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Loowit Falls
whispers down a 100 foot cliff into a perfect pool along Eagle
Creek. Almost perpetually in shade, Loowit is typical of the
hundreds of smaller, mostly unnamed Columbia Gorge waterfalls,
sliding quietly over black, fern-lined basalt.
Loowit is
one of the Indian names for Mt. St. Helens. Indian mythology
holds that Loowit was once the obsession of competing chiefs
WyEast (Mt. Hood) and Pahto (Mt. Adams). In their fiery volcanic
rivalry, the spoken tradition holds that the ground literally
shook and a natural bridge across the Columbia near the mouth
of Eagle Creek was destroyed, forever isolating Wyeast from the
lovely Loowit.
In fact, a
historic landslide created the "Cascades" of the Columbia,
and probably blocked the river temporarily, as the original "Bridge
of the Gods." These rapids gave the Cascade Range their
name, and were the reason for the locks at Cascade Locks. Today,
they are submerged by the slackwater of Bonneville Dam.
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