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101-477: Goletas Channel is a channel and strait on the north side of Vancouver Island in British Columbia , Canada . It separates Vancouver Island from Hope Island and Nigei Island , located just east of Cape Sutil , the northernmost point of Vancouver Island. The waters of Goletas Channel are part of northern Queen Charlotte Strait . The Nahwitti River empties into the western end of Goletas Channel, near

202-623: A boundary along the Columbia River, the Oregon Treaty of 1846 set the boundary at the 49th parallel. As part of the treaty, the British retained all areas north of the line while the United States acquired the south. The Columbia River became much of the border between the U.S. territories of Oregon and Washington . Oregon became a U.S. state in 1859, while Washington later entered into

303-564: A complex network of dry canyon-like channels, or coulees that are often braided and sharply gouged into the basalt rock underlying the region's deep topsoil. Numerous flat-topped buttes with rich soil stand high above the chaotic scablands. Constrictions at several places caused the floodwaters to pool into large temporary lakes, such as Lake Lewis , in which sediments were deposited. Water depths have been estimated at 1,000 feet (300 m) at Wallula Gap and 400 feet (120 m) over modern Portland, Oregon. Sediments were also deposited when

404-483: A constant flux. Channel heads associated with hollows in steep terrain frequently migrate up and down hillslopes depending on sediment supply and precipitation. Natural channels are formed by fluvial process and are found across the Earth . These are mostly formed by flowing water from the hydrological cycle , though can also be formed by other fluids such as flowing lava can form lava channels . Channels also describe

505-734: A physician who had been in the fur trade since 1804, was appointed superintendent of the Columbia District. The HBC reoriented its Columbia District operations toward the Pacific Ocean via the Columbia, which became the region's main trunk route. In the early 1840s Americans began to colonize the Oregon country in large numbers via the Oregon Trail , despite the HBC's efforts to discourage American settlement in

606-471: A point where shear stress can overcome erosion resistance of the ground surface. Channel heads are often associated with colluvium , hollows and landslides . Overland flow is a primary factor in channel initiation where saturation overland flow deepens to increase shear stress and begin channel incision. Overland flows converge in topographical depressions where channel initiation begins. Soil composition, vegetation, precipitation, and topography dictate

707-520: A population as great as 10,000. The site drew traders from as far away as the Great Plains. The Cascades Rapids of the Columbia River Gorge, and Kettle Falls and Priest Rapids in eastern Washington, were also major fishing and trading sites. In prehistoric times the Columbia's salmon and steelhead runs numbered an estimated annual average of 10 to 16 million fish. In comparison,

808-681: A private American ship, Columbia Rediviva, under Captain Robert Gray from Boston became the first non-indigenous vessel to enter the river. Later in 1792, William Robert Broughton of the British Royal Navy commanding HMS Chatham as part of the Vancouver Expedition , navigated past the Oregon Coast Range and 100 miles (160 km) upriver to what is now Vancouver, Washington. In the following decades, fur-trading companies used

909-471: A shifting sandbar that makes the river's mouth one of the most hazardous stretches of water to navigate in the world. Because of the danger and the many shipwrecks near the mouth, it acquired a reputation as the "Graveyard of Ships". The Columbia drains an area of about 258,000 sq mi (670,000 km ). Its drainage basin covers nearly all of Idaho , large portions of British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington, and ultimately all of Montana west of

1010-533: Is Hanford Reach , the only U.S. stretch of the river that is completely free-flowing, unimpeded by dams, and not a tidal estuary . The Snake River and Yakima River join the Columbia in the Tri-Cities population center. The Columbia makes a sharp bend to the west at the Washington–Oregon border. The river defines that border for the final 309 mi (497 km) of its journey. The Deschutes River joins

1111-420: Is a difference between low gradient streams (less than a couple of percent in gradient or slightly sloped) and high gradient streams (steeply sloped). A wide variety of stream channel types can be distinguished (e.g. braided rivers , wandering rivers, single-thread sinuous rivers etc.). During floods , water flow may exceed the capacity of the channel and flood waters will spill out of the channel and across

