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NORTH BONNEVILLEThis is a charming community with an absolutely amazing history. The town was "thrown together", then buried and drowned, then moved and re-built. Read on.
(Text taken from skamaniacounty.org. TTG)
The City of North Bonneville is the only other incorporated community in the County. It was located on the site of the former community of lower Cascades in 1984. At one time Cascade was the largest town in the Washington Territory and was an important steamboat stop and terminus for the portage railroad that transported goods and people around the Cascade rapids on the Columbia River. Following the 1894 flood, a small community continued to exist and it sprang back to life as North Bonneville in 1933 when work began on Bonneville Dam, the first hydroelectric dam on the Columbia River. North Bonneville was a spontaneously assembled community, built with whatever materials were available and put together in a rush to meet the needs of construction workers arriving by the hundreds in the area. When the Bonneville Project was completed in 1938, the town remained. The town was incorporated in 1935. Construction of a second powerhouse at Bonneville Dam began in the mid-1970's. The site of the new powerhouse covered over 90 percent of the town of North Bonneville. The town was relocated west of the old town on Hamilton Island and south of Greenleaf Slough. Site selection and design for the new North Bonneville were a result of intensive multi-disciplinary planning. The new town was dedicated in 1978. ![]() Columbia River just below North Bonneville 1913
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