108 NATGEOTRAVEL.COM
the contiguous United States. It’s a heroic journey, one that can
tire you out just thinking about it.I
N OREGON’S CASCADE LOCKS, at Brigham Fish Market,
I contemplate the mysteries of fish while ogling silver
and red slabs gleaming in the refrigerated glass case. The
Brigham family belongs to the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla, and their store is the first Native American–
owned brick-and-mortar fish market in the Columbia Gorge,
never mind that Umatilla tribal members have fished here since
“time immemorial,” as it’s usually put.
Ask Kim Brigham Campbell where the rich sides of salmon
in the case come from and she’ll nod toward the back door.
Her sister, Terrie Brigham, explains that most of the salmon
are caught nearby by family members and friends, mainly in
modern gill nets, though 15 percent of the catch still comes from
traditional dip netting.
I find Brigham Campbell, Kim’s teenage son, working a dip
net down by the site of the former locks, which were built in
1896 and became obsolete with the completion of Bonneville
Dam in 1938. Today a museum and park mark the site, with aconcrete-lined channel where the boy is fishing from a platform
suspended from a stone retaining wall. He figures he’s been
fishing since he was six or seven. The scaffolding that supports
him hangs over the river, connected by high-tension cables.
With one hand gripping a long pole, he sinks a net 10 feet down,
while his other hand holds a line tied to the back of the mesh.
“Sometimes on the pole I get a little tweak sideways or it’ll
shake a little bit,” he says of the technique. “But mostly I feel
it on the string.” And just like that, he pulls up on the line and
hauls in his net. Several shad thrash in the mesh, their large silver
scales lighting up like strobes in the sun. He dumps them in a
bucket and continues to fish. Earlier that morning he caught a
seven-pound steelhead. Sockeye are harder to catch.
“It’s lucky to get just one. Two is really good. My mom got two
yesterday.” Spring chinook, the prize fish, require extra vigilance;
otherwise, they can do damage. “Your pole shakes. You’ve got
to get it up fast. If it gets its head down and shakes, it’ll break
the net.” The salmon and steelhead are all filleted and sold at
the market. The shad is sold as bait to sturgeon fishermen, who
fish for the prehistoric-looking bottom-feeders in the deep pools
behind the dams.108 NATGEOTRAVEL.COM
the contiguous United States. It’s a heroic journey, one that can
tire you out just thinking about it.I
N OREGON’S CASCADE LOCKS, at Brigham Fish Market,
I contemplate the mysteries of fish while ogling silver
and red slabs gleaming in the refrigerated glass case. The
Brigham family belongs to the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla, and their store is the first Native American–
owned brick-and-mortar fish market in the Columbia Gorge,
never mind that Umatilla tribal members have fished here since
“time immemorial,” as it’s usually put.
Ask Kim Brigham Campbell where the rich sides of salmon
in the case come from and she’ll nod toward the back door.
Her sister, Terrie Brigham, explains that most of the salmon
are caught nearby by family members and friends, mainly in
modern gill nets, though 15 percent of the catch still comes from
traditional dip netting.
I find Brigham Campbell, Kim’s teenage son, working a dip
net down by the site of the former locks, which were built in
1896 and became obsolete with the completion of Bonneville
Dam in 1938. Today a museum and park mark the site, with aconcrete-lined channel where the boy is fishing from a platform
suspended from a stone retaining wall. He figures he’s been
fishing since he was six or seven. The scaffolding that supports
him hangs over the river, connected by high-tension cables.
With one hand gripping a long pole, he sinks a net 10 feet down,
while his other hand holds a line tied to the back of the mesh.
“Sometimes on the pole I get a little tweak sideways or it’ll
shake a little bit,” he says of the technique. “But mostly I feel
it on the string.” And just like that, he pulls up on the line and
hauls in his net. Several shad thrash in the mesh, their large silver
scales lighting up like strobes in the sun. He dumps them in a
bucket and continues to fish. Earlier that morning he caught a
seven-pound steelhead. Sockeye are harder to catch.
“It’s lucky to get just one. Two is really good. My mom got two
yesterday.” Spring chinook, the prize fish, require extra vigilance;
otherwise, they can do damage. “Your pole shakes. You’ve got
to get it up fast. If it gets its head down and shakes, it’ll break
the net.” The salmon and steelhead are all filleted and sold at
the market. The shad is sold as bait to sturgeon fishermen, who
fish for the prehistoric-looking bottom-feeders in the deep pools
behind the dams.