The Multnomah Channel is a

distributary A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Distributaries are a common feature of river deltas. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation. The opposite of a distribut ...

of the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward ...

. It diverges from the

main stem In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow.. ...

a few miles upstream of the main stem's confluence with the Columbia River in

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Tho ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

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 Idah ...

. The channel flows northwest then north around

Sauvie Island Sauvie Island, in the U.S. state of Oregon, originally Wapato Island or Wappatoo Island, is the largest island along the Columbia River, at , and one of the largest river islands in the United States. It lies approximately ten miles northwest ...

to meet the Columbia River near the city of St. Helens, in Columbia County.

Chinook people Chinookan peoples include several groups of Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest in the United States who speak the Chinookan languages. Since at least 4000 BCE Chinookan peoples have resided along the Lower and Middle Columbia River (Wi ...

, the Multnomahs, lived in villages along the channel at the time of European exploration of the Columbia River in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Flanked in the 21st century by moorages, marinas, and parks, and populated by a wide variety of fish, the channel offers many opportunities for recreation.

Course

Constrained by dikes, the channel is about one-third as wide as the lower Willamette main stem.Williams, pp. 205–07 U.S. Route 30 and tracks of the

Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroadin ...

run roughly parallel to the channel, and to its

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 ...

, between its source and the Multnomah–Columbia county border at about the channel's

river mile A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometers is the river kilometer. They are analogous to vehicle roadw ...

(RM) 12.5 or river kilometer (RK) 20.1. The maps, which include

(RM) markers for the channel's entire length, involve the following quadrangles from mouth to source: Saint Helens, Sauvie Island, Linnton. In its first , the channel receives Miller Creek from the left, then passes under Sauvie Island Bridge, which carries Northwest Sauvie Island Road. Below the bridge, Ennis Creek enters from the left, then McCarthy Creek from the left at RM 18 (RK 29). Further along, Johns Creek enters from the left, and then Joy Creek enters from the left where the channel leaves Multnomah County and enters Columbia County. About from the mouth, the channel flows around Coon Island. Shortly thereafter, Crane Slough, which drains Crane's Lake, and the Gilbert River, which drains

Sturgeon Lake Sturgeon is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the Late Cretaceous, and are descended from other, earlier acipenseriform fish, which date back to the Earl ...

, enter from the right. Then the channel receives Jackson Creek from the left and Cunningham Slough from the right before flowing around Louse Island and merging with

Scappoose Bay Scappoose Bay is a slough of Multnomah Channel, a distributary of the Willamette River, about upstream of where the channel meets the Columbia River in Columbia County, Oregon, United States. It is surrounded by a broad wetland area full o ...

, which is on the left. St. Helens is on the left as the channel enters the Columbia, about from the larger stream's mouth on the Pacific Ocean. A few islands, most notably Coon Island and

Louse Island Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result of ...

, are located within the channel.

Name and history

The channel had a variety of names before the United States Board on Geographic Names (USBGN) agreed to ''Multnomah Channel'' in 1913. In 1792,

William Robert Broughton William Robert Broughton (22 March 176214 March 1821) was a British naval officer in the late 18th century. As a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, he commanded HMS ''Chatham'' as part of the Vancouver Expedition, a voyage of exploration through t ...

was the first European explorer to discover the channel. He named it ''Calls River'', probably after the English engineer Sir John Call. The early 19th century explorers

Lewis and Clark Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...

called it ''Wappato Inlet'' after ''Wappato Island'', the name they used for Sauvie Island. In the 1840s, nautical surveyor

Charles Wilkes Charles Wilkes (April 3, 1798 – February 8, 1877) was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842). During the American Civil War (1861–1865), he commanded ' during the ...

referred to the channel as ''Warrior Branch'' because it met the Columbia River at Warrior Point, on the northern tip of Sauvie Island. Before its renaming by the USBGN, the channel had become known as ''Willamette Slough''. ''Multnomah'', used by Lewis and Clark to refer to the main stem of the Willamette, is what the

living on Sauvie Island in the early 19th century called themselves.McArthur, pp. 683–84 Several Chinook villages with longhouses occupied sites along the channel before the explorers' arrival. Sauvie Island and its mild climate were suited to wapato, a root vegetable, and provided access to fish and game. A large village, one of several on the island, was situated near its southeastern tip, where the channel begins. Another village, with 28 houses and more than 1,000 residents, was sited along the west shore of Scappoose Bay near the downstream end of the channel.

Recreation

The channel offers many moorages for boats and

houseboat A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a home. Most houseboats are not motorized as they are usually moored or kept stationary at a fixed point, and often tethered to land to provide utilities. H ...

s. Private moorages and marinas, some with public fee-for-service boat ramps, lie along the channel between the main stem and the Sauvie Island Bridge. Further downriver is the Sauvie Island Public Boat Ramp at RM 18 (RK 29), followed by Hadley's Landing and its tie-up and trail later. The Sauvie Island Wildlife Area begins at about the halfway point on the channel and extends from there to the mouth along the right bank. A major stopover for birds, it can be reached by boat from the Gilbert River Boat Ramp at RM 6 (RK 10). Parks near the mouth include

Nob Hill Nature Park Nob Hill Nature Park is a 6-acre oak woodland located in St. Helens, Oregon, north of Portland, Oregon. Situated on a basalt bluff, it overlooks the Columbia River, at the point where Multnomah Channel joins the Columbia. Notable flora include ...

and Sand Island Marine Park at St. Helens, St. Helens Landing, Columbia View Park at Scappoose Bay, and Scappoose Bay Landing. A productive fishery for 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 ...

, the channel is also home to sturgeon,

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

shad The Alosinae, or the shads,Alosinae
brown bullhead catfish, and other small fish, and

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, ...

. The average Chinook entering the channel weighs , but some weigh as much as . Oregon's lower-Willamette health advisories on consumption of resident (non-migratory) fish, especially large bottom feeders, apply to the Multnomah Channel as well as the main stem.Sheehan, pp. 159–60

References

Works cited

* McArthur, Lewis A.; McArthur, Lewis L. (2003) 928 ''Oregon Geographic Names'' (7th ed.). Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. . * Sheehan, Madelynne Diness (2005). ''Fishing in Oregon: The Complete Oregon Fishing Guide'', 10th edition. Scappoose, Oregon: Flying Pencil Publications. . * Williams, Travis (2009). ''The Willamette River Field Guide''. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. . {{authority control Rivers of Columbia County, Oregon Rivers of Multnomah County, Oregon Rivers of Oregon Willamette River

Course

Name and history

Recreation

See also

References

Works cited