Here’s a photo of the fountain that was near the very first Brightwood Store. This was taken in the 1920’s when the McIntyre family were still running the store. The first store in Brightwood was located at the original townsite down near the river before you cross the bridge.
It was the flood of 1931 that took out the store, the covered bridge, the McIntyre home, as well as many cabins along the river. After the flood the whole town was relocated to the top of the hill to the location of the baseball diamond and park area, where Brightwood is still located today. It’s possible that this is where this fountain was located.
The original Brightwood townsite had a hotel, a store and a dance hall as well as the covered bridge. There were still huge trees in the area. Brightwood, back then, was a destination for people to leave the city and spend time in the hills camping, fishing, hunting, pitching horseshoes, and just relaxing. I can visualize how great those days must have been.
I read that early Brightwood settler and resident William A. Alcorn built a stone watering fountain in Brightwood in 1913. It’s likely that this is the fountain that he built. It was built along the old Mount Hood Road for “horses, dogs, pedestrians and automobiles”.
Mr. Alcorn is given credit for naming Brightwood because of the golden light that would filter through the cottonwoods along the river.
Brightwood is an unincorporated community within the Mount Hood Corridor in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. It is located between Wemme and Sandy just off U.S. Route 26 at an elevation of 1165 feet (355 meters). It is one of the communities that make up the Villages at Mount Hood.