Klamath River
Encyclopedia
The Klamath River is an American
river that flows 263 miles (423.3 km) southwest through Oregon
and northern California
, cutting through the Cascade Range
to empty into the Pacific Ocean
. The river drains an extensive watershed
of almost 16000 square miles (41,439.8 km²) that stretches from the high desert
country of the Great Basin
to the temperate rainforest of the Pacific coast
. It is known for its basin's peculiar geography—most of its upper basin is developed, but the lower remains wild—and has been called "a river upside down" by the National Geographic Society
.
As one of the most important rivers for fish migration
on the west coast of North America south of the Columbia River
, the Klamath River basin has been inhabited by humans for at least 7,000 years. At one time, the river supported abundant wildlife. Vast freshwater marsh
es in the upper basin provided habitat for thousands of migratory birds. The first Europe
ans to visit the region were fur trappers for the Hudson's Bay Company
who came in the 1820s and established the Siskiyou Trail
along the Klamath and Trinity River
s into the Sacramento Valley
. The latter days of the California Gold Rush
saw increasing numbers of miners working streams in the Klamath River region in search of gold. Steamboat
s operated briefly on the large lakes in the upper watershed before the establishment of agriculture
in the 19th and 20th centuries. The growing industry in the upper basin led to the construction of many dam
s on the river, which have since caused water quality issues for the lower river. Environmentalists have raised petitions against the construction of more dams, and in support of removing the existing ones.
Because the Klamath includes many of the longest free-flowing stretches of river in California as well as some of its better whitewater
runs, it has become a popular recreational river. Its watershed includes large swathes of the Klamath National Forest
and Six Rivers National Forest
. For now, the lower Klamath remains undeveloped, although massive diversions were once proposed to reroute the river into the Central Valley in order to supplement the region's water supply.
, filling a broad valley at the foot of the eastern slope of the southern High Cascades, is the source of the Klamath River. Its headstreams, however, begin over 100 miles (160.9 km) away—as far as Crater Lake and the Oregon–Nevada
border. The first 1 miles (1.6 km) stretch of the Klamath River is known as the Link River
. Not long after, however, the river is impounded in an 18 miles (29 km) long reservoir
near Klamath Falls
, Lake Ewauna
, where it is connected by the B canal—which is capable of diverting water between the rivers in either direction as needed, to the Lost River and passes the nearly dry bed of Lower Klamath Lake
. Even after it flows out of this reservoir, it drops through a series of three more artificial lakes before it crosses the Oregon–California state border and turns south near the town of Hornbrook
towards Mount Shasta
. However, the river soon swings west to receive the Shasta River
and the Scott River, cutting deep into the head of its canyon through the Klamath Mountains
.
The route through the High and Western Cascades and the Klamath Mountains constitutes the majority of the river's course and takes it from the arid high desert
climate of its upper watershed into a temperate rainforest nourished by Pacific rains. From the Scott River confluence, the river generally runs west along the south side of the Siskiyou Mountains
until it takes a sharp southward turn near the town of Happy Camp
. From there, it flows southwest over whitewater rapids into the Klamath National Forest
, receiving the Salmon River
, and passes the unincorporated community
of Orleans
. At Weitchpec
, the river reaches the southernmost point in its entire course and veers sharply northwards as it receives the Trinity River
. The Trinity River confluence also marks the point where the Klamath's current dramatically slows. For the remainder of its course, the Klamath flows generally northwest through the Hoopa Valley and Yurok Indian Reservation
s, passing the town of Klamath
and flowing out to sea 16 miles (25.7 km) south of Crescent City
. The mouth of the Klamath River is at Requa
, in an area shared by the Yurok Reservation and Redwood National Park. The Klamath River estuary is recognized for protection by the California Bays and Estuaries Policy
.
to the cold and rainy Northern California
coast, the Klamath River watershed
drains parts of three Oregon counties and five counties in California and includes a diversity of landscapes. The northernmost part of the watershed is drained by the Williamson River
and the Sprague River, both which flow generally southwest into Upper Klamath Lake
. The middle basin is characterized by extensive wetland
, grassland
, and agricultural areas, and is partially filled by two major bodies of water: Upper and Lower Klamath Lake
. Finally, steep canyons and high ridges typify the extensive lower basin, which encompasses over one half of the 15751 square miles (40,794.9 km²) watershed.
Several other West Coast and interior drainage basins border on that of the Klamath River. On the northwest are the Rogue River
and Umpqua River
in Oregon and the Smith River
in California. On the east there is the closed Harney Basin
and a small portion of the Great Basin
. The south side of the Klamath River watershed is bounded by the Sacramento River
and its upper tributaries, including the Pit River
, and on the southwest side are the Mad River
and Redwood Creek. The western boundary of the upper Klamath Basin is formed by the High Cascades and the Klamath Mountains, one of the southernmost extents of the Cascade Range, and the California Coast Ranges cover the southwestern watershed. The Klamath is one of only three rivers that begins east of the Cascades and flows into the Pacific Ocean; the other two are the Columbia
and the Fraser
.
Most human use of the watershed is limited to the upper basin. Despite the semiarid climate, dams have been built, irrigation
water has been supplied from the Klamath and Lost rivers, and plentiful groundwater
has been drawn to transform most of the upper Klamath basin to farmland. At least 11,000 years ago, Lower Klamath and Tule Lake
s in the rainy season would combine into one giant freshwater marsh that was nearly 290 square miles (751.1 km²) large. This, combined with the over 100 square miles (259 km²) of Upper Klamath Lake, formed a temporary habitat for millions of migratory birds. These lakes are all remnants of a large Ice Age
lake, Lake Modoc, that covered about 1100 square miles (2,849 km²). Although all of the marshlands have been developed with the exception of Upper Klamath Lake, the region still supports, on average, 3.7 million migrating birds per year.
Despite its plentiful flow in California, the Klamath does not supply significant amounts of water to irrigators and municipal users in central and southern portions of the state. The Klamath Reclamation Project in the Klamath Falls
area supplies water to area irrigators, and the Central Valley Project
diverts water from the Trinity River
to supply irrigation water to the Sacramento Valley
. Some of the rivers' tributaries, including the Lost and Shasta River
s, are also diverted for irrigation. The status of the lower Klamath as one of the last relatively free-flowing rivers in the state of California and the use of its water has been debated for years between preservationists and government agencies and its eventual fate is still unclear.
, particularly in the wake of Pineapple Express
storms that bring large amounts of warm rain to Northern California. Significant floods on the Klamath River have occurred in 1926–1927, 1955, 1964, 1997, and 2005, in several cases changing the course of the river. The Christmas flood of 1964
was particularly devastating, with a high water reaching 55 feet (16.8 m), inundating the towns of Klamath
and Klamath Glen
and destroying most of the Highway 101
bridge crossing the river. The highway bridge was rebuilt in a different location, though entrances to the old bridge still stand.
The mouth of the Klamath and nearby sections of the river are susceptible to oceanic tsunami
surges, and fatalities have occurred there during the 1964 and 2011 Pacific tsunamis.
, is a unique transitional area between the Cascade Range
to the west and the Basin and Range Province of the northern Great Basin
to the southeast. This region extends from the southern Lower Klamath Lake
area into the Lost River and Upper Klamath Lake
basins. Crustal stretching and block faulting created a topography with characteristics similar to both regions. Almost the entire basin is a graben
region, bearing basin and range characteristics, formed by uplifting and subsidence along several north–south faults.
Pre-Quaternary
, igneous and sedimentary rock
compose the Yonna Formation, which crosses much of the region and rises above the surface in large outcroppings of solid rock in many of the ridges. Underlying rocks are generally younger from east to west. The many ridges crossing the upper Klamath Basin divide it into valleys with up to 330 feet (100.6 m) of vertical relief, and drainage patterns generally follow the topography. An extensive geothermal
system occurs deep underground within the upper basin, creating hot spring
s and artesian springs, but is not well understood. Further south, in the Shasta River
area in Siskiyou County, much of the underlying rock is composed of lava flows issuing from the Mount Shasta
volcanic region.
