Crooked River (Oregon)
The Crooked River in the Peter Skene Ogden State Park
Template: Infobox River / BILD_fehlt
The Crooked River is a river in the U.S. state of Oregon.
The river has a catchment area of about 11,600 square kilometers in the eastern High Desert of Central Oregon and drains the area east of the Cascade Range and the Deschutes River and south of John Day River.
Course
The South Fork Crooked River rises in the High Desert in the north east of the Deschutes County on the border with Crook County. The river only flows northward and is thereby fed by numerous mountain streams such as the Buck Creek, the Twelvemile Creek and Beaver Creek. After the confluence with the Beaver Creek Crooked River flows westward and is limited in the north by the Ochoco Mountains and the south by the Maury Mountains. From the Ochoco Mountains flows of the North Fork Crooked River, about from the Maury Mountains of Camp Creek. The river empties into the Prineville Reservoir, a 29- kilometer-long and 12 -square-kilometer reservoir, from which it then flows north-west toward Prineville. There he receives inflow from the Ochoco Creek and McKay Creek, which originate in the Ochoco Mountains. Behind Prineville flow, only minor streams in the Crooked River, which flows to the northwest until it empties into Lake Billy Chinook and thus into the Deschutes River. Especially in the upper reaches it flows through a wide valley, while he has dug through basalt rock in the lower reaches partially deep and steep canyons, as in Smith Rock State Park and can be seen in Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint.
History
The name Crooked (Eng. " curved " ) River he wears because of its numerous windings. The first white travelers as the Peter Skene Ogden fur traders in the early 19th century reported that there were along the river fertile meadows, beaver dams and pastures. Outside of the river valley environment was against stony and barren. The first white settlers settled from the 1860s to the floodplains of the Crooked River. Prineville was founded in 1868, which developed around the main town of the Crooked River basin due to the burgeoning cattle and sheep industry. Due to the livestock and timber industry many new settlers arrived in the region, which has often led to Grass and water wars between farms and ranchers due to water scarcity from 1910. After several private irrigation projects on the Deschutes and Crooked River had failed, was designed by the state water engineer John Whistler an irrigation project, after which more than 8,000 acres of land should be irrigated with the help of a dam on Ochoco Creek. However, since neither the state nor the Federal Government Oregon transpose this plan, the plan was eventually taken up by private landowners and implemented in 1921. However, the damming of the Ochoco to Ochoco Lake did not produce as much water as had been expected, so that the project ran into financial difficulties soon. In the following decades, ranchers and farmers have repeatedly called for government support for their faulting irrigation project. Finally, in 1956, the U.S. Congress decided the Crooked River Project, a dam and irrigation plan, by means of which 8,000 hectares of land to be irrigated. 1961 Bowman Dam was completed, the Crooked River dammed to Prineville Reservoir. It was named after Arthur R. Bowman Dam, an official of Crook County, who had promoted the project significantly.
Economic Importance
The water of the Crooked River is used for agricultural irrigation. With the water level regulation of dams, many species of fish were sections of their habitats and spawning areas in the upper river, while the release of cool water caused an increase fish stocks in the lower reaches of the Crooked River from the reservoirs during the summer months, so that this section is a popular fishing area today. In 1959 the Smith Rock State Park, and 1962, the Prineville State Park were established. 1988 were placed under protection parts of the Crooked River and its tributaries as Wild and Scenic River. Due to this change in status of the Crooked River could be increasingly used for tourism, recreation and fishing. The lower reaches of the Crooked River is considered in the spring during snowmelt as an excellent area for experienced whitewater kayakers and rafting.