Collection is open for research.
Gift of Stephen Terry, May 2008 (Lib. Acc. 26521).
Chris L. Wheeler was born in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, on December 30, 1927. He graduated from high school in 1945 and went on to receive a bachelor of science degree from Oregon State University in 1951. That same year, Wheeler began working for the office of the State Engineer of Oregon as a civil engineer and became the head of the office's hydroelectric power division in 1961. After the retirement of State Engineer Lewis A. Stanley in April 1962, Oregon Governor Mark O. Hatfield appointed Wheeler to succeed Stanley as state engineer. Wheeler served in that capacity until 1975, when the office of the State Engineer merged with the state's Water Resources Board to form the Water Resources Department. He later served as deputy director of the Water Resources Department and from 1981-1984 as the representative from Oregon for the department's Klamath Basin Compact. Wheeler died in 2013.
Sources: "Salem Man Named Engineer," Oregon Journal, May 18, 1962, page 5; obituary in the Salem Statesman Journal, January 12, 2013.
Chris Wheeler photographs collection, Org. Lot 433, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Collection guide revised to conform to current standard in August 2023.
This collection contains photographs, slides, albums, and one negative, likely received and compiled by Chris Wheeler during his service as state engineer of Oregon from 1962-1975. Loose photographs in the collection depict waterways across the state of Oregon from approximately 1910-1925, including the construction of irrigation canals and the Tumalo Dam in conjunction with the state's Tumalo Irrigation Project in Deschutes County from 1913-1915. Color slides depict dams and reservoirs in Oregon from 1950-1967. The collection also includes four photograph albums, with images dating from 1912 to approximately 1922. One documents irrigation efforts by the Central Oregon Irrigation Company and the Deschutes Land Company Project; another contains official photographs of the Tumalo Irrigation Project. The third contains photographs that were collected or compiled by Oregon State Engineer John H. Lewis and depict canals, flumes, and dams across Oregon, views of the Klamath Project, and a steamboat trip down the Snake and Columbia Rivers, among other subjects. The final album includes scenes of the Tumalo Irrigation Project, the Umatilla Project, and various Oregon rivers and bridges.
Many of the photographs in this collection were probably taken or collected by previous state engineers, including Lewis (state engineer from 1905-1918) and Percy A. Cupper (state engineer from 1918-1922); their names appear on the backs of many of the photographs in the albums. Other photographers represented include Benjamin Gifford and Angelus Commercial Studio of Portland, Oregon.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.
These slides may have been taken by Chris Wheeler.
Contains photographs of projects by the Central Oregon Irrigation Company, including dam construction and canals such as the Pilot Butte Canal System and the Central Oregon Canal; canals built for the Deschutes Land Company Project; agricultural land and products in central Oregon that were affected by the irrigation projects; and the proposed site of The Dalles Dam on the Columbia River.
Contains official photographs taken by an unidentified photographer or photographers during the construction of canals, flumes, and dam as part of the Tumalo Irrigation Project in Deschutes County, Oregon, from 1913-1914. Includes photographs of Superintendents Alfred Hanson and Axel Bye, Irrigation Manager Fred N. Wallace, and other engineers and project employees; visits by Oregon Governor Oswald West and Secretary of State Ben W. Olcott to project sites; and the project's headquarters at Laidlaw, Oregon (now Tumalo, Oregon), among other subjects. Includes two typescript indexes to the album.
Contains photographs that were possibly given to, collected by, or taken by John H. Lewis, state engineer of Oregon from 1905-1918. Lewis's name appears on the backs of some of the photos in the album. Subjects include photographs of Tumalo Dam and other dams, canals, and flumes from various areas of Oregon; snapshots taken from the summit of South Sister and from other mountain climbing expeditions in Deschutes County; and photographs taken on an expedition down the Columbia and Snake rivers on the steamer Prospector; views of the Klamath Project; and other views of waterways in Oregon.
Contains photographs of the Tumalo Irrigation Project, the Umatilla Project, Celilo Falls, the Gold Ray Dam on the Rogue River, the Portland Railway, Light, & Power Company's power plant on the Clackamas River, and bridges on the Columbia River Highway, McCord Creek, and the Sandy River, among other unidentified images. Some of the photographs in this album were taken by Angelus Commercial Studio of Portland, Oregon, and Benjamin Gifford. This album may have been assembled for or by Percy A. Cupper, state engineer of Oregon from 1918-1922, as his name appears on the backs of some of the photographs.