The same age pattern is true in the Cascade Range and Klamath Mountains
that cover the western half of the Klamath River watershed. As the North American Plate
moved slowly southwestward over the past 10 million years, successive oceanic terrane
s dating from the Cambrian
to the late Jurassic
were added to the bulk of the North American continent. There are four distinct terranes from west to east. While the coastal mountains date to less than 3 million years ago, the farther inland High Cascades are as old as 7.5 million years. Granite
batholith
s, overlying sedimentary rock, and volcanic rock were crumpled into the massif
of southwestern Oregon and northwestern California. Instead of being diverted southwards, however, the Klamath continued to flow westward and created a steep-walled gorge through the rising range. One of these terranes brought with it a long north–south running band of easily eroded mica
that now lies about 30 miles (48.3 km) inland from the Pacific coast of Northern California
. When the Klamath encountered this layer, it began cutting its canyon along the mica instead of continuing southwest to the Pacific, resulting in the sharp northward bend where the Trinity River
joins. The lower Trinity also follows portions of the mica and its south fork
as well.
. These tribes included the Yurok
, Hupa
, and Karuk
along the canyons of the lower river and the Modoc, Klamath and Yahooskin in the arid valleys of the upper basin. Controlling about 30 miles (48.3 km) of the lower Klamath River and a large section of the Northern California coast
, the Yurok were probably the most powerful tribe on the Klamath River and along with the Hupa and Karuk, caught salmon from the river with weir
s, basket traps and even harpoon
s. One well-known ancient fishing ground is Ishi Pishi Falls, a set of rapids on the river near the confluence with the Salmon River
. Most of the upstream groups had a nomad
ic hunting-gathering lifestyle and did not depend on salmon as much as downstream tribes. The Klamath River's name was recorded by Europeans in the 19th century derived from the word klamet or the Klamath tribe, but prior to white contact, many names were used to refer to the river, including Ishkêesh and Koke. The Klamath tribe's name came from the Upper Chinookan
word /ɬámaɬ/, literally "they of the river".
In the late 1820s, fur trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company
travelling south from Fort Vancouver
reached the Klamath River basin. The first party to see the Klamath River was led by Alexander McLeod
in the winter of 1826–1827. In 1828 Jedediah Smith
reported beaver sign at the Klamath River mouth. Within a matter of years, the plentiful beaver
s in the Klamath basin had been mostly wiped out. Beaver dam
s had previously been an important factor in stream habitat in the Klamath River watershed, helping to moderate the power of floods and creating extensive wetlands. The loss of the beaver dams resulted in detrimental consequences for watercourses in the basin, exacerbating the power of winter floods, and causing severe erosion
. Trapping parties eventually moved southwest into the Sacramento Valley
and blazed an extension of the Siskiyou Trail
, an early path between the Oregon Territory
and San Francisco Bay
. Despite the environmental implications, extensive and fertile meadow
s left behind by the draining of beaver ponds attracted many settlers to the region later on.
The 1850s saw discoveries of rich placer and lode gold deposits along the Klamath, Trinity, Shasta and other rivers in northwestern California. The gold is thought to have originated from volcanic activity in the Klamath Mountains. Miners searching for gold in the Klamath Mountains and Trinity Alps
in the aftermath of the California Gold Rush
first discovered gold along Salmon Creek in the spring of 1850, and additional deposits were found on the main stem by July. Gold was also discovered in great quantities at French Gulch
and Yreka
. Several place names in the Klamath Basin originate from this era, including that of the Scott River
, which is named for pioneer John Walter Scott
. Gold deposits are still present in the Klamath River watershed even though it was mined far past the end of the gold rush.
s began operating on Lower Klamath Lake between Siskiyou County, California
, and Klamath Falls, Oregon
. The steamboats completed a link between a railroad branch line
following the McCloud River
—the final part of which was called the Bartle Fast Freight Road, after Bartle, California. The end of this line, Laird's Landing, was the beginning of the Lower Klamath Lake steamboat line, which began operating with an 80 feet (24.4 m) screw steamer in 1905. By 1909, however, the railroad had circumnavigated Lower Klamath Lake directly to Klamath Falls. The steamboat line fell into disuse—and much of Lower Klamath Lake was later drained and filled in.
In the early 1910s and 1920s logging
was a growing industry on the west side of the upper Klamath River valley, especially around Upper Klamath Lake. The Great Northern Railway and Southern Pacific Railroad
built a joint-use line running along the eastern shore of the lake, delivering logs from the north side to a sawmill
3 miles (4.8 km) downstream from the outlet of the lake. Many of the seasonal marshlands surrounding the lake and rivers were diked in this period to host lumber operations. In 1919, the first Link River Dam
, a timber crib dam, was constructed at the outlet of Upper Klamath Lake, raising it by about 16 feet (4.9 m). Steamboats continued mail, passenger and freight operations on Upper Klamath Lake until about 1928, in a period when many of the lumber companies shut down due to drought.
With lumber a declining industry in the upper Klamath Basin, the economy slowly transitioned to agriculture
. The Klamath Reclamation Project, established by the Bureau of Reclamation in the early 20th century, involved the construction of two dams on the river and additional dams on many of its tributaries, as well as the final draining of Lower Klamath and Tule Lakes. The Bureau of Reclamation was not the only user of the river during this period; in the late 1950s PacifiCorp
and California-Oregon Power Company (COPCO) constructed three more dams on the river downstream. These dams, however, sparked a great controversy over water quality in the lower section of the river and the dependence of the river's annual salmon runs on it.
The river is considered a prime habitat for Chinook salmon
, Coho salmon
, and rainbow trout
. Once the river was the third-largest producer of salmon on the West Coast, but today, only a fraction of the river's historic runs remain since the construction of six dams between 1908 and 1962. Coho salmon in the Klamath River are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act
. In 1963, the upper Trinity River—the largest single tributary to the Klamath—was virtually removed from the Klamath drainage with the completion of the Lewiston and Trinity Dam
s, diverting 90 percent of the Trinity's flow to the Sacramento Valley. From 1963 to 1991, only 150 cuft/s from the main stem above the dams was left to flow to the Klamath. In 1991, a minimum annual Trinity flow of 340000 acre.ft was established, or about 470 cuft/s.
The possible removal of the dams has been a controversial issue in the region in recent years. Despite intense lobbying by local Native American tribes, conservationists, and fishermen, the 2004 renewal application by PacifiCorp
for another 50-year federal operating license for the dams did not include any provisions for allowing salmon to return to more than 300 miles (483 km) of former habitat above the dams. In January 2007, however, the federal government
ruled that PacifiCorp must equip four dams with fish ladder
s, a modification which would potentially cost more than $300 million. PacifiCorp has offered $300 million to upgrade the JC Boyle fish ladder and proposed trucking fish around the Copco #1 and Iron Gate dams, after having had been denied a license to build a power generator in Utah. PacifiCorp President Fehrman defended the company's activities in the area, pointing to other benefits.
A separate controversy surrounds the use of water in the Upper Klamath Basin for irrigated agriculture, which was temporarily halted in 2001 to protect endangered salmon and lake fish during a severe drought. Vice President Dick Cheney
personally intervened to ensure water to the agriculture industry rather than to environmental flow
. In 2002, the federal government, under Interior Secretary Gale Norton
, provided full water deliveries to irrigators as the drought continued; despite the fact that Klamath area tribes have treaty rights that predate the settlement of the farmers. Norton argued for a "free market" approach by allowing farmers to sell the water to the Native Americans downstream. That year, the Klamath River system had the 2002 Klamath River fish kill
, the largest fish die-off
ever recorded.
According to biologists from the State of California and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the atypical low flow in the river along with high fish return numbers and high water temperatures allowed for a gill rot disease to kill at least 33,000 salmon in September 2002, before they could reproduce. The die-off was downstream of the Trinity inflow, and the salmon of the Trinity were impacted to a greater degree than the Klamath as the Trinity run was at its peak. The report does mention that the official fish die-off estimate of 34,056 is probably quite low and could be only half of the actual loss. Klamath River flows as measured at the river gauge in Keno show a low flow of 800 cuft/s in September 1908 (before irrigation began). During the 2002 fish kill, flows of 475 cuft/s were recorded. During September of the 2001 irrigation shut-off, an average of 688 cuft/s was recorded.
