Multnomah Falls

Oregon's tallest waterfall at 620 feet, the second-tallest year-round waterfall in the United States, located in the Columbia River Gorge.

Multnomah Falls plunges 620 feet in two major steps through the Columbia River Gorge, making it the tallest waterfall in Oregon and one of the most visited natural sites in the Pacific Northwest. The upper falls drops 542 feet, followed by a nine-foot gradual descent and then a lower falls of 69 feet. Formed approximately 15,000 years ago during the catastrophic Missoula Floods that carved the Columbia River Gorge, the falls draw over two million visitors annually. In the early twentieth century, lumber magnate Simon Benson financed Italian stonemasons to construct a viewing bridge spanning the falls at a height of 105 feet, and on Labor Day 1915, Benson donated over 1,400 acres of surrounding land, including nearby Wahkeena Falls, to the city of Portland. The Multnomah Falls Lodge and surrounding footpaths were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

The haunting of Multnomah Falls is rooted in a legend of the Multnomah people, the Native American tribe for whom the falls are named. According to the story, the head chief of the Multnomah had lost all of his sons in warfare and cherished his only remaining child, a beautiful young daughter. He chose her husband with great care, selecting a young chief from the neighboring Clatsop people, and the two fell deeply in love. A grand celebration with competitions and feasting was planned.

But before the wedding could take place, a terrible sickness swept through the tribe. The children and the elderly died first, but soon even the young and strong were succumbing to the plague. The chief summoned the eldest medicine man from the mountain, who revealed an ancient prophecy: a time would come when a plague would fall upon the people, and there would be no survivors unless an innocent daughter of a chief willingly sacrificed her life to the Great Spirit. The chief refused to allow it, unwilling to lose his last surviving child.

When the young woman discovered that her beloved Clatsop husband-to-be had also fallen ill with the sickness, she slipped away alone to the highest cliff above the river. She sought a sign from the Great Spirit and witnessed the full moon rise in broad daylight on the distant horizon, which she accepted as confirmation of what she must do. She cast herself from the cliff, falling to her death on the rocks below. The following day, every member of the tribe who had been stricken with the plague recovered. When her lover found her broken body at the base of the cliff, the grieving father called upon the Great Spirit, and immediately a pure stream of crystal water cascaded over the cliff face, flowing continuously ever since.

Visitors to Multnomah Falls have reported seeing the spirit of a young woman in white walking the path to the cliff top, following the same route the maiden took to her sacrifice. Within the mist thrown up by the falling water, some witnesses describe seeing a silvery stream separate from the main cascade and take on the form of a woman, which according to tradition represents the Great Spirit's acceptance of the maiden's offering. The apparition is most often reported in the early morning and at twilight, when the mist is thickest and the light plays across the falling water in shifting patterns. Some visitors describe an overwhelming sense of sadness near the base of the falls that they attribute to the maiden's lingering presence, while others report feeling a deep peace, as though the sacrifice that created the falls has imbued the place with a protective calm.