My introduction to Oregon was in the driver’s seat of a 1981 Ford F150 with 220,000 miles on it at the end of my trek westward from Pennsylvania inSeptember of 1991. I had my records, camera and clothing in the back. I never brought out the camera, because I was in a hurry to get to my new apartment where my wife was waiting. I hadn’t seen her in 3 months.
I had seen the country pass by my windshield for the previous 4 days, and wearily stopped into a rest area near Pendleton. I ate a sandwich, talked to some fellow travelers, and continued on. I had no idea that I was on “Cabbage Hill”, as locals call it, and was about to be hit in the windshield by a good chunk of the state.
I drove past an exit for Deadman Pass (a fine western name), and started down the hill. Imagine an angel choir singing a long, rising note as the road emerges from the top of the mountain and into open air a mile or so above the valley floor. It was like the heavens opened up for me and my rusty pickup, and revealed for me the scope of creation. Think I’m overstating it? Try it sometime. Patchwork farm fields stretched as far as I could see, and from that treeless height, it was quite far indeed. It put the zap on my East Coast brain that has never stopped buzzing.
I knew western landscapes only from Ansel Adams photographs and Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons. Clearly, I was in for a shock.
I waited until March of 2013 to return to that vista. I don’t know why. I should have done it sooner. My wife an I stayed in Pendleton for 3 days. It was in the days when I still did not own a digital camera. It was a bit of a photographic disaster.
The wind was dramatic and insistent. I brought only large format cameras, which posed a problem. They tend to act like kites in strong winds. I was reduced to using one camera: a Speed Graphic (sometimes with a roll film back attached). I had adjusted the rangefinder the previous evening, which turned out to be what saved me.
Using a tripod was out of the question, because the wind would blow it over. I pulled into the few viewpoints available, grabbed the camera, stepped out into the icy gales, and attempted photography as my hands went quickly numb. I focused camera on infinity by using the rangefinder, kept the shutter speed as high as film speed would allow, pointed the camera in the direction I wanted, and fired the shutter before running back into the car.
When I got the pictures back to my darkroom, the second disaster happened. I had serious issues with the developer I was using, which was PMK Pyro (a modernized version of a concoction formulated around 1860). I should have used a more stable developer. My 4×5 sheets turned out okay, but I used the 6x9cm roll film back for most of the pictures, and those suffered from streaking, and very thin negatives. Most of then are unusable. It was a big disappointment.
As I said, though, the 4×5 pictures weren’t too bad.
This picture is was taken near Deadman Pass road, just east of where the road descends from on high.
I have not been able to capture the scope of the view that I saw that day in 1991. It’s just too big. I got close in my 2018 trip, where I had adopted digital technology, and stitched a few images together.
We also spent some time in Downtown Pendleton. We took the Underground Tour (recommended), hit the antique stores, and visited some local restaurants. I got a few pictures to show for it.
The above hotel is part of the Pendleton Underground Tours. The town had a reputation as a brothel town in its early days (mostly to service the nearby Umatilla Army Depot), and many of the downtown buildings still reveal its secrets to those who know. Note in the “Hamley’s” picture earlier in the post that the building just to the right of Hamley’s that the top floor windows are arched. Arched windows meant that a young solder could get lucky there on payday.
I intend to get back there at some point soon. I want to take another shot at getting the sights on film. I may not even take the digital camera. Who knows? Stay tuned.
–Gary L. Quay
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Technical Data
Featured Image: Looking Down From Cabbage Hill, Near Pendleton, Oregon, Panorama
Camera: Nikon D810
lens: 50mm Nikon AF
The View from Cabbage Hill, Pendleton, Oregon
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 24-120mm Nikon VR
On Cabbage Hill, Pendleton, Oregon, March 2013
Camera: Sinar Alpina 4×5.
Lens: 210mm Schneider.
Film: Efke PL 50 developed in PMK Pyro
Cabbage Hill Panorama
Camera: Nikon D810
lens: 50mm Nikon AF
Hamley & Co, Pendleton, Oregon
Camera: Super Speed Graphic
Lens: 127mm Kodak Ektar
Film: Kodak T-Max 100 developd in Ilfotec HC
Old Warehouse, Pendleton, Oregon
Camera: Speed Graphic 4×5
Lens: 127mm Kodak Ektar.
Film: Fuji Astia.
Working Girls Hotel, Pendleton, Oregon
Camera: Speed Graphic 4×5
Lens: 127mm Kodak Ektar
Film: Kodak T-Max 100 developed in Ilford Ilfotec HC
Working Girls Hotel, Pendleton, Oregon 2
Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: 24-120mm Nikon VR
