Willamette Falls Heritage Foundation - Partners, stewards and advocates of the culture and heritage at Willamette Falls

Saying Goodbye to Hawley Powerhouse

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 14:25:22 -0600

Hawley Powerhouse, August 29, 2008

Hawley Powerhouse, a 1916 structure that comprises part of the head dam around Willamette Falls and now belongs to Portland General Electric, is being decommissioned and disassembled under an order of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, starting in July 2008.

As we enter Labor Day Weekend, the powerhouse has been taken down to its 'mezzanine'--an interior walkway with a wood railing all around the internal perimeter. Work to take the 1906 hand-fitted trusses out was staged from the lower river, with a large ship-mounted crane.

Support WFHF with your purchase of these wonderful items...

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 11:51:49 -0600

The Willamette Falls is a treasured cultural resource. Now you and your family can share in that treasure with wonderful items offered by the Willamette Falls Heritage Foundation.

Our original history DVDs profile seventeen workers from the Crown Zellerbach paper mill. Hear their stories in both "Grindstones, Boomsticks, Tattletales and Nips, the stories and the people of Crown Zellerbach International, West Linn Division--1928-1986" and in our second movie, "Friends, Fish and $1.09 an Hour."

Posters featuring the art of Daniel Robinson celebrate each year's Lock Fest.

Willamette Falls History Series on DVD

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 10:24:58 -0600

Now available: "Friends, Fish and $1.09 an Hour"

This moving companion piece to our 2006 documentary movie on millwork during the 60-year run of Crown Zellerbach International, West Linn Division, finishes the stories begun by 17 career mill employees in "Grindstones, Boomsticks, Tattletales and Nips--the people and the stories of Crown Zellerbach..."

No Northwest mill family's library is complete without this poignant record of workers and their jobs at the end of the Industrial age.

Our first Falls History DVD

In Their Own Words - Oral Histories of pulp and papermaking in West Linn, Oregon

History of the Mills at Willamette Falls

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 13:06:33 -0500

Thanks to another grant from the Kinsman Foundation, we are currently producing a second oral history DVD on mill work at Crown Zellerbach, West Linn, from 1928-1986. Look for this new documentary, with 'the rest of the stories', in December, 2007. Subjects covered in the second installment will include fish stories and reminiscences about the West Linn Inn and the part it played in mill and community life.

Locks Funding Update

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:17:48 -0500

The Oregon Transportation Commission approved a $418,000 Oregon Department of Transportation grant to maintain and operate Willamette Falls locks and canal five days a week during the 2006 and 2007 boating seasons.

$100,000 of the grant, which is from Federal transportation enhancement funds dedicated to historic transportation facilities, came from public and private interests who are participating in the Locks Funding Task Force facilitated by Oregon Solutions.
The long-term agreements for locks preservation, maintenance, operations and funding sources must be in place before October 1, 2007. Lock Fest on September 22, 2007 will feature the signing ceremony for that final agreement.

Welcome to the web home of the Willamette Falls Heritage Foundation

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 19:06:06 -0600

Willamette Falls is a large, horseshoe-shaped basalt cascade that divides the upper and lower reaches of the Willamette River. which is an American Heritage River. The falls lie 14 miles upriver from Portland and were the heart of pioneering industry in the Oregon Territory.