Clark Fork (river)
Map of Clark Fork and its tributaries and its outlet
The Clark Fork River in Missoula
Mouth of the Clark Fork in the Pend Oreille Lake
Clark Fork in the west of the map of the rivers in Montana
The river in Missoula in 2003
The Clark Fork is a 499 km long river in the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho. It rises near Butte and then it goes through Deer Lodge, Gold Creek, Drummond and Clinton before the Blackfoot River from the east merges. Then the river flows through the city Missoula and the Bitterroot River empties shortly afterwards from the south one. In Lolo National Forest rising in the west of the river valley, the Bitterroot Range rises, I-90, which has hitherto accompanied the river, leaving him as the Clark Fork for a short time flows to the east, with him the Montana State Highway 135 accompanied. After the Flathead River has been discharges, the river flows back to north-northwest and is from the Montana State Highway 200 (later Idaho State Highway 200) accompanied. In Thompson Falls Thompson River flows from the west. To the place the place Trout Creek is dammed to Noxon Reservoir and behind the place Noxon to Cabinet Gorge Reservoir. Only eight kilometers behind the border Idaho - Montana flows into the river in Clark Fork in the Lake Pend Oreille.
Geology
During the last ice age, there was an ice sheet, the Lake Missoula, a Ice Lake dammed, because of the North American ice sheet. With the end of the ice age, the lake emptied abruptly on the Missoula floods in the Columbia River, the landscape today is eastern Washington and the Willamette Valley ( Oregon) was formed.
History
First, the area was inhabited by the Flathead. She was discovered when returning from the Pacific in 1806 in the Lewis and Clark expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark named after. Founded in 1809 by David Thompson of the North West Company in the field several factories, including the Kullyspell House on Lake Pend Oreille and the Saleesh House. At the end of the 19th century, the mining industry and thus the pollution of the river has increased, particularly through the copper mines in Butte and the huts in Anaconda, a city in close proximity of the river. Thus, there is still today the largest Superfund site in the U.S., which consists of three different parts: a one in Anaconda and the Milltown Reservoir Superfund Site in Butte. The site is still being installed rehabilitated. Nevertheless, the Clark Fork in the United States is a popular river for fly fishing.