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Long ago, according to Indian legends of the inland Pacific Northwest, the twin sons of the Chief Spirit, Wyeast and Pahto, dwelt on opposite sides of the river now known as the Columbia. Mostly, they lived in peace, but occasionally they fought for the attention of a beautiful maiden kn..."
Long ago, according to Indian legends of the inland Pacific Northwest, the twin sons of the Chief Spirit, Wyeast and Pahto, dwelt on opposite sides of the river now known as the Columbia. Mostly, they lived in peace, but occasionally they fought for the attention of a beautiful maiden known as Tah-one-lat-clah.In the heat of combat, they hurled rocks and fire at each other, scorching the land and frightening its residents until the Chief Spirit came back to restore order. As a sign of truce between the brothers,the Chief Spirit built a beautiful stone bridge across the river, not far below the site of today's Bonneville Dam near Portland.Then he went away again, and soon enough, the brothers resumed their quarrel. Tah-one-lat-clah tried to intervene but was severely burned in the fray.
The bridge was destroyed, and the brothers, chagrined, withdrew to the locations where they remain today, as the mountains white explorers later called Adams and Hood.
Tah-one-lat-clah,
now known as Mount St. Helens, also moved away, far from the other
mountains. There she nursed her wounds, and there she remained, even
after the Chief Spirit returned to heal her disfigurement.
It's a great story
(probably somewhat Paul Bunyanized by white missionaries who collected
it in the 19th century), but it's just a myth, right? Atale to
entertain children and maybe teach a lesson about sibling rivalry?
Maybe not, say geologists.
Such myths were once
discounted, but these days scientists are paying more attention.
There's even a new field called “geomythology” that draws on everything
from Aztec legend to Biblical lore in an effort to better understand
the Earth's turbulent history by correlating old stories to actual
geological events.
As far back as 1805, Lewis
and Clark knew there was something odd about the Bridge of the Gods
region. Approaching from upstream, they found the Columbia River to be
curiously sluggish, with deep, calm waters in which the boles of dead
firs rose from 20 feet below the surface.
Aware that the water
couldn't have been that high when the trees were alive, Clark figured
that something must haved......
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