The Allegorical Wedding of Two Great Rivers
Thousands gather at the Kennewick waterfront to celebrate the opening of the Celilo Canal with a symbolic union of the Columbia and Snake rivers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Columbia River, the second greatest waterway in the country, has been officially dedicated to the commercial use of the people. The Celilo Canal, the dream of half a century, is now a reality, allowing for continuous navigation from the Pacific Ocean to Lewiston, Idaho. The celebration in the Columbia and Snake river valleys has been spectacular, drawing governors, U.S. Senators, and pioneers. At the Kennewick waterfront, a highlight of the festivities was the allegorical wedding of 'Miss Columbia' and 'Mr. Snake.' Despite the groom, Wallace Stainton, being delayed on a slower boat, F.A. Jones stepped in to take his place. Miss Kate Williams portrayed the bride, with an entourage of bridesmaids representing Inland Empire towns, and Senator Wesley L. Jones performed the ceremony, paraphrasing traditional wedding vows to the delight of the crowd.
“The waterway is now open to continuous navigation from where it mingles its foregathered waters with the flood of the Pacific ocean, to where the Clearwater joins with the Snake at Lewiston, Ida.”
The Celilo Canal transformed the Columbia into an industrial highway, a project that fundamentally altered the ecosystem and ended centuries of Indigenous fishing and stewardship at Celilo Falls. Today, the tension between the river as a commercial transportation corridor and as a living, sacred site remains a central debate in Pacific Northwest civic life.
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