The Passage of the Dalles - 1867

This 1867 boudoir card is very similar, though cropped differently, from Carleton Watkins' famous mammoth plate view of the Dalles. In his book "Wild Beauty", Terry Toedtemeier comments: "Few of Watkins' Columbia River photographs depict nature without at least some indication of human presence. This image is an exception. "In choosing where to place his camera and how to frame the view, Watkins portrays a world of elemental states - stone, water, air - a scene so barren as to suggest that this is the way our world looked before living things evolved. Although made in 1867, the photograph allows our imaginations to reach much further back in time." -- This photo is restored and printed by Old Oregon.