[or-roots] Smelt run in the Sandy River

[Dorothy Wogh]

I thought the mouth of the Sandy River near Troutdale had closed up and the
smelt didn't run anymore.  Glad to hear that they were running up the Sandy
so late as the time I was talking about was in the late 1920's and early
1930's.

I know people in the summer use to jump off the bridge at Troutdale even tho
they were told not too, and many times that was the last we heard of them
either they were injured severally or died.

Thanks to all that wrote about their memories of the Smelt on the Sandy.
Aren't memories wonderful, sometimes.

Dorothy Wogh
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Magbatt at aol.com>
To: <or-roots at sosinet.sos.state.or.us>
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 10:09 AM
Subject: Re: [or-roots] Smelt run in the Sandy River


> Hi Dorothy,
>
> Somehow missed your posting until just now, but oh the memories it brought
> back!
> My dad used to come and get me and my younger brother out of school (third
> grade  Portland, about 1949) and drive us up to the Sandy in our old
Studebaker.
>  People were lined up cheek to jowl, and it seems that it was always
POURING
> down rain.  (What - smelt don't like sunshine?)
>
> The only new towels my mom ever had were from some little "general store"
in
> Sandy.  Daddy would buy a couple to dry us off with and wrap us in for the
> trip home.  I can remember my mother being upset because he had taken us
out of
> school, until the teacher said we'd learn a lot more going for the smelt
than
> sitting in the classroom all day.
>
> Another time he took us out of school and up to some lake and fishing
lodge
> near Sauvies Island (sp?)   There was a great big wide deck/dock that
wrapped
> around the lake side of the lodge.  We walked through the big wide double
> doors, and my brother was looking off to the side, or behind him, or and
just kept
> walking right off the deck and into the lake.  Only about six and couldn't
> swim, so my dad had to fish him out.  Oh well, we caught fish and had fun,
so
> what the heck.
>
> I wonder what the smelt runs in the Sandy are like now.  It seemed the
river
> used to be a solid moving mass of them fifty years ago.    MIdge
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