The Powder River is a tributary of 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 Snak ...
, approximately long,
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
accessed May 3, 2011 in northeast
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 ...
in the United States. It drains an area of 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 Co ...
on the eastern side of the
Blue Mountains. It flows almost entirely within
Baker County but downstream of the city of
North Powder forms part of the border between Baker County and
Union County.
Name
The name ''Powder River'' is first recorded in the journals of
Peter Skene Ogden
Peter Skene Ogden (alternately Skeene, Skein, or Skeen; baptised 12 February 1790 – 27 September 1854) was a British-Canadian fur trader and an early explorer of what is now British Columbia and the Western United States. During his many expedi ...
without notation of the origin of the name. Explorer
Donald Mackenzie likely named the river. William C. McKay, grandson of
John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor who made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by smuggling opium into China, and ...
's partner
Alexander MacKay, says that the origin of the name is from the powdery and sandy soil along the shores of the river, from the
Chinook Jargon ''polalle illahe''. It appears on
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 ...
's maps as ''Port-pel-lah''.
Course
The Powder River's tributaries arise in the southern
Blue Mountains in the
Umatilla National Forest
The Umatilla National Forest, in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon and southeast Washington, covers an area of 1.4 million acres (5,700 km2). In descending order of land area the forest is located in parts of Umatilla, Grant, Columbi ...
. The river's
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.. ...
begins in
Sumpter, where McCully Fork, Cracker Creek and several smaller tributaries join, and flows east-southeast through the tailings of past dredge mining and into Phillips Reservoir. After exiting Phillips Reservoir, the river continues east for about before turning sharply north through the Bowen Valley and Baker City, Oregon. From here the river meanders the floor of the Baker Valley and passes by the cities of
Haines Haines may refer to:
*Haines (surname), ''includes partial list of people with the surname''
* Haines (character), a character in James Joyce's ''Ulysses''
Places Antarctica
* Haines Glacier, Antarctica
* Haines Mountains, mountain range in Anta ...
and North Powder, where it is joined by the
North Powder River
The North Powder River is a tributary of the Powder River (Oregon), Powder River in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. Fed by water from three small, high-elevation lakes, it begins in the Elkhorn Mountains (Oregon), Elkhorn Mount ...
. Here the river turns again sharply east-southeast, flowing through Thief Valley Reservoir, in a valley along the southern edge of the
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 river then transits the Lower Powder Valley and enters the Snake River on the Idaho–Oregon state line from the west, upstream from the Brownlee Dam at the Powder Arm of Brownlee Reservoir downstream from
Richland.
[
]
Tributaries
Major streams flowing into the Powder are Eagle Creek, Wolf Creek, Rock Creek and the North Powder River.[
]
Watershed
The Powder River watershed drains of northeastern Oregon. There are three man-made reservoirs on the Powder River: Phillips Reservoir (behind Mason Dam), Thief Valley Reservoir, and also the Powder arm of Brownlee Reservoir at the Oregon–Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and W ...
border at the confluence of the Powder and Snake Rivers.
In 1988, of the Powder River was designated Wild and Scenic
The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-542), enacted by United States Congress, the U.S. Congress to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreat ...
. Between the Thief Valley Dam and the Oregon Route 203 bridge, this stretch flows through a rugged canyon with spectacular geologic formations.
Flora and fauna
Beaver
Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...
(''Castor canadensis'') populations are increasing along the river, with an excellent viewing area just off Oregon Route 7 below Mason Dam, about from Baker City. There, a colony of beavers constructed a large dam easily viewed below the footbridge adjacent to the paved parking area. Recovered from near extirpation by the Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trade, fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake b ...
, who tried to create a "fur desert" to discourage Americans from coming to the far western states, benefits of beaver in arid eastern Oregon include creating ponds which along young salmonids to grow, raising the water table as their ponds recharge groundwater supplies and creating wetlands which trap sediment and pollutants.
The Powder River was once an important spawning stream for 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 ...
(''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') and steelhead trout
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 ...
(''Oncorhyncus mykiss'') coming from the Pacific Ocean. Chinook salmon once migrated by the thousands to spawn in the Powder River and many of its tributaries from its headwaters to the lower end of the North Powder Valley, but that stopped when the Thief Valley Dam was built near North Powder in 1931. The building of two later dams in Hells Canyon
Hells Canyon is a canyon in the Western United States, located along the border of eastern Oregon, a small section of eastern Washington and western Idaho. It is part of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area which is also located i ...
on the Snake River – Hells Canyon Dam (1967) and Brownlee Dam
Brownlee Dam is a hydroelectric earth fill embankment dam in the western United States, on the Snake River along the Idaho-Oregon border. In Hells Canyon at river mile 285, it impounds the Snake River in the Brownlee Reservoir.
It is part of ...
also permanently block salmon passage. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is a government agency of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for programs protecting Oregon fish and wildlife resources and their habitats.
The agency operates hatcheries, issues hunting and ...
often release Chinook salmon on the Powder River for sportfishing at Mason Dam below Phillips Reservoir.
See also
* 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, a ...
* 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 National Wild and Scenic Rivers
This is a list of the designated National Wild and Scenic Rivers in the United States. Each river has been designated by Congress, or, if certain requirements were met, the Secretary of the Interior. A designation may include multiple watercourse ...
References
External links
Powder Basin Watershed Council
National Wild and Scenic Rivers System
{{authority control
Rivers of Oregon
Wild and Scenic Rivers of the United States
Tributaries of the Snake River
Rivers of Baker County, Oregon
Rivers of Union County, Oregon