Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls in 2009

The Shoshone Falls are one of the largest waterfalls in the northwestern United States. They are located on the Snake River, which rises in Yellowstone National Park and flows through Wyoming to Idaho. Approximately 3 mi (4.8 km) east of the town of Twin Falls rushes the water over a nearly 300 -meter-wide ledge about 65 m in depth. Sometimes the cases are also referred to as the " Niagara of the West" ( Niagara Falls of the West). They are about 14 m higher than this.

History and ecology

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The Shoshone Falls originated about 14,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, when the waters of Lake Bonneville, Lake Front broke through the north and poured itself in a catastrophic tidal wave in the plane of the Snake River and deep gorges formed. Its height form an insurmountable obstacle to fish on their migration to the spawning grounds. Below the Falls you will find sturgeon, salmon or rainbow trout. Above you will find a Süßwasserforellenart called Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Because of these significant differences between the World Wide Fund for Nature Shoshone Falls has been classified as a boundary between the upper Snake River and the Columbia River -glacier as freshwater ecoregions. Before the construction of numerous dams below the falls there were large stocks of salmon in the Snake River. Fishing for salmon at the base of the cases was the primary food source for Shoshone Bannock and Indians. An expedition in 1843 claimed that this ran in the spring with their spears into the water and were able to catch effortlessly through a targeted throwing or impact a salmon.

Today is located directly at the waterfalls, a park with swimming above the falls and a small information panel on the history of the discovery and the first use by the immigrants. The area was the city of Twin Falls by Frederik J. Adams and Martha Stone Adams bequeathed to the condition it alive as a public park. Because the waters of the Snake River is used to a great extent for the irrigation of the fields, the cases in the summer are almost dried up, so that they provide a spectacular sight only in spring.

Only 35% of the fish species of the upper Snake River are identical to those of the lower and the Columbia River. Fourteen of the species that exist in the upper reaches, are also found in fresh water ecosystem Bonville (which extends up to Utah in the Great Basin ), but not in the lower reaches or in the Columbia River. In addition, located in the upper section of the river endemic mollusks (such as water snails and mussels ), which suggests a high water quality.

Your name were the falls in 1905 to honor the memory of the Shoshone, a tribe of aborigines, who once populated this area.

Hydroelectric power station

Already in 1906, a hydroelectric plant was built at the Shoshone Falls, the first time in 1907 generated energy. It was part of " Greater Shoshone and Twin Falls Water Power Company ". New units were taken in 1909, 1921 and 1936 into operation. In 1916 the ownership passed to this project by Idaho Power.

The project has a capacity of 12,500 kilowatts. It is a flow system, which means that the incoming water amount down again flows out because the water is not stored in a reservoir. By 2015, a renewal of the turbine is provided.

Gold Fund on the Snake River

In the fall of 1869 gold was discovered below the Shoshone Falls for the first time. This led to a brief but significant gold rush that attracted up to 400 English gold mining in the canyon. Several mining camps emerged on the banks of the Snake River. In the late summer of 1870 came the first time Chinese gold miners to make their own claims. However, they suffered considerable hostility by the English -born miners and it was adopted a local ban on Chinese immigrants. After only a year, most of the gold deposits were exhausted, so that the miners did not retreat and the ban was lifted. The Chinese prospectors stayed and continued the search continues. Some of the Chinese lived in the mining settlement Springtown, others in small huts near their claims. Mid-1870s there were an estimated 500 Chinese there. After 1879, however, all deposits were exhausted, leaving these around. A 1880 census revealed a number of still only 22 Chinese in Cassia County, which included all of present-day areas of the Twin Falls County at this time.

Evel Knievel

Evel Knievel tried to jump in the heyday of his daring motorcycle of attraction phase the Snake River near the Shoshone Falls. Him deterred neither the depth of the canyon (500 m) nor its width (400 m) when he tried to fly across the gorge on his steam-powered Skycycle ( motorcycle heaven ) on 8 September 1974. This attempt failed due to a malfunction, but thanks to his parachute, he survived the crash almost unscathed, except for a broken nose and a few scratches.

The earthen ramp, from which Knievel started back then is still on the edge of the Snake River Canyon, just west of Shoshone Park, visible. It is however on private land and is not accessible. Visitors can only see from the visitor center or approaching on a hiking trail up to 100 m.

Pictures

Shoshone Falls ( 2009)

Shoshone Falls low water level

Billboard on Shoshone Park

Bathing area above the falls

The Snake River below the falls