Surviving campers sang hymns as they drove past the damage left by the floods.

Last week, I dipped into The Oregonian/OregonLive’s formidable archives to refresh my knowledge of the deadliest natural disaster in recorded Oregon history: the Heppner flood of 1903.

“It’s hard not to feel like you are surrounded by a higher power when you’re down there, because it’s just so beautiful,” my friend Olivia Marrus told me.