HCRH Milepost 27

Next up we're stopping at HCRH Milepost 27, roughly halfway through a mile-long stretch where the old highway runs right along the base of a ~100' bluff to the south. Nearby on the north side of the highway is an inexplicably large gravel parking lot, with no obvious signs saying what it's for. This parking lot is the only legal place to park anywhere near the milepost, so our list of the various and sundry sights and sounds of mile 27 starts there.

• Now that you're off the road and can look around more closely, you might notice a small and probably unofficial sign labeling it "The Oasis". I don't know why it's called that. The sign's perched on top of a very official "Camping Prohibited" sign, and there are no other amenities to the place. No restrooms, no drinking fountains, no picnic tables, no gift shop or snack bar, no rentable hammocks in the shade, nothing. It doesn't even offer any protection from cruel desert bandits or ill-tempered camels, so it's not the original kind of oasis, either. If anybody knows why it's called this, feel free to drop a note in the comment section because I'm stumped here.
• Just north of the parking lot there's a sort of low rocky rise covered in trees. If you look semi-closely you might notice a trail or two heading uphill into those trees, and you might be wondering if it goes anywhere interesting. The "Oasis" link above goes to an Flickr photoset including some photos from up that extremely short trail, such as it is. From the top you can see the river, and I-84, and more low-lying farmland that sometimes floods in the winter. There's no indication that, say, D.B. Cooper has been hiding out back there with his money, unseen and uncaught since 1971, although that would certainly explain the "Oasis" sign, assuming he's the one who put it there, which I admit is a real stretch.
• Once upon a time there was a restaurant here. For a while it was caled "The Dell" and was owned and operated by members of the Shepperd family who still lived nearby, and it might have been called "The White Elephant" at some point either before or after, unless that was the place up by the Vista House. Apparently there's a Facebook group for people who grew up in the Gorge, and this is what they've pieced together from childhood memories, at any rate, and the "Jack O'Lantern" was definitely not located here, it was way over by Horsetail Falls. Anyway, there hasn't been a restaurant here since sometime in the mid-20th century, probably around the time the local stretch of I-84 opened. Long enough that National Scenic Area rules would seem to prohibit any new businesses from ever setting up shop here again, even something as simple as a coffee cart or a lemonade stand.
• Meanwhile on the south side of the old highway, the road runs right along the base of a roughly 100' bluff, with numerous seasonal waterfalls spaced across it in the wet season e.g. Cruiser Falls and Huerta Falls, and a popular ice climbing area on the increasingly rare occasions when the gorge stays below freezing long enough.
• The east bookend to that mile-long bluff is right about here, a point just west of Shepperds Dell, where a narrow ravine cuts down through the bluff to almost street level. Looking up the ravine, about 150' back from the highway, there's a seasonal waterfall maybe 40'-50' high that's usually flowing outside of the core summer months, though it's really not that impressive even at the best of times. The creek crosses under the HCRH in an old culvert, then exits a pipe and tumbles further downhill next to one of the most impressive stone walls that I'm aware of along the old road. And it's covered in ferns, at least in the wet season, reminding me a bit of the groovy ex-Weyerhaeuser headquarters building in Federal Way, WA (in suburban Seattle). And on the north side of the road, instead of an Oasis you have a very small area with room for just a couple of parked cars, and prominent No Parking signs. So for the sake of argument let's just agree that I parked somewhere else far, far away and used antigravity boots to drop in here and take some photos. As you might notice on that photoset, I figured I needed a nickname for this spot and came up with "Forbidden Falls", which makes it sound kind of remote and fearsome, like it could be the subject of a National Geographic cover story someday. But the name is like 98% tongue-in-cheek silliness, since it's really just about the inexplicable no-parking signs. The other 2% is just doing it for the sake of alliteration, and also for clickbait value in case I ever get around to doing a blog post about the place. Surprisingly according to the internets there doesn't seem to be a single waterfall in the whole northwest already named "Forbidden Falls", just a "Forgotten Falls" near Lolo Pass on Mt. Hood, and another in the far NW corner of northern Idaho, and it may not even exist, plus Idaho doesn't really count anyway.
• Further east, we finally get to the main event of mile 27, namely Shepperds Dell itself, plus the famous HCRH bridge over the aforementioned dell; and Bishop's Cap, the large rock formation just east of the dell and the bridge. Which, if I'm not mistaken, is so named because the road passes uncomfortably, unavoidably close to it, and if the rocks catch you unaware they might reach out and grope your car and then shame you for tempting them, and then declare bankruptcy so you can't sue them over it. I mean, in a sort of metaphorical way, and I think we'll just move along to the next item now and not explore that metaphor any further.

