Overview
Among the oldest in the nation, the National Register-listed bypass canal and locks skirting Willamette Falls opened in 1873, and have been owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since 1915. Throughout the last century, the locks were well-managed and maintained. Unfortunately, in recent years, funding declined substantially. In November 2011, the U.S. Army Corps moved the canal and locks to “non-operational” status, closing them indefinitely.
National Significance
Willamette Falls is the nexus of northwestern tribal culture and western migration in the United States, and the centerpiece for a proposed National Heritage Area. Based upon a gate design by Leonardo Da Vinci, the canal and locks bypassing the falls retain their historic integrity, but require immediate care. Repairing the canal and locks will preserve the oldest and most intact bypass canal and leaf-gate locks in the nation, and set an example for sensitive care and operations of historic inland waterway navigation sites.
Campaign Goals
- Promote repairs and maintenance, which will preserve the historic integrity of the canal and locks.
- Facilitate future operations of the canal and locks for commerce, recreation, and tourism.
Ways To Help
Donate to our campaign to save Willamette Falls Navigation Canal and Locks.
Tell us why the Willamette Falls Navigation Canal and Locks matter to you.
March 20, 2013 by Peggy Sigler, Project Manager
Our meetings with local agencies and champions have become increasingly positive with encouraging progress and partnerships. While we are still awaiting two proposals for economic benefit studies, we have had some exciting developments, both with our Willamette Falls Locks project and with synergistic projects in the surrounding area.
Both Sandy Carter, facilitator for our lead local partner, the One Willamette River Coalition, and I serve on the Board for the Willamette Falls Heritage Area Coalition. Now seven years old, the WFHAC is nearing completion on the feasibility study needed for Representative Schrader and Senator Merkley to bring a request for Heritage Area designation to Congress. You may remember that WFHAC hosted the wildly successful Festival of the Falls last October and has now hired its first Executive Director; they are also preparing an application to become the first designated Oregon State Heritage Area by year's end.
Additionally, across the river, the partners re-envisioning the vacated Blue Heron industrial site have released an RFP as the Willamette Falls Legacy Project: http://www.orcity.org/planning/willamette-falls-legacy-project.
Images from the other side of the Willamette River:
Please check back often for additional updates. Also, please consider making a donation to support our ongoing work at the Willamette Falls Navigation Canal and Locks. Thank you!
February 20, 2013 by Peggy Sigler, Project Manager
We continue meeting with various agencies and stakeholders to develop insight and build relationships as we persist in the search for a future operator of the Locks. Until a competent agency steps forward with the desire to take ownership of the Locks, I suspect we will not successfully move the Corps from cordial conversations to actively engaged in transferring the Locks out of their ownership. We are soliciting proposals for an economic benefits study and securing the needed funding. Such a study will identify the regional economic benefits for commercial use, tourism, recreation, heritage and agriculture, develop an economic analysis of operations & maintenance, and will lay the groundwork for presentations to local decision-makers. Shaw Sprague of NTHP Public Policy, along with staff from Senator Merkley's office and Clackamas County Legislative Affairs, are researching inclusion of the Locks in the current draft of the Water Resources Development Act legislation. A Locks Index of all known externally-generated reports has been compiled and an internal Corps Index has been requested from Project Engineer Pat Duyck.
Images of the evolving economic uses of the Locks: timber rafts in bygone years, recreation on the recognized Willamette Water Trail, transport of steel and other commodities, tourism in the area with with history...
Please check back often for additional updates. Also, please consider making a donation to support our ongoing work at the Willamette Falls Navigation Canal and Locks. Thank you!
