About Hood River 

The City of Hood River was incorporated on July, 1895, and is the county seat for Hood River County. Hood River is located at the junction of Highway 35 and Interstate 84. The Hood River toll bridge spans the Columbia River and connects the city with the communities of White Salmon and Bingen located in the state of Washington. Hood River is located approximately 60 miles east of Portland Oregon on I-84. It is 7 miles west of Mosier, and 21 miles west of The Dalles.

Major local industries include: orchards and fruit packing, telecommunications, timber, software design, and recreation (particularly windsurfing, hiking, and skiing). Hood River also boasts several microbreweries and vineyards. Hood River County is now responsible for the leading production of Anjou Pears in the world. Fruits and timber products are still the major sources of revenue, although industrial opportunities are growing, and the future years will bring even more new development.

History of Hood River

This stream was discovered by Lewis and Clark on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1805, and called Labeasche River, an improvised method of spelling the name of Francis Labiche, one of the French-Canadian watermen. La biche is French for female deer or doe, but in French-Canadian, it frequently was used to mean elk. There is nothing in the journals to indicate that game was seen at this point, and the river was named for the man. In pioneer days some travelers, being in a starving condition, ate dog meat near Hood River, and the unpopular name Dog River was the result, but not because of any suggestiveness of the French name. Later on, Mrs. Nathaniel (Mary) Coe, a well-known pioneer resident of the valley, objected to the name Dog River and succeeded in changing local usage to Hood River on account of Mount Hood, its source. For narrative of settlement, in 1852, see the Oregonian, June 11, 1889, p. 3; May 9, 1881, p. 3; description, May 14, 1903; Oct. 4, 1914, p. 4. Hood River Valley is famed for apples and pears which producers there ship in large quantities. The name Dog River is now attached to a small stream that heads in Brooks Meadows about eight miles southeast of Parkdale and flows into East Fork Hood River. In Oct. 1852, an advertisement in the Oregonian says that a road had been cleared from "Dog River to the ferry" which was one of the first on the Columbia. The name Hood River appears on a map as early as 1856. -- Source: Oregon Geographic Names, Sixth Edition, 1992, Lewis L. McArthur, Oregon Historical Society Press, ISBN O-87595-237-2.Originally a part of Wasco County, Hood River County gained its political separation on June 23,1908 and its boundaries have remained unchanged to the present time. On October 29, 1792, WR Broughton and his men of the Vancouver Expedition discovered and named Mt. Hood, in honor of Lord Hood of British Admiralty. In 1805 the Lewis and Clark Expedition named the glacial stream now known as the Hood River.

Nathaniel and Mary Coe were the original owners of a 319 acre government land grant bordered on the east by (what is now) Front Street, on the north by the Columbia River, on the west by Thirteenth Street, and on the south by May Street.In 1854 the Nathaniel Coe family filed a land claim on acreage now part of the City of Hood River. They were soon followed by the William Jenkins family and the Denson family. Coe was one of the first to plant fruit trees in the Hood River Valley. Apple orchards flourished in this rich valley from 1890 to 1920, and Hood River became famous for its apples. But in 1919 many apple trees were struck by a killing freeze. Farmers replaced the apple trees with pear trees, and now Hood River county is one of the leading producers of Anjou pears in the world.