Bonneville Dam Oregon-1938: Water Flowing Through Spillways of a Man-Made Dam

$149 · CommercialDirect license: commercial and editorial use. $149 flat from Stockfilm. Royalty-free worldwide license for commercial and editorial use, delivered as the restored 4K master.

Year1938
Decade1930s
LocationBonneville Dam, Oregon, United States
Duration6s
Price$149 USD
Collection1938 Bonneville Dam Oregon

$149 · CommercialDirect license: commercial and editorial use

$149 USD flat · royalty-free worldwide · 4K restored master (MP4)

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Stockfilm licenses the rights identified in the applicable agreement. Additional use-specific review may be required. See the Licensing Guide and Archive Integrity.

Water Flowing Through Spillways of a Man-Made Dam — Clip Details

Shot on 8mm film in 1938, this archival footage captures Bonneville Dam in Oregon, showcasing water forcefully flowing through its spillways. The black-and-white view, framed by the film's natural vignette, highlights the dam's concrete structure against a backdrop of trees and hills. The powerful cascade of water creates white spray, emphasizing the engineering feat and the river's dynamic flow. This historic home movie offers a nostalgic glimpse of mid-20th century infrastructure and industrial progress.

Licensing & Technical Details

Original Format: 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie
Shot details: Black & white
Resolution: 4K restored master (MP4)
License: Direct license: commercial and editorial use
Delivery: Instant Digital Download
Duration: 6s
Price: $149 USD
Clip ID: 127260433

Rights & Clearance

$149 · Commercial Direct license: commercial and editorial use. $149 flat from Stockfilm. Royalty-free worldwide license for commercial and editorial use, delivered as the restored 4K master.

No recognizable people, logos, or music are flagged. Lower-risk for commercial use, subject to your own review.

People visible: No
Logos / trademarks: No
Audible music: No

Flags come from automated catalog metadata, not a legal opinion. The source is an original 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie reel. For high-stakes commercial use, request a full rights review.

Source & Documentation

Source reel: Reel record not linked for this clip
Date: 1938 Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Date evidence: Catalog estimate based on source metadata and visual or technical evidence; no reel-level note is linked.
Location: Bonneville Dam, Oregon, United States Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Location evidence: Catalog estimate based on source metadata and visual evidence such as signage, landmarks, or terrain; no reel-level note is linked.
Licensing route: Direct license available from Stockfilm

Confidence labels are defined on Archive Integrity. Fields without a recorded value are shown as not recorded rather than assumed.

Open Clip Documentation Record Request source information

Topics & Keywords

Archive Intelligence

Archive brief fit: Useful for 1930s documentary or educational edits needing visitor-shot 8mm footage of Bonneville Dam spillways and New Deal-era public infrastructure in Oregon.
Period detail: The concrete dam face, spillway gates, black-and-white 8mm texture, and sparse riverside setting support a late-1930s infrastructure view without visible people or vehicles.
Home-movie behavior: The clip has a visitor-shot landmark perspective, holding on the dam from across the water to record the force of the spillway flow rather than staging an event.
What appears in frame: Visible elements include the dam wall, spillway bays, foaming river water, spray, gate structures, wooded hillside, distant slope, and rounded film-frame edges.
Film character: The footage shows soft 8mm grain, mild exposure variation, rounded vignetting, and slight frame instability that preserve the texture of an original home-movie scan.
Edit role: Editors could use it as a short cutaway, infrastructure insert, river-management transition, or historical memory beat within a sequence on dams, power, or the Columbia River.
Historical context: As 1938 home-movie footage, it visually places a major man-made river structure within a wooded Oregon landscape, emphasizing engineered water control rather than daily life.
Research note: No people, faces, logos, or audible music are indicated, but users should still assess copyright status and any property or location permissions for their intended use.
Research search match: Matches searches for 1930s 8mm Bonneville Dam footage, Oregon dam spillway home movie, Columbia River infrastructure, vintage hydroelectric dam, and water flow archival footage.
Archive pairing path: Pair first with nearby shots from the same reel, then other 1938 Bonneville Dam or Oregon views, then broader dam, river, reservoir, and public-works infrastructure footage.

Still Frames From This Clip

1938 8mm view of Bonneville Dam in Oregon, with water pouring through spillway bays and trees behind the concrete structure. — Water rushes from the spillways of Bonneville Dam, seen across the river.

Bonneville Dam spillway flow filmed from across the water, with dark trees and a small gatehouse-like structure above the dam. — Spray spreads along the base of the dam as water discharges through multiple bays.

Black-and-white 8mm frame of Bonneville Dam, Oregon, showing repeated spillway bays and heavy white water at the base. — The dam face fills the frame as water churns below the spillways.

Late-1930s home-movie view of Bonneville Dam with spillways releasing water, wooded banks, and a hillside beyond the structure. — A wider view shows the spillway line, wooded backdrop, and churned water below.

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