Campaign for Cape Horn: 2007-2009

The most ambitious fundraising effort in the history of Friends of the Columbia Gorge was launched in the Spring of 2006 to raise $4 million to secure the acquisitions of two rim-view properties on top of Cape Horn. The Campaign for Cape Horn was completed in December 2008, having raised $4.2 million. 

Led by Friends’ Development Director Jane Harris and with heavy lifting from key supporters like Mary Bishop and Al Jubitz, the campaign was led with $1 million gifts from Friends’ Founder Nancy Russell and Anthony Hovey.

Cape Horn: The view

Cape Horn is rocky promontory on the Washington side of Gorge approximately 25 miles from Vancouver, WA. The view from the Cape Horn overlook on Highway 14 is one of the most spectacular and photographed views in the Columbia Gorge. Approximately 400 feet above the highway overlook is a pastoral setting that offers even more impressive views and distance from the dangers and noise of the highway below. It is the type of landscape that will provide outstanding recreation for generations to come. Twenty five years ago, the only plan for the area was a subdivision. That plan changed because of one woman.

Cape Horn: The vision and the visionary

In the early 1980s, Harriet Burgess of the Trust for Public Land took Nancy Russell up to the top of Cape Horn to show her that the idyllic setting had been divided into 16 lots. As the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area was not in place, there was no legal way to stop the development. Nancy and her husband Bruce decided to take out a $300,000 loan from a bank and provide a no-interest loan to the Trust for Public Land to purchase 12 of the 16 lots. The Forest Service eventually purchased the properties and with the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act in place purchased over 1,000 acres of land at Cape Horn with the help from the Trust for Public Land, the Columbia Land Trust and even Nancy herself.

In 2006, two private, developed properties sat on the rim and stood in the way of a truly outstanding recreation opportunity. One, the Cleveland property, was the only developed property from that original subdivision. Friends of the Columbia Gorge Land Trust made the Cleveland property its first purchase and deconstructed (see photos at right) the 5,500 square foot home and 6,000 square foot barn, in the summer of 2008. That property was subsequently conveyed to the Forest Service in October of 2008. The other 35 acre property, the Collins property, is currently held under option by the land trust and will likely be transferred to the Forest Service at a later date.

The $4 million cost of The Campaign for Cape Horn included the purchases of the Cleveland and Collins properties, the removal of unnecessary structures and the creation of an overlook to honor Nancy and Bruce Russell for their extraordinary vision is planned in the near future.

Major contributors (gifts and pledges of $50,000 and more) included: Anthony Hovey, Nancy Russell, Nancie McGraw, Al Jubitz, Ned and Sis Hayes, John Gray, Wes and Diane Hickey, Brot and Mary Bishop, Holly Bard, Steve and Jan Oliva, the Columbia Land Trust and Friends of the Columbia Gorge Land Trust.

Video: Campaign for Cape Horn