The Sunken Treasures of the Cascades
A Bingen resident donates an extensive collection of stone tools recovered from the Columbia Riverbed during record low water.
A large collection of valuable, interesting Indian relics has just been donated to the museum of the State College at Washington by W. N. Suksdorf of Bingen, Wash., as a memorial to his brother Philipp, who gathered them from the bed of the Columbia River at low water near the remains of the Bridge of the Gods, famous in legendary tradition and history of the northwest. 'What happened at the Cascades of the Columbia in that distant past, I do not know, of course,' says Mr. Suksdorf, 'but it seems safe to say that at one time the river was much lower than it is today, and that it was quite suddenly dammed up where the Cascades now are. The many stumps of trees in the river from the locks up to here and still farther up tell the story.' The Oregon State Historical Society wished the collection, but Mr. Suksdorf felt that his brother would prefer it to remain in Washington, and so has given it to the State College museum.
“Many of the stumps are still in the water when the river is very low, so that the level at which they grew when they were trees is seldom exposed.”
The 'Bridge of the Gods' legend and the submerged ghost forests of the Columbia remain central to both regional geology and the cultural memory of the local Indigenous tribes who lived there long before statehood.
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