Columbia River

[17] The river flows past The Gorge Amphitheatre, a prominent concert venue in the Northwest, then through Priest Rapids Dam, and then through the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

As the plate subducted, it carried along island arcs which were accreted to the North American continent, resulting in the creation of the Pacific Northwest between 150 and 90 million years ago.

Carrying sediments from erosion and erupting volcanoes, it built a 2-mile (3.2 km) thick delta that underlies the foothills on the east side of the Coast Range near Vernonia in northwestern Oregon.

[38] The floods' periodic inundation of the lower Columbia River Plateau deposited rich sediments; 21st-century farmers in the Willamette Valley "plow fields of fertile Montana soil and clays from Washington's Palouse".

[48] In 1962, archaeologists found evidence of human activity dating back 11,230 years at the Marmes Rockshelter, near the confluence of the Palouse and Snake rivers in eastern Washington.

South of the Canada–US border, the Colville, Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, Yakama, Nez Perce, Cayuse, Palus, Umatilla, Cowlitz, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs live along the US stretch.

[56][57] Horses, originally acquired from Spanish New Mexico, spread widely via native trade networks, reaching the Shoshone of the Snake River Plain by 1700.

The Yakama, Umatilla, Palus, Spokane, and Coeur d'Alene maintained sizable herds of horses and adopted some of the plains cultural characteristics, but fishing and fish-related economies remained important.

Less affected groups included the Molala, Klickitat, Wenatchi, Okanagan, and Sinkiuse-Columbia peoples, who owned small numbers of horses and adopted few plains culture features.

[87][citation needed] In the 18th century, there was strong interest in discovering a Northwest Passage that would permit navigation between the Atlantic (or inland North America) and the Pacific Ocean.

Royal Navy commander George Vancouver sailed past the mouth in April 1792 and observed a change in the water's color, but he accepted Meares' report and continued on his journey northward.

After crossing the Rocky Mountains, Lewis and Clark built dugout canoes and paddled down the Snake River, reaching the Columbia near the present-day Tri-Cities, Washington.

[87] Canadian explorer David Thompson, of the North West Company, spent the winter of 1807–08 at Kootanae House near the source of the Columbia at present-day Invermere, BC.

[100] The dredging and dam building that followed would permanently alter the river, disrupting its natural flow but also providing electricity, irrigation, navigability and other benefits to the region.

The report was backed by many engineers and state politicians who believed that the creation of Dams along the Columbia River would be a strong candidate for generation of hydroelectric power.

[22] The dams address a variety of demands, including flood control, navigation, stream flow regulation, storage, and delivery of stored waters, reclamation of public lands and Indian reservations and territories, and the generation of hydroelectric power.

The Columbia rises and falls, not by the dictates of tide or rainfall, but by a computer-activated, legally arbitrated, federally allocated schedule that changes only when significant litigation is concluded, or a United States Senator nears election time.

These negotiations culminated in a lawsuit, with Earthjustice requesting to completely halt operations due to their belief of Snake River Dam effects on salmon and steelhead fish runs.

[144] Proposed in December 2023, President Joe Biden agreed to a $1 billion mandate, which will attempt to reintroduce Columbia River salmon blockaded by dams.

The mandate asked for the Bonneville Power Administration to supply US$300 million over a ten-year span starting in 2024, which includes habitat restoration and upgrades in fish hatcheries.

[133] The project's initial purpose was irrigation, but the onset of World War II created a high electricity demand, mainly for aluminum production and for the development of nuclear weapons at the Hanford Site.

[147] The project provides water to more than 670 thousand acres (2,700 square kilometers) of fertile but arid land in central Washington,[17] transforming the region into a major agricultural center.

[149] The Columbia's heavy flow and large elevation drop over a short distance, 2.16 feet per mile (40.9 centimeters per kilometer), give it tremendous capacity for hydroelectricity generation.

In that year, the people of Oregon passed two laws under their newly instituted program of citizens' initiatives limiting fishing on the Columbia and other rivers.

[173] In 1994, the salmon catch was smaller than usual in the rivers of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, causing concern among commercial fishermen, government agencies, and tribal leaders.