• Further down the road, but still short of Milepost 28 (because them's the rules), you might catch a glimpse of the historic highway's one and only cow underpass. Now, photos from odd angles can be deceiving, and unused (I think) tunnels under the street will tend to fill up with mud and gunk over time in this climate, and I have never actually owned any cows and maybe I'm underestimating what they can get used to over time, but that tunnel does not look anywhere near tall enough for cows to mosey through, and maybe not wide enough either, and getting in and out of the uphill side of it looks pretty steep and cramped, and you do not want your cows in the tunnel getting panicky when a loud truck drives over the top or somebody honks nearby. It just does not seem up to the job, not fit for purpose if you ask me, and I realize you didn't, and come to think of it the extensive National Register of Historic Places paperwork never actually asks "Did it work?" or "Was it any good?"; it just needs to contribute to the overall vibe of concretey 1916-ness, which it certainly does.

  If you were thinking of switching careers in 2025 and going into cattle rustling, be aware that this might be the spot where the sheriff's posse inevitably heads you off at the pass. At least I don't know of any other passes suitable for cows, over-, under-, or by-, around these parts so it'll have to do, even if it's a squishy undignified mud tunnel. I still say it's a relatively honest living, though, at least compared to contemporary jobs like "influencer", "AI evangelist" or "dogebro".

• Circling back to Shepperds Dell for a moment, there was an interesting series of occasional posts over at Wy'east Blog about Shepperds Dell and the history behind it:

  1. "The Farmer and his Dell"
  2. "Heirs to George Shepperd's Legacy"
  3. "The Big Fir at Shepperds Dell"
  4. "Postscript: Shepperds Dell Fir"

  The first article tried piecing together a bio of George Shepperd, who famously donated the land around Shepperds Dell in memory of his late wife. That post noted this was his second marriage and the first had ended in divorce, and while looking for something else entirely I happened to stumble across more details about the exceptionally ugly and contentious 1893-95 divorce case that once roiled the Greater Latourell Falls - Bridal Veil metro area. And let me preface this by saying I'm not picking a side and not judging anybody, and I have no special insight into which allegations were true and which were false or exaggerated, and we should all recognize that people are complicated and always have been, even back in the 1890s. Also I feel like I need to explain that I'm only covering this episode at all because the key people in the case are all historical figures who have major scenic highlights of the Gorge officially named after them (or at least after their families), and it's only natural to be a little curious about the people these places are named for. On another note, you might notice that the exact spellings of both "Shepperd" and "Latourell" vary over time and between articles. This didn't seem to trouble anyone at the time, so basically I went with whatever spelling each news item adopted.

  • December 12, 1893. "Alienated her Affections". George Shepard (how it was spelled in this article) sued Joseph C. Latourell (son of the town's founder) for $10k for alienating his wife's affections.

    Both parties live at Latourelle Falls, and there was a large delegation of spectators from that section here to witness the trial. Most of them were friends of Shepard, but his recital of his trials and tribulations provoked amusement rather than sympathy. There was no trouble in his family, so he said, until Latourelle began calling at his house. In the summer of 1892 he went East, and while he was away his wife became very indiscreet and attended dances and entertainments with Latourelle, and occasionally remained away from home all night.

  • June 29th 1894: "Latourell Must Settle"

    It was in March 1893, that George Sheppard filed suit against Joseph Latourell for alienating the affections of his wife, but the case was not tried until the following December, when the plaintiff got a verdict for $1000. During the interim, however, Latourell sold his farm and stock for $500 to his brother Henry, and was in a position to laugh at Sheppard when that person got his verdict. Sheppard’s attorney was George W. Hazen, who at once instituted suit to get the property transfer set aside, on the ground that it was expressly made to defeat the collection of Sheppard’s judgment.

