Nisqually River

I-5 crosses the Nisqually River near its mouth.

The Nisqually River ( nɪskwɑ ː li ) is a 130 km long river in western U.S. state of Washington.

It drains part of the Cascade Range southwest of Tacoma, including the southern flank of Mount Rainier and flows into the Nisqually Reach of Puget Sound.

Run

The river has fed on the south side of Mount Rainier has its origin in the south of Mount Rainier National Park and the Nisqually Glacier. It flows in a westerly direction along the boundary between Pierce County and Lewis County and then in a northwesterly direction through the foothills of the mountains, where it forms the border between Pierce County and Thurston County. In the last 16 km of its course it crosses the Nisqually Indian Reservation and flows 24 km east-northeast of Olympia in a side arm of Puget Sound.

For the purpose of hydroelectric development of the flow through the 1944 finished Alder Dam and in 1945 went into operation in La Grande Dam is jammed.

History

The Nisqually River is located in the traditional settlement area of ​​the Nisqually, who settled on the southern Puget Sound. The Treaty of Medicine Creek, one of the main treaties, concluded between the Washington area and the Native Americans of the area around the Puget Sound, has been signed near a creek, which lies near the river deltas. After signing the contract, the Nisqually had the river and most of its area left and settled east of Olympia on a reservation on Puget Sound. After the tribe had some time resisted, including by their chief Chief Leschi was founded on the river, a new reserve. This was about three times the size of the original.

1917 occupied the U.S. Army Reserve and forced the residents in the construction of Fort Lewis to work.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Nisqually exercised their right to fish on the river, which conceded them the Treaty of Medicine Creek, but were ignored. Members of the tribe and those of the Puyallup were harassed and punished if they were fishing in their traditional tribal waters. This eventually leads to the so-called 1974 Boldt decision, with all the Indian tribes in Washington the right to half of the fish population conceded within their traditional fishing grounds.

Hydrographic

The United States Geological Survey operates several levels by the river. The catchment area of the river corresponds to its lowest level, 35 km upstream of the mouth, about 1338 km ². The mean annual river discharge is based on measurements in the period 1948-1968 and 1978-2006, and is 36.5 m³ / s The highest observed value there were around 1,400 m³ / s on February 8 or 9 in 1996 and is based on estimates of water levels above the lowest discharge rate of about half a cubic meter per second was on 10 and 11 September 1965, as well as on August 31, 1966 measured.

However, about 7 km is above this level derived a part of the river water on the Centralia Canal. At the level of La Grande, about 34 km upstream located on, is the average discharge 41 m³ / s, the highest runoff was 1120 m³ / s, no runoff was observed on 8 February 1996 due to the impoundment at different times.

Inflows

  • Muck Creek
  • Yelm Creek
  • Tanwax Creek
  • Ohop Creek
  • Mashel River
  • Little Nisqually River
  • East Creek
  • Mineral Creek
  • Big Creek

Cities and villages along the river

  • Yelm
  • McKenna
  • Elbe
  • Ashford
Interstate 5 Washington (state) Tacoma, Washington Pierce County (Washington) Lewis County (Washington) Thurston County (Washington) Olympia (Washington) Nisqually people Joint Base Lewis-McChord Puyallup tribe Elbe (Washington)
605945
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