[195] Starting between April and June 2025, the Hanford Nuclear Site is expected to melt radioactive wastes combined with glass flakes at a rate of 21 metric tons per day.

The Northwest Forest Plan, a piece of federal legislation from 1994, mandated that timber companies consider the environmental impacts of their practices on rivers like the Columbia.

Michael Rondeau, a descendent of the Umpqua tribe, expressed his contradictory emotions on the acquisition, stating that he felt "sadness that my grandparents and great aunts and uncles and beyond that did not have a day of recognition".

[202][203] Natural sources of nutrients in the Columbia River include weathering, leaf litter, salmon carcasses, runoff from its tributaries, and ocean estuary exchange.

[212] The watershed provides habitat for 609 known fish and wildlife species, including the bull trout, bald eagle, gray wolf, grizzly bear, and Canada lynx.

Modified satellite view of the Columbia River watershed showing the course of the river in red from Columbia Lake in British Columbia, Canada, to Astoria, Oregon, in the United States. The maps show that the river, although flowing on average in a southwesterly direction from source to mouth, changes direction sharply from northwest to south at Big Bend in Canada, from south to west near Grand Coulee Dam in Washington, from west to south near Wenatchee, Washington, and from south to west near the Tri-Cities area in Washington.
Course of the Columbia River
The Columbia River Gorge facing east toward Beacon Rock
Bathymetric map of the mouth of the Columbia River
Reddish-brown terrain and many small green bushes surround a lake. Truncated ridges of dark rock run across the terrain parallel to the horizon and to each other beneath a blue sky.
Drumheller Channels , part of the Channeled Scablands formed by the Missoula Floods
A wide river curves gently at the base of a mountain range. A meadow in the foreground gives way to an evergreen forest and then to the river. In the background, a layer of thin clouds veils a blue sky.
Panoramic view of Columbia River Gorge from Dog Mountain in Washington
Profile of the head and torso of a dignified man of about 60. He wears a headpiece featuring many long white feathers with black tips. His shirt or upper garment is dark, and its sleeves are white. Decorative parallel ovals of white material extend down the front of this garment from neck to midriff.
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce people
Four men dressed in long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and hats are perched on platforms on both sides of a rushing stream. Three of the men are standing, and one is seated. Each man holds one end of a long pole with a net, dipped in the water, attached to the other end. Several people without poles are watching or waiting nearby.
Dipnet fishing at Celilo Falls, 1941
Artist's rendering of a tall, narrow waterfall cascading down a series of vertical or nearly vertical rock faces into a big river. Mountains, largely devoid of vegetation, rise on both sides of the waterfall and connect to a range of mountains in the background.
Multnomah Falls , painted by James W. Alden, 1857
Carver 's map from 1778, showing the River of the West, New Albion , Lake Winnipeg , and the Mountains of Bright Stone
Painting of a big river in the foreground flowing out of mountains in the background. Evergreen trees line both banks of the river. A large spire of rock rises in the middle distance along the left bank.
Columbia River, Cascade Mountains, Oregon , (1876) by Vincent Colyer (oil on canvas). Beacon Rock is visible on the left.
Early grayscale map of the lower Columbia River and its tributaries and surrounds showing the locations of mountain ranges and Indian villages from what is now eastern Washington to the Pacific Ocean.
Detail from the Lewis and Clark Expedition map. The Willamette River is shown as the "Multnomah", while the Snake River is "Lewis's River". ( See complete map. )
A long bridge crosses a huge river flowing into a vast body of water under a blue sky. The bridge begins in a settlement with streets, buildings, and wharves along the river and extends out of sight toward a low hill on the far shore. The first part of the bridge has a superstructure and is high above the water but then the bridge gradually descends and continues out of sight not so far above the water.
The mouth of the Columbia is just past Astoria, Oregon ; ships must navigate the treacherous Columbia Bar (near horizon, not visible in this picture) to enter or exit the river.
A river boat with more than a dozen windows along its visible side runs a set of rapids on a very large river. Smoke or steam rises from its smokestack and flows behind the boat parallel to the water. In the foreground, a crowd of 50 people watch the boat from the rocky shore.
