A map of the park was postd near the gate at Bowers Rock State Park on Saturday.
Bowers Rock State Park was deserted when I paid a visit Saturday on what seemed like the first dry afternoon in weeks.
Here’s a video from the scene:
The State Police trooper I watched from afar was looking around for anything that might be amiss. He told me later that before I got there on the bike, he had just cited four people for trespassing and fishing violations.
I dropped in on the park on a routine Saturday ride, and also because a week or two ago, somebody asked me about the origin of the name, Bowers Rock. That reminded me it was time for another visit.
As for the name, I looked it up in Lewis L. McArthur’s “Oregon Geographic Names.” The main library on 14th Avenue has a copy of the sixth edition of this bible of place names in this state.
Just across the Willamette River from the undeveloped park, there is Bowers Slough, which drains an area between North Albany and Adair. The book says the slough was named for two brothers named Bowers, who had a place there in pioneer days.
As for the other part of the park’s name, there was in fact a rock in the river in the vicinity. I found it mentioned in a story in the Albany Democrat-Herald on March 31, 1945.
On Page 1 that day, the paper reported that that men from the army corps — no capitalization, according to the newspaper style of the day — had started drilling into Bowers Rock in preparation for blowing it up.
The army was attacking the rock in order to clear a channel in the river, a channel three and a half feet deep at low water all the way between Corvallis and Albany.
The channel was being deepened to prepare for dredging to allow log rafts to float downriver unhindered.
The government stopped dredging the Willamette in the 1970s, and the river now has many gravel bars and shallow spots.
How about some historical context, provided by the front page of that day during the last few months of the Second World War in Europe: Allied armies had fought their way deep into Germany, and the headline of the day was that Eisenhower called on the Wehrmacht to surrender to avoid further bloodshed.
In the river west of Albany, Bowers Rock may be gone, blown up by army engineers 78 years ago this month, but it lives on in the name of this undeveloped park. (hh)
I have wanted to visit in there when I have been running out that way, but the signs always scared me off. I have never understood why a state park was so inaccessible. So is it a state park or is it private property??
The park is public land owned by the state. The public has access via a state easement along the private road that is an extension of Bryant Way.
@Chris Nelson
Same
maybe next time you or I go by…..
The state should mark the boundaries better for public access. What were the fishing violations? Angling should be permitted in the ponds with a valid license right?
If you watch the video, it appears that the pond beyond a “Private Property – No Trespassing” sign. So it’s clearly posted that you can’t fish the pond.
According to the 1st paragraph, the fishing violations were issued BEFORE Hasso arrived. Therefore, any guess are just that.
The predatory behavior of these scofflaw fisher men/fisher women must be tamped down quickly and with no mercy. Those who cruelly slaughter innocent fish for entertainment, essentially suffocating innocent creatures by foisting them from the source of oxygen they depend upon, are brutish animal torturers who, if left unchecked, will inevitably graduate to more serious criminality. They must be prevented and punished or the Greater Social Contract will crumble. The American Way will grind to an ignominious halt, a community-wide dead end.
Easy there I9 Spartacus! I personally practice “Catch and Release”. Others follow the existing “Bag and Size” limits and actually eat what they catch. Sure there are those who don’t follow the rules and regulations. That’s why we have Wardens. Don’t throw a blanket over everyone who fishes. If you do things YOU enjoy (legally), I’m sure you wouldn’t want someone criticizing your interests.
Just what I’m afraid of. Lots of mass killers among fishermen.
Oh my ! Could it be that Hartman is making a ‘funny’ ?