Rogue River (Oregon)

Map of the Rogue River between Grants Pass and Gold Beach

Mouth of the Rogue River

The Rogue River is a river in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. The river is 346 km long and flows at Gold Beach to the Pacific. The largest tributary is the Illinois River.

The Rogue River is one of the original eight rivers. which were protected in the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The Rogue River was originally classified on a section of 135 km between the west of Grants Pass to 17 km above the mouth so. In 1988, a 65 km long section to the upper reaches between the Crater Lake National Park and the unincorporated settlement Prospect.

The river takes its name from early French explorers who ( the French word for the English word rogues ) used the word Coquins for the Indians living there.

Run

The Rogue River has its origin in the Cascade Range at Boundary Springs in Crater Lake National Park. It flows south and then west through the Rogue River - Siskiyou National Forest, where the leading- tributaries drain the Rogue - Umpqua Divide Wilderness in the West and the Sky Lakes Wilderness in the southeast.

Below the confluence with its South Fork of the Rogue River is dammed by the William L. Jess Dam to Lost Creek Lake. Below the dam open with Elk Creek and Bear Creek a more tributaries, the latter then flows through Medford. The river then tends westward to the city of Grants Pass mountains. A few miles below the city lead one of the Applegate River and then the Wolf Creek, after which the river winds northward and westward later, before it flows in a southwesterly direction through the Klamath Mountains and the Wild Rogue Wilderness. In this section opens the Illinois River. Finally, the Rogue River at Gold Beach empties into the Pacific Ocean.

The river has a length of 346 km, of which two sections are identified with a total length of 200 km as a National Wild and Scenic River. He is one of three rivers that originate in Oregon within or east of the Cascade Range and empty into the Pacific Ocean - the others are the Umpqua River and Klamath River. These three rivers drain the mountains of Oregon south of the Willamette River, which drains the north of it to the Columbia River towards ..

Runoff

The United States Geological Survey (USGS ) operates on the Rogue River at five points a level. The measuring point three kilometers below Prospect at River Mile 169.4 was 1969-2007, an average annual runoff of 41 m³ / s Fluctuations upstream caused by a hydroelectric power plant about 200 m, also by low withdrawals for irrigation. The highest flow rate at this point was recorded on 17 January 1997 with 346 m³ / s, the lowest value on 29 September 1992 with 4.7 m³ / s and was recorded by regulation further upstream due. The highest river discharge since at least the 1890s, the river here on 22 December 1964. This value is based on high water marks and records of other gauging stations downstream and was calculated with 700 m³ / s. The catchment area of the river at this point comprises an area of 981 km ² and represents approximately 7 % of the total catchment area of the river.

The level in Dodge Bridge at Eagle Point zweichnete to an average annual runoff of 75 m³ / s 1939-1977 and of 68 m³ / s 1978-2007. The difference is caused by the damming of the Lost Creek Lakes to 1977. The highest recorded river discharge at this station was recorded on 22 December 1964, 2485 m³ / s, the lowest value on 18 February 1977, 16 m³ / s was caused by the closure of the dam at Lost Creek, previously was the lowest value 17 m³ / s and was observed at 6, 14 and 29 August and 9 September 1940. This level, about seven kilometers northwest of Eagle Point at River Mile 138.6 measures the drain an area of ​​3145 km ² and comprises about 23 % of the entire Rogue River basin.

Just below the Gold Ray Dam, nine kilometers north-west of Central Point is located on the river mile 125.8 - 202.5 km above the mouth so - another level. Between 1906 and 1976 the annual average discharge at this point was 85 m³ / s and 1977-2007, it amounted to 79 m³ / s Again, the difference is caused by the dam at Lost Creek Lake, to a lesser extent by Fish Lake and Emigrant Lake. Above this level, the opposite is a catchment area of ​​5315 km ², or about 40 % of the total catchment area, water is taken for irrigation in many places. The highest river discharge at this measuring point was recorded on 23 December 1964 about 3700 m³ / s The lowest flow rate at September 19, 1968 with 12 m³ / s was a result of regulatory measures.

The level in Grants Pass is located at river mile 101.9 ( approximately 164 km above the mouth ) and a catchment area of 6366 km ², about 48 % of the total catchment area of the river. The determined 1939-1977 annual average discharge was 100 m³ / s, in the years 1978 to 2007, she was 92 m³ / s The largest amount of water was determined s on December 23, 1964, about 4,300 m³ /, the lowest outflow of 5.5 m³ / s occurred on 30 January 1961.

The lowest level at the River is located approximately 2400 meters north of Agness, about 4.2 km upstream of the confluence of the Illinois River at river mile 29.7 and 47.8 km upstream of the estuary. The average annual river discharge is 188 m³ / s The highest value of 8200 m³ / s was determined on 23 December 1964, the lowest value was measured on 9 and 10 July 1968, 17 m³ / s. At this point, the Rogue River drains an area of ​​10,198 km ², which represents around 76 % of its total catchment area.

History

According to the Geographical Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey (USGS ) of the river in the past by a series of new names was known, including Gold River, La Riviere aux Coquins, Les Coquins, North Fork Rogue River, River Coquin, Trashit, Clamet River, McLeod River, Rouge River and Clamet Too -to- nez.

The writer Zane Grey bought the cottage in 1926 a miner in Winkle Bar, where he wrote several Wild West novels, including 1929 Rogue River Feud. Another book of his, who in 1928 published titles Tales of Fresh Water Fishing contains a chapter that is based on a ride on a Doriboot, which he undertook in 1925 on the lower reaches of the river. The Trust for Public Land bought the property in Winkle Bar and transferred it in 2008 to the Bureau of Land Management, which made it accessible to the public.

