01Summary
Until 1846, emigrants had to raft the dangerous Columbia River from here. The Barlow Road, opened in 1846, finally provided an overland alternative around Mount Hood.
02History
The name 'Dalles' comes from French-Canadian voyageurs: 'les dalles' meant the flagstone-like basalt slabs of the Columbia where the river narrowed and roared through a series of rapids. For thousands of years the Dalles was a major Native trading hub, where salmon caught at Celilo Falls were dried and traded across the Plateau.
The Dalles Methodist Mission was founded in 1838 by Daniel Lee (Jason Lee's nephew) and H. K. W. Perkins, an outpost of the broader Willamette Valley mission Jason Lee had begun in 1834. From the early 1840s until 1846 The Dalles was the trail's true terminus for wagons: the route around Mount Hood was so steep and so timbered that emigrants had to dismantle their wagons, lash the boxes onto log rafts, and shoot the Columbia rapids past Mount Hood to Fort Vancouver. Many drowned.
Sam Barlow and Joel Palmer cut a wagon road around the south side of Mount Hood in 1845 and 1846, ending the era of mandatory rafting. After 1846 most emigrants paid the $5 toll and finished the trail by land.
Celilo Falls, the great Native fishery just upstream, was drowned in 1957 by the rising reservoir behind The Dalles Dam.
03Today
The modern city of The Dalles sits along the Columbia. Sites include the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, the Fort Dalles Museum (in the original 1856 surgeon's quarters), and remains of the historic mission.
04People connected here
05Stops nearby
The Oregon Trail ran roughly 2,170 miles from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City. The stops immediately before and after this one are linked below; show The Dalles on the interactive map for the full route.