Eighteenmile Island is a 9.89 acre (4 ha) island on the Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 side of the Columbia River

Columbia River

The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...

 at river mile

River mile

In the United States, a River mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometers is the River kilometer...

 174 in Wasco County, Oregon

Wasco County, Oregon

Wasco County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The county is named for a local tribe of Native Americans, the Wasco, a Chinook tribe who lived on the south side of the Columbia River. In 2010, its population was 25,213...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is about a half mile (0.8 km) downstream of Mosier, Oregon

Mosier, Oregon

Mosier is a city in Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 410 at the 2000 census.-History:Mosier was first settled in 1854 and incorporated as a city in 1914. The building now known as the post office was at that time the bank, and the original safe is still intact on-site. ...

 and four miles (6.4 km) upstream of Hood River

Hood River, Oregon

The city of Hood River is the seat of Hood River County, Oregon, United States. It is a port on the Columbia River, and is named for the nearby Hood River. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 5,831...

. It can be seen from Interstate 84

Interstate 84 in Oregon

In the U.S. state of Oregon, Interstate 84 travels east–west, following the Columbia River and the rough path of the old Oregon Trail from Portland east to Idaho. For this reason, it is also known as most of the Columbia River Highway No. 2 and all of the Old Oregon Trail Highway No. 6 . It...

, which runs along the Oregon side of the Columbia River, and from the Historic Columbia River Highway. A small rocky "island" downstream of Eighteenmile Island houses a navigational light

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

. The island is mentioned in the journal of Meriwether Lewis

Meriwether Lewis

Meriwether Lewis was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark...

, from the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Lewis and Clark Expedition

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, or ″Corps of Discovery Expedition" was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific Coast by the United States. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and led by two Virginia-born veterans of Indian wars in the Ohio Valley, Meriwether Lewis and William...

.

Geography

The small island is located in the Columbia River Gorge

Columbia River Gorge

The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Up to deep, the canyon stretches for over as the river winds westward through the Cascade Range forming the boundary between the State of Washington to the north and Oregon to the south...

 region. It was mostly barren as of 2007, but features several douglas firs and willow

Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...

s, a basalt

Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

 cliff, wildflowers and a sandy beach. It is closer to the Oregon side of the river, and only a few hundred feet from its shoreline.

The island's only structure is a private residence, a three-story wood-frame house built in 1969. A line from the mainland supplies electricity to the island; drinking water must be filtered from the Columbia. The island can only be accessed by boat.

History

During the 20th century it was popularly called Chicken Charlie's Island, after Charles Reither, who lived on the island from 1915 until his death in 1963. There were not actually chickens on the island during Reither's residency, but there may have been a chicken ranch there around 1904. A 1919 tax survey indicates a "George W. Reither", Charles' brother, lived on the island as well. Reither was given title to the island in 1922 from the Bureau of Land Management

Bureau of Land Management

The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately , or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. The BLM also manages of subsurface mineral estate underlying federal, state and private...

. It was officially referred to as "Eighteenmile Island" by the United States Geological Survey

United States Geological Survey

The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...

as early as 1934. It is still referred to as Chicken Charlie's Island on some maps.

Ownership

Eighteenmile Island is the only remaining privately owned island on the Columbia River. Zoning prohibits further development on the island beyond the one existing house. In 2000 when the island was offered for sale, local and federal officials considered buying it to protect it, but deemed that unnecessary as the strict zoning would prevent unwanted development anyway.

The island and house were offered for sale again for $1.4 million in 2007.