Fracture at the falls

EVERY SECOND, 32,000 cubic feet of water rushes over a horseshoe-shaped basalt ledge, churning up a dome of mist and white noise that enfolds the entire 1,500-foot-long, four-story-high shelf. Willamette Falls, the West’s biggest waterfall, is surpassed in the U.S. only by Niagara. It would astound anyone who saw it — if they could see it. But for a century now, industrial structures have blocked access to this natural wonder.

These structures have included lumber, grist, woolen and paper mills, the nation’s largest producer of cardboard box material, and a hydroelectric dam that diminished the waterfall to power the nation’s first successful long-distance transmission of electricity. Throughout the 20th century, the falls, nestled in the Portland area between Oregon City and West Linn, seemed destined to serve industry and little else. Then the Blue Heron Paper Mill went bankrupt after a New York private equity firm purchased it, and the Confederated Tribes