January 20, 2013 by Peggy Sigler, Project Manager
After serious negotiations and extensive planning, the Corps allowed an unmanned lockage to transport Clackamas County's Canby Ferry, along with barges and tugs belonging to Wilsonville Concrete through the Locks on January 8th. The Ferry needed to be moved downstream for upgrading its propulsion system and annual inspection. The county estimates it saved approximately $500,000 by transporting the ferry through the Locks rather than overland. By conservative estimates, that amount could operate the Locks for two years! When work is done, the Corps has agreed to allow the ferry a return passage to its location up-river between Canby and Stafford. Off-record, an unidentified Corps' employee said the Locks will be "shut down for good" after that passage - all the more reason to persist in our efforts to facilitate a transfer out of Corps' ownership! With burly men hand-towing the ferry, tugs and barges through the canal and chambers with massive ropes, the unmanned lockage generated quite an audience, much media coverage, and genuine thanks from rank-and-file Corps' employees for our efforts to reopen their beloved Locks. In addition to the county's newsletter, the event was featured on KATU 2, Canby Herald, and in Oregonian Metro section: http://www.oregonlive.com/west-linn/index.ssf/2013/01/willamette_falls_locks_open_br.html and others.
On a positive note: after denying public access to the Locks area for the past few years for the annual Locks Fest and the Willamette Falls Heritage Area Coalition's Festival of the Falls, limited public access for the Festival in October 2013 has been granted by the Corps.
Please check back often for additional updates. Also, please consider making a donation to support our ongoing work at the Willamette Falls Navigation Canal and Locks. Thank you!
December 20, 2012 by Peggy Sigler, Project Manager
In July 2012, Trust Vice President and Chief Preservation Officer David Brown and I met with Colonel Eisenhauer, Portland District and several staff. At conclusion of that meeting, he acknowledged that funding the Willamette Falls Locks would never compete nationally and directed his staff to work toward development of a transfer plan by June 30, 2014. On December 12th, Trust Vice President Barb Pahl, Senior Field Officer Amy Cole, Advisor Horace Foxall and I met with Kevin Brice, Deputy District Engineer of the Corps Portland District, and Corps' staff Jerry Carroll, Pat Duyck, Jen Richman and Amy Holmes. Verbal agreements included plans to move forward with Section 106 process on the undertaking of the Locks closure, develop internal and external blueprints for creating a transfer plan, and continued external work to identify a future operator. One topic of concern for us was the complex layers of deeds on the historic site; Jen Richman assured us that the Corps has already invested time and resources into untangling the deed search and will continue to do so. A follow-up meeting is planned for spring.
Please check back often for additional updates. Also, please consider making a donation to support our ongoing work at the Willamette Falls Navigation Canal and Locks. Thank you!
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As a former historian for the Army corps of Engineers and current consulting historian on issues relating to water resources development, I feel that the Willamette Falls Canal and Locks is a highly significant historical resource for Oregon. As a key example of the transportation infrastructure of 19th century Oregon, it helps relate the history of the economic development of the Willamette Valley prior to the arrival of the railroad. Its intact features wonderfullly convey the engineering technology for navigation development during the late 19th century. In both private ownership and under the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of Engineers, it has served the economic and recreational needs of the region since 1873 and deserves to be preserved as a part of our history.
Even closed, a visit to the Willamette Falls Locks allows you to see what Locks were built of 138 years ago; see in your mind 's eye paddle wheelers maneuvering through them in times past; and how their restoration and reopening could allow them to continue to be a commercial asset and a heritage center piece for the hoped for Willamette Falls National Heritage Area designation. It is always joyful to look at the Locks for the past history and the future hope they hold.
My first trip through the 1873 Willamette Falls canal and up the four, tandem-lock chambers that lift boaters around the majestic falls of the Willamette had to be one of the most thrilling experiences of my life. You go from the 120-foot deep, roiling currents and sheer basalt cliffs of the lower river between Oregon City and West Linn, to be delivered by the upper gate onto to a wide pastoral upper river--all stillness and green. Going upstream in a small boat, you're wet by the pounding mist of the waterfall through the wicket gates. Coming back down, it's like a bathtub, silently emptying while you relax, hold the rope, and take in the fascinating and historic industrial environment on each side of the chamber. I'm so grateful that the Willamette Falls Locks is finally getting the recognition it deserves and that it may one day be open again, to thrill others.