In 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) approved a plan first introduced in 1992 by California's state government
. The plan called for major cleanup of the lower river in order to protect salmon from phosphorus
, nitrogen
, and carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand
. It also expressed concern over high water temperatures, algal bloom
s, and low oxygen levels. Environmental groups, more than six government agencies, Native American tribes in the basin, and others have worked with the EPA to reduce pollution levels in the Klamath.
and raised water temperatures induced by the construction of dams have created worsening conditions for migrating salmon, especially in years of drought.
The upper basin water, along with the almost-total diversion of the Trinity and irrigation projects on the Shasta and Scott river tributaries, have all lowered the total river flow supporting out-migrating young salmon in spring and in-migrating adult salmon in the fall. In the 1960s, a project was proposed to divert the entire Klamath River to Central California and Southern California, an undertaking known as the Klamath Diversion
, but this project was defeated. It would have limited salmon to the last 12 miles (19.3 km) of the entire river. In 2005, PacifiCorp applied to the federal government to relicense its four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath for up to 50 years. Environmentalists opposed the relicensing, arguing that the dams should be removed to reopen the upper Klamath to salmon.
An agreement was signed February 18, 2009.
Two years of closed-door negotiations among farmers, Indian tribes, fishermen, conservation groups and government agencies have resulted in an unprecedented—and conditional—agreement to work toward a comprehensive settlement of Klamath water usage. The proposal advocates for the removal of four hydroelectric dams now operating along 300 miles (483 km) of the Klamath River in southern Oregon and Northern California, as well as for restoration projects.
A nonbinding "Agreement in Principle" (AIP) involving PacifiCorp, the federal government, California, and Oregon was announced on November 13, 2008. It is the initial phase of a process that will see the removal of the Iron Gate Dam
, Copco dams number 1 and 2, and the John C. Boyle Dam
, beginning by the year 2020. PacifiCorp ratepayers would fund part of the plan and the State of California would fund much of the remaining projected cost. The agreement requires the federal government to scientifically assess the costs and benefits of the dam removals and to make a final determination by March 31, 2012, as to whether the benefits of the project will justify the costs. Federal, Congressional, and California electorate approval is also required.
are popular recreational activities along the upper Klamath River below the J.C. Boyle Dam, and also along the lower Klamath River downstream of the town of Happy Camp. There are long stretches—over 100 miles (160.9 km) in one instance—of Class I–II whitewater rapids, while there are some Class III–IV rapids in some of the narrower stretches. Below Weitchpec, the river slows down into a wider, deeper channel. About 13 miles (20.9 km) of the river is designated Wild, and 175 miles (281.6 km) Recreational.
Recreational gold mining
is popular along the Klamath and some of its tributaries, including the Salmon and the Trinity. Although simple methods such as panning
are still used, some methods use suction pumps—a practice involving turning over deposits of sediment and spreading them in order to find gold. Debates over the practice, which has further disturbed salmon spawning beds, continue to date.
A variety of national forests and wildlife preserves—including the Klamath National Forest
, Six Rivers National Forest
, Klamath National Wildlife Refuges Complex, and Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge
—are located in the Klamath River watershed. The Klamath National Forest is located in Siskiyou County with a small portion in Oregon, and Six Rivers National Forest is located in the southern Klamath watershed, mostly in the Trinity River watershed. The latter two are located in the Upper Klamath Lake-Lower Klamath Lake area. Lava Beds National Monument
, which contains a large array of lava tubes and formations, is also in the Lower Klamath Lake area, to the south of the remnants of the lake.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
river that flows 263 miles (423.3 km) southwest through Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
and northern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, cutting through the Cascade Range
Cascade Range
The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades...
to empty into the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. The river drains an extensive watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
of almost 16000 square miles (41,439.8 km²) that stretches from the high desert
High Desert (Oregon)
The Oregon High Desert is a region of the U.S. state of Oregon, located east of the Cascade Range and south of the Blue Mountains, in the central and eastern parts of the state. Divided into a southern region and a northern region, the desert covers most of five Oregon counties and averages above...
country of the Great Basin
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...
to the temperate rainforest of the Pacific coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
. It is known for its basin's peculiar geography—most of its upper basin is developed, but the lower remains wild—and has been called "a river upside down" by the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
.
As one of the most important rivers for fish migration
Fish migration
Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousands of kilometres...
on the west coast of North America south of the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
, the Klamath River basin has been inhabited by humans for at least 7,000 years. At one time, the river supported abundant wildlife. Vast freshwater marsh
Marsh
In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....
es in the upper basin provided habitat for thousands of migratory birds. The first Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans to visit the region were fur trappers for the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
who came in the 1820s and established the Siskiyou Trail
Siskiyou Trail
The Siskiyou Trail stretched from California's Central Valley to Oregon's Willamette Valley; modern-day Interstate 5 follows this pioneer path...
along the Klamath and Trinity River
Trinity River (California)
The Trinity River is the longest tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northwestern California in the United States. It drains an area of the Coast Ranges, including the southern Klamath Mountains, northwest of the Sacramento Valley...
s into the Sacramento Valley
Sacramento Valley
The Sacramento Valley is the portion of the California Central Valley that lies to the north of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses all or parts of ten counties.-Geography:...
. The latter days of the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
saw increasing numbers of miners working streams in the Klamath River region in search of gold. Steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
s operated briefly on the large lakes in the upper watershed before the establishment of agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
in the 19th and 20th centuries. The growing industry in the upper basin led to the construction of many dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
s on the river, which have since caused water quality issues for the lower river. Environmentalists have raised petitions against the construction of more dams, and in support of removing the existing ones.
Because the Klamath includes many of the longest free-flowing stretches of river in California as well as some of its better whitewater
Whitewater
Whitewater is formed in a rapid, when a river's gradient increases enough to disturb its laminar flow and create turbulence, i.e. form a bubbly, or aerated and unstable current; the frothy water appears white...
runs, it has become a popular recreational river. Its watershed includes large swathes of the Klamath National Forest
Klamath National Forest
Klamath National Forest is a national forest, in the Klamath Mountains, located in Siskiyou County in northern California, but with a tiny extension into southern Jackson County in Oregon. The forest contains continuous stands of ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, Douglas fir, red fir, white fir and...
and Six Rivers National Forest
Six Rivers National Forest
Six Rivers National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in the northwestern corner of California. It was established on July 1, 1947 by U.S. President Harry S. Truman from portions of Klamath, Siskiyou and Trinity National Forests. Its over one million acres of land contain a variety of...
. For now, the lower Klamath remains undeveloped, although massive diversions were once proposed to reroute the river into the Central Valley in order to supplement the region's water supply.
Course
Upper Klamath LakeUpper Klamath Lake
Upper Klamath Lake is a large, shallow freshwater lake east of the Cascade Range in south central Oregon in the United States. The largest freshwater body in Oregon, it is approximately 20 mi long and 8 mi wide and extends northwest from the city of Klamath Falls...
, filling a broad valley at the foot of the eastern slope of the southern High Cascades, is the source of the Klamath River. Its headstreams, however, begin over 100 miles (160.9 km) away—as far as Crater Lake and the Oregon–Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
border. The first 1 miles (1.6 km) stretch of the Klamath River is known as the Link River
Link River
The Link River is a short river connecting Upper Klamath Lake to Lake Ewauna in the city of Klamath Falls in the U.S. state of Oregon. Draining a basin of , the river begins at the southern end of Klamath Lake and flows a short distance to the Link River Dam and continues to the head of Lake Ewauna...
. Not long after, however, the river is impounded in an 18 miles (29 km) long reservoir
Reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
near Klamath Falls
Klamath Falls, Oregon
Klamath Falls is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Originally called Linkville when George Nurse founded the town in 1867, after the Link River on whose falls this city sat, although no falls currently exist; the name was changed to Klamath Falls in 1892...
, Lake Ewauna
Lake Ewauna
Lake Ewauna is a lake in Klamath Falls, Oregon, United States. It is the headwaters of the Klamath River. Fed by Link River from Upper Klamath Lake and controlled by the release of water from Keno Dam downstream, Lake Ewauna stays at a constant level throughout the year.At just over 6,500 feet ...
