Klamath River

The Klamath River in northern California in the evening

The Klamath River is a 423 km long river in southern Oregon and northern California in the United States. It rises in the natural area of the Basin and Range region in the rain shadow of the Cascade Range. Then breaks through the Klamath River in a deep canyon, the Cascade Range in the south-west and flows through the Klamath Mountains to the Pacific coast.

River

The Klamath River begins at the outflow of Upper Klamath Lake in Klamath Falls in Klamath County, Oregon. However, the United States Geological Survey defined as the beginning of the Klamath River to the small Lake Ewauna because of the almost two -kilometer drainage of the Upper Klamath Lake to Lake Ewauna is run as Link River. The catchment area of ​​the Upper Klamath Lakes is located in the semi-desert highlands at the edge of the Great Basin. Geologically it is in the region around a grave breach of the Basin and Range Province, which was formed about six million years ago at a strain of the earth's crust. The Upper Klamath Lake is the last remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Modoc Lake, the ice age in the aging had a maximum dimension of 2850 km ². Its catchment area is in an extended part of the Basin and Range region, which extends across the border into California. Originally this area was traversed, despite the low rainfall of shallow streams, fens and sedge. Wetlands has since been largely drained and is used for intensive agriculture today.

The Cascade Range is in its southern part, a plateau of volcanic origin, from the rising single, younger volcanic cones. The Klamath River has carved its bed in a ravine by the relatively soft volcanic rock. In this ravine, he reached California and the Siskiyou County and flows through Copco Lake - named after the California - Oregon Power Company, which has dammed the reservoir to generate electricity - and the subsequent Iron Gate reservoir, another reservoir. In a dry mountain valley flows the Shasta River from Mount Shasta coming, in the Klamath, who immediately after the junction turns west and flows through the valleys of the Klamath and Siskiyou Mountains.

In Humboldt County is the southernmost portion of the Trinity River tributary. Here the river turns again to the northwest, reached just in the Del Norte County, where he shares the Redwood National Park in two halves and flows into the Pacific Ocean. The river itself is not part of the National Park, but both banks.

The Klamath River flows through the home of the Karok with the main town of Happy Camp. The Indian reservations of the Hoopa Yurok and are located on the lower reaches of the County's Humboldt and Del Norte.

History

The river's name comes from the Indian word Klamet, which means something like quickness. It stands for the comparatively light-hearted union way through the river valley, which was often chosen to cross the Cascade Range. According to archaeological finds, that the valley has been inhabited since about 7000 years ago. The Klamath River and its fish stocks are of those based in the area as sacred Native American peoples.

As the first white trappers and fur traders Jedediah Smith came in 1828 on the Klamath River. He retired with 20 trappers and about 300 mules from the Mexican California to the fur trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Columbia River. As part of the California gold rush was found in 1848 at the Trinity River Gold and the prospectors followed the river to the Klamath and this to the Pacific Ocean. 1849 small amounts of gold were found at Gold Bluff Beach near the mouth, but they were quickly exploited. The penetration of white prospectors into the territories of the Indians led to conflict and persecution in particular the Yurok. 1850 a small military post was established at the mouth.

The sparsely populated region of the river lived over the following decades of the agriculture and forestry, to since the second half of the 20th century, the high recreational value of the countryside led to a boom in tourism.

In the 1960s, the construction of a dam has been suggested only about twenty kilometers above the mouth of the Klamath River to the Pacific. The building was to be called Ah Pah Dam. The reservoir thus created should serve the water supply of Southern California. The idea was never realized.

The Klamath River is considered an important habitat for coho salmon, chinook salmon and rainbow trout. Their habitat is severely limited by the dams in Klamathtal. The silver salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch ) belong to the list of endangered species by the U.S. Endangered Species Act. In 1963, the largest tributary of the Trinity River, as well as removed. 90 percent of the water has been managed in the Sacramento Valley. Only 4 cubic meters per second of the Trinity flow into the Klamath River.

Use

In a 930 -square-mile region below the Upper Klamath Lake, the river is used for irrigation and is headed for the storage of partially submerged in the nearby Tule Lake and the Clear Lake Reservoir. The Bureau of Reclamation made ​​versatile agricultural use with the project, the original semi-desert.

In 2005, the power company PacifiCorp applied to the federal government a new license for the construction of dams in Klamathtal. To obtain the upper reaches of the river as a habitat for salmon, environmentalists spoke out against the construction project. The indigenous people, conservationists and fishermen living in the area, however, advocated restoration measures. On the Klamath River, the world's largest dam removal will now take place: Four dams will be demolished in 2020 to allow over 400 kilometers swim to spawn in the mountain streams again threatened Coho and Chinook salmon ( silver and king salmon ). Lasted ten years of struggle between authorities and environmentalists, between the living from fishing Indians and farmers who need water for arable and livestock. Now all of them have signed a unique contract: The nature is to be used so that the fish in the Klamath River and the people can live on its shores in harmony.

The section between Klamath Falls, Oregon and just below the Iron Gate reservoirs in California with a little over 45 km is designated as a National Wild and Scenic River, nearly the whole length of the Klamath is also a Recreational River and is an excellent area for canoeing in the quieter sections and for rafting and kayaking in white water.