This site will be under Continual construction for several years. New information is found all the time. We will add what we know at this point and as new material is found we will add or change.
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1860s Sauvie Island
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“A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by future descendants”
Lord Macaulay
(a British Historian and Politician 1800-1859)
Multnomah Stone
There are many interesting stories connected with the island. The tale of the Multnomah Stone is one of them
Legend has it that an early settler found a very large Indian icon on his land. It was made of black basalt and heavily carved. Eventually this settler got tired of plowing around it. With the help of some of his neighbors he tipped it over and drug it to the edge of his property and dumped it into the Willamette Slough. Robert Bonser, son of Clinton, spent many years and a lot of money trying to find this treasure. Robert was quite a historian and tried to preserve the history of the island.
It appears that the icon was either on the Benjamin Morgan claim or the original claim of Thomas Redsull. Both were English and part of the story was that the settler was English. The Lewis and Clark story places it near the border of Columbia and Multnomah County. Parts of the Morgan and Redsull claims were bought by the Cholick family. Some sources place the original site of the stone on the Cholick farm and some have it a little more inland.
Another source, when asked about the Multnomah Stone said “Which one? There were several.”
To be continued………….
More information on the Multnomah stone can be found inScreenings, publication of the Oregon Archaeological Society,Stone Age on the Columbia by Emory Strong and Wappato, the story of the Indians on the island.