Willamette Falls

To travel past the falls, paddlers must use the locks. (Be sure to find out ahead of time when the locks are open, by calling U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Or portage from Bernert Landing down to Sportcraft Marina.) Due to budget constraints, in the past several years the Corps has limited funding for the operation and maintenance of the historic locks. Clackamas County and local cities and organizations are developing a long-term strategy to keep the locks open, but currently the locks are open only part-time.

Where does the name Willamette come from? According to Lewis McArthur’s Oregon Geographic Names, some accounts say that the early word Wallamt was a Native American word designating a place on the Willamette River near Oregon City. The earlier name for the Willamette River was Multnomah, which also designated the name of the native peoples along the lower river in the early days. In their journals, Lewis and Clark used the work Mulknoma to refer to the Willamette River; later the term was used to indicate a Native village on the east side of Sauvie Island. Another interpretation of Multnomah, or Mulknomans, is that the name applied only to the river below the falls, and that the name was a “corruption of nematlnomaq, meaning down river.”