Construction & History
The People's Transportation Company built Willamette Falls Locks in the early 1870s to move river traffic around the falls. The falls are created when the Willamette River at Oregon City spills about 40 feet over a rock basaltic horseshoe-shaped ridge. The state of Oregon raised $200,000 in gold bonds to help pay for the project.
The lock chambers are made from locally quarried stones ranging in size from 5 feet to 15 feet high. The massive stonework reflects construction methods used before concrete technology was developed; the lock walls have remained watertight for more than 130 years.
Willamette Falls Locks opened on New Year's Day 1873. The locks were operated by a number of owners before the Corps purchased the locks in 1915 from Portland Railway Light and Power Company for $375,000. Following the purchase, the Corps began a series of renovations, which were completed in 1921.
Since the 1920s Willamette Falls Locks has continued to move commerce, log rafts and, with the increased emphasis on small recreational craft.
The locks helped transform the development of Oregon's pioneer society into a young, productive state and profoundly improved river transportation In the Willamette Valley.
Between 1940 and 1970 an average of 1.5 million tons of commerce, (mostly log rafts), transited the lock annually. By the 1970s commerce traffic had subsided and today mainly small pleasure boats use the locks.
Sepia-ton photo of 1874 construction phase of the lock, river on left, contruction on right
In 1974 Willamette Falls Locks was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and in 1991, it was designated as a State Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the History and Heritage Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The designation is for the locks' status as Oregon's first water resources development project.
Additional Historical Photos:
