The pounding water, the huge river boulders and the wooded cliffs of the gorge make a wonderful sight

In a nutshell, the plan would replace the canal's hard-edged concrete structures with natural river boulders and other debris to create fish habitat while producing waves and currents for recreational paddling.

"The central Willamette Valley contains variable terrain of clay, cobble, solid rock, river boulders and sand" says Redhouse.

Yet, while the concrete may have been relatively new, the stones themselves were prepared in traditional fashion, by laboriously hacking rounded river boulders flat so that they could be incorporated into rectilinear masonry.

The saint turned the alligator into stone, and this alligator-shaped boulder became a familiar landmark in a river on the eastern part of Cebu until 1866, when the Spanish used the river boulders for the construction of public buildings.