Dams

The first dam in the course of the river below its headwaters is a dam in Prospect, at River Mile 172 (277 km above the mouth ). This 15 m high and 117 m long dam made ​​of concrete dams the waters of the Rogue River and some other opening therein Direction watercourses and passes it to a hydroelectric plant, from which the water is a little further down the river and fed back to the river. This system, called The Prospect Nos. 1, 2, and 4 Hydroelectric Project combines several dams on the Middle Fork Rogue River and Red Blanket Creek, which are connected in a 15 km-long system of canals, pipes and downpipes. According to PacifiCorp, the owner of the plants which produced three turbine houses in 2003 a total of 280 657 megawatt hours of electrical energy that was sold to customers in northern Jackson County and southern Douglas County. The project was realized in sections 1911-1944. The plant was licensed in 1980 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ( FERC ) and approved in 2008 for another 30 years.

Further downstream is the built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers ( USACE ) William L. Jess Dam, which is used for generating electric power and flood control. This dam is located 253 km above the mouth and dammed the river water for Lost Creek Lake on. For most of the 20th century there were three more dams on the middle reaches of the Rogue River between this reservoir and Grants Pass. After several decades of counterpoint verses about water rights, costs, the migration of fish to their spawning grounds, and the impact on the environment, began in 2008, the removal or alteration of dams and only partially completed dam on Elk Creek, a main tributary of the Rogue River. It is the Gold Ray Dam and a little further downstream the Gold Hill Dam in Gold Hill, as well as the Savage Rapids Dam in Grants Pass. These modifications should improve the population of salmon by more of these fish were allowed to seek suitable spawning grounds.

By October 2008, the USACE has the Elk Creek Dam dismantled and restored the original bed of the Elk Creek. The construction of the controversial dam was more than 20 years previously enforced by a court decision than about 24 m of the originally planned height of 72 m was achieved. Legal disputes prevented the demolition until 2008. Elk Creek empties into the Rogue River 8 km below the Lost Creek Lakes and above the other three dams.

The brothers C. R. Frank and Ray built the original Gold Ray Dam from felled tree trunks in 1904. The led the water to a turbine to generate electrical energy. You installed a fish ladder to allow salmon to overcome the dam. The California - Oregon Power Company, which was later to Pacific Power, acquired the dam 1921. 1941 erected of logs building was replaced with a concrete structure. At that time a new fish ladder and a station for counting was installed. The company put the power supply in 1972 still, but the biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife took the counting station continues to monitor the migration of salmon and rainbow trout. The dam is now one of the Jackson County, which wants to tear him in 2010.

In July 2008 the city of Gold Hill removed the remains of a dam a bit further downstream. This was originally built to produce energy for a cement factory, had a height of 2.5 m and was 275 m long. The dam and a discharge channel supplied Gold Hill with water, was set as the electricity generation in the 1970s. 2006 was Gold Hill build a new pump station for water supply.

The Savage Rapids Dam is located 8 km upstream of Grants Pass. It was built in 1921 for irrigation and had a height of 12 m. Thus, a reservoir was created, which has a length of up to 4 km obtained depending on the season, but was only slightly wider than the river downstream of the dam itself, the dismantling of this dam began in April 2009. Twelve newly installed pumps supply in its place the irrigation channels of approximately 3000 acres of Grants Pass irrigation District ( GPID ) with water. To withdrawing to the dam and associated water rights began in 1988, when environmental groups presented against the intention to extract more water for irrigation from the river. There were also disagreement about the costs of removing, by the decline in fish migration and the dislike of the destruction of the building.

Leisure

Among the popular activities on the Rogue River and in the vicinity include rafting, hiking, fishing of salmon and rainbow trout, trips with jet boats, game viewing and picnics in nature. Among the free-living animal species in the area include American Black Bear, Otter, bald eagles, osprey and dippers.

In the course of the river are several whitewater sections, one of which is the longest north-west of Grants Pass one of the most famous stretches of white water in the United States. The kayakers and rafters from high traffic section has a length of 55 km and consists of several rapids of Class III and higher on the whitewater difficulty scale, which are separated by quieter sections of deep water.

The Upper Rogue River Trail, a National Recreation Trail, follows the river for a distance of 65 km between the rim of Crater Lake National Park to the border of the Rogue River National Forests in Prospect. Among the highlights of a hike along the way include the crossing of the Rogue River Gorge. This has cut through pumice, which was deposited in the explosion of Mount Mazama about 8000 years ago. At the Natural Bridge of the Rogue River flows through a 75 m long lava tube. Between Farewell Bend and this natural bridge of the way through the Union Creek Historic District a place with villas from the early days of the 20th century and an earlier Ranger Station, which are performed on the National Register of Historic Places runs.

The Lower Rogue River Trail is also a National Recreation Trail. He accompanied the lower reaches of the river for a distance of 65 km between the mouth of Grave Creek and Illahe, ie within the Wild Rogue Wilderness and begins 43 km north west of Grants Pass. The secluded region where there are no roads, extends over an area of 580 km ². It includes the Siskiyou National Forest and the Medford District of the Bureau of Land Management ( BLM). In addition to the scenery and wildlife are among the attractions the block houses in Illahe, Clay Hill Rapids, Paradise Creek and Marial and Rogue River Ranch with the museum and the Whisky Creek Cabin, a woodcutter's hut.

Swell

• Benke, Arthur C. and Cushing, Colbert E., ed; Carter, James L.; Resh, Vincent H. ( 2005). "Chapter 12: Pacific Coast Rivers of the coterminous United States " in Rivers of North America. Burlington, Mass.: Elsevier Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-088253-1.
• Sullivan, William L. ( 2002). Exploring Oregon 's Wild Areas, 3rd edition. Seattle: The Mountaineers Press. ISBN 0-89886-793-2.