The Narrative Image

(So, yeah, it’s just an attention grabbing title.) 0% containment vs. 11% containment Many people commented on last week’s pictures of fire in the Columbia Gorge, expressing grief and sorrow that the gorge would never be the same. The hellish orange outlines spreading before the wind were all too reminiscent of those hot embers we study in the heart of our campfires, leading one to believe that morning light would reveal only a valley of charcoal and ashes. But when morning finally did come, the gorge was hidden by heavy blankets of smoke, and so I was unable to determine the consequences of what I had seen in the night. It was frustrating — and it still is. The fire, as of this writing, is still only 11% contained. That means somewhere amongst the trees, a fire that can spread from Cascade Locks to Corbett in an evening, is feeding and biding its time, just waiting for a favorable wind. Monday was a clear and sunny day with not much wind. I decided to retrace my rou...

In a previous blog entry, Bridge of the Gods ( http://thenarrativeimage.blogspot.com/2007/03/bridge-of-gods.html ), I noted that some geologists have posited a link between a landslide that likely occurred in the 1200s and local myths/legends describing a land-bridge across the Columbia. Current, apparently misnamed, Bridge of the Gods. John Eliot Allen, author of The Magnificent Gateway, writes, “The lobe of the latest (“Cascade”) slide covers about 5 ½ square miles. It diverted the river a mile to the south, and contained a dam long enough, in all probability, to give rise to the Indian legend of the “Bridge of the Gods” Mr. Allen describes the unstable geologic situation like this. “Heavy Grande Rhone Basalt-flows cap Greenleaf Peak and Table Mountain, resting upon 1000 feet of weak, clay bearing Eagle Creek sediments.” The trail I took to Table Mountain starts at the Bonneville trail head. It’s on the Washington side of the river across the highway from the Bonneville Dam’s visito...

“Long ago when the mountains were people…” The Columbia River as seen from vantage point below the current Bridge of the Gods at Cascade Locks The Great Spirit settled a land dispute between two brothers by giving them each territory on opposite sides of the Columbia. The Great Spirit made a bridge across the river as a sign of peace. A natural land bridge on a somewhat smaller scale than the legendary one The two peoples visited each other for many moons, but soon they became greedy and quarrelsome and began doing evil. The Great Spirit was displeased and stopped the sun from shining on them. Clear cutting on the Pacific Crest Trail on the way to Table Mountain The people had no fire and when the rains came, they became cold. They began to pray to the Great Spirit for fire. Cloud shrouded trees at the edge of the Columbia The Great Spirit sent an Old Woman (who still had fire) to the middle of the bridge to tend the fire for the people on both sides of the river. In exchange for th...