The Dalles, Oregon

The Dalles /ˈdælz/ is the county seat and largest city of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 13,620 at the 2010 census, and is the second largest city on the Oregon side of the Columbia River after Portland.

History

The site of what is now the city of The Dalles was a major Native American trading center for at least 10,000 years. The general area is one of the continent's most significant archaeological regions.Lewis and Clark camped near Mill Creek on October 25–27, 1805, and recorded the Native American name for the creek as Quenett.

Etymology

The name of the city comes from the French word dalle (meaning either "sluice" (akin to English "dale" and German T[h]al, "valley") or "flagstone" and referring to the columnar basalt rocks carved by the river, in voyageur French used to refer to rapids), which was used by the French-Canadian employees of the North West Company to refer to the rapids of the Columbia River between the present-day city and Celilo Falls. Also in the same area was the Petite Dalles or Little Dalles, or Short Narrows.