Celilo Falls and Early Oregon: Long before any fort was built, the area of The Dalles was a thriving gathering place for Native American tribes. For over 10,000 years, Indigenous peoples converged at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River to fish and trade, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited regions in North America oregonencyclopedia.org. The Wasco (Wasq’ó-pam) people lived in this area; their descendants are part of today’s Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs oregonencyclopedia.org. When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark passed through in 1805, they noted the treacherous rapids and established a camp (Rock Fort Camp) at The Dalles during their journey oregonencyclopedia.org. The very name “The Dalles” comes from French-Canadian fur traders, les dalles, describing the columnar basalt narrows of the river oregonencyclopedia.org. By the 1830s and 1840s, this area had also drawn missionaries – Daniel Lee and Henry K.W. Perkins set up the Wascopam Mission in 1838 to minister to local tribes. Their outpost, along with Marcus and Narcissa Whitman’s mission in Walla Walla (est. 1836), offered aid to the growing stream of overland emigrants arriving each fall via the Oregon Trail.
Oregon Trail Gateway: By the 1840s, The Dalles had become a critical junction for pioneers. It marked the end of the overland Oregon Trail – wagon travelers could go no further west along the river’s south bank because of the Cascade Mountains barrier. From The Dalles, emigrants had to make a choice: build rafts to float down the Columbia River’s dangerous rapids or wait for transport to Fort Vancouver, or detour south over the rugged new Barlow Road (opened in 1846) to bypass Mount Hood oregonencyclopedia.org. Thousands of emigrants arrived exhausted, often ill and starving, needing assistance. Mission stations at The Dalles and Walla Walla became humanitarian waypoints, helping “starving, ill, and often desperate emigrants” facing the last obstacle of their journey The influx of settlers and their wagons across Indigenous lands, however, brought dire consequences for Native communities. Unlike transient fur traders or missionaries, these pioneers came to stay – bringing plows, livestock, families, and unfortunately, new diseases. Epidemics of measles, smallpox, and other illnesses ravaged local tribes who lacked immunity. In 1847, a measles outbreak led to tragedy at the Whitman Mission: Dr. Whitman saved settler children but could not cure Cayuse Indian children, leading to suspicions that he was poisoning Natives. In desperation and grief, Cayuse warriors attacked the mission, killing the Whitmans and others. This Whitman Massacre and its aftermath (the Cayuse War of 1848) alarmed American authorities and settlers, prompting calls for a stronger U.S. military presence in the region.
Oregon Territory and Manifest Destiny: In 1848, the United States formally created Oregon Territory, asserting control after settling a boundary with Britain (at latitude 49° by the 1846 treaty) history.com. The American drive westward was fueled by Manifest Destiny, the widespread belief that Americans were divinely destined to spread their democracy and civilization across the continent. Expansionist politicians like President James K. Polk embraced this ideology – Polk even campaigned with the slogan “54°40′ or fight!” to assert U.S. claims over all Oregon Country up to the Alaska line history.com. While cooler heads prevailed (Oregon was split with Britain at the 49th parallel), thousands of settlers were enticed by promises of fertile land. The Donation Land Act of 1850 offered free acreage to American settlers in Oregon, accelerating “Oregon Fever.” This rapid influx of colonists, justified by manifest destiny rhetoric, led to rising tensions and conflicts with Native peoples. By the early 1850s, the U.S. territorial government pressured tribes into treaties: in 1855, local tribes including the Wasco and Warm Springs peoples were compelled to sign treaties ceding vast lands and confining themselves to reservations (such as the Warm Springs Reservation) oregonencyclopedia.org. Many Native families were removed from their ancestral fishing sites at The Dalles, even as some rights (like tribal salmon fishing at Celilo) were reserved by treaty and continued for another century.
