AA-2026-A9DC53
On the image
Someone pulled off the road specifically to photograph a dam, which was a perfectly normal way to spend a Sunday afternoon in the 1950s. The wall of poured concrete sits stacked across the gorge like a filing cabinet dropped into Eden, and the road switchbacking down to it exists purely so visitors could drive to the edge and admire man's improvements on a perfectly good river.
The forest on either side is doing what forests do, growing without permits or five-year plans, while the dam holds back a reservoir that looks, from this distance, disappointingly like just another lake. Somewhere below, a river that used to run wild now runs on a schedule set by an engineer in an office.
The fog rolling over the ridgeline was the only part of the scene nobody had figured out how to control yet, though by the look of the powerline strung up beside the dam, someone was already working on it.
Visually related — by likeness
Concrete Dam in a Forested Canyon, Pacific Northwest, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-A9DC53. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/concrete-dam-in-a-forested-canyon-pacific-northwest-1950s.
@misc{aaAA2026A9DC53,
title = {Concrete Dam in a Forested Canyon, Pacific Northwest, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-A9DC53},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/concrete-dam-in-a-forested-canyon-pacific-northwest-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Concrete Dam in a Forested Canyon, Pacific Northwest, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-A9DC53 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/concrete-dam-in-a-forested-canyon-pacific-northwest-1950s ER -
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