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1212-456: Is frequently called a canal , with the Panama Canal providing an example. The term not only includes the deep-dredged   ship-navigable parts of an estuary or river leading to port facilities, but also to lesser channels accessing boat port-facilities such as marinas . When dredged channels traverse bay mud or sandy bottoms, repeated dredging is often necessary because of

1313-661: Is not federally recognized , who live near the lower Columbia River, call it Wimahl or Wimal in the Upper Chinook (Kiksht) language , and it is Nch’i-Wàna or Nchi wana to the Sahaptin (Ichishkíin Sɨ́nwit) -speaking peoples of its middle course in present-day Washington. The river is known as swah'netk'qhu by the Sinixt people , who live in the area of the Arrow Lakes in

1414-518: Is the Snake River . Its drainage basin is roughly the size of France and extends into seven states of the United States and one Canadian province. The fourth-largest river in the United States by flow , the Columbia has the greatest flow of any river into the eastern Pacific. The Columbia and its tributaries have been central to the region's culture and economy for thousands of years. They have been used for transportation since ancient times, linking

1515-599: Is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America . The river forms in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia , Canada. It flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington , then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state of Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean . The river is 1,243 mi (2,000 km) long, and its largest tributary

1616-871: The Big Bend Country , passing through Revelstoke Lake and the Arrow Lakes . Revelstoke, the Big Bend, and the Columbia Valley combined are referred to in BC parlance as the Columbia Country . Below the Arrow Lakes, the Columbia passes the cities of Castlegar , located at the Columbia's confluence with the Kootenay River , and Trail , two major population centers of the West Kootenay region. The Pend Oreille River joins

1717-646: The Canadian Rockies and the Columbia Mountains in BC. For its first 200 mi (320 km), the Columbia flows northwest along the trench through Windermere Lake and the town of Invermere , a region known in BC as the Columbia Valley , then northwest to Golden and into Kinbasket Lake . Rounding the northern end of the Selkirk Mountains , the river turns sharply south through a region known as

1818-547: The Columbia River Plateau and forced the lower Columbia into its present course. The modern Cascade Range began to uplift 5 to 4 million years ago. Cutting through the uplifting mountains, the Columbia River significantly deepened the Columbia River Gorge. The river and its drainage basin experienced some of the world's greatest known catastrophic floods toward the end of the last ice age . The periodic rupturing of ice dams at Glacial Lake Missoula resulted in

1919-576: The Continental Divide , and small portions of Wyoming , Utah , and Nevada ; the total area is similar to the size of France. Roughly 745 mi (1,199 km) of the river's length and 85 percent of its drainage basin are in the US. The Columbia is the twelfth-longest river and has the sixth-largest drainage basin in the United States. In Canada, where the Columbia flows for 498 mi (801 km) and drains 39,700 sq mi (103,000 km ),

2020-702: The Eocene through the Miocene eras, tremendous volcanic eruptions frequently modified much of the landscape traversed by the Columbia. The lower reaches of the ancestral river passed through a valley near where Mount Hood later arose. Carrying sediments from erosion and erupting volcanoes, it built a 2-mile (3.2 km) thick delta that underlies the foothills on the east side of the Coast Range near Vernonia in northwestern Oregon. Between 17 million and 6 million years ago, huge outpourings of flood basalt lava covered

2121-581: The Grand Coulee Dam in the mid-20th century impounded the river, forming Lake Roosevelt , from which water was pumped into the dry coulee , forming the reservoir of Banks Lake . The river flows past The Gorge Amphitheatre , a prominent concert venue in the Northwest, then through Priest Rapids Dam , and then through the Hanford Nuclear Reservation . Entirely within the reservation

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2222-607: The Marmes Rockshelter , near the confluence of the Palouse and Snake rivers in eastern Washington. In 1996 the skeletal remains of a 9,000-year-old prehistoric man (dubbed Kennewick Man ) were found near Kennewick, Washington . The discovery rekindled debate in the scientific community over the origins of human habitation in North America and sparked a protracted controversy over whether the scientific or Native American community