Establishment of Fort Dalles (1850–1856): In response to these unfolding events, the U.S. Army arrived to secure the Oregon Trail route and protect American interests. A small post was first established at The Dalles in 1850. Initially called Camp Drum (after Lt. Simon H. Drum, an Army officer killed in the Mexican–American War) and then Fort Drum, it was renamed Fort Dalles in 1853 oregonencyclopedia.org. The site chosen was a bluff above the Columbia River near the old mission. Early on, Fort Dalles was a rudimentary frontier outpost. The first garrison, two companies of U.S. Mounted Rifles, found only the old Wascopam mission buildings available for shelter – wholly inadequate for military needs oregonencyclopedia.org. Soldiers and local settlers hastily erected makeshift structures: a log officers’ quarters, a small frame barracks for enlisted men, a storehouse, stables, and workshops for a blacksmith and carpenter oregonencyclopedia.org. Lieutenant Lawrence Kip, arriving in 1855, described these original buildings as “remarkably primitive”, noting that “little attention had been bestowed upon their architecture”oregonencyclopedia.org. In essence, Fort Dalles in its first years was a rough cluster of cabins and sheds, offering only basic shelter from the harsh winters and hot summers of the Columbia Plateau.
Despite its humble beginnings, Fort Dalles occupied a strategic position. It sat at the gateway to the Inland Empire, guarding the corridor between the Cascade Mountains and the high plateau. By the mid-1850s, it wasn’t just pioneers passing through. The discovery of gold in eastern Oregon and Washington (beginning in the early 1850s) turned The Dalles into a key supply link between mining regions and the Willamette Valley. Steamboats began running between Portland and The Dalles, ferrying prospectors upriver and hauling gold ore downriver oregonencyclopedia.org. Fort Dalles, as a U.S. Army post, helped provide a semblance of law and order amid the influx of miners and fortune-seekers.
Indian Wars and Fort Expansion (1855–1858): Tensions between Americans and Native peoples reached a boiling point in 1855 with the outbreak of the Yakima (Yakama) War. Following the 1855 treaties, many tribes were frustrated by encroachments on their lands and failures of the government to prevent miners and settlers from trespassing. In late 1855, conflicts erupted in the Yakima Valley to the north. Fort Dalles suddenly became the forward headquarters for U.S. military campaigns east of the Cascade Mountains oregonencyclopedia.org. General John E. Wool, commander of the Army’s Pacific Department, ordered a major expansion of Fort Dalles at the end of 1855 oregonencyclopedia.org. By November 30, 1855, Wool directed that Fort Dalles be built up to serve as a major depot and staging base, with new permanent structures: officers’ quarters, enlisted barracks, a hospital, guardhouse, and expanded stables oregonencyclopedia.org. At that time, the fort’s manpower swelled – about 575 U.S. Army soldiers were stationed there (companies from the 4th Infantry, 3rd Artillery, and 1st Dragoons) oregonencyclopedia.org. In January 1856, the newly arrived 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment was ordered to make Fort Dalles its regimental headquarters under Colonel George Wright, concentrating troops there for campaigns into the interior oregonencyclopedia.org. From Fort Dalles, Army units fanned out on expeditions against Yakama, Palouse, and other tribes in 1856–1858, and the fort became the primary supply depot supporting new posts being established such as Fort Walla Walla (in Washington Territory) and Fort Simcoe (Yakima region)
It was during this period, in the heat of war, that Fort Dalles underwent a dramatic transformation – from a cluster of log huts to a more elaborate, even architecturally ambitious, military complex. Assistant Quartermaster Captain Thomas Jordan was put in charge of constructing permanent buildings in 1856–57 oregonencyclopedia.org. He had an unlikely partner in this effort: his civilian clerk, a young German immigrant named Louis Scholl, who happened to be a talented draftsman and artist Jordan and Scholl drew inspiration from a popular architectural pattern book by Andrew Jackson Downing, adapting the East Coast “Picturesque” Gothic cottage style to the needs of a frontier fortoregonencyclopedia.org. The result was truly unique for an Army post. By 1857, plans were in place for fourteen new buildings laid out in an octagonal arrangement around a central parade ground oregonencyclopedia.org. These included an imposing two-story commanding officer’s residence, separate quarters for captains and lieutenants, a Surgeon’s Quarters, an adjutant’s office, commissary and quartermaster storehouses, a guardhouse, and new barracks and stables oregonencyclopedia.org. In an era when most Western forts were simple blockhouses or plain log structures, Fort Dalles was to be an architectural showpiece.
