Before the Willamette Falls served as the center of Oregon’s timber industry for more than a century, providing an economic boon for Oregon City and West Linn, it was central to the Indigenous people of the region for thousands of years and remains an important site for the harvesting of fish like salmon and lamprey.
Now, the falls – a massive, U-shaped basalt waterfall that’s the second largest by volume in the United States, dwarfed only by Niagara Falls – is on the precipice of a transformation.
The Willamette Falls Trust, an organization bringing together 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, as well as local governments and community stakeholders, is hoping to reach an agreement with Portland General Electric by the end of the year to acquire the site (including Moore’s Island and an area above the falls) for $200 million. The trust wants to create a public access point there…