Sister cities of The Dalles, Oregon

This page is about the city in Oregon. For the nearby geological formation called The Dalles, see Celilo Falls. For other uses see Dalles.

The Dalles /ˈdælz/ is the county seat and largest city of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The name of the city comes from the French word dalle (meaning either "sluice" or "flagstone" and referring to the columnar basalt rocks carved by the river, in voyageur French used to refer to rapids), which was used by the French-Canadian employees of the North West Company to refer to the rapids of the Columbia River between the present-day city and Celilo Falls. The population was 13,620 at the 2010 census. Also in the same area was the Petite Dalles or Little Dalles, or Short Narrows.