Willamette Falls Locks is on the west bank of the Willamette River in West Linn, Ore.
The historic Willamette Falls Locks were built in the early 1870s to move river traffic around the 40-foot horseshoe-shaped basalt ridge between Oregon City and West Linn, Ore.
The locks opened on New Year's Day 1873, and were operated by a number of owners before the Corps purchased them in 1915 from Portland Railway Light and Power Company for $375,000.
The Willamette Falls Locks were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has changed the status of the Willamette Falls Locks from a "caretaker status" to a "non-operational status" in December 2011.