopped every now and again to have dinner of fish with them.
The Native American Indians along the Columbia River were mostly from the Chinook tribes. They were divided between the Lower Chinookan and the upper Chinookan. According to the Centennial History of Oregon, there was a tribe called the Kle-mi-ak-sac who lived near the present site of the city Hood River. Most lived peacefully until the pioneers or settlers started moving in around the middle of 19th century. The Hood River settlement did not become permanent until 1854. Nathaniel and Mary Coe filed a Donation Land Claim. They were joined by the William Jenkins family and the Denson Family. These families started the first apple orchards for which Hood River would become famous. A Post Office went in in 1858 and was serving seventeen families by 1880. A year later the City of Hood River was surveyed and platted. The creation of Hood River County occurred in 1908. Some of the earliest settlers of the area were Indians. Records of these settlers speak of people like Silver Locks, who recalled being about twenty years of age when he first saw white men. He remembered their names being Lewis and Clark. Another Native American was George Tomileck Chinidere, or old Indian George. He died in 1917 being near 100 years old. He was reputed to be the oldest Indian of the Columbia River tribe. He was also considered to be a weather prophet. John Slibender was another Indian who was born about the time Lewis and Clark were in the area. His family had been in the area for the last three hundred years. With the advancement of the city, other institutions were established. In 1895 construction began on a public library. The town was also platted. Interesting enough, a prohibitory whiskey clause was included in every deed. No information given as to the why. It could be quite possible that the establishment of churches had something to do with it. Hood River had, and still has, a large number of congregations for a rather small area. In 1881, the United Brethren Church went up. The First Congregational Church in 1886 and the Belmont M.E. Church in 1886 followed this. The Belmont church was the first erected in Hood River. Riverside Congregational Church started in 1890 and the First Unitarian Society in 1902. In 1893, the Hood River Fruit Growers Union was established. It was organized as a local association and run as a cooperative concern. In the previous year, its main fruit export was strawberries. What started as a mistake, ended up becoming a large strawberry field and a community that prospered by it. As the apple and pear orchards increased, so did the need for workers to harvest the fruit. At first, the Indian communities would do the work for the orchardist. Indians from the reservations would also come do the laborious work. This caused concerns as in 1856 there were Indians work. The settlers did not feel good about the presence of Indians and the government did there best to keep them all on the reservation. The Indians that rebelled against the government left or returned to their homes along the shores of the Columbia became known as the Columbia River tribe. The Japanese or Nikkei started to emerge in Hood River around 1908. Masuo Yasui was one of the first to be taken in by the beauty of the area. He opened a Japanese store and boardinghouse. Eventually he helped other Japanese become established and build orchards. Stumps were pulled and land was cleared. The increase in Japanese immigrants was due to law changes in Japan and the need for laborers to build the railroads. The newer orchards also meant the need for a labor force.
By 1910 Hood River had 744 farms and orchards. Crops shifted from strawberries to apples and pears. More workers were needed and farmworkers now became Hispanic. These new laborers also worked in the mills.
By the 1930s, the Japanese population in Oregon was 4,958. Sixty percent of the new immigrants were farmers. Anti-Japanese sentiment was beginning to die down and the farms flourished. Then in 1941, we entered into war with Japan. Everything the Japanese had worked for in Hood River was taken away, and the Japanese in Hood River County were interred elsewhere. Homes and farms were taken away from them, some never to revert back to their former owners.
Hood River now is much more diverse. It is multi-cultural with Japanese, Mexican and Eurocentric Americans dominating its landscape. The works of the orchardist continue even now. Hood River apples and pears are sold worldwide. Lumber mills are not what they used to be doing to lack of old growth. But industry is still being created. Vineyards now dot the vista, as do tasting rooms. Several breweries exist within our county lines. With all season sports to choose from, tourism is booming. There are no shortages of rivers to raft, slopes to ski, trails to bike or hike or waves to sail or kite on. The names of early pioneers and settlers still carry on in street names, building names, or business names. People still move here to be moved by the scenery. Hood River is still as majestic a place as when Lewis and Clark first visited.