The Wallowa River is a tributary of the
Grande Ronde River
The Grande Ronde River ( or, less commonly, ) is a tributary of the Snake River, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 3, 2011 in northeastern Oregon and southeastern ...
, approximately long, in northeastern
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
. It drains a valley on the
Columbia Plateau
The Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Columb ...
in the northeast corner of the state north of
Wallowa Mountains
The Wallowa Mountains () are a mountain range located in the Columbia Plateau of northeastern Oregon in the United States. The range runs approximately northwest to southeast in southwestern Wallowa County and eastern Union County between the ...
.
The Wallowa Valley was home to
Chief Joseph
''Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt'' (or ''Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it'' in Americanist orthography), popularly known as Chief Joseph, Young Joseph, or Joseph the Younger (March 3, 1840 – September 21, 1904), was a leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa ...
's band of the
Nez Perce
The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...
Tribe. Chief Joseph asked the first white settlers to leave when they arrived in 1871.
The
U.S. government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...
expelled the tribe and seized their property and livestock in 1877,
when non-Indian farmers and ranchers wanted to settle the fertile Wallowa valley. The tribe was barred from returning to their homeland by the government after repeated petitions. The tribal members were shipped in unheated box cars to
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign i ...
(now Oklahoma) to be placed in a prisoner-of-war camp never to see their home again.
Course
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
The Wallowa–Whitman National Forest is a United States National Forest in the U.S. states of Oregon and Idaho. Formed upon the merger of the Wallowa and Whitman national forests in 1954, it is located in the northeastern corner of the state, in ...
. It flows generally northwest through the Wallowa Valley, parallel to the
McCully Basin which is East of the ridge formed from East Peak, Hidden Peak and
Aneroid Mountain. At this point, the West Fork of the Wallowa River
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the ...
is connected to the North Fork of the
Imnaha River
The Imnaha River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 3, 2011 tributary of the Snake River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Flowing generally east near the headwaters a ...
by the
Polaris Pass drainage divide
A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...
.
It then flows past the communities of
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
,
Enterprise
Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to:
Business and economics
Brands and enterprises
* Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company
* Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company
* Enterpri ...
, and
Wallowa. Further upstream it receives the
Minam River from the
left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right
* L ...
at the hamlet of
Minam. Continuing north another , it joins the Grande Ronde along the Wallowa–
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''U ...
county line about north-northeast of
Elgin and about from the larger river's confluence with the
Snake River
The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake ...
.
Fish
The Wallowa River supports populations of
steelhead
Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and ...
, spring
Chinook salmon
The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus ''Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ve ...
, and
mountain whitefish
The mountain whitefish (''Prosopium williamsoni'') is one of the most widely distributed salmonid fish of western North America. It is found from the Mackenzie River drainage in Northwest Territories, Canada south through western Canada and the ...
among other species.
Sockeye
The sockeye salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a ...
salmon were extirpated from the Wallowa River when a small dam was constructed at the outlet of Wallowa Lake in the headwaters of the river. The dam was constructed to raise the level of the lake to store water for irrigation.
See also
*
List of longest streams of Oregon
Seventy-seven rivers and creeks of at least 50 miles (80 km) in total length are the longest streams of the U.S. state of Oregon. All of these streams originate in the United States except the longest, the Columbia, which begins in the ...
*
List of rivers of Oregon
This is a partial listing of rivers in the state of Oregon, United States. This list of Oregon rivers is organized alphabetically and by tributary structure. The list may also include streams known as creeks, brooks, forks, branches and prongs, as ...
References
External links
Grande Ronde Model WatershedNational Wild and Scenic Rivers System*
{{authority control
Rivers of Oregon
Nez Perce War
Wild and Scenic Rivers of the United States
Rivers of Wallowa County, Oregon