Latourell Falls, 6 miles west of Multnomah Falls, drops 224 feet into a pool at the base of an overchanging cliff. A mile away stand the Pillars of Hercules; the tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad go between them.

Long ago, Coyote traveled down the Columbia to break the dam which three Beaver sisters had built. It was keeping the salmon from going up the river, and the people up above were starving. By trickery, Coyote got hold of the key and unlocked the dam.

Then he changed himself into a man, went back to Beavers’ house in the river ,seized the youngest sister and ran toward the shore. By this time so many salmon had passed through the unlocked dam that he was able to walk across on their backs. At home, he found the people happy because they could now get all the fish they could eat.

For a long time Coyote’s wife seemed to be happy in her new home. But one day she wanted to see her sisters and her old home. Coyote had lost the key to the dam, and the woman who found it made the mistake of giving it to his wife. Coyote’s wife kept the key, and whenever she thought about it, she longed to see her sisters.

Coyote would not let her return. In fact, he was so afraid she would leave him that whenever he went away he locked her and their two sons in a cave. There they plotted against him. One day when he was in his sweat house, they broke out of the cave and went down the river.

As they ran along, the Beaver sister stopped now and then to pull a long hair from the crown of her head and stretch it across the trail. Tying the ends of hair to trees and rocks, she made a snare. If she could trip coyote with the snares, perhaps she could keep him from catching up with them.

Once mother and sons stopped to see how the plan was working. They saw coyote trip and fall and bruise his knees. He howled when he heard his family laughing at him.

But he was to sly for them and saw their trick. So he acted more tired than he really was. He crawled along as if too worn-out to move. His wife and sons let him catch up with them, sure now that he was too weak to harm them.

When he was very close he suddenly jumped to his feet, seized his wife, and shouted, “Give me that key!”

“I will not!” she shouted back

Coyote was so angered by her stubbornness that he scooped away the side of a mountain and fastened her to it. Then he changed her into a waterfall.

He followed after his sons, who had run toward the river. He begged them to come home with him, but they wanted to visit their mother’s sisters first.

“You will stand where you are, forever,” said coyote. And he changed them into two tall rocks.

Today the rocks are sometimes called Coyote’s children, sometimes the Pillars of Hercules. They still stand along the Columbia River. The waterfall is known as Latourell Falls.