The most prominent feature on the island visible from Memaloose State Park campground is a granite monument which marks the resting place of a local pioneer and friend of the Indians, named Victor Trevitt, who wished to be buried among honorable men. The name of the island is derived from Memaloose Ilahee, the Chinook word memalloose means "to die" and the word illahee means "land or Earth". The simple translation is "Land of the Dead".

The original track where the state park now exists was called Memaloose Island overlook, a state park that was established in 1925. Today, Memaloose State Park is a virtual oasis of beauty in the Columbia River Gorge. Temperatures can be warm on a summer day, but Memaloose always manages to provide cool comfort and shade thanks to the tall maples, willows and cottonwood that loom large in the park.

Today, campsites look over the river and the park′s namesake, Memaloose Island, a place that has long been sacred to the indigenous people of the Columbia River Gorge. The Chinook used the island as a resting ground for dead. Rather than bury their dead, the indigenous people wrapped the dead, placed them in a canoe and left the canoes on the island. Later, the living would return to lay the bones of their dead on open pyres on the island.

When I walked to the shower house to get into the hot water, I was sadly awaken with no hot water, no it was not steamy hot like I enjoy, which in this rating system adds 3 points to the overall rating. Neither was it a medium hot shower, which is 2 points, which I do not mind having (which I had previously rated the shower here as). However, now, the shower here at Memaloose campground can not even be classified as a warm shower, which is 1 point, and is scarcely tolerable to me. Instead, the water coming out of the shower head was barely warm and at times actually felt cold. (Cold shower received 0 points and no shower receives -1 points.)

So, during my 2021 journey, when I visited Memaloose state park, I decided to change the rating of this park by lowering the shower rating from MS-2pts to WS-1pt, which now changes the campground overall rating from 5 points to 4 points.

Finally, because showers are the main reason that I camp in state parks and because the showers here at Memaloose state park are, in my opinion, the worst in this state, I will never return to this campground in the future.

This campground is located eleven miles west of The Dalles, Oregon on IH 84. From The Dalles, drive west bound to exit 73 into the Memaloose Rest area, drive through the rest area and then turn right into the campground.

The Chinook Nation consists of the five westernmost Chinookan tribes: the Lower Chinook, Clatsop, Kathlamet, Wahkiakum, and Willapa, all of which share the Chinookan language. The headquarters is in Bay Center Washington which is on the lower Washington state Coast on US 101.

The Chinook language word Memaloose is associated with the burial right of the native tribes. The Chinook Indian tribes of the Columbia Gorge historically would lay the bones of their dead on open pyres on Memaloose Island in the middle of the Columbia River near The Dalles.

The Chinookan people of the Columbia River had a vast trading network before and during European colonization. The trading center of Cathlapotle, established in the 15th century, was visited by the Lewis and Clark expedition. The governments of the Oregon and Washington Territories negotiated treaties with Chinookans as settlers entered the region.

Chinookans were relocated to the Grand Ronde reservation in 1856, but the ancestors of the Chinook Nation refused. They were not included in negotiations ceding the region to the United States and began efforts toward recognition. In the 1920s, the tribe successfully sued to receive allotments of the Quinault Indian Reservation under an 1873 law.

The Chinookan peoples historically lived along the Lower Columbia River, from the river′s mouth on the Pacific Ocean to the location of modern The Dalles, Oregon.

The Lower Chinookans, including the Lower Chinook, Clatsop, and Willapa, lived near the mouth of the river; the Upper Chinookans, including the Cathlamet, lived upstream; and Middle Chinookans lived in a central region containing Willamette Valley. The westernmost Chinookan tribes, the Cathlamet, Clatsop, Lower Chinook, Wahkiakum, and Willapa tribes, are the ancestors of the Chinook Indian Nation.

The several tribes who lived in and around the Columbia River Gorge include: The Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Yakama.

The Dike Trail along the Columbia River in Washougal, Washington, has several information signs explaining the American Indian history of the area. At the time of first European exploration in the area, this area along the Columbia River was in the homelands of the Chinook-speaking Multnomah, Wasco, and Wishram Indians. The Columbia Hills Historic State Park is home to a remarkable collection of the rock art of the Indigenous People, which includes the Temani Peshwa Trail. Open from April to October and can be found at 45.6406583, -121.1048644.