Bingen: A Piece of the Rhine in the Gorge

German immigrants homesteaded along the north bank of the Columbia River in Klickitat County, Washington. The basalt walls of the Columbia River Gorge reminded them of the Rhine Valley back home. The Suksdorf family was among the first settlers, and when a member of the Suksdorf family founded a town along the river in eighteen ninety-two, he named it Bingen after a wine town on the Rhine in his native Germany.

The town incorporated in April of nineteen twenty-four. Today Bingen shares a zip code and much of its commerce with White Salmon. The gorge above the two towns is world-renowned for windsurfing, the big westerly winds that pour through the canyon having replaced lumber and rail as the primary attraction.