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FALL 2017 ISSUE 02 / VOL. 02
Temperate weather, a bounty of food and a swift-moving river to expedite travel have allowed the Columbia Gorge to support humans for the past 13,000 years. Although the gorge is no longer the easiest way to cross the Cascade Mountain Range, it still remains one of the most scenic.
Klickitat Indian folklore has it that the Cascade Mountain Range was punishment for two brothers who could not share. Supreme god Tyhee Sahale(“ great chief up above”) had two sons, Klickitat and Wy’ east, who fought endlessly. So Sahale banished both— Klickitat he sent north of the Columbia River and Wy’ east south. Sahale then built The Bridge of the Gods to allow his family to meet occasionally, and he put an old woman named Loowit in charge of the bridge and gave her youth and beauty as payment.