wshram.html

The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., March 18, 1926, page 4

WISHRAM

Fallbridge is the obvious and unromantic name which has been applied to the little town in Washington at the end of the bridge above Celilo Falls, on the Columbia. Officials of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle railway announced that this bromidic appellation is to be discarded and that the old Indian name of Wishram is to be restored.
The modern town is on the site of an old Indian metropolis, a far western version of a combined Anthens and Chicago, since here are and commerce attained a development unknown in the ordinary Indian village. Lewis and Clark found a settlement of 21 wooden houses, the first seen since leading Illinois. The architecture, while simple and primitive, was yet far more ambitious than was the usual among the Indians. It anticipated the modern duplex, since in buildings 20 to 30 feet in size, with timbered walls and roofs rising above a six or eight foot excavation, were housed two or sometimes three families, each with its own fire. Dried salmon occupied half of the room and low bunks covered with mats served as furniture.
Living in these luxurious quarters where the Echeloots, a tribe of the Upper Chinooks, and their prosperity is shown by the estimated stock of 10,000 pounds of dried salmon. Even at the time of Lewis and Clark's visit, their commerce with tribes of the lower river had brought some bits of the white man's goods, a sailors jacket, a sword and some pieces of blue and scarlet cloth.
Lewis and Clark's arrival was signalized by the first "old fashioned dance" in the Oregon country. In all probability the white man's fiddle and the white man's jig made their debut in Wishram on the evening of October 24, 1805 -- another reason for holding the spot a place of historic interest.
In all seriousness, the movement to bring back the Indian names to their appropriate places, before their memory shall have entirely passed away cannot be too much commended. A cursory glance at the postal guide shown how meager has been the originality and inventiveness of those first comers who have inflicted names upon many hills, streams and towns. With the wealth of Indian nomenclature at our command, there is no reason why any place in the Northwest should bear a meaningless or hackneyed name. -- Telegram.