Stevenson is a small town on the Columbia River in the south-central part of Skamania County. Non-Indian settlers began arriving in the area by the 1850s and settlement continued through the 1890s. The town became the county seat in 1893 and was incorporated on December 16, 1907. Long a center of the logging and timber industry, Stevenson transitioned over time to relying heavily on tourism. With a population estimated at 1,590 as of 2024, Stevenson has maintained its sense of community in a small-town setting.
At the Bridge of the Gods
Stevenson is located in the Columbia River Gorge just above the river's Upper Cascades. The Cascades of the Columbia were created by a massive landslide that blocked the river's path and changed its course. The river tunneled through the landslide, forming the rapids. For several hundred years a stone bridge connected the two banks of the river above the tunnel, until it was destroyed by a powerful earthquake in 1700. This natural bridge was known as the Great Cross-Over by the Chinookan peoples who had lived along that stretch of the river for millennia.
Native American stories about the creation and destruction of the land bridge are also the origin of the current name for the location, and of a highway bridge constructed there in the 1920s connecting Stevenson with Cascade Locks, Oregon -- the Bridge of the Gods:
"As the Klickitat tribe tells it, the Great Spirit had two warring sons, Pahto to the north of the river and Wy'east to the south. The Bridge of the Gods was created as a way for the family to meet, but the brothers fought over a beautiful woman named Loowit. Their anger shook the earth with fire. The bridge fell into the river.
"Loowit could not choose between the brothers, and some say she perished in the fighting. For punishment, the Great Spirit turned his sons into mountains -- Pahto into Mount Adams and Wy'east into Mount Hood. Loowit became beautiful Mount St. Helens" (Patterson).
Early Settlement
Prior to 1850, there was some non-Native settlement in the area that would become Skamania County, but it was passage of the Donation Land Claim Act that that provided the first documentation of Skamania County's early settlers. The act allowed married couples to file a claim for up to 640 acres, and single men to claim up to 320 acres, and those claims record the names and homesteads of the early settlers, such as Felix Grundy (1828-1902) and Margaret Windsor (1834-1924) Iman.
Felix Iman made the six-month journey from Illinois to the Northwest in a train of 37 ox-driven wagons. He settled at the Cascades in September 1852, becoming the first known settler in the area of the future Stevenson. A carpenter and mechanic, Iman a built and operated a water-powered sawmill, cutting logs from the surrounding forest area west of Rock Creek in Stevenson. Soon after his arrival, Iman met and married Margaret Windsor, who had also come west by covered wagon, arriving in 1852. The Imans filed a donation land claim near Rock Creek on the north bank of the Columbia River. The couple would have 17 children, many of whom remained in Stevenson. Felix Iman went on to build and own the steamer Wasco, one of the first operating on the river above the Cascades, and to build the first saloon in Stevenson.
On April 27, 1852, Dr. Henry Shepard (1807-1902) headed west with his family across the Oregon Trail by wagon train. Shepard was a widower with two small daughters, Nancy Priscilla (1837-1914) and Elizabeth Ross (1840-1928). His first wife, German-born Elizabeth Mattern Shepard (1811-1949), had died in Iowa. In September 1852, Shepard married Lucinda Hetha Nelson (1825-1889) in Fort Boise, Idaho. In April 1853, Henry and Lucinda Shepard filed a donation land claim for 360 acres on the north bank of the Columbia River about two miles upriver from the Cascades. The property became known as Shepard's Point, and today is within the City of Stevenson. Shepard hired men to cut the timber and build a log cabin house for his family. Selling the resulting cord-wood was the Shepards' main business. Henry and Lucinda divorced in 1869. He never remarried. Lucinda remarried shortly after the divorce.
On March 13, 1854, just a year after Washington Territory was established, the new territorial legislature created Skamania County, carving it out of Clark County. The new county's seat was located at the lower Cascades, downriver from the future Stevenson and near the current site of North Bonneville. Not long afterward, territorial Governor Isaac Stevens (1818-1862) began imposing treaties on tribes across the territory, forcing them onto small reservations in a way that led to warfare between some Indigenous people and the new settlers.