2323-600: The Missouri River . The first documented European discovery of the Columbia River was that of Bruno de Heceta , who in 1775 sighted the river's mouth. On the advice of his officers, he did not explore it, as he was short-staffed and the current was strong. He considered it a bay, and called it Ensenada de Asunción ( Assumption Cove ). Later Spanish maps, based on his sighting, showed a river, labeled Río de San Roque ( The Saint Roch River ), or an entrance, called Entrada de Hezeta , named for Bruno de Hezeta , who sailed

2424-548: The Molala , Klickitat , Wenatchi , Okanagan, and Sinkiuse-Columbia peoples, who owned small numbers of horses and adopted few plains culture features. Some groups remained essentially unaffected, such as the Sanpoil and Nespelem people, whose culture remained centered on fishing. Natives of the region encountered foreigners at several times and places during the 18th and 19th centuries. European and American vessels explored

2525-517: The Oregon Country along the Clearwater and Snake rivers, and encountered numerous small settlements of natives. Their records recount tales of hospitable traders who were not above stealing small items from the visitors. They also noted brass teakettles, a British musket, and other artifacts that had been obtained in trade with coastal tribes. From the earliest contact with westerners, the natives of

2626-763: The Shoshone Bannock tribes are present. The Sinixt or Lakes people lived on the lower stretch of the Canadian portion, while above that the Shuswap people (Secwepemc in their own language) reckon the whole of the upper Columbia east to the Rockies as part of their territory. The Canadian portion of the Columbia Basin outlines the traditional homelands of the Canadian Kootenay– Ktunaxa . The Chinook tribe, which

2727-473: The Yakima War , decimated the native population and removed much land from native control. As years progressed, the right of natives to fish along the Columbia became the central issue of contention with the states, commercial fishers, and private property owners. The US Supreme Court upheld fishing rights in landmark cases in 1905 and 1918, as well as the 1974 case United States v. Washington , commonly called

2828-455: The eruption of Mount St. Helens deposited large amounts of sediment in the lower Columbia, temporarily reducing the depth of the shipping channel by 26 feet (7.9 m). Humans have inhabited the Columbia's watershed for more than 15,000 years, with a transition to a sedentary lifestyle based mainly on salmon starting about 3,500 years ago. In 1962, archaeologists found evidence of human activity dating back 11,230 years at

2929-581: The valley bottom, floodplain or drainage area . Examples of rivers that are trapped in their channels: Grand Canyon and Black Canyon of the Gunnison . In a larger nautical context, as a geographical place name, the term channel is another word for strait , which is defined as a relatively narrow body of water that connects two larger bodies of water. In this nautical context, the terms strait , channel , sound , and passage are synonymous and usually interchangeable. For example, in an archipelago ,

3030-499: The waterless surface features on Venus . Channel initiation refers to the site on a mountain slope where water begins to flow between identifiable banks. This site is referred to as the channel head and it marks an important boundary between hillslope processes and fluvial processes. The channel head is the most upslope part of a channel network and is defined by flowing water between defined identifiable banks. A channel head forms as overland flow and/or subsurface flow accumulate to

3131-534: The 1840s a mass migration of American settlers undermined British control. The Hudson's Bay Company tried to maintain dominance by shifting from the fur trade, which was in decline, to exporting other goods such as salmon and lumber. Colonization schemes were attempted, but failed to match the scale of American settlement. Americans generally settled south of the Columbia, mainly in the Willamette Valley. The Hudson's Bay Company tried to establish settlements north of

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3232-452: The 1930s, there were natives who lived along the river and fished year round, moving along with the fish's migration patterns throughout the seasons. The Yakama were slower to do so, organizing a formal government in 1944. In the 21st century, the Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Warm Springs tribes all have treaty fishing rights along the Columbia and its tributaries. In 1957 Celilo Falls

3333-473: The 20th century, each of these major fishing sites was flooded by a dam, beginning with Cascades Rapids in 1938. The development was accompanied by extensive negotiations between natives and US government agencies. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, a coalition of various tribes, adopted a constitution and incorporated after the 1938 completion of the Bonneville Dam flooded Cascades Rapids; Still, in

