Sunset Cliffs at Horsethief
by Talya Johnson
Title
Sunset Cliffs at Horsethief
Artist
Talya Johnson
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Columbia Hills State Park (which includes the Horsethief Lake area and Dalles Mountain Ranch area) is a 3,338-acre camping park with 7,500 feet of freshwater shoreline on the Columbia River. Horsethief Butte dominates the skyline standing over the lake like an ancient castle. The lake was flooded into existence by the reservoir created by The Dalles Dam.
The Butte and the surrounding Columbia River channel were carved out of basalt rock by floods following the last ice age. The basalt rock resulted from a series of lava flows which emerged from cracks in the earth's crust and blanketed the entire eastern Washington/Oregon region long before the coming of ice-age floods.
When viewing the cliffs along the river, notice the stratigraphy highlighted by benches rising up the cliffs. Each of these benches, or layers, represents a different lava flow. Some lava flows were hundreds of feet thick in places.
The park contains Native American pictographs (paintings) and petroglyphs (carvings). Some of the oldest pictographs in the Northwest are found in this park. Artifacts associated with local tribes can be seen at the nearby Maryhill Museum of Art and the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center.
For centuries, the park was the site of a Native American village. The Lewis and Clark expedition camped at the village and described its wooden houses in one of their journals. The village was flooded by the waters of The Dalles Dam.
Oral history states that the park received its former name -- Horsethief Lake State Park -- from workers in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who developed the site. The workers thought the terrain was similar to that of horsethief hideouts in popular 1950s Hollywood westerns. The abundance of horses kept on the premises by local Indians apparently gave the workers their inspiration. ~www.stateparks.com
Uploaded
September 10th, 2013
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Viewed 2,795 Times - Last Visitor from Cambridge, MA on 04/26/2024 at 3:44 AM
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Comments (11)
Talya Johnson
Thank you for the features in Women Photographer, Beauty Captured, and Amateur Photography groups!!
AnnaJo Vahle
What a beautiful rocky formation, Talya! I like the intense orange red colors against the blues and purples. Lovely textures. f/v
Nadine and Bob Johnston
Thank You for Submitting your Artwork.... Liked the subject, description, technique, composition, and color... So Today it was Published in the Internet publication ARTISTS NEWS.... YOU or Friends Can use Ctl-C to copy the link: http://paper.li/f-1343723559 and Ctl-V to put it into your the Browser Address bar, to view the publication. Then, Tweet, FB, and email, etc a copy of the publication, to just anyone you feel would be interested. Happy Promoting! :-)
Nadine and Bob Johnston
Congratulations on being selected for a group Feature. Your work deserves the recognition! ...
Ms Judi
Congrats on the Feature...Fantastic and wonderful capture! Vtd ✩✩✩✩✩ =) "Seen in Comfortable Art Group"