    The article goes on to note that the sale was indeed set aside and Latourell was ordered to pay up. I am not sure what to make of the greatly reduced award and am curious how 19th century courts went about estimating the true dollar value of someone's affections.

  • November 14th, 1894 news item, in which the tables were suddenly turned.

    George Sheppard, of Latourelle Falls, will have an examination before Justice Bullock this afternoon on an information filed by his wife, Matilda Sheppard, charging him with adultery.

  • The next day the paper had a longer report on the hearing. It seems the day was spent arguing over postponing the case due to an absent witness, and the attorneys expressing their great personal and professional dislike for one another. The article goes on to note It is alleged the case is the outgrowth of spite work on the part of Mrs. Sheppard., possibly stemming from the earlier court cases.
  • Another hearing in the case on November 20th. Mrs. Sheppard was the first witness, though the article just says "she told her story very clearly" without sharing any details. Two additional witnesses stated they had seen Mr. Sheppard in the company of young Miss Bertha Williams (also of Latourell Falls, and attending the Sheppard hearings along with her mother) going in the direction of Brower, which was another mill town just up the road from Latourell, and this news quickly spread at the speed of small town gossip, though one of the witnesses later denied reporting it to anyone. And as far as I can tell this was all the evidence they had, just two people seen publicly "going in the direction of Brower". Which seems a bit weak, unless maybe that phrase was an oddly specific local euphemism for something else entirely.

    I mention that last bit because the (long-lost) town of Brower was named for George Brower, a local timber baron, though the general public mostly knew him (and his wife Marion) for their ongoing ugly divorce saga. Two earlier attempts in Multnomah County family court were denied on the grounds that hating each other and wanting out was not a good enough reason to meddle with society's sacred institutions and so forth. George Brower ended up selling his local businesses and moving to Colorado, which was the (relatively) easy divorce state at the time, like Nevada was in the mid-20th Century. After remaining there for the required full year, he was finally granted a divorce, and he headed straight off to the UK after that. Where he promptly met and married an actress in Liverpool. When the happy couple moved to Portland, Marion had them both arrested for polygamy. She claimed to have evidence he had ventured outside the borders of Colorado at least once during his year there, which she argued invalidated both the divorce and remarriage, and doomed the newlyweds to many years in jail. A grand jury failed to indict the couple, and the Brower case faded out of the news after that.

  • January 11th 1895, "A Nasty Case on Trial". The Sheppards were back in the courtroom, this time a divorce case, while in parallel George had filed adultery charges against his wife and Mr. Latourell. The article doesn't delve into the day's testimony in detail, describing it as "of a prurient nature"
  • January 19th 1895, also titled "A Nasty Case on Trial". We're told the case drew a large crowd of spectators again. As a little background, the article explains that "The parties accuse each other of all manner of infidelities", and notes that "Nearly all of the Latourelle Falls community has been called to testify in the case".
  • Matilda's 1942 obit listed her as Matilda Latourell, aged 82. Meanwhile the Wyeast Blog post above noted that a year or so after the divorce George married Martha Williams, Bertha's recently-divorced mother. So it's possible that while everyone pointed fingers and acted deeply scandalized by young Bertha, she was apparently covering for her still-married mom the whole time.

  So my big takeaway from all that is that both parties apparently ended up with people they were happier with. You could go so far as to say the people they were meant to be with, if you believe in all that destiny stuff. But because this happened in 1895 and not 2025, and no-fault divorce didn't exist, getting to that point involved multiple years of lurid, breathless news stories and a knock-down, drag-out court battle, and general humiliation in the public eye. And this sort of thing played out in court daily across the country, turning people's unhappy private lives into a cruel and tacky public spectacle, then inviting the public to come and wallow in it for fun. Sort of like daytime talk shows since the 1990s, or putting offenders in the stocks and letting the public throw vegetables for a small fee, or bullfights, or bear baiting back in Elizabethan times. And the worst part is that our new orange president and his followers want to drag the country back to those days. Which they'll do as soon as they figure out how to exempt themselves from ever being on the receiving end.