The fighting reached Skamania County on March 26, 1856, when Native American forces attacked settlers at the Cascades. The Iman family managed to escape across the river to Oregon by boat, but their home was burned. As Margaret Iman, who was sick, was being carried to the boat, rescuers realized her two-year-old boy was still at home asleep in bed. Simeon Geil (1829-1880) ran back and saved him.
In 1863, Felix Iman and John Nelson built the first small log-cabin schoolhouse. The desks and seats were cut from logs. In front of the school was a small creek that provided drinking water. This was a community project. Children often walked or rode horseback in all kinds of weather to school for three or four months of education each year. Very little money was spent on schools. In 1878, three school districts were formed: District No. 1 (Cape Horn), District No. 2 (Skamania), and District No. 3 (Stevenson). The original school records were burned, and were reconstructed by A. C. Sly in 1907 after he became superintendent.
County Seat and Town Plat
Washington became a state on November 11, 1889. The following year Skamania County's population was reported to be 744 inhabitants. Around that time Norwegian-born brothers Louis (1863-1932), Haktor (1871-1961), and Christian (1875-1953) Aalvik reached the Columbia Gorge area. Louis came first, settling in Cascade Locks, across the river from the Stevenson area. He worked on the Northern Pacific railroad line that ran along the south bank of the river, and on the canal and locks being constructed at the Cascades to allow steamboats to travel from Portland upriver to The Dalles, which would open in 1896. Haktor Aalvik arrived in 1892. The brothers operated a fish wheel (for harvesting salmon) on a raft or barge. The brothers claimed a homestead north of Stevenson and Home Valley. They operated haying and sawmill businesses. Christian owned and operated a saloon and pool hall. Louis also had a planing mill and Haktor a loggers supply store.
Texas-born Jefferson Davis Nix (1862-1945) arrived in 1892. He met and married 15-year-old Nora Ann Bevans (1877-1950). The couple had 10 children. Jefferson Nix built, owned, and lived in the Valley Hotel, the first hotel in Stevenson. He was elected sheriff of Skamania County. The couple eventually divorced and Jefferson much later married Flora Adella Iman Foster (1856-1949), one of the 17 children of Felix and Margaret Iman. Brothers George H. (1848-1923) and J. Momen (1872-1917) Stevenson, who would become the town's namesakes, came to the area from Missouri.
In 1893, Stevenson became the county seat of Skamania County under mysterious circumstances, when an unauthorized crew transported the county records from the existing courthouse in the town of Cascades to Stevenson one night. Not surprisingly objections were raised, but the unilateral removal ended up saving the county records. In the summer of 1894, major flooding on the Columbia River destroyed the town of Cascades, including the courthouse. That town was not rebuilt, although the town of North Bonneville later developed in that area. The 1894 flood, which caused little damage to the Stevenson area although the water rose almost to Front Street, brought one of the biggest salmon runs recorded in the area. One account reported that young Minnie Jones (1875-1962) took advantage of the record run, using a dip net to harvest an estimated $2,000 worth of fish.
Brothers Seymour and George Bell published the area's first newspaper, the Skamania County Pioneer. The first weekly edition came off the press on May 19, 1893, under the editorship of John Ginder. The two sets of brothers, Stevensons and Bells, played a central role in establishing the town of Stevenson. They organized the Stevenson Land Company with George Stevenson as President and Seymour Bell as Secretary. The company purchased much of the Shepard land claim for $24,000 and platted the town of Stevenson on August 26, 1893. By then, the Shepard family had left the area. Lots in the platted town were sold, bringing more residents.
On April 5, 1894, Momen Stevenson was appointed the first postmaster of the new town. By 1896 there were some 28 settlers living in Stevenson. The first store was established and rowing across the river to Cascade Locks for mail or supplies was no longer needed. Momen Stevenson married Minnie Jones in 1896 and was elected to the state legislature in 1900.
Until 1898, there was still only a trail for about one mile of the five-mile distance between Stevenson and Carson, located upriver where the Wind River enters the Columbia. Residents of Stevenson and Carson donated their labor to connect their towns by opening a wagon road across that final mile, with some putting in as many as 10 days of work. The road from Stevenson to the Wind River Valley connected it to the outside world.
Building and Growth Continue
By the turn of the twentieth century, businesses were established serving locals and travelers. Stevenson had saloons, hotels, a skating rink, restaurant, barber shop, print shop, jail, John Totton's general store, and P. E. Mitchell's drugstore that also housed the post office. With transportation improving both by land and on the river, thanks to the 1896 completion of the Cascade canal and locks, Stevenson's logging industry flourished.
