Cape Horn, Columbia River
Carleton E. Watkins, 1867

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Rising dramatically above the river on the north side, not far past Rooster Rock, is the imposing, half-mile-long cliff face of Cape Horn. It appears that Watkins made this photograph from the deck of the steamer. In 2002 this classic image was selected for reproduction as one of the set of twenty “Masters of American Photography” stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service.

The photographs in Wild Beauty were meticulously restored and carefully prepared for print reproduction in order to capture the detail and tonal range of the original images. These beautiful archival inkjet prints are made to order from the restored digital files. Our standard sizes denote the paper size; a small border is left around the image to make framing easier. Custom sizes are easily produced, though, and priced by the square inch; if you would like to inquire about a custom size, please contact us.

Multnomah Falls, Cascades, Columbia River
Carleton E. Watkins, 1867

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Oregon’s Multnomah Falls, the second-tallest year-round waterfall in the United States, is the most famous – and most photographed – scenic feature in the Columbia Gorge. It would not have been easily accessible in 1867, due to the dense forest that separated the falls from the river’s shore. Watkins took pains to find a point from which both the upper and lower falls could be seen in relation to each other. This is the first significant image made of this iconic place.

The photographs in Wild Beauty were meticulously restored and carefully prepared for print reproduction in order to capture the detail and tonal range of the original images. These beautiful archival inkjet prints are made to order from the restored digital files. Our standard sizes denote the paper size; a small border is left around the image to make framing easier. Custom sizes are easily produced, though, and priced by the square inch; if you would like to inquire about a custom size, please contact us.

Islands in the Columbia, Upper Cascades
Carleton E. Watkins, 1867

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In the 1860s the area above the Cascades was one of the most developed sites in the Gorge. Though this image shows little of the development that had taken place, it provides an excellent view of the deceptively placid reach of river that lay immediately above the unnavigable rush of water in the rapids, a hint of which appears at the right-hand edge of the photograph.

The photographs in Wild Beauty were meticulously restored and carefully prepared for print reproduction in order to capture the detail and tonal range of the original images. These beautiful archival inkjet prints are made to order from the restored digital files. Our standard sizes denote the paper size; a small border is left around the image to make framing easier. Custom sizes are easily produced, though, and priced by the square inch; if you would like to inquire about a custom size, please contact us.

The Passage of the Dalles, Columbia River, Oregon
Carleton E. Watkins, 1867

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Few of Watkins’ Columbia River photographs depict nature without at least some indication of human presence. This image is an exception. In choosing where to place his camera and how to frame the view, Watkins portrays a world of elemental states – stone, water, air – a scene so barren as to suggest that this is the way our world looked before living things evolved. Although made in 1867, the photograph allows our imaginations to reach much further back in time.

The photographs in Wild Beauty were meticulously restored and carefully prepared for print reproduction in order to capture the detail and tonal range of the original images. These beautiful archival inkjet prints are made to order from the restored digital files. Our standard sizes denote the paper size; a small border is left around the image to make framing easier. Custom sizes are easily produced, though, and priced by the square inch; if you would like to inquire about a custom size, please contact us.

Cape Horn, Near Celilo
Carleton E. Watkins, 1867

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This escarpment is about two miles west of the village at Celilo. One of the defining photographs of its age, Watkins’ image juxtaposes the raw beauty of the American West with a vision of pioneer enterprise – symbolized by the promise and prospects of the railroad – that speaks to the aspirations of Manifest Destiny.

The photographs in Wild Beauty were meticulously restored and carefully prepared for print reproduction in order to capture the detail and tonal range of the original images. These beautiful archival inkjet prints are made to order from the restored digital files. Our standard sizes denote the paper size; a small border is left around the image to make framing easier. Custom sizes are easily produced, though, and priced by the square inch; if you would like to inquire about a custom size, please contact us.

The Rapids, Upper Cascades, Columbia River
Carleton E. Watkins, 1882

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In 1805 explorer William Clark penned a description of the Cascade Rapids: “The waters of this great river Compressed within the Space of 150 paces in which there is great numbers of both large and Small rocks, water passing with great velocity forming & boiling in a most horriable manner, with a fall of about 20 feet.” Watkins was the first photographer to fully realize the camera’s potential to capture the intensity and power of the water’s passage through the Cascades.

The photographs in Wild Beauty were meticulously restored and carefully prepared for print reproduction in order to capture the detail and tonal range of the original images. These beautiful archival inkjet prints are made to order from the restored digital files. Our standard sizes denote the paper size; a small border is left around the image to make framing easier. Custom sizes are easily produced, though, and priced by the square inch; if you would like to inquire about a custom size, please contact us.

Mitchell’s Point
Carleton E. Watkins, 1883

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Mitchell Point is a landmark on the Oregon side that can be seen for miles up or down the river.

The photographs in Wild Beauty were meticulously restored and carefully prepared for print reproduction in order to capture the detail and tonal range of the original images. These beautiful archival inkjet prints are made to order from the restored digital files. Our standard sizes denote the paper size; a small border is left around the image to make framing easier. Custom sizes are easily produced, though, and priced by the square inch; if you would like to inquire about a custom size, please contact us.

Indian Summer on the Columbia
Carleton E. Watkins, 1883

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Pleasant temperatures lasted far into autumn in 1883. This is one of several photographs that Watkins made on this visit from the south side of the river in the eastern Gorge, looking down the light. The reflected image of the basalt palisades suggests the stillness of the day, with the low water level providing evidence of the lateness of the season. Watkins’ extraordinary ability to capture light and atmosphere evokes a visceral sense of time and place.

The photographs in Wild Beauty were meticulously restored and carefully prepared for print reproduction in order to capture the detail and tonal range of the original images. These beautiful archival inkjet prints are made to order from the restored digital files. Our standard sizes denote the paper size; a small border is left around the image to make framing easier. Custom sizes are easily produced, though, and priced by the square inch; if you would like to inquire about a custom size, please contact us.

Castle Rock
Arthur B. McAlpin and Charles Lamb, circa 1889

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The Portland partnership of Arthur McAlpin and Charles Lamb made scenic photographs as far north as Alaska, including a number of images in the Gorge; this one of the feature now known as Beacon Rock is unique in its use of the human figure. Reminiscent of a device used by the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, the figure – called a Rückenfigur, person seen from the rear – functions as a stand-in for the viewer, positioned as if to say: “Look at this wondrous thing.”

The photographs in Wild Beauty were meticulously restored and carefully prepared for print reproduction in order to capture the detail and tonal range of the original images. These beautiful archival inkjet prints are made to order from the restored digital files. Our standard sizes denote the paper size; a small border is left around the image to make framing easier. Custom sizes are easily produced, though, and priced by the square inch; if you would like to inquire about a custom size, please contact us.

Palisades, Columbia River
Frank J. Haynes, mid-1880s

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Today known as Crown Point, this promontory was sometimes called Thor’s Heights. Frank Haynes was the official photographer for the Northern Pacific Railroad, which by this time had access to the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company’s rail route on the Oregon side of the Gorge, completing its transcontinental line.

The photographs in Wild Beauty were meticulously restored and carefully prepared for print reproduction in order to capture the detail and tonal range of the original images. These beautiful archival inkjet prints are made to order from the restored digital files. Our standard sizes denote the paper size; a small border is left around the image to make framing easier. Custom sizes are easily produced, though, and priced by the square inch; if you would like to inquire about a custom size, please contact us.