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Wallula Interpretive Overlook
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A WALLULA INTERPRETIVE OVERLOOK
There has long been interest in the creation of an interpretive overlook at the mouth of the Walla Walla River near the entrance to Wallula Gap on the Columbia River. A variety of partners have now come together on a site for the overlook on the east bank of the Columbia River and Lake Wallula just north of Madame Dorion Park at Wallula Junction, on land owned by the US Fish & Wildlife Service and the Union Pacific Railroad. Access will be provided by improving and old service road from the existing North Shore Road near Madame Dorion Park, to an abandoned railroad underpass under Highway 12. A gravel parking lot will be constructed just east of the highway, along with a pedestrian way under the highway to an ADA accessible raised viewing platform providing an unobstructed view of the river and the mouth of the Columbia Gorge, with interpretive signage. The need for such an overlook was identified in a 1998 Heritage Corridor Management Plan prepared with state and federal funds.
The planned overlook was a Lewis & Clark campsite during their return to the east in 1806, and the site of Northwest Fur Company’s 1818 Fort Nez Perce and the Hudson Bay Company’s later Fort Walla Walla. It was also a traditional village and intertribal gathering site for Native Americans, and displays the early geologic history of the region, including the effects of the approximately 13,000 year old Missoula Flood when glaciers created a lake whose waters broke through at Wallula to form the Wallula Gap and Columbia River Gorge, one of our country’s scenic gems. Its location on Lake Wallula resulting from the McNary Dam energy project is one of the prime shorebird viewing areas in Eastern Washington, drawing birdwatchers from throughout the Northwest. The site also overlooks an historic Idaho gold rush era steamship port, and is the terminus of the northwest's first rail line of any length, the Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad, established in 1875. The overlook will further provide views of wind energy projects on the hills along the Walla Walla River, as well as water quality projects at the Boise mill north of the site, bringing together geologic, pre-European, early European, and modern history.
April 29, 2006 was the 200th anniversary of Lewis & Clark’s encampment at the site.
The partners cooperating in the project are the US Fish & Wildlife Service, US Army Corps of Engineers, Frenchtown Historical Foundation, Walla Walla 2020, Blue Mountain Audubon Society, Union Pacific Railroad, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Washington Department of Transportation, the Governor's Lewis & Clark Commission, Washington Ornithological Society, Ice Age Floods Institute, Walla Walla Historic Memorials, Tourism Walla Walla, Tri-Cities Visitors & Convention Bureau, the Port of Walla Walla, and Fort Walla Walla Museum, among others. Daniel Clark of the Frenchtown Historical Foundation is coordinating the project for the various partners, and can be reached at 509-522-0399, email: clarkdn@charter.net, PO Box 1222, Walla Walla WA 99362 for further information.
For more information, see News, Links, and Photos.
http://www.wallulaoverlook.zoomshare.com/:tools
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