, where it is connected by the B canal—which is capable of diverting water between the rivers in either direction as needed, to the Lost River and passes the nearly dry bed of Lower Klamath Lake
Lower Klamath Lake
Lower Klamath Lake is a lake in Siskiyou County, California, that currently serves to hold overflow water for irrigation. At one time it was connected to Upper Klamath Lake....
. Even after it flows out of this reservoir, it drops through a series of three more artificial lakes before it crosses the Oregon–California state border and turns south near the town of Hornbrook
Hornbrook, California
Hornbrook is a census-designated place in Siskiyou County, California, United States. The population was 248 at the 2010 census, down from 286 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Hornbrook is located at ....
towards Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta is located at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California and at is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California...
. However, the river soon swings west to receive the Shasta River
Shasta River
The Shasta River is a tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northern California in the United States. It drains the Shasta Valley on the west and north sides of Mount Shasta in the Cascade Range....
and the Scott River, cutting deep into the head of its canyon through the Klamath Mountains
Klamath Mountains
The Klamath Mountains, which include the Siskiyou, Marble, Scott, Trinity, Trinity Alps, Salmon, and northern Yolla-Bolly Mountains, are a rugged lightly populated mountain range in northwest California and southwest Oregon in the United States...
.
The route through the High and Western Cascades and the Klamath Mountains constitutes the majority of the river's course and takes it from the arid high desert
High Desert (Oregon)
The Oregon High Desert is a region of the U.S. state of Oregon, located east of the Cascade Range and south of the Blue Mountains, in the central and eastern parts of the state. Divided into a southern region and a northern region, the desert covers most of five Oregon counties and averages above...
climate of its upper watershed into a temperate rainforest nourished by Pacific rains. From the Scott River confluence, the river generally runs west along the south side of the Siskiyou Mountains
Siskiyou Mountains
The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal mountain range in the northern Klamath Mountains in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. They extend in an arc for approximately from east of Crescent City, California northeast along the north side of the Klamath River into...
until it takes a sharp southward turn near the town of Happy Camp
Happy Camp, California
Happy Camp is a census-designated place in Siskiyou County, California in the United States. The population was 1,190 at the 2010 census....
. From there, it flows southwest over whitewater rapids into the Klamath National Forest
Klamath National Forest
Klamath National Forest is a national forest, in the Klamath Mountains, located in Siskiyou County in northern California, but with a tiny extension into southern Jackson County in Oregon. The forest contains continuous stands of ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, Douglas fir, red fir, white fir and...
, receiving the Salmon River
Salmon River (California)
The Salmon River is a tributary to the Klamath River in western Siskiyou County, California.The river has its origins in the high mountains of the Trinity Alps, Russian Mountains, and Marble Mountains...
, and passes the unincorporated community
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
of Orleans
Orleans, California
Orleans , Karuk name Panamnik, is an unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California. It is located northeast of Weitchpec, at an elevation of 404 feet...
. At Weitchpec
Weitchpec, California
Weitchpec is an unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California, United States. It is located northeast of Eureka, at an elevation of 361 feet...
, the river reaches the southernmost point in its entire course and veers sharply northwards as it receives the Trinity River
Trinity River (California)
The Trinity River is the longest tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northwestern California in the United States. It drains an area of the Coast Ranges, including the southern Klamath Mountains, northwest of the Sacramento Valley...
. The Trinity River confluence also marks the point where the Klamath's current dramatically slows. For the remainder of its course, the Klamath flows generally northwest through the Hoopa Valley and Yurok Indian Reservation
Yurok Indian Reservation
The Yurok Tribe of the Yurok Reservation is located in parts of Del Norte and Humboldt counties, California, on a 44-mile stretch of the Klamath River. It is a rancheria of Yurok people and a federally recognized tribe....
s, passing the town of Klamath
Klamath, California
Klamath is an unincorporated, rural, census-designated place in Del Norte County, California, situated on US Route 101 inland from the mouth of the Klamath River. The population was 779 at the 2010 census, up from 651 at the 2000 census...
and flowing out to sea 16 miles (25.7 km) south of Crescent City
Crescent City, California
Crescent City is the county seat and only incorporated city in Del Norte County, California. Named for the crescent-shaped stretch of sandy beach south of the city, Crescent City had a total population of 7,643 in the 2010 census, up from 4,006 in the 2000 census...
. The mouth of the Klamath River is at Requa
Requa, California
Requa is an unincorporated community in Del Norte County, California. It is on the north bank of the Klamath River less than a mile from its mouth, at an elevation of 125 feet ....
, in an area shared by the Yurok Reservation and Redwood National Park. The Klamath River estuary is recognized for protection by the California Bays and Estuaries Policy
California Bays and Estuaries Policy
The Water Quality Control Policy for the Enclosed Bays and Estuaries of California is published by the California State Water Resources Control Board as guidelines to prevent water quality degradation. The policy is revised as needed.-Geography:...
.
Watershed
Extending from arid eastern OregonEastern Oregon
Eastern Oregon is the eastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is not an officially recognized geographic entity, thus the boundaries of the region vary according to context. It is sometimes understood to include only the eight easternmost counties in the state; in other contexts, it includes...
to the cold and rainy Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
coast, the Klamath River watershed
Klamath Basin
The Klamath Basin is the region in the U.S. states of Oregon and California drained by the Klamath River. It contains most of Klamath County and parts of Lake and Jackson counties in Oregon, and parts of Del Norte, Humboldt, Modoc, Siskiyou, and Trinity counties in California. The drainage basin...
drains parts of three Oregon counties and five counties in California and includes a diversity of landscapes. The northernmost part of the watershed is drained by the Williamson River
Williamson River (Oregon)
The Williamson River of south-central Oregon in the United States is about long. It drains about east of the Cascade Range. Together with its principal tributary, the Sprague River, it provides over half the inflow to Upper Klamath Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Oregon...
and the Sprague River, both which flow generally southwest into Upper Klamath Lake
Upper Klamath Lake
Upper Klamath Lake is a large, shallow freshwater lake east of the Cascade Range in south central Oregon in the United States. The largest freshwater body in Oregon, it is approximately 20 mi long and 8 mi wide and extends northwest from the city of Klamath Falls...
. The middle basin is characterized by extensive wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
, grassland
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
, and agricultural areas, and is partially filled by two major bodies of water: Upper and Lower Klamath Lake
Lower Klamath Lake
Lower Klamath Lake is a lake in Siskiyou County, California, that currently serves to hold overflow water for irrigation. At one time it was connected to Upper Klamath Lake....
. Finally, steep canyons and high ridges typify the extensive lower basin, which encompasses over one half of the 15751 square miles (40,794.9 km²) watershed.
Several other West Coast and interior drainage basins border on that of the Klamath River. On the northwest are the Rogue River
Rogue River (Oregon)
The Rogue River in southwestern Oregon in the United States flows about in a generally westward direction from the Cascade Range to the Pacific Ocean. Known for its salmon runs, whitewater rafting, and rugged scenery, it was one of the original eight rivers named in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act...
and Umpqua River
Umpqua River
The Umpqua River on the Pacific coast of Oregon in the United States is approximately long. One of the principal rivers of the Oregon Coast and known for bass and shad, the river drains an expansive network of valleys in the mountains west of the Cascade Range and south of the Willamette Valley,...
in Oregon and the Smith River
Smith River (California)
The Smith River is a river on the Pacific coast of northern California in the United States, approximately long. It drains a rugged area of the Pacific Coast Ranges west of the Siskiyou Mountains just south of the Oregon border and north of the watershed of the Klamath River. The catchment area is...
in California. On the east there is the closed Harney Basin
Harney Basin
The Harney Basin is a structural basin in southeastern Oregon in the United States at the northwestern corner of the Great Basin. One of the least populated areas of the contiguous United States, it is located largely in northern Harney County, bounded on the north and east by the Columbia Plateau,...
and a small portion of the Great Basin
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...
. The south side of the Klamath River watershed is bounded by the Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
and its upper tributaries, including the Pit River
Pit River
The Pit River is a major river draining from northeastern California into the state's Central Valley. The Pit, the Klamath and the Columbia are the only three rivers in the U.S...
