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Columbia River Art
www.marysvillepictographproject.com
The Columbia River is a historical gallery of stunning waterfalls, rapids, basalt rock formations, and rock art that still exist on the walls of stone that reside next to the calm waters of the Columbia River. Not so long ago this river used to be wild and full of life and of people called the Chinook, Clackamas, Watlala, Multnomah, Wasco, and the Wishram to name but a few. Before the installation of The Dalles Dam in 1946 and numerous other dams, the water level was lower and flowed freely all the way from Canada to the Pacific Ocean creating numerous natural wonders that have now been put to rest by the technology of man. Before the existence of The Dalles Dam, there existed a narrow stretch of river that formed a series of rapids and waterfalls one of which was called Celilo Falls. It was along this section of river where fishing was important that thousands of images created by people that lived along its bank that are now buried underneath the motionless waters that make up the Columbia River. Today we are fortunate that enough of these images were created high on the rocks above the current water level or were removed from their lower locations that are now underwater as a means of cultural preservatoin. These images were painted or carved into stone from anywhere between 200 to 10,000 years ago are now called pictographs and petroglyphs.
PICTOGRAPHS
PETROGLYPHS
Pictographs are painting on stone that traditionally were made with a natural earth pigment and a binder such as egg yolk, beeswax, plant oils / resins, and animal hides/fats/oils. One of the primary binders used by the tribes along the Columbia River was that of salmon eggs that were dried in the sun, chewed, and then mixed with the earth pigments to be made into paint. The pigments and binders were found within the natural environment. The colors most often found in these pictographs are red, white, yellow, and black. The red consists primarily of hematite or red iron oxide. The white pigments consists primarily of some form of chalk such as gypsum, limestone, or shells that were ground up and used for paint. The black consists either of manganese oxide which is a hard black stone or of charcoal made from willow or devil's club. Yellow consists of limonite otherwise known as yellow iron oxide.
Petroglyphs are carvings in stone that traditionally were made by pecking a stone hammer or chisel containing a harder stone such as quartz that is struck against a softer stone such as basalt. The process is time consuming and requires much diligence to create stylized images that are as breath taking as the ones found in the Columbia River Gorge. Petroglyphs are usually considered two dimensional carvings into a flat surface of stone. There are numerous carvings in basalt that are three dimensional, where the stone was carved on all sides giving more of a sculptural aspect in design than the petroglyphs do. Regardless of whether they are two dimensional or three dimensional, the carvings are a physical record of the creativity of a culture that used the natural resources of the environment around them as the materials in which to create, but also the canvas in which to paint or carve upon.
Petroglyph from Willamette Falls that now is at the Oregon Territory Musuem in Oregon City
Elk Pictograph found near The Dalles Dam still in its orginal location
To view a gallery of pictographs or petroglyphs of the Columbia River click on an image below.