Schoolteacher Lillie Gunther Miller (1868-1951) began her first term as Skamania County School Superintendent in 1901, serving area schools including those in Stevenson. During her 14-year tenure, Miller established new schools or districts in areas where distance or lack of transportation made it difficult for children to reach existing facilities. She ensured the buildings were up to current standards for lighting, water supply and sanitary facilities, and playground equipment. Riding on her white mule or walking, she regularly made long journeys to visit the schools.
In 1902, James Fremont "Monty" Attwell (1855-1947) and his wife Bertha Alice Blackwood Attwell (1868-1916) purchased 160 acres from Felix Iman, where they developed the Oaks Dairy Farm to sell and deliver bottled milk. Stevenson's first bank opened for business in 1907 with William P. Christensen as cashier.
Dr. Thomas Carr Avary (1859-1931), who arrived from Georgia around 1903, became the first doctor to practice in Stevenson. The Sly family and others, including the Sweeneys, Taylors, Gillettes, Wachters, Linvilles, and Bevans, also located in Stevenson around this time.
In August 1907, residents of Stevenson petitioned the Board of County Commissioners to incorporate the town. In the election of November 1, 1907, there were 64 votes cast, with 55 in favor of incorporating and nine against. The County Commissioners approved the incorporation, which took effect on December 16, 1907, when the paperwork was filed with Washington Secretary of State Sam H. Nichols. The first mayor was Dr. Avary, and the first councilmembers were A. C. Sly, J. P. Gillette, John Franklin Sweeney, A. Fleischhauer, W. S. Young, Harry Hazard, and C. W. Udell. W. E. Miller was chosen town clerk, S. L. Knox town marshal, and H. Wetherell treasurer.
There had been a railroad line along the south (Oregon) side of the Columbia since the early 1880s, but only in 1908 was a line completed through Skamania County on the north side. Engineers began laying out a right-of-way for a line in 1903, but it was not until 1905 that the Spokane, Portland, & Seattle Railway (SP&S) was organized and construction got underway. Workers from around the world came to the area as part of the project, including Hindus, Scandinavians, Chinese, Irish, and Greeks. Some remained including a Greek crew that lived in Stevenson and maintained a length of the railroad bed. The railroad project pushed the town up the hill north away from the river to make way for the tracks. Streets were graded, wooden sidewalks constructed, and city officials asked residents to keep their cows from roaming the streets. Once the SP&S began operating in 1908 Stevenson gained popularity and more settlers poured in. The saloons flourished until prohibition went into effect in the town, outlawing the manufacturing and sale of liquor.
Also in 1908, Samuel Samson established the first electric-light plant. It started operating on January 25, 1909. Gone were the candles, kerosene, and oil lamps. In March 1909 Samson purchased a building that Dr. Avary had built a few years earlier as a sanitarium, which had subsequently changed hands and was operating as a hotel and sanitarium. By the following year, the sanitarium moved to a different building and Samson operated the Hot Springs Hotel in his building. Samson also owned the first automobile in Stevenson, an Oldsmobile. Cars were becoming reliable and appearing all over the state and water transportation and railroad service were becoming secondary to automobiles.
New Bridge and Dam
With the growth of automobile traffic, planning began around 1920 for a highway bridge across the Columbia, connecting Stevenson with Cascade Locks, which took the name of the stone bridge that had carried Native Americans across the river for centuries before collapsing in 1700. Despite some federal funding, little work was accomplished until 1925, when the Wauna Toll Bridge Company took over the project, completing the steel bridge in October 1926. A Chevrolet Landau Sedan was the first car to cross the bridge when it opened.
The new Bridge of the Gods made history not long after it opened. In September 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974), who was in the area on his nationwide tour following his historic trans-Atlantic flight that May, "flew up the gorge from Portland in the 'Spirit of St. Louis,' passing low over the newly-built Bridge of the Gods. He then turned around and flew under the bridge, before heading back to Portland" ("Bridge of the Gods, Part 1"). The bridge was raised 44 feet in 1938 to accommodate the rising water levels resulting from construction of the Bonneville Dam. In 2025 it remains in service as an automobile toll bridge (free to pedestrians), operated by the Port of Cascade Locks.