, and on the southwest side are the Mad River
Mad River (California)
The Mad River is a river in upper Northern California. It flows for in a roughly northwest direction through Trinity County and then Humboldt County, draining a watershed into the Pacific Ocean north of the college town of Arcata near Arcata-Eureka Airport in McKinleyville...
and Redwood Creek. The western boundary of the upper Klamath Basin is formed by the High Cascades and the Klamath Mountains, one of the southernmost extents of the Cascade Range, and the California Coast Ranges cover the southwestern watershed. The Klamath is one of only three rivers that begins east of the Cascades and flows into the Pacific Ocean; the other two are the Columbia
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
and the Fraser
Fraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...
.
Most human use of the watershed is limited to the upper basin. Despite the semiarid climate, dams have been built, irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
water has been supplied from the Klamath and Lost rivers, and plentiful groundwater
Groundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
has been drawn to transform most of the upper Klamath basin to farmland. At least 11,000 years ago, Lower Klamath and Tule Lake
Tule Lake
Tule Lake is an intermittent lake covering an area of , long and across, in northeastern Siskiyou County and northwestern Modoc County in California, along the border with Oregon.-Geography:Tule Lake is fed by the Lost River...
s in the rainy season would combine into one giant freshwater marsh that was nearly 290 square miles (751.1 km²) large. This, combined with the over 100 square miles (259 km²) of Upper Klamath Lake, formed a temporary habitat for millions of migratory birds. These lakes are all remnants of a large Ice Age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
lake, Lake Modoc, that covered about 1100 square miles (2,849 km²). Although all of the marshlands have been developed with the exception of Upper Klamath Lake, the region still supports, on average, 3.7 million migrating birds per year.
Klamath Falls, Oregon
Klamath Falls is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Originally called Linkville when George Nurse founded the town in 1867, after the Link River on whose falls this city sat, although no falls currently exist; the name was changed to Klamath Falls in 1892...
area supplies water to area irrigators, and the Central Valley Project
Central Valley Project
The Central Valley Project is a Bureau of Reclamation federal water project in the U.S. state of California. It was devised in 1933 in order to provide irrigation and municipal water to much of California's Central Valley—by regulating and storing water in reservoirs in the water-rich northern...
diverts water from the Trinity River
Trinity River (California)
The Trinity River is the longest tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northwestern California in the United States. It drains an area of the Coast Ranges, including the southern Klamath Mountains, northwest of the Sacramento Valley...
to supply irrigation water to the Sacramento Valley
Sacramento Valley
The Sacramento Valley is the portion of the California Central Valley that lies to the north of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses all or parts of ten counties.-Geography:...
. Some of the rivers' tributaries, including the Lost and Shasta River
Shasta River
The Shasta River is a tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northern California in the United States. It drains the Shasta Valley on the west and north sides of Mount Shasta in the Cascade Range....
s, are also diverted for irrigation. The status of the lower Klamath as one of the last relatively free-flowing rivers in the state of California and the use of its water has been debated for years between preservationists and government agencies and its eventual fate is still unclear.
Tributaries
- Blue Creek
- Boise CreekBoise CreekBoise Creek is a stream in Humboldt County, California, United States. From its origin on Orleans Mountain it flows 8.5 miles to join the Klamath River about 2.25 miles southeast of Orleans, California...
- Trinity RiverTrinity River (California)The Trinity River is the longest tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northwestern California in the United States. It drains an area of the Coast Ranges, including the southern Klamath Mountains, northwest of the Sacramento Valley...
- South Fork Trinity RiverSouth Fork Trinity RiverThe South Fork Trinity River is a major tributary of the Trinity River, in the northern part of the U.S. state of California.It is part of the Klamath River drainage basin. It flows generally northwest from its source in the Klamath Mountains, draining about of mountainous terrain...
- New RiverNew River (California)The New River flows north from near Cerro Prieto, through the city of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, into the United States through the city of Calexico, California towards the Salton Sea...
- South Fork Trinity River
- Copper CreekCopper Creek (California)Copper Creek is a southern tributary of the Klamath River in the U.S. state of California. Arising in the Klamath Mountains, the creek drains a narrow watershed of about...
- Salmon RiverSalmon River (California)The Salmon River is a tributary to the Klamath River in western Siskiyou County, California.The river has its origins in the high mountains of the Trinity Alps, Russian Mountains, and Marble Mountains...
- Scott RiverScott RiverThe Scott River is a river in Siskiyou County, California, United States. It is a tributary of the Klamath River, one of the largest rivers in California....
- Shasta RiverShasta RiverThe Shasta River is a tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northern California in the United States. It drains the Shasta Valley on the west and north sides of Mount Shasta in the Cascade Range....
- Butte Creek
- Lost River
Flooding
The lower and middle sections of the Klamath River are vulnerable to flooding, and major floods have occurred in years where major flooding has taken place in Northern CaliforniaFloods in California
All types of floods can occur in California, though 90% are caused by riverine flooding. Such flooding generally occurs as a result of excessive rainfall, excessive snowmelt, excessive runoff, levee failure or a combination of these sources...
, particularly in the wake of Pineapple Express
Pineapple Express
Pineapple Express is a non-technical term for a meteorological phenomenon characterized by a strong and persistent flow of atmospheric moisture and associated heavy rainfall from the waters adjacent to the Hawaiian Islands and extending to any location along the Pacific coast of North America...
storms that bring large amounts of warm rain to Northern California. Significant floods on the Klamath River have occurred in 1926–1927, 1955, 1964, 1997, and 2005, in several cases changing the course of the river. The Christmas flood of 1964
Christmas flood of 1964
The Christmas flood of 1964 was a major flood that took place in the Pacific Northwest of the United States between December 18, 1964 and January 7, 1965, spanning the Christmas holiday.Considered a 100-year flood,...
was particularly devastating, with a high water reaching 55 feet (16.8 m), inundating the towns of Klamath
Klamath, California
Klamath is an unincorporated, rural, census-designated place in Del Norte County, California, situated on US Route 101 inland from the mouth of the Klamath River. The population was 779 at the 2010 census, up from 651 at the 2000 census...
and Klamath Glen
Klamath Glen, California
Klamath Glen is an unincorporated community in Del Norte County, California. It is located on the Klamath River from its mouth, at an elevation of 46 feet ....
and destroying most of the Highway 101
U.S. Route 101
U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101, is an important north–south U.S. highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States...
bridge crossing the river. The highway bridge was rebuilt in a different location, though entrances to the old bridge still stand.
The mouth of the Klamath and nearby sections of the river are susceptible to oceanic tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
surges, and fatalities have occurred there during the 1964 and 2011 Pacific tsunamis.
Geology
The Upper Klamath Basin, defined by the drainage area of the Klamath River above Iron Gate DamIron Gate Dam (California)
Iron Gate Dam is a earthfill hydroelectric dam on the Klamath River in northern California. It is the lowermost of a series of power dams on the river, the Klamath River Hydroelectric Project, owned by PacifiCorp. It also poses the first barrier to migrating salmon in the Klamath....
, is a unique transitional area between the Cascade Range
Cascade Range
The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades...
to the west and the Basin and Range Province of the northern Great Basin
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...
to the southeast. This region extends from the southern Lower Klamath Lake
Lower Klamath Lake
Lower Klamath Lake is a lake in Siskiyou County, California, that currently serves to hold overflow water for irrigation. At one time it was connected to Upper Klamath Lake....
area into the Lost River and Upper Klamath Lake
Upper Klamath Lake
Upper Klamath Lake is a large, shallow freshwater lake east of the Cascade Range in south central Oregon in the United States. The largest freshwater body in Oregon, it is approximately 20 mi long and 8 mi wide and extends northwest from the city of Klamath Falls...
basins. Crustal stretching and block faulting created a topography with characteristics similar to both regions. Almost the entire basin is a graben
Graben
In geology, a graben is a depressed block of land bordered by parallel faults. Graben is German for ditch. Graben is used for both the singular and plural....
region, bearing basin and range characteristics, formed by uplifting and subsidence along several north–south faults.
Pre-Quaternary
Quaternary
The Quaternary Period is the most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the ICS. It follows the Neogene Period, spanning 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present...
