It drains a valley on the Columbia Plateau in the northeast corner of the state north of Wallowa Mountains.

[6] The U.S. government expelled the tribe and seized their property and livestock in 1877,[6] when non-Indian farmers and ranchers wanted to settle the fertile Wallowa valley.

The tribal members were shipped in unheated box cars to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) to be placed in a prisoner-of-war camp never to see their home again.

The river begins at the confluence of its east and west forks, which rise in southern Wallowa County, in the Eagle Cap Wilderness of the Wallowa–Whitman National Forest.

[4] The Wallowa River supports populations of steelhead, spring Chinook salmon, and mountain whitefish among other species.