3434-460: The Americas and is the fourth-largest by volume in the U.S. The average flow where the river crosses the international border between Canada and the United States is 2,790 m /s (99,000 cu ft/s) from a drainage basin of 102,800 km (39,700 sq mi). This amounts to about 15 percent of the entire Columbia watershed. The Columbia's highest recorded flow, measured at The Dalles,

3535-594: The Boldt Decision. Fish were central to the culture of the region's natives, both as sustenance and as part of their religious beliefs. Natives drew fish from the Columbia at several major sites, which also served as trading posts. Celilo Falls , located east of the modern city of The Dalles, was a vital hub for trade and the interaction of different cultural groups, being used for fishing and trading for 11,000 years. Prior to contact with westerners, villages along this 9-mile (14 km) stretch may have at times had

3636-489: The Columbia Bar, becoming the first known explorer of European descent to enter the river . Gray's fur trading mission had been financed by Boston merchants, who outfitted him with a private vessel named Columbia Rediviva ; he named the river after the ship on May 18. Gray spent nine days trading near the mouth of the Columbia, then left without having gone beyond 13 miles (21 km) upstream. The farthest point reached

3737-486: The Columbia River Gorge, about 100 miles (160 km) upstream, sighting and naming Mount Hood. Broughton formally claimed the river, its drainage basin , and the nearby coast for Britain. In contrast, Gray had not made any formal claims on behalf of the United States. Because the Columbia was at the same latitude as the headwaters of the Missouri River, there was some speculation that Gray and Vancouver had discovered

3838-538: The Columbia River Gorge, sending massive amounts of debris south from Table Mountain and Greenleaf Peak into the gorge near the present site of Bonneville Dam. The most recent and significant is known as the Bonneville Slide , which formed a massive earthen dam, filling 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of the river's length. Various studies have placed the date of the Bonneville Slide anywhere between 1060 and 1760 AD;

3939-417: The Columbia River Gorge. The Celilo Canal , bypassing Celilo Falls, opened to river traffic in 1915. In the mid-20th century, the construction of dams along the length of the river submerged the rapids beneath a series of reservoirs. An extensive system of locks allowed ships and barges to pass easily between reservoirs. A navigation channel reaching Lewiston, Idaho , along the Columbia and Snake rivers,

4040-478: The Columbia River. The mountainous terrain where the unit would be placed in is Juniper Point, referred to by the Yakama as Pushpum. Pushpum has rock formations, as well as food and medicine capabilities that are essential to the Yakama. Members of the Yakama tribe wish for consent on the Goldendale project, as opposed to consultation. Some historians believe that Japanese or Chinese vessels blown off course reached

4141-734: The Columbia about 2 miles (3 km) north of the United States–Canada border . The Columbia enters eastern Washington flowing south and turning to the west at the Spokane River confluence. It marks the southern and eastern borders of the Colville Indian Reservation and the western border of the Spokane Indian Reservation . The river turns south after the Okanogan River confluence, then southeasterly near

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4242-466: The Columbia as a key transportation route. Overland explorers entered the Willamette Valley through the scenic, but treacherous Columbia River Gorge , and pioneers began to settle the valley in increasing numbers. Steamships along the river linked communities and facilitated trade; the arrival of railroads in the late 19th century, many running along the river, supplemented these links. Since

4343-518: The Columbia near The Dalles . Between The Dalles and Portland , the river cuts through the Cascade Range , forming the dramatic Columbia River Gorge . Via the gorge, the Columbia crosses the Cascades at a lower elevation than any other river. The gorge is known for its strong and steady winds, scenic beauty, and its role as an important transportation link. The river continues west, bending sharply to

4444-406: The Columbia to improve navigation. Changes to the river over the years have included the construction of jetties at the river's mouth, dredging , and the construction of canals and navigation locks . Today, ocean freighters can travel upriver as far as Portland and Vancouver, and barges can reach as far inland as Lewiston, Idaho . The shifting Columbia Bar makes passage between the river and