, igneous and sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....
compose the Yonna Formation, which crosses much of the region and rises above the surface in large outcroppings of solid rock in many of the ridges. Underlying rocks are generally younger from east to west. The many ridges crossing the upper Klamath Basin divide it into valleys with up to 330 feet (100.6 m) of vertical relief, and drainage patterns generally follow the topography. An extensive geothermal
Geothermal
Geothermal is related to energy and may refer to:* The geothermal gradient and associated heat flows from within the Earth- Renewable technology :...
system occurs deep underground within the upper basin, creating hot spring
Hot spring
A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth.-Definitions:...
s and artesian springs, but is not well understood. Further south, in the Shasta River
Shasta River
The Shasta River is a tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northern California in the United States. It drains the Shasta Valley on the west and north sides of Mount Shasta in the Cascade Range....
area in Siskiyou County, much of the underlying rock is composed of lava flows issuing from the Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta is located at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California and at is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California...
volcanic region.
The same age pattern is true in the Cascade Range and Klamath Mountains
Klamath Mountains
The Klamath Mountains, which include the Siskiyou, Marble, Scott, Trinity, Trinity Alps, Salmon, and northern Yolla-Bolly Mountains, are a rugged lightly populated mountain range in northwest California and southwest Oregon in the United States...
that cover the western half of the Klamath River watershed. As the North American Plate
North American Plate
The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland, Cuba, Bahamas, and parts of Siberia, Japan and Iceland. It extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia. The plate includes both continental and oceanic crust...
moved slowly southwestward over the past 10 million years, successive oceanic terrane
Terrane
A terrane in geology is short-hand term for a tectonostratigraphic terrane, which is a fragment of crustal material formed on, or broken off from, one tectonic plate and accreted or "sutured" to crust lying on another plate...
s dating from the Cambrian
Cambrian
The Cambrian is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, lasting from Mya ; it is succeeded by the Ordovician. Its subdivisions, and indeed its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, where Britain's...
to the late Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...
were added to the bulk of the North American continent. There are four distinct terranes from west to east. While the coastal mountains date to less than 3 million years ago, the farther inland High Cascades are as old as 7.5 million years. Granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
batholith
Batholith
A batholith is a large emplacement of igneous intrusive rock that forms from cooled magma deep in the Earth's crust...
s, overlying sedimentary rock, and volcanic rock were crumpled into the massif
Massif
In geology, a massif is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole...
of southwestern Oregon and northwestern California. Instead of being diverted southwards, however, the Klamath continued to flow westward and created a steep-walled gorge through the rising range. One of these terranes brought with it a long north–south running band of easily eroded mica
Mica
The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...
that now lies about 30 miles (48.3 km) inland from the Pacific coast of Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
. When the Klamath encountered this layer, it began cutting its canyon along the mica instead of continuing southwest to the Pacific, resulting in the sharp northward bend where the Trinity River
Trinity River (California)
The Trinity River is the longest tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northwestern California in the United States. It drains an area of the Coast Ranges, including the southern Klamath Mountains, northwest of the Sacramento Valley...
joins. The lower Trinity also follows portions of the mica and its south fork
South Fork Trinity River
The South Fork Trinity River is a major tributary of the Trinity River, in the northern part of the U.S. state of California.It is part of the Klamath River drainage basin. It flows generally northwest from its source in the Klamath Mountains, draining about of mountainous terrain...
as well.
Early inhabitants and settlers
Human habitation on the Klamath dates to at least 7,000 years ago. Many of the Native American groups along the river depended on the vast runs of Pacific salmon, second only to that of the Columbia RiverColumbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
. These tribes included the Yurok
Yurok tribe
The Yurok, whose name means "downriver people" in the neighboring Karuk language, are Native Americans who live in northwestern California near the Klamath River and Pacific coast...
, Hupa
Hupa
Hupa, also spelled Hoopa, are a Native American tribe in northwestern California. Their autonym is Natinixwe, also spelled Natinookwa, meaning "People of the Place Where the Trails Return." The majority of the tribe is enrolled in the federally recognized Hoopa Valley Tribe; however, some Hupa are...
, and Karuk
Karuk
Karuk is an indigenous people of California in the United States.The tribal headquarters, located off State Route 96, is in the town of Happy Camp, California. Currently the tribe has three tribal board meeting places, in Yreka, Happy Camp, and Orleans...
along the canyons of the lower river and the Modoc, Klamath and Yahooskin in the arid valleys of the upper basin. Controlling about 30 miles (48.3 km) of the lower Klamath River and a large section of the Northern California coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
, the Yurok were probably the most powerful tribe on the Klamath River and along with the Hupa and Karuk, caught salmon from the river with weir
Weir
A weir is a small overflow dam used to alter the flow characteristics of a river or stream. In most cases weirs take the form of a barrier across the river that causes water to pool behind the structure , but allows water to flow over the top...
s, basket traps and even harpoon
Harpoon
A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal...
s. One well-known ancient fishing ground is Ishi Pishi Falls, a set of rapids on the river near the confluence with the Salmon River
Salmon River (California)
The Salmon River is a tributary to the Klamath River in western Siskiyou County, California.The river has its origins in the high mountains of the Trinity Alps, Russian Mountains, and Marble Mountains...
. Most of the upstream groups had a nomad
Nomad
Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...
ic hunting-gathering lifestyle and did not depend on salmon as much as downstream tribes. The Klamath River's name was recorded by Europeans in the 19th century derived from the word klamet or the Klamath tribe, but prior to white contact, many names were used to refer to the river, including Ishkêesh and Koke. The Klamath tribe's name came from the Upper Chinookan
Chinookan languages
Chinookan is a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples.-Family division:Chinookan languages consists of three languages with multiple varieties. There is some dispute over classification, and there are two ISO 639-3 codes assigned: and...
word /ɬámaɬ/, literally "they of the river".
In the late 1820s, fur trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
travelling south from Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading outpost along the Columbia River that served as the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in the company's Columbia District...
reached the Klamath River basin. The first party to see the Klamath River was led by Alexander McLeod
Alexander Roderick McLeod
Alexander Roderick McLeod was a fur trader and explorer who began his career with the North West Company in 1802.McLeod became a chief trader with the Hudson's Bay Company after they joined with the NWC in 1821...
in the winter of 1826–1827. In 1828 Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Strong Smith was a hunter, trapper, fur trader, trailblazer, author, cartographer, cattleman, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the American West Coast and the Southwest during the 19th century...
reported beaver sign at the Klamath River mouth. Within a matter of years, the plentiful beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
s in the Klamath basin had been mostly wiped out. Beaver dam
Beaver dam
Beaver dams are dams built by beavers as protection against predators such as coyotes, wolves, and bears, and to provide easy access to food during winter. Beavers work at night and are prolific builders, carrying mud and stones with their fore-paws and timber between their teeth...
s had previously been an important factor in stream habitat in the Klamath River watershed, helping to moderate the power of floods and creating extensive wetlands. The loss of the beaver dams resulted in detrimental consequences for watercourses in the basin, exacerbating the power of winter floods, and causing severe erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
. Trapping parties eventually moved southwest into the Sacramento Valley
Sacramento Valley
The Sacramento Valley is the portion of the California Central Valley that lies to the north of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses all or parts of ten counties.-Geography:...
and blazed an extension of the Siskiyou Trail
Siskiyou Trail
The Siskiyou Trail stretched from California's Central Valley to Oregon's Willamette Valley; modern-day Interstate 5 follows this pioneer path...
, an early path between the Oregon Territory
Oregon Territory
The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. Originally claimed by several countries , the region was...
and San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
. Despite the environmental implications, extensive and fertile meadow
Meadow
A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...
s left behind by the draining of beaver ponds attracted many settlers to the region later on.
The 1850s saw discoveries of rich placer and lode gold deposits along the Klamath, Trinity, Shasta and other rivers in northwestern California. The gold is thought to have originated from volcanic activity in the Klamath Mountains. Miners searching for gold in the Klamath Mountains and Trinity Alps
Trinity Alps
The Trinity Alps are mountains in Northern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region, located to the northwest of Redding. Elevations there range from to at Thompson Peak. The Trinity Alps Wilderness covers , making it the second largest wilderness area in California...
in the aftermath of the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
first discovered gold along Salmon Creek in the spring of 1850, and additional deposits were found on the main stem by July. Gold was also discovered in great quantities at French Gulch
French Gulch, California
French Gulch is a census-designated place in Shasta County, California, United States. The population was 346 at the 2010 census, up from 254 at the 2000 census.-Geography:French Gulch is located at ....
and Yreka
Yreka, California
Yreka is the county seat of Siskiyou County, California, United States. The population was 7,765 at the 2010 census, up from 7,290 at the 2000 census.- History:...
