Say Uncle

The Washington side of the Columbia is old family history – Lyle, Bingen, White Salmon. Grandfather Cody was a logger, dragging his large family of eight boys and one girl up and down the river following work. My father – the baby of the clan – was born in Goldendale just over the hill. One child drowned in the White Salmon River after their car went over a cliff, but baby Bob survived. They lived in White Salmon for many years and did as best they could, but logging was hard times. Uncle Pat, a few years older than my dad was giddy over a girl and finally got the nerve to ask her to the White Salmon high school dance. She accepted. He panicked: He didn’t have any decent shoes except for his work boots.

Uncle Bill, one of the older siblings nearly 20 years older than my dad, set up his first logging outfit near Lyle and stayed put until he moved his Cody Logging Company to Wamic near the eastern slopes of Mt. Hood. Cody history here as well as the Lyle sawmill on the waterfront is gone. Not a trace, overgrown with trees and rushes and grasses full of wildflowers, wildlife and birdsong.

back to Columbia River Gorge overview