Clearwater River

“ When the rivers were finally clear of ice, Thompson, with his three Canadians and a native woman, made a fresh start, this time by canoe and with dried provisions to last for twelve days. They had first to battle their way against the current of Clearwater river, to the portage which brought them to Red lake. The country was everywhere soaked with water, so that at night they were forced to cut down trees and sleep on the branches. Red lake, they found, was still covered with patches of broken ice. ”

“ It was true, however, that these men knew of his residence in this immediate section of Clearwater. The loss of his father's mine was a legend known all over that particular part of the province; they knew that he sought it yearly, clear up to the trapping season. When the snows were deep, they were well aware that he ran trap lines down the Grizzly River. Human inhabitants of the North are not so many but that they keep good track of one another's business. ”

“ Celeron started on June 15, 1749, following the southern shore of Lakes Ontario and Erie, until he reached a point opposite Lake Chautauqua, when the boats were drawn up and carried over the dividing ridge, a distance of ten miles. They followed down the lake and the Conewago Creek, where they arrived at what is now Warren, near the confluence of the creek with the Allegheny River. ”

“ They can only be watered by pumping. This method, while the best, can be successfully carried out only by using cheap power. Above Celilo there are many rapids which ultimately will be improved by means of locks and dams, and the general canalization of the river. With every dam, water power will be created, and this power should be utilized. In other words, the use of our rivers for navigation should not be the only one considered. ”

“ The Three Sisters may be STANDING TREE TBUNES IN CLEAR LAKE plainly seen from Clear Lake; and a half mile away may be seen the McKenzie River plunging over a cliff sixty feet in height. Its location so near the summit of the Cascade Mountains together with other attractions destines Clear Lake to be a popular resort for those who enjoy a mountain journey involving all the hardship of a frontier outing. In later years, when better mountain roads are constructed, no
doubt Clear Lake will be one of the most popular health resorts in the Northwest. ”

“ Before we began our walk there had been five days of incessant rain—every leaf dripped with moisture, and all about us was the noise of hurrying waterfall or river. The Clinton River, whose course we followed, was a wide torrent, rushing angrily over great boulders, or pausing for a while in deep quiet pools of clear green water. Numberless small streams flow from the mountains to join the Clinton, and many of them cross the track; sometimes they are bridged by a moss-grown, slippery tree-trunk; in other places they turn the track itself into a stream. ”

“ The country becomes more rugged as we descend, and at various points, if the sky be clear, we can see the great peaks of the Cascades to the west. Passing through the wild water of Hell-gate, where the steamer quivers as though great hands were reaching up from below and shaking her, we soon find ourselves at Celilo. This is the beginning of the greatest series of obstructions on the River and the point where the Government is now constructing a canal, by means of which the entire upper course of the River will be brought into connection with the lower. ”

“ Here for a distance of about 12 miles the river is not navigable on account of rapids and falls. A canal 81⁄2 miles in length is being constructed by the United States along the Oregon shore. Above the Celilo Falls the river for a distance of several hundred miles has a navigable low-water depth of about 4 feet. The only improvement in progress is that of removing the most dangerous rocks in the channels.
Navigation above Celilo Falls is now limited to the stretch below Priest Rapids, on the Columbia, a distance of about 170 miles, and to Lewiston on the Snake River. ”

“ From September to December 1993, the Corps released water from the Dam at a [p28] slower rate than usual, providing downstream farmers with a longer harvest time. As a result, more water than usual accumulated in Clearwater Lake behind the Dam. To reduce the accumulation, the Corps extended the period in which a high amount of water would be released. The Commission maintained this extension yielded downstream flooding in the Management Area, above historical norms, during the tree-growing season, which runs from April to October. ”

“ On reaching the mouth of the creek we hauled sharp round the projecting point, and shaped a course up and across toward the opposite side of the stream, steering for a low densely-wooded spit which jutted out into the river some eight miles distant. The tide, which was rising, was in our favour, and in an hour from the time of emerging from the creek into the main stream we had reached our destination; the boat shot into a water-way about a cable’s length in width, the sail was lowered, the mast unstepped, and the men, taking to their oars, proceeded to paddle the boat gently up the creek. ”

“ For several years the great trout had held his post in the pool, defying every lure of the crafty fisherman. The Clearwater was a protected stream, being leased to a rich fishing club; and the master of the pool was therefore secure against the treacherous assaults of net or dynamite. Many times each season fishermen would come and pit their skill against his cunning; but never a fly could tempt him, never a silvery, trolled minnow or whirling spoon deceive him to the fatal rush. ”

“ The most serious problem with which engineers have to deal in the irrigation of arid land from a turbid river is the getting rid of silt, and this problem is a particularly difficult one in the Imperial Valley, owing to the immense amount of sediment that the irrigating water contains. The Colorado River, until after it passes the Grand Cañon, is almost everywhere a swift, turbulent stream, with great eroding capacity. ”

“ It is so with the Missouri River. Carlyle was not, I think, speaking of rivers; but he was speaking of masterpieces—and so am I.
It makes little difference to me whether or not an epic goes at a hexameter gallop through the ages, or whether it chooses to be a flood of muddy water, ripping out a channel from the mountains to the sea. It is merely a matter of how the great dynamic force shall express itself.
I have seen trout streams that I thought were better lyrics than I or any of my fellows can ever hope to create. ”

“ Although it may well seem to the tourist who has attained the head of Lake Chelan that nature has reached her acme of grandeur, and that it would tax his powers of belief to be informed that there is grander yet, we shall run the risk of saying just that, and bid him join us on side journeys up the mighty cañons of the Stehekin River and Railroad Creek. ”

