Oregon’s Willamette Falls is virtually inaccessible. A gargantuan, inter-governmental effort is underway to change that, but obstacles remain
By Eli Francovich, April 14, 2022. If you want to get near one of the largest waterfalls in the United States, get ready to hop a fence.
Oregon’s Willamette Falls is surrounded by abandoned factories, the remnants of the region’s industrial glory days. It’s nearly inaccessible to the public and the regional Native American tribes that fished and gathered at the falls for thousands of years.
That may be changing.
The Willamette Falls Trust is working to open access to the falls and has grand plans for a riverwalk, the construction of which would clean up some of the environmental damage while also providing recreational and cultural access.
The trust consists of four federally recognized tribes.
Site unseen: A riverwalk is planned aside mighty Willamette Falls. Photo: George Shubin
“To see Willamette Falls from the ground you have to go through four locked chain link fences,” says Andrew Mason, executive director of the Willamette Falls Trust. “That is how we are displaying the second largest waterfall in North America. I think that’s a disgrace.”
A riverwalk that would connect historic downtown Oregon City to Willamette Falls was first identified in a community visioning process, which began in 2013.
The Willamette Falls Legacy Project has a simple mission: make the falls accessible.
Turbulent history
After removal of Native American villages in the mid-1800s, industrial interests flocked to the horseshoe-shaped waterfalls, located near Oregon City, the standard ending point for settlers on the Oregon Trail.
“The falls are surrounded by these derelict sites that have been paved over time and time again,” says Gerard Rodriguez, a director of tribal affairs for the Falls Trust.
The reclamation project is complicated and there have been setbacks.
Historic vision: The Blue Heron Paper Mill closed in 2011. Photo: Chuck Thompson
In 2021, the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon withdrew from the Trust, alleging the Trust had undermined tribal sovereignty and citing various micro-aggressions.
On March 17, 2022, the Grand Ronde issued a letter to the Willamette Falls Legacy Partners effectively withdrawing from the partnership and riverwalk project.
In response, Willamette Falls Trust Board Chair and Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians Tribal Councilman Robert Kentta issued a response that said in part: “Willamette Falls Trust is committed to an inclusive and equitable restoration and preservation process that respects Indigenous people and their lifeways, cultures and shared Tribal histories that date back millennia. … The inclusion of all Tribes with deep spiritual, historical, cultural and legal connections to Falls is an important step for this project and should be a common practice at this place. The four member Tribes of the Trust continue their support for projects in the Willamette Falls region that uphold this practice.”
MORE: How the biggest river protection act in Oregon history was created
The Willamette Falls Trust Tribal Leadership Committee comprises representatives from The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.
The associated Willamette Falls Legacy Project is a partnership between Oregon City, Clackamas County, Metro (Portland) and the State of Oregon.
The Grand Ronde Tribe is working on its own reclamation project.
In late 2021, the Tribe began tearing down some of more than 50 buildings located on the former Blue Heron Paper Mill site after purchasing the 23-acre site in 2019.
“We’ve always historically been the caretakers of the falls,” says Stacia Hernandez, chief of staff for the Grand Ronde Tribe.
This position has been disputed by some other tribal entities.
Plans interrupted
The falls are 1,500 feet wide and drop 40 feet, sending a fantastic amount of water tumbling each second and making Willamette Falls the second-largest waterfall in the United States by volume. (Niagara Falls on the U.S.-Canada border is by far the largest by volume.)
Wool and paper mills harnessed that energy. That development cut off public access, destroyed salmon and lamprey habitat and polluted the Willamette River.
Industrial interests have withered, however and the last operating mill—the Blue Heron Paper Mill—closed in 2011. All of which has created an opening to reclaim the falls.
Prime spot: On the Willamette River, the falls are located between Oregon City and West Linn. Photo: George Shubin
The Trust’s plans themselves remain, largely, conceptual.
Regardless, Rodriguez who is a Yaqui Indian from the Southwest and grew up in Oregon, hopes the projects can serve as an example for revitalization efforts on other American rivers once choked by industry.
“For us it’s about healing at the end of the day,” Hernandez says.
This story was originally published on February 24, 2022. It was updated and republished on April 14, 2022.
Eli Francovich is a journalist covering conservation and recreation. Based in eastern Washington he’s writing a book about the return of wolves to the western United States.
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