The Dalles, Oregon became a thriving community in the late 1850s. There was steam ship traffic along the Columbia River, and it was a hub for stage and freight traffic to the Oregon interior. The large traffic passing into and out of the community led to the establishment of hotels to serve the needs of travelers. The discovery of gold, in the 1860s in eastern Oregon and Idaho was the making of The Dalles. The steamers from Portland ran with capacity loads to The Dalles. The streets were full of pack trains going to the mines. Stages and wagons were soon heading for the mines. All business houses made money and were kept busy. In 1857 the Umatilla House, under A.J. Nixon, prop., was the city’s leading hotel. In 1863 a short rail lie was built around Celilo Falls and made travel easier to The Dalles.

The hotel was taken over in 1860 by Major Dan Handley and Col. N.B. Sinnott. For 18 years it did a land office business, its barroom making even more money than the rent from the rooms or the profit from the meals. In 1878 the Umatilla House was destroyed by fire. The ashes were hardly cool before big Dan Handley and N.B. Sinnott had men clearing the site for the erection of another building.

There were 12 cooks employed in the Umatilla House kitchen and 16 waiters served 600 meals a day. One large delegation of 800 people from Chicago once filled the place to capacity. The Dalles railroaders built a line along the Columbia to The Dalles in 1882 and they paid $20. a month for room and board . The guests ranged from bankers to bums and many miners came down to spend the winter every year at the old hotel as likewise did sheep and cattleman. The old hotel took in hundreds of thousands of dollars The hotel took all the garden produce local gardeners including the Chinese could raise. Their supply room was as big as a grocery store. They stocked 4 ton of hams and bacon at a time. And several hundred dozen eggs. The price of meals was two bits and four bits, depending upon whether you sat at the commercial table or at the table for the general public which meant farm hands, mule skinners, bull whackers, prospectors, miners, brakemen, homesteaders.

The Umatilla House gained nationwide recognition as an exceptional hotel and hospitality center. Advertisements in Eastern magazines described the Umatilla House as a 100 X 120 building which cost $35,000. It had a 30 X 40 office; a dining room 50 X 90; a ladies room 24 foot square feet and 123 rooms. Of course, there were other hotels in The Dalles, but none compared to the Umatilla House.

Dan Handley died in 1891, and Judd Fish acquired the hotel in 1892. He put in steam heat, electric lights, removed the veranda in 1895 and sold it to Tom Crofton in 1908. It was torn down in 1929. The once glorious hotel was no more.

Contributed by Steve Lent, Historian