Vista House is an observatory at Crown Point in Multnomah County, Oregon that also serves as a memorial to Oregon pioneers and as a comfort station for travelers on the Historic Columbia River Highway. The site, on a rocky promontory, is 733 feet above the Columbia River on the south side of the Columbia River Gorge. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Crown Point Vista House was completed in 1918. It was designed by Edgar M. Lazarus. With its marble interior and brass fixtures, some Oregonians at the time derided it as the "$100,000 Outhouse". The original idea for an observatory at the site came from Samuel Lancaster, the consulting engineer for the Columbia River Highway. Lancaster proposed "an observatory from which the view both up and down the Columbia could be viewed in silent communion with the infinite."
Lancaster also suggested the name "Vista House." The Vista House Association was established to raise money for the project, composed of 52 Portland-area leaders. Funding subscriptions failed to raise sufficient money, and most of the cost of construction was paid by Multnomah County. Construction was supervised by John B. Yeon. |
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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zoomed-in view of Rooster Rock from
Vista House |
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After leaving the Vista House, the two RV Gypsies made a quick stop at Chanticleer Point which was created by Cataclysms. Geologists say that the Cascade Range formed 35 million years ago as plates of the earth's crest collided. Then 20 million years ago, molten basalt gushing form cracks near the Idaho border covered 80,000 square miles and shifted the Columbia River to its present location. |
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During the last Ice Age, melting ice dams in Montana released massive floods that scoured this canyon 100 times with waters so high they surged over the top of Crown Point. Helped by these floods, the Columbia cut through layers of stone faster than her smaller tributaries, creating the greatest concentration of high waterfalls in North America. |
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