Here There Be Dinosaurs!

Dinosaurs continue to live among us. Well maybe not everywhere all the time. But in special places, like the crocodilians in the swamps of Australia and Florida, or some fish in the depths of the Columbia River that divides the states of Oregon and Washington.

I’m talking about the giant white sturgeons. A few of these “monsters” abide in a series of deep pools maintained by the Bonneville Dam Sturgeon Center. The dam spans the Columbia River, nearly a mile wide at this point. These ancient fish dwell in both fresh and salt water. They are slow growing. Fishing of them is limited. Females must be a minimum of twelve feet long to be taken by fisherfolk, and therefore mature enough to produce eggs—the coveted caviar.

The center has pictures of fisherman from many years ago standing next to mature male sturgeons hauled upright. You can hardly see the average-sized men who caught the twenty-two feet long fish.

Sturgeons are literally bottom feeders. The barbels beneath their chins brush against the riverbed helping the fish determine what’s edible and what isn’t. Their hides are thick and their meat sweet. Due to over fishing, sturgeon rarely reach their full growth potential now.

The fish featured in my photo is Herman the Sturgeon, the center’s mascot, estimated to be eighty-five years old. With sunlight filtering through the trees to the bottom of his pond he looks very white. The younger fish who share his abode are much more green.

Green, as in reflecting the exquisite grounds around the various ponds and waterfalls and lush gardens. The habitat for rainbow trout is full of the longest and fattest of their kind I have ever seen—twenty-four inches average.

Even if you have no interest in ancient fish, or the giftshop featuring both Herman and Sasquatch, you can stroll the grounds while touring the Columbia River Gorge, and maybe venture into the dam’s visitor center where they have native petroglyphs engraved on boulders and a tour of how the Bonneville Power administration provides energy to large chunks of the Pacific Northwest while taking extreme measures to protect the magnificent dinosaurs that they guard.

And don’t forget the dozen or so magnificent waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge, where melting mountain snows and plentiful springs send bright water plunging hundreds of feet to fill pools and meander into the river.

A lovely day trip within easy reach of Portland.