A Gothic Revival Outpost: The designs featured hallmark Gothic Revival elements: pointed gables, decorative bargeboards, bay windows and porches, board-and-batten siding, and clustered brick chimneys oregonencyclopedia.org Scholl effectively turned frontier military buildings into charming Victorian cottages – scaled larger for Army use but still adorned with stylish touches. For example, the Surgeon’s Quarters (the post hospital residence) was based on Downing’s “Symmetrical Bracketed Cottage” plan, complete with an arched front doorway and ornamental trim oregonencyclopedia. As construction progressed, Fort Dalles began drawing national attention. Some praised it as an oasis of civility on the rugged frontier, but others criticized it as overly extravagant for a remote military station. One visiting officer’s wife, Julia Gillis, heard that Fort Dalles boasted “the best quarters for officers on this coast,” a testament to the comfort and quality of the new houses oregonencyclopedia.org. On the other hand, Army brass in California were alarmed at the costs. The Deputy Quartermaster General grumbled that the ornate Gothic cottages were “entirely unsuited to a military post on the frontier”oregonencyclopedia.org. Indeed, the price tag raised eyebrows: the post’s construction expenses from 1856–1858 totaled about $125,365, which Scholl and Jordan hastened to point out was actually less than what had been spent on other Pacific Coast forts like Fort Vancouver or Benicia in the same period oregonencyclopedia.org. A single house at Fort Dalles could cost several thousand dollars – Colonel Wright’s own residence reportedly cost around $22,000, a vast fortune in those days, for which Wright was sharply criticized by the government
Despite the criticisms, by 1858 Fort Dalles had been remade into what some dubbed the “Leavenworth of the Pacific,” after the large Army post in Kansas oregonencyclopedia.org. The graceful, rustic Gothic buildings encircled the parade ground, built with lumber milled on site and stone quarried locally. Many materials had to be hauled long distances by wagon – even some finished woodwork was packed over 100 miles from Fort Dalles to supply Fort Simcoe, illustrating how Fort Dalles acted as the logistical hub for the region.
End of an Era: Ironically, just as the fort reached its peak in appearance, its original purpose was waning. In 1858, Colonel George Wright decisively defeated hostile Yakama and allied tribes in a series of battles (such as the Battle of Four Lakes). The conclusion of the Yakima War in late 1858 removed much of the immediate “Indian threat” that had justified a large garrison oregonencyclopedia.org. The very next year, General William S. Harney, now commanding the Department of Oregon, suspended further construction at Fort Dalles in April 1859 oregonencyclopedia.org. The expensive building program came to a halt. Oregon, meanwhile, achieved statehood in 1859, transitioning from territory to the 33rd state. By that time, Fort Dalles had fulfilled its role in the tumultuous pre-Civil War chapter of the Pacific Northwest. It had safeguarded wagon train emigrants, anchored U.S. Army campaigns during the Indian wars of the 1850s, and helped establish American civil authority (for instance, Wasco County was created in 1854 with Dalles City as the county seat oregonencyclopedia.org). The first Wasco County Courthouse opened in 1859 not far from the fort – the first Territorial courthouse west of the Rockies oregonencyclopedia.org – symbolizing that a civilian rule of law had arrived on the once-lawless frontier.
In our next post, we will explore what life was like at Fort Dalles during the 1860s, the Civil War period, and how the fort’s story continued through daily life, military medicine, and the eventual closing of the fort.
Sources: Native trade and Celilo Fallsoregonencyclopedia.org; Whitman Manifest Destiny and Oregon Territoryhistory.com; The Dalles as Oregon Trail end and gold linkoregonencyclopedia.orgoregonencyclopedia.org; Fort Dalles establishment and early structuresoregonencyclopedia.org; Fort expansion and Yakima War roleoregonencyclopedia.orgoregonencyclopedia.org; Louis Scholl and Gothic Revival architectureoregonencyclopedia.orgoregonencyclopedia.org; Julia Gillis quote and cost criticismsoregonencyclopedia.org; Fort construction costsoregonencyclopedia.org; Harney halts constructionoregonencyclopedia.org; Fort Dalles strategic decline after 1858oregonencyclopedia.org; Wasco County and courthouseoregonencyclopedia.org.
