Landing Days Called 'Best Ever'

The sun was shining on Umatilla Saturday while the city celebrated its 152nd anniversary with the annual Umatilla Landing Days celebration.

“I personally think it was the best Landing Days ever,” Umatilla Chamber Director Karen Hutchinson-Talaski said. “The weather was really great, great entertainment, fabulous fireworks show, great vendors, great food… It just went really, really well.”

The day kicked off with the annual parade featuring hundreds of participants, floats and performing groups.

Among the prize-winning entries were the Umatilla Sage Riders, Yo Country Frozen Yogurt, and a 1955 side-step pickup. The Mayor’s Choice, in remembrance of Pat Lafferty, went to the 2014 Happy Canyon Princesses.

After the parade, the Umatilla Museum and Historical Foundation filled up a yellow school bus and started tours of the Old Town Umatilla site. The 45-minute tours took visitors inside the locked gates of the old town site and down the still-paved roads from before the town’s relocation. Tour guides led visitors through an outline of what buildings were where in the area while pointing out wildlife and plans for a potential walking trail and park system in the area.

“I love doing this,” tour guide Sam Nobles told a bus full of passengers. “There are a lot of memories down there.”

At 11 a.m., Umatilla Marina Park opened with game booths, bounce houses and live entertainment. More than two dozen vendors sold everything from elephant ears to Adirondack chairs. At the marina, visitors could also choose tours of the Umatilla area by boat in re-enactments of the ferry crossings that made Umatilla a landing spot for travelers across the Columbia River.

Local bands and dance groups performed throughout the day, including local high school students raising money for “Oregon Ambassadors of Music,” a program that sends Oregon high school students to Europe for two weeks.

The day capped with a performance by rock group Blue Tattoo and fireworks exploding over the Columbia.