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In 1963, W. Kirk Braun proposed names
for a series of waterfalls in the Salmon River Gorge, between
Linney and Copper creeks. Most of the names are descriptive,
including (from downstream to upstream) Final, Frustration, Vanishing,
Little Niagara and Split falls on the Salmon River, and Hideaway
Falls on Tumbling Creek. The largest and farthest upstream is
Stein Falls, a name honoring Bobby and Johnny Stein of Welches,
who were killed in World War II.
In
the summer of 1963, a subcommittee of the Oregon Geographic Names
Board consisting of Herbert Stone (U.S. Forest Service), Thomas
Vaughan (Oregon Historical Society) and Donald Sterling (Editor,
Oregon Journal) made a field inspection, and reported that names
like Frustration Falls were most appropriate, as much of the
river bank is nearly inaccessible from the trail. Rare photos
from the original naming expedition are pictured below, courtesy
of the U.S. Forest Service.
The
relatively recent discovery and naming of the waterfalls along
the Salmon is surprising. The canyon is very close to Portland,
and just a few miles off the Barlow Road, where settlers claimed
land along the lower Salmon more than 150 years ago. When viewing
the images from the historic naming expedition, it is also hard
to imagine that in the 1960s, the federal government was planning
to dam the Salmon River to harness the power of these waterfalls,
and in building a new trans-Cascade highway through the gorge.
Thankfully,
these plans were never realized, and the creation of the Salmon-Huckleberry
Wilderness in 1984 forever protected the river from such "progress".
(Source:
Oregon Geographic Names, 4th ed.)
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