Grand Gallery and Harvesting Resources

The largest gallery in the museum is Harvesting Resources, which focuses on the timber and fishing industries in the Gorge. It also contains a waterfall. Four very large artifacts are on display.

The fishwheel is a replica of the McCord wheel built in 1882, the third one built on the river. It was soon joined by more than 70 others, built on both banks of the river from The Dalles to North Bonneville. Exhibits around the fishwheel explain various fishing techniques. Take the time to compare this type of mechanical fishing to the Native American technique represented by the model of the native fisherman, the dip netter, who is part of the water feature.

The second large artifact is a 1921 Mack log truck, loaded with 3 cedar logs, donated by the USDA Forest Service from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
The third artifact is a stationary steam engine, the Corliss. It provided the energy to run a local sawmill from the turn of the century to 1949. The engine was made in 1895 and has 1,200 linear feet of continuous rope drive, a 16-foot flywheel and a single piston. The engine weighs 32 tons.

Both the fishwheel and the Corliss are operated upon request.

Suspended from the ceiling is a 1917 Curtiss JN-4 or “Jenny” bi-plane, typical of the first airplanes that delivered air mail in the Gorge. The Jenny is on loan from the Wally Olson Family Trust.