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448283.100213 WFF
Additional Vignettes
• Rose Farm—An additional special vignette at the Rose
Farm is included in your ticket. Transportation is not
provided.
• A Séance—is offered as an optional event at no
additional cost.
Reservations & Tickets
Please call the Best Western Rivershore Hotel at
503.655.7141.
For more information call 503.650.1851.
• Atkinson Memorial Church
• Barclay House
• McLoughlin House
• Stevens-Crawford Heritage House
• Music at Carnegie Library
• Marketplace at Pioneer
Community Center
Sites Include
2013
6 WILLAMETTE FALLS FESTIVAL October 2, 2013
Willamette Falls has always been a spe-
cial place. Soon the 26-square mile area
around the nation’s second largest water-
fall (by volume) may become the Pacific
Northwest’s first National Heritage Area,
a Congressional designation for places
that have a nationally significant history,
culture, and unique landscape that
shaped human activity. Initiated and
managed at the local level, heritage areas
do not come with rules and regulations,
nor do they impact property rights.
When Willamette Falls Heritage Area Co-
alition (WFHAC) completes the required Fea-
sibility Study (now available for public review
at wfheritage.org), U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley
and Congressman Kurt Schrader will intro-
duce the enabling legislation to Congress.
Concurrently, WFHAC is also completing
studies for designation by the Oregon Heri-
tage Commission as a State Heritage Area.
The proposed boundaries of the National
and State Heritage Areas include resource-
rich regions along the Willamette River from
the mouth of the Tualatin River, heritage
sites and centers in West Linn and Oregon
City, and iron smelting and mining sites in
Lake Oswego.
WFHAC is a partnership of multiple organi-
zations, including Cities of Oregon City, West
Linn, Lake Oswego, Clackamas County, Con-
federated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Metro, Na-
tional Trust for Historic Preservation, Oregon
Parks & Recreation Department, Oregon
State Historic Preservation Office, Clackamas
County Arts Alliance, Ice Age Floods Insti-
tute, Main Street Oregon City, Willamette
Falls Heritage Foundation, Portland General
Electric and West Linn Paper Company.
What makes the Willamette Falls area
nationally significant?
As turbulent as its cascading waters, the his-
tory surrounding Willamette Falls is the story
of America’s 19th-century destiny: to become
one nation from sea to shining sea. Due to
theWillamette Falls and events there, the Unit-
ed States expanded westward, settled at the
End of the Oregon Trail, and birthed innovative
industries, including the first long-distance
transmission of electricity in the nation.
Its distinctive geology and water power first
attracted native populations to fish and trade,
and then drewhundreds of thousands of settlers
to the End of the Oregon Trail, pioneers who laid
the foundations of government, industrializa-
tion, commerce, and innovation unrivalled in the
Pacific Northwestern United States.
After cataclysmic ice age floods reshaped
this unique area, its fertile soils, wildlife, and
rich salmon and Pacific lamprey runs sus-
tained generations of native peoples. Their
ancestors still fish at the Falls today.
When competing nations discovered the
mild climate, water power, and promise of
plenty, the race for settlement began. The
message from the Willamette Falls area was
“abundance” -- beaver pelts, lumber from big
Founder & Host Of The
Willamette Falls Festival
■ Willamette Falls National Heritage Area — a new title for
the Willamette Falls region?
PHOTO BY ALICE NORRIS
Former West Linn Mayor Norm King, co-founder of the Willamette Falls Heritage Area Coalition, is
one of 20 board members of the Wiillamette Falls Heritage Area Coalition.
CONTINUED / Page 15