The sternwheeler Hassalo runs the Cascades Rapids , May 26, 1888. The rapids are now submerged under the pool of the Bonneville Dam .
Three men in work clothes stand on an enormous raft of logs held together with cable chains. In the background, another three men work on a distant part of the raft, only part of which is visible. The pile of logs appears to be taller than any of the men.
A massive Benson log raft , containing an entire year's worth of logs from one timber camp, heads downriver in 1906
A large, almost rectangular black ship with a red hull creates a mild wake as it moves away from the shore into a very large river. Smoke rises above its decks, which are cluttered with antennas, mechanical fittings, and what appear to be self-contained rooms with multiple windows.
The Essayons , one of three Army Corps of Engineers dredgers tasked with ongoing maintenance of the Columbia's shipping channel, began service in 1983. [ citation needed ]
Water flows down a stairstep aqueduct from the top of a large river dam to the bottom. The aqueduct makes two 90-degree turns to the left on the way down before reaching the river at the base of the dam.
Fish ladder at John Day Dam ; its reservoir forms the deadliest stretch of the river for young salmon. [ 121 ]
A big river and a nearby highway wind through a gorge between parallel ridges. The hills on the left are largely brown and treeless, while the hills on the right are partly covered by evergreen trees and grasses. A small lake lies in the foreground between the highway and the river.
Dams on the Columbia have transformed the river into a series of slackwater pools, such as this one between Bonneville and The Dalles , as seen from Rowena Crest
A large body of water, much longer than wide, lies at the base of mountains with vestiges of snow in their higher declivities. Vegetation is sparse. The mountains rise to meet a sky filled mostly with puffy white or gray clouds.
Kinbasket Lake, a reservoir on the Columbia River
A map shows the locations of many river dams on the Columbia River and its tributaries. They extend from near the river mouth in Oregon and Washington up these rivers into Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and British Columbia.
Prominent dams of the Columbia River Basin. Color indicates dam ownership:
US Federal government
Public utilities
State, provincial, or local government
Private
Half-length photo of a middle-aged man sitting in front of a closed door and playing a guitar and singing. His wavy black hair is partly covered by a black hat tipped at a rakish angle. He wears a striped flannel work shirt. His black guitar has a sign on it that says, "This machine kills fascists".
Roll on, Columbia, roll on, roll on, Columbia, roll on / Your power is turning our darkness to dawn / Roll on, Columbia, roll on. Lyrics from Woody Guthrie 's 1941 song Roll on Columbia , written for the Bonneville Power Administration .
Six men in bib overalls, hats, boots, and other work clothes pull on a large net full of fish. They are standing in the shallows of a big river. Rounded hills rise on the opposite bank of the river.
Seining salmon on the Columbia River, 1914
A dead fish lies on its side in shallow water over a bed of stream cobbles. Its skin has a reddish-purple cast; its mouth is open; its visible eye socket lacks an eye.
In their natural life cycle, salmon die shortly after spawning. Eagle Creek in Oregon, November 2007.
A cluster of industrial structures lie on a flat plain by a big river. The structures include a few low rectangular buildings, many smaller buildings, cylindrical tanks of varied sizes, and a tall smokestack. Several roads connect the cluster to other parts of the plain. Smoke or steam rises from two places further upriver.
Nuclear reactors at the Hanford Site along the river
A big river winds through a landscape of sparsely vegetated hills and bluffs. Dark rock faces contrast sharply with a bright blue sky veiled with intermittent white and gray clouds. In the foreground, an open space between bluffs opens on the river.
Near The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington
A relatively small river winds through a series of sparsely vegetated brown hills under a nearly cloudless blue sky. The river and the low hills are in shade, while the hilltops and a large hillside in the foreground are sunlit.
The Deschutes River at its confluence with the Columbia
View of an overgrown field with a rotting fencepost in the foreground and a range of hills in the distance
Kp'itl'els ( Brilliant ), Sinixt village site at the confluence of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers