Les Hastings to Speak on the Cascade Rapids

The Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center Museum is proud to announce an informative presentation on the Cascades, a series of three, historically important rapids on the Columbia River. Les Hastings, a retired Stevenson High School math and science teacher, will give the talk Sunday, Aug. 26, at the museum. (This presentation was initially scheduled in July but had to be postponed due to a malfunction in the audio/visual system, which has since been repaired.)

“The Cascades were very important to the early settlers,” explained Hastings. “They were the original gateway for pioneers from the east going to the great northwest. The Lewis and Clark expedition did the first pass through of the Cascades for the United States, and not long after that pioneers using the Oregon Trail followed them and opened up the Willamette Valley, which gave rise to the territories of Oregon and Washington.”

But how did the Cascades get here, and how, geologically, were they formed? All this and more will be covered at the monthly “Sundays on the Gorge” talk, which will begin at 2 p.m.

Hastings, a long-time resident of the Columbia Gorge and former board member at the museum, has always found the Cascades an interesting topic, and has given similar presentations to hiking clubs that have made their way through the Columbia River Gorge.

The presentation, which will be held in the DeGroote Theater, is free with paid membership to the museum. The museum is located at 990 SW Rock Creek Drive in Stevenson, adjacent to Skamania Lodge. For more information, please call 509-427-8211.