Watkins took a commission from the Oregon Steam Ship Navigation Company to document areas of the Columbia River, with "Cascades" featuring prominently in his Pacific Coast stereoviews collection.

Aside from capturing scenery, Watkins documents saw mills, as well as train and riverboat traffic vital to the local economy at that time.

Although his negatives were destroyed in the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake, many of his printed images can be found in museums and private collections around the world.

[2] In 1998, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began a $28.8 million build of a fish passage through the original fort location.

The work, meant to ferry juvenile salmon around the Bonneville Dam, was approved by the Washington State Historic Preservation Office; some of the rail tracks were demolished and the grounds where the fort's jail was located was destroyed.