. Several place names in the Klamath Basin originate from this era, including that of the Scott River
Scott River
The Scott River is a river in Siskiyou County, California, United States. It is a tributary of the Klamath River, one of the largest rivers in California....
, which is named for pioneer John Walter Scott
John Walter Scott
John Walter Scott , of New York City, was originally from England, but he emigrated to the United States to take part in the California Gold Rush. Unsuccessful at the prospecting trade, Scott began to sell postage stamps for collectors and in a short period of time became the nation’s leading stamp...
. Gold deposits are still present in the Klamath River watershed even though it was mined far past the end of the gold rush.
Early industry and development
Beginning in the early 20th century, steamboatSteamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
s began operating on Lower Klamath Lake between Siskiyou County, California
Siskiyou County, California
Siskiyou County is a county located in the far northernmost part of the U.S. state of California, in the Shasta Cascade region on the Oregon border. Yreka is the county seat. Because of its substantial natural beauty, outdoor recreation opportunities, and Gold Rush era history, it is an important...
, and Klamath Falls, Oregon
Klamath Falls, Oregon
Klamath Falls is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Originally called Linkville when George Nurse founded the town in 1867, after the Link River on whose falls this city sat, although no falls currently exist; the name was changed to Klamath Falls in 1892...
. The steamboats completed a link between a railroad branch line
Branch line
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line...
following the McCloud River
McCloud River
The McCloud River is a river that flows east of and parallel to the Sacramento River, long, in northern California in the United States. It drains a scenic mountainous area of the Cascade Range north of Redding...
—the final part of which was called the Bartle Fast Freight Road, after Bartle, California. The end of this line, Laird's Landing, was the beginning of the Lower Klamath Lake steamboat line, which began operating with an 80 feet (24.4 m) screw steamer in 1905. By 1909, however, the railroad had circumnavigated Lower Klamath Lake directly to Klamath Falls. The steamboat line fell into disuse—and much of Lower Klamath Lake was later drained and filled in.
In the early 1910s and 1920s logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
was a growing industry on the west side of the upper Klamath River valley, especially around Upper Klamath Lake. The Great Northern Railway and Southern Pacific Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
built a joint-use line running along the eastern shore of the lake, delivering logs from the north side to a sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
3 miles (4.8 km) downstream from the outlet of the lake. Many of the seasonal marshlands surrounding the lake and rivers were diked in this period to host lumber operations. In 1919, the first Link River Dam
Link River Dam
The Link River Dam is a concrete dam on the Link River in the city of Klamath Falls, Oregon. It was built in 1921 by the California Oregon Power Co. The dam was built to control the water level of Klamath Lake in order to maximize power production...
, a timber crib dam, was constructed at the outlet of Upper Klamath Lake, raising it by about 16 feet (4.9 m). Steamboats continued mail, passenger and freight operations on Upper Klamath Lake until about 1928, in a period when many of the lumber companies shut down due to drought.
With lumber a declining industry in the upper Klamath Basin, the economy slowly transitioned to agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
. The Klamath Reclamation Project, established by the Bureau of Reclamation in the early 20th century, involved the construction of two dams on the river and additional dams on many of its tributaries, as well as the final draining of Lower Klamath and Tule Lakes. The Bureau of Reclamation was not the only user of the river during this period; in the late 1950s PacifiCorp
PacifiCorp
PacifiCorp is an electric power company in the northwestern United States.PacifiCorp has three primary subsidiaries:# Pacific Power is a regulated electric utility with service territory throughout Oregon, northern California, and southeastern Washington.# Rocky Mountain Power is a regulated...
and California-Oregon Power Company (COPCO) constructed three more dams on the river downstream. These dams, however, sparked a great controversy over water quality in the lower section of the river and the dependence of the river's annual salmon runs on it.
Natural history
Chinook salmon
The Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, is the largest species in the pacific salmon family. Other commonly used names for the species include King salmon, Quinnat salmon, Spring salmon and Tyee salmon...
, Coho salmon
Coho salmon
The Coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch, is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". It is the state animal of Chiba, Japan.-Description:...
, and rainbow trout
Rainbow trout
The rainbow trout is a species of salmonid native to tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is a sea run rainbow trout usually returning to freshwater to spawn after 2 to 3 years at sea. In other words, rainbow trout and steelhead trout are the same species....
. Once the river was the third-largest producer of salmon on the West Coast, but today, only a fraction of the river's historic runs remain since the construction of six dams between 1908 and 1962. Coho salmon in the Klamath River are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and...
. In 1963, the upper Trinity River—the largest single tributary to the Klamath—was virtually removed from the Klamath drainage with the completion of the Lewiston and Trinity Dam
Trinity Dam
Trinity Dam is an earth dam on the Trinity River that forms Trinity Lake near Weaverville, California. Trinity Lake was previously called Clair Engle Lake. The earthfill dam was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Construction was completed in 1962. Trinity Lake has a capacity of , making it...
s, diverting 90 percent of the Trinity's flow to the Sacramento Valley. From 1963 to 1991, only 150 cuft/s from the main stem above the dams was left to flow to the Klamath. In 1991, a minimum annual Trinity flow of 340000 acre.ft was established, or about 470 cuft/s.
The possible removal of the dams has been a controversial issue in the region in recent years. Despite intense lobbying by local Native American tribes, conservationists, and fishermen, the 2004 renewal application by PacifiCorp
PacifiCorp
PacifiCorp is an electric power company in the northwestern United States.PacifiCorp has three primary subsidiaries:# Pacific Power is a regulated electric utility with service territory throughout Oregon, northern California, and southeastern Washington.# Rocky Mountain Power is a regulated...
for another 50-year federal operating license for the dams did not include any provisions for allowing salmon to return to more than 300 miles (483 km) of former habitat above the dams. In January 2007, however, the federal government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
ruled that PacifiCorp must equip four dams with fish ladder
Fish ladder
A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass or fish steps, is a structure on or around artificial barriers to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration. Most fishways enable fish to pass around the barriers by swimming and leaping up a series of relatively low steps into the waters on...
s, a modification which would potentially cost more than $300 million. PacifiCorp has offered $300 million to upgrade the JC Boyle fish ladder and proposed trucking fish around the Copco #1 and Iron Gate dams, after having had been denied a license to build a power generator in Utah. PacifiCorp President Fehrman defended the company's activities in the area, pointing to other benefits.
A separate controversy surrounds the use of water in the Upper Klamath Basin for irrigated agriculture, which was temporarily halted in 2001 to protect endangered salmon and lake fish during a severe drought. Vice President Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
personally intervened to ensure water to the agriculture industry rather than to environmental flow
Environmental flow
‘’’Environmental flows’’’ describe the quantity, timing, and quality of water flows required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems and the human livelihoods and well being that depend on these ecosystems...
. In 2002, the federal government, under Interior Secretary Gale Norton
Gale Norton
Gale Ann Norton served as the 48th United States Secretary of the Interior from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush...
, provided full water deliveries to irrigators as the drought continued; despite the fact that Klamath area tribes have treaty rights that predate the settlement of the farmers. Norton argued for a "free market" approach by allowing farmers to sell the water to the Native Americans downstream. That year, the Klamath River system had the 2002 Klamath River fish kill
2002 Klamath River fish kill
The 2002 Klamath River fish kill occurred on the Klamath River in California in September 2002. Over 70,000 adult chinook salmon were killed when returning to the river to spawn, making it the largest salmon kill in the history of the American west. The kill resulted from water diversions to...
, the largest fish die-off
Fish kill
The term fish kill, known also as fish die-off and as fish mortality, is a localized die-off of fish populations which may also be associated with more generalised mortality of aquatic life...
ever recorded.