The Bonneville Dam was the first to harness the power of the Columbia River. Construction of the dam began in September 1933, about five miles downriver from Stevenson. It spanned the Columbia River 1,450 feet and cost an estimated $81,850,000. Workers and their families poured into the area. They had to be fed, housed, clothed, entertained, and provided other services, and the Skamania County town of North Bonneville grew up to do that. The dam was completed on June 6, 1938.
Moving Forward and Honoring Heritage
In 1973, Skamania County and the Skamania County Historical Society opened a small historical museum in Stevenson. A major impetus was to house the world's largest rosary collection, famously created by Donald A. Brown (1895-1975), who displayed it in his North Bonneville home for many years. Brown and his father were among the founders of the County Historical Society years earlier, and his gift of the rosary collection to the county led to the museum's creation. At the time of the donation, Ripley's Believe it or not designated Brown's collection as the largest of its kind in the world, some 4,000 rosaries. The collection contains rosaries and relics from faiths in addition to Christianity. Brown developed his interest in Catholicism, to which he converted, and rosaries early in life, during a confinement in Mercy Hospital in North Bend, Oregon, while in poor health. In an interview shortly before his death in a car accident, he explained:
"It was here that I saw the rosary being worn on the habits of the Sisters of Mercy. While my love for sacred art seems to have been born with me, the rosary has always held a special fascination for me. I consider my former years of illness a special blessing since the rosary was the beginning of the faith of my adoption" ("History of the Rosary Collection").
On July 4, 1976, Stevenson joined communities across the country in celebrating the Bicentennial of the United States with a day of ceremonies. Activities included a fireworks show, sewing Bicentennial quilts, a parade through downtown, speeches from governmental representatives, church services, and all kinds of games and activities. The following month the Skamania County Pioneer commemorated the celebration, the nation's 200th birthday, and the history of the area and its residents with a "Special Bicentennial-Historical Edition."
The devastating eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, had only a slight effect on Stevenson, even though the volcano is located in Skamania County. The explosion blasted away a side of the mountain and killed 57 people, but the blast blew north, away from Stevenson and the other communities on the Columbia River. Two years later, Congress established the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.
In 1986, another act of Congress created the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area to protect an 83-mile-long stretch of the river, encompassing about 295,000 acres, including Stevenson. The act creating the Scenic Area provided funding for construction of the Skamania Lodge in Stevenson. The luxury hotel, a beautiful blend of old and new, opened in 1993. The resort overlooks the Columbia River Gorge on 175 acres of forested mountain slopes. It has become the largest private employer in the county.
Some of the many tourists who visited Stevenson chose to stay, including celebrities. Fabio Lanzoni (b. 1959), the Italian-born actor (who goes by just "Fabio") became a U.S. citizen in 2016 and purchased 500 acres in Stevenson near the Skamania Lodge to build his dream house. He reportedly spent his non-working hours fishing on the Columbia River.
Other actors came to Stevenson to work, as Hollywood made use of the area's scenic beauty. The Bridge of the Gods has been featured in the movies Wild, Twilight, and The Ride. On July 17, 2023, Charity Lawson was featured in a "The Bachelorette" episode filmed at the Skamania Lodge. The episode was a week full of scenic views, testing of survival skills, and a cocktail party.
Two decades after the small historical museum opened, the Skamania County Historical Society replaced it in 1995 with the much-larger Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center Museum, which continues to house the Don Brown Rosary Collection along with many other permanent and temporary exhibits. In the summer of 2024 an exhibition featured quilts designed and created by Mollie Barnes (ca. 1840-1901), of Whitlock, Tennessee, prior to her emancipation from slavery. The quilts made by "Miss Molly," as she was often referred to, documented her life, communicated with the Underground Railroad, and expressed her love for her family along with tragedies and hardships experienced during the late 1850s. The quilts on exhibit also included several made by her descendants. They were made available to the Columbia Gorge Museum by her great-great-grandson Jim Tharpe, bringing rich diversity to the community.
The history of Stevenson was steeped in timber and logging but now it is a significant tourist destination. The population has remained stable over the past decades, with an estimated 1,590 residents in 2024. The community continues to plan for the future while preserving its past.
