Death of Celilo Falls

4. Narratives of Progress: Development and Population Growth at The Dalles

4 NARRATIVES OF PROGRESS Development and Population Growth at The Dalles “We have motored past Celilo falls and observed the tremendous store of potential hydro-electric energy going to waste here and have remarked to ourselves that ‘some day’ it would be developed.” THE DALLES CHRONICLE EDITORIAL, 1933 “To me the dam means a better price for everything I grow and ship away and for everything I receive.” WASCO COUNTY ORCHARDIST 1 M en sporting hats that read “Best dam town in the U.S.A.” mingled over a dinner of salmon and cherry pie at The Dalles Elk Temple in the spring of 1952. Earlier they had watched as H. B. Elder from the Army Corps of Engineers orchestrated the first blast in the construction of The Dalles Dam, a “Hiroshima-like” eruption “of rock and mist . . . lingering in the sky, as if reluctant to return to earth.”2 The blast was for show, with the Corps using dynamite along the Washington shoreline for added sound eªect to impress the hundreds of people who gathered to watch this first step in permanently altering the river environment. Parades and banquets accompanied dam building just above The Dalles, celebrating the per96 sistence of local developers and politicians who were optimistic about the eªects of river development on the local community. Dignitaries from Portland, surrounding towns, and the Corps periodically flocked to the town to praise local leadership and to extol the benefits of a managed river. The Dalles Chronicle and the Chamber of Commerce were the two major dam boosters in The Dalles. Members of the Chamber of Commerce represented the business community in both public and private meetings with the federal government, compiled reports about the city, and met with other organizations to orchestrate river development. While the Chamber of Commerce sponsored banquets and parades, The Dalles Chronicle saw the changes as evidence of modernity and growth. The newspaper did its utmost to shape how those events were interpreted by The Dalles residents. Reporters and editorial staª lent cohesion to the massivechangesassociatedwithdamconstruction;thenewspaper also pointed with pride to a new county bridge and a Harvey Aluminum plant with a boosterism reminiscent of the nineteenth century.Growthsymbolizedprogress.Ateveryopportunity,leaders in The Dalles represented the community as the very epitome of a modern American town on the verge of tremendous economic expansion.3 In the narratives presented by The Dalles Chronicle and the Chamber of Commerce, growth and development were orderly, measured by their cost eªectiveness; furthermore, orderly development , facilitated by trusted community leaders in concert with the federal government, was good for The Dalles. Extant records reveal that the physical transformation of the town was a centralobjective .Thesocialtransformationof thecommunity—with the huge influx of new workers and the visible influence of the federal government—warranted fewer comments. What historical records do not reveal is how ordinary people responded to the rapid transformation of their community. The narratives of The Dalles Chronicle and the Chamber of NARRATIVES OF PROGRESS 97 Commerce present development in its most positive light, smoothing over pressures and conflict. The one exception is the newspaper’s treatment of one of the town’s most pressing concerns : who would pay for the eªects of growth—new teachers, aªordable housing, and the building of a new county bridge. Simultaneous with the celebrations was a growing concern over the tenor and cost of growth, as well as tensions between federal and local control. The city’s leaders looked beyond temporary growth—represented by Quonset huts, trailer parks, and transient dam workers—to permanent development represented by new residents, new buildings, and new housing. This comprised the primary conflict between local governmental representatives and boosters, plus a federal government that wanted to consider growth in The Dalles as temporary and manage it with short-term solutions. W. S. Nelson, manager of The Dalles Chamber of Commerce since 1925, was one of the leading proponents for development.4 Nelson joined forces with men such as Ward Webber, former owner of a dry-cleaning business who served as president of the Chamber of Commerce for four terms before being appointed to the Wasco County judgeship in 1948.5 These were men who, in the words of Webber, believed that “the dam is the greatest thing ever to happen to The Dalles.”6 The celebration of the first construction blast was the culmination...