According to biologists from the State of California and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the atypical low flow in the river along with high fish return numbers and high water temperatures allowed for a gill rot disease to kill at least 33,000 salmon in September 2002, before they could reproduce. The die-off was downstream of the Trinity inflow, and the salmon of the Trinity were impacted to a greater degree than the Klamath as the Trinity run was at its peak. The report does mention that the official fish die-off estimate of 34,056 is probably quite low and could be only half of the actual loss. Klamath River flows as measured at the river gauge in Keno show a low flow of 800 cuft/s in September 1908 (before irrigation began). During the 2002 fish kill, flows of 475 cuft/s were recorded. During September of the 2001 irrigation shut-off, an average of 688 cuft/s was recorded.
In 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
(EPA) approved a plan first introduced in 1992 by California's state government
Government of California
The government of California operates in the context of a democratic republic with three branches of government: the executive branch consisting of the Governor of California and the other elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch consisting of the California State Legislature which...
. The plan called for major cleanup of the lower river in order to protect salmon from phosphorus
Phosphorus
Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus as a mineral is almost always present in its maximally oxidized state, as inorganic phosphate rocks...
, nitrogen
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...
, and carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand
Carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand
Carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand or CBOD is a method defined test measured by the depletion of dissolved oxygen by biological organisms in a body of water in which the contribution from nitrogenous bacteria has been suppressed. CBOD is a method defined parameter is widely used as an...
. It also expressed concern over high water temperatures, algal bloom
Algal bloom
An algal bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in an aquatic system. Algal blooms may occur in freshwater as well as marine environments. Typically, only one or a small number of phytoplankton species are involved, and some blooms may be recognized by discoloration...
s, and low oxygen levels. Environmental groups, more than six government agencies, Native American tribes in the basin, and others have worked with the EPA to reduce pollution levels in the Klamath.
Salmon controversy
Historically, the Klamath River was once the "third most productive salmon river system in the United States", after the Columbia and the Sacramento. EutrophicationEutrophication
Eutrophication or more precisely hypertrophication, is the movement of a body of water′s trophic status in the direction of increasing plant biomass, by the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system...
and raised water temperatures induced by the construction of dams have created worsening conditions for migrating salmon, especially in years of drought.
The upper basin water, along with the almost-total diversion of the Trinity and irrigation projects on the Shasta and Scott river tributaries, have all lowered the total river flow supporting out-migrating young salmon in spring and in-migrating adult salmon in the fall. In the 1960s, a project was proposed to divert the entire Klamath River to Central California and Southern California, an undertaking known as the Klamath Diversion
Klamath Diversion
The Klamath Diversion was a federal water project proposed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in the 1960s. It would have diverted the Klamath River in Northern California to the more arid southern part of that state...
, but this project was defeated. It would have limited salmon to the last 12 miles (19.3 km) of the entire river. In 2005, PacifiCorp applied to the federal government to relicense its four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath for up to 50 years. Environmentalists opposed the relicensing, arguing that the dams should be removed to reopen the upper Klamath to salmon.
Two years of closed-door negotiations among farmers, Indian tribes, fishermen, conservation groups and government agencies have resulted in an unprecedented—and conditional—agreement to work toward a comprehensive settlement of Klamath water usage. The proposal advocates for the removal of four hydroelectric dams now operating along 300 miles (483 km) of the Klamath River in southern Oregon and Northern California, as well as for restoration projects.
A nonbinding "Agreement in Principle" (AIP) involving PacifiCorp, the federal government, California, and Oregon was announced on November 13, 2008. It is the initial phase of a process that will see the removal of the Iron Gate Dam
Iron Gate Dam (California)
Iron Gate Dam is a earthfill hydroelectric dam on the Klamath River in northern California. It is the lowermost of a series of power dams on the river, the Klamath River Hydroelectric Project, owned by PacifiCorp. It also poses the first barrier to migrating salmon in the Klamath....
, Copco dams number 1 and 2, and the John C. Boyle Dam
John C. Boyle Dam
The John C. Boyle Dam is a hydroelectric dam located in southern Oregon, United States. It is on the upper Klamath River, south of Keno, and about 12 miles north of the California border. Originally developed and known as Big Bend, the John C...
, beginning by the year 2020. PacifiCorp ratepayers would fund part of the plan and the State of California would fund much of the remaining projected cost. The agreement requires the federal government to scientifically assess the costs and benefits of the dam removals and to make a final determination by March 31, 2012, as to whether the benefits of the project will justify the costs. Federal, Congressional, and California electorate approval is also required.
Water rights dispute
In 1864, the Klamath Tribes signed a treaty that included them ceding about 20000000 acres (8,093,720 ha) of their land, leaving much less water available to them in the basin. Then in the 1950s, Congress passed a bill that removed the tribes' federal recognition, but did not remove their water rights. In the 1970s, however, Congress repealed that bill. Klamath basin farmers twice sued the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2001, seeking to achieve access to more water for irrigating farms in the basin. The farmers lost each lawsuit.Recreation
Whitewater rafting and kayakingKayaking
Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving across water. Kayaking and canoeing are also known as paddling. Kayaking is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle...
are popular recreational activities along the upper Klamath River below the J.C. Boyle Dam, and also along the lower Klamath River downstream of the town of Happy Camp. There are long stretches—over 100 miles (160.9 km) in one instance—of Class I–II whitewater rapids, while there are some Class III–IV rapids in some of the narrower stretches. Below Weitchpec, the river slows down into a wider, deeper channel. About 13 miles (20.9 km) of the river is designated Wild, and 175 miles (281.6 km) Recreational.
Recreational gold mining
Gold mining
Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...
is popular along the Klamath and some of its tributaries, including the Salmon and the Trinity. Although simple methods such as panning
Gold panning
Gold panning, or simply panning, is a form of placer mining that extracts gold from a placer deposit using a pan. The process is one of the simplest ways to extract gold, and is popular with geology enthusiasts because of its cheap cost and the relatively simple and easy process involved. It is the...
are still used, some methods use suction pumps—a practice involving turning over deposits of sediment and spreading them in order to find gold. Debates over the practice, which has further disturbed salmon spawning beds, continue to date.
A variety of national forests and wildlife preserves—including the Klamath National Forest
Klamath National Forest
Klamath National Forest is a national forest, in the Klamath Mountains, located in Siskiyou County in northern California, but with a tiny extension into southern Jackson County in Oregon. The forest contains continuous stands of ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, Douglas fir, red fir, white fir and...
, Six Rivers National Forest
Six Rivers National Forest
Six Rivers National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in the northwestern corner of California. It was established on July 1, 1947 by U.S. President Harry S. Truman from portions of Klamath, Siskiyou and Trinity National Forests. Its over one million acres of land contain a variety of...
, Klamath National Wildlife Refuges Complex, and Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge
Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge
The Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife preserve operated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service located in the Klamath Basin along a portion of the northern California and southern Oregon border near Klamath Falls, Oregon...
—are located in the Klamath River watershed. The Klamath National Forest is located in Siskiyou County with a small portion in Oregon, and Six Rivers National Forest is located in the southern Klamath watershed, mostly in the Trinity River watershed. The latter two are located in the Upper Klamath Lake-Lower Klamath Lake area. Lava Beds National Monument
Lava Beds National Monument
Lava Beds National Monument is located in northeastern California, in Siskiyou and Modoc Counties. The Monument lies on the northeastern flank of the Medicine Lake Volcano, with the largest total area covered by a volcano in the Cascade Range....
, which contains a large array of lava tubes and formations, is also in the Lower Klamath Lake area, to the south of the remnants of the lake.
See also
- Course of the Klamath RiverCourse of the Klamath RiverThe Klamath River is a river in southern Oregon and northern California in the United States. This article describes its course.-Oregon:...
- Klamath BasinKlamath BasinThe Klamath Basin is the region in the U.S. states of Oregon and California drained by the Klamath River. It contains most of Klamath County and parts of Lake and Jackson counties in Oregon, and parts of Del Norte, Humboldt, Modoc, Siskiyou, and Trinity counties in California. The drainage basin...
- List of California rivers
- List of rivers of Oregon
- List of longest streams of Oregon
- List of National Wild and Scenic Rivers
External links
- Klamath RiverKeeper
- Mid Klamath Watershed Council
- State of California hydrological monitoring of the Klamath and tributaries.
- NASA Earth Observatory: drought and irrigation shut off in the Klamath Basin
- Spot.us – The Story Behind the World's Biggest Dam Removal – Rough Water