Moving a Waterfall
Warren & Hole-In-The-Wall Falls
Tom Kloster, campaigning to restore Warren Falls, has written extensively on the history of Warren and Hole-In-The-Wall Falls.
CLICK HERE for for a collection of his earlier blog posts on this subject, some later ones appear in the Links section below!
July 29, 1939 - "In a letter to the Union Pacific Railroad, Baldock describes an ingenious 'trash rack' and bypass tunnel at Warren Falls that had just been released to bid, on July 27."
Kloster, Warren Falls Mystery... Solved!
Tom Kloster, Warren Falls Mystery... Solved!
The project was designed to address an ongoing maintenance problem where Warren Creek had repeatedly clogged the openings on the old highway and railroad bridges with rock and log debris.
...
The Union Pacific had already attempted to address the Warren Creek issue with a flume built to carry the stream over the railroad and away from the railroad bridge. This initial effort by the railroad appears to have been the catalyst for a joint project with ODOT to build an even larger diversion.
Kloster, Warren Falls Mystery... Solved!
Kloster, Warren Falls Mystery... Solved!
These proposals for altering Warren Creek may seem brazen and completely irresponsible by today’s environmental standards, but consider that at the time the dam building era on the Columbia River was just getting underway. By comparison, these “improvements” to nature were just another effort to conquer the land in the name of progress.
These schemes also underscore how visionary Samuel Lancaster really was: far ahead of his colleagues of the day, and some 75 years ahead of the 1990s reawakening among engineers to “context sensitive” design in the modern engineering profession.
Kloster, Warren Falls Mystery... Solved!
Kloster, Warren Falls Mystery... Solved!
October 2, 1939 – Work on the Warren Falls diversion project begins. The full project includes the diversion tunnel and flume, plus reconstruction of a 0.69 mile section of Lancaster’s historic highway and two bridges. In the fall of 1939, the highway contractor built a highway detour road, new highway bridges, and excavated the flume ditch and relief channels.
Work on the “trash rack” and associated blasting for the diversion tunnel bogged down, however, with the contractor continuing this work through the winter of 1940.
Kloster, Warren Falls Mystery... Solved!
"Historic site map of the Warren Falls diversion project (1939)"
Tom Kloster. WyEast Blog: Warren Falls Mystery… Solved! http://wyeastblog.org/2012/01/31/warren-falls-mystery-solved/
"This map blends historic information from ODOT site plans with the modern-day location of Warren Creek."
Tom Kloster. WyEast Blog: Warren Falls Mystery… Solved! http://wyeastblog.org/2012/01/31/warren-falls-mystery-solved/
"Cross-section plans for the “trash rack” design at the head of the Warren Creek diversion tunnel; the odd structure still survives and continues to function today."
Tom Kloster. WyEast Blog: Warren Falls Mystery… Solved!http://wyeastblog.org/2012/01/31/warren-falls-mystery-solved/
"The 1939 construction drawings for the diversion project show the v-shaped vault carved into the lip of Warren Falls, leading to the diversion tunnel (cross-section view)."
Tom Kloster. WyEast Blog: Warren Falls Mystery… Solved!http://wyeastblog.org/2012/01/31/warren-falls-mystery-solved/
September 21, 1940- Work Completed.
Tom Kloster. WyEast Blog: Warren Falls Mystery… Solved!http://wyeastblog.org/2012/01/31/warren-falls-mystery-solved/
