Columbia River Gorge Postcard

The Columbia River Highway has been built, which dates this postcard to 1917 or later. The fuzzy white thing on the rocky outcropping on the right is probably supposed to be the Vista House, which was built shortly after the highway’s completion. It is so indistinct that I wouldn’t be surprised if an artist added it to the photograph.


Click image to download a PDF of this postcard.

The photo says copyright Gifford, no doubt the same Ralph Gifford who took the photograph of Mt. Hood on the back of UP’s 1929 Mt. Rainier menu.

Gifford took this photo from the same Chanticleer Point as the cover photo on Union Pacific’s 1959 Pacific Northwest booklet, though Crown Point and the Vista House are cropped out of the latter photo. The structure to the left of the railroad in the foreground is a fish cannery, which is also shown in the non-railroad postcard below.


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