“ Its abutments, spillway, power house, flood gates, and fish ways are easily accessible from the highway. South of the dam, tourists are warned against falling rocks, for the bluffs (L) consist of cracked stone. At 16.4 m. a bridge crosses Moses Coulee Creek. Only during the early springtime is there any water in the creek, and then it becomes a turbulent stream. East of TRINIDAD, 24 m. (900 alt., 210 pop.) , State 10 winds up-grade from the Columbia River. The quality of the land improves, scattered orchards and farms appear. ”

“ The head of Chelan is far back in the heart of the Cascades, in the glaciers of which its feeding streams take their rise. The main tributaries are Railroad Creek, which flows in from the south about two-thirds of the way up, and Stehekin River, which comes in at the head. These two streams are credited with some of the finest waterfalls, gorges and cliff and glacier-begirt mountain valleys to be found in North America, and it is possible to see the best of both in [Pg 288] the course of a single “circular” trip by packtrain. ”

“ As we push our way into it we discover that it is so clear as to make little more obstruction to the view of rocks and fish below than does the air itself. This transparent torrent is the outlet of the lake. It is only four miles long and descends three hundred and eighty feet in that distance. It furnishes one hundred and twenty-five thousand horse-power at low water. The cañon, riven and tortured, through which it descends, is a fitting approach to the lake, unique Chelan. For having traversed the four miles, we find the lake outstretched before us. ”

“ After surveying out his town site Kelley proceeded to make a survey of the Columbia river from Vancouver down to Astoria, and when he returned to the eastern states turned his survey over to the U. S. navy department. The Englishman, Lieut. Broughton, had made a survey of the river prior to Kelley's survey, but the Americans got no benefit of that as it was given only to the Hudson Bay Company and British war ships. ”

“ Blecek ranch crossed the South Santiam near this point. The bridge is on the donation land claim of Samuel R. Claypool, a prominent pioneer citizen of that locality,"
CLEAR CREEK, Columbia County. Clear Creek flows into Nehalem River from the west in the extreme southwest corner of the county. Its name is of course descriptive. Many years ago there was a post office called Clear Creek, but it did not last long. Old maps show the place close to the mouth of the stream. Clear Creek post office was established January 11, 1878, with Henry D. Sluter (Sleeter?) postmaster. ”

“ That Congress did not act arbitrarily in determining that 'for the purposes of navigation of said waters and the waters connected therewith,' the whole flow of the stream should be devoted exclusively to that end, is most evident when we consider the character of this stream and its relation to the whole problem of lake navigation. The river St. Marys is the only outlet for the waters of Lake Superior. The stretch of water called the falls and rapids of the river is about 3,000 feet long, and from bank to bank has a width of about 4,000 feet. ”

“ I may also say that we have not been idle in other directions, and that while the engineers were clearing channels, building locks, and digging canals, others were working on the no less important work of freeing our rivers from a control that tended to make these improvements of no avail, even after our millions were spent. I refer to railroad-owned and controlled boat lines, which throttled real competition and prevented all true use of our waterways as instrumentalities of commerce. We are celebrating not only the opening of this Celilo Canal, but a river free in truth and in fact ”

“ Kettle Falls will be entirely submerged by the rising backwater from Coulee Dam, and the water will even submerge the site of the present bridge. This will necessitate the tearing down of the bridge and its reconstruction at a point where the lake is narrow in order to connect with the re-aligned highway on both sides of the river, just above the "13x0" level, where the waterline of the lake will be. The depth of the lake at the falls will be 80 feet. Below the falls (R) are slanting slabs of rock where Indians once sharpened their spears and shaped their arrowheads. ”

“ For lack of a reservoir system to withhold and control the flow of water, the river falls from flood-tide--seventy-one feet--to points so low as to seriously impede or prevent navigation. Sometimes even the smallest steamers and barges fail to pass between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, and coal famines have not been unfrequent, resulting from difficult navigation. An equable flow of this stream is impossible. It will always be subject to these extremes. ”

“ This is one of the most beautiful and most instructive examples of consequent drainage—that is, of streams whose direction has been determined by the inclination of the surface over which they flow—thus far discovered. Still another feature of much geographical interest is furnished by the rivers on the adjacent plain, two of which, branches of the Cheyenne River, cross the north and south extensions, respectively, of the Black Hills dome. ”

“ Base-level plains and peneplains.—It is important to notice that a plane surface (base-level) developed by streams could only be developed at elevations but slightly above the sea, that is, at levels at which running water ceases to be an effective agent of erosion; for so long as a stream is actively deepening its valley, its tendency is to roughen the area which it drains, not to make it smooth. The Colorado river, flowing through high land, makes a deep gorge. All the streams of the western plateaus have deep valleys, and the manifest result of their action is to roughen the surface ”

“ The Nile never flows over the top of the dam, but always through the gates and the canal at one side. When the gates are closed during the dry season, enough water is held back by this structure of steel and granite to form a [133] lake over one hundred miles long, and this is let out as needed to supplement the ordinary flow of the river and give the crops plenty of water all summer through. There is water enough in the reservoir to give all the families of the United States all they could use for four or five months, and enough to supply Great Britain and Ireland the entire year. ”

“ At the bottoms of steep slopes, temporary streams build alluvial cones or fans. Along its flood-plain portion, a stream deposits more or less sediment on its flats. The part played by deposition in building a river flat has already been alluded to. A depositing stream often wanders about in an apparently aimless way across its flood plain. At the bends in its course, cutting is often taking place on the outside of a curve while deposition is going on in the inside. The valley of the Baraboo illustrates this process of cutting and building. ”