4545-481: The Columbia's main stem and many more on its tributaries produce more than 44 percent of total U.S. hydroelectric generation . Production of nuclear power has taken place at two sites along the river. Plutonium for nuclear weapons was produced for decades at the Hanford Site , which is now the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States. These developments have greatly altered river environments in

4646-457: The Columbia, they failed to send word home to Spain. In the 18th century, there was strong interest in discovering a Northwest Passage that would permit navigation between the Atlantic (or inland North America) and the Pacific Ocean. Many ships in the area, especially those under Spanish and British command, searched the northwest coast for a large river that might connect to Hudson Bay or

4747-758: The Lower Umpqua Tribe, Siuslaw Tribe, and Coos Tribe in 1984, the Klamath Tribe in 1986, and the Coquille Tribe in 1989. While all the aforementioned tribes received federally recognized status, the Chinook Indian Nation had their federal recognition revoked in 2002 by the Bush Administration, and are fighting to have it restored. In 2023, members of the Yakama Nation expressed their dismay for

4848-469: The Missoula Floods, with discharges exceeding the combined flow of all the other rivers in the world, dozens of times over thousands of years. The exact number of floods is unknown, but geologists have documented at least 40; evidence suggests that they occurred between about 19,000 and 13,000 years ago. The floodwaters rushed across eastern Washington, creating the channeled scablands , which are

4949-525: The Northwest Coast long before Europeans—possibly as early as 219  BCE . Historian Derek Hayes claims that "It is a near certainty that Japanese or Chinese people arrived on the northwest coast long before any European." It is unknown whether they landed near the Columbia. Evidence exists that Spanish castaways reached the shore in 1679 and traded with the Clatsop ; if these were the first Europeans to see

5050-421: The Pacific Ocean difficult and dangerous, and numerous rapids along the river hinder navigation. Pacific Graveyard, a 1964 book by James A. Gibbs , describes the many shipwrecks near the mouth of the Columbia. Jetties, first constructed in 1886, extend the river's channel into the ocean. Strong currents and the shifting sandbar remain a threat to ships entering the river and necessitate continuous maintenance of

5151-521: The Snake River, reaching the Columbia near the present-day Tri-Cities, Washington. They explored a few miles upriver, as far as Bateman Island , before heading down the Columbia, concluding their journey at the river's mouth and establishing Fort Clatsop , a short-lived establishment that was occupied for less than three months. Canadian explorer David Thompson , of the North West Company , spent

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5252-653: The Union in 1889. By the turn of the 20th century, the difficulty of navigating the Columbia was seen as an impediment to the economic development of the Inland Empire region east of the Cascades. The dredging and dam building that followed would permanently alter the river, disrupting its natural flow but also providing electricity, irrigation , navigability and other benefits to the region. American captain Robert Gray and British captain George Vancouver, who explored

5353-449: The Yakama Tribe were arrested in a federal sting operation which claimed that fishermen were poaching up to 40,000 fish in the Columbia River. Fishermen placed on trial received sentences ranging from six months to five years. The federal government pinned Yakama Tribe member David Sohappy ringleader of the operation. After the trial ended, it was determined that the fish were not poached, but driven away because of harmful chemicals present in

5454-540: The affection of a goddess, represented by Mount St. Helens . Native American stories about the bridge differ in their details but agree in general that the bridge permitted increased interaction between tribes on the north and south sides of the river. Horses, originally acquired from Spanish New Mexico , spread widely via native trade networks, reaching the Shoshone of the Snake River Plain by 1700. The Nez Perce, Cayuse, and Flathead people acquired their first horses around 1730. Along with horses came aspects of

5555-545: The amount and rate of overland flow. The composition of a soil determines how quickly saturation occurs and cohesive strength retards the entrainment of material from overland flows. Vegetation slows infiltration rates during precipitation events and plant roots anchor soil on hillslopes. Subsurface flow destabilizes soil and resurfaces on hillslopes where channel heads are often formed. This often results in abrupt channel heads and landslides. Hollows form due to concentrated subsurface flows where concentrations of colluvium are in

5656-412: The base of Bonneville Dam , its head of tide . When the rifting of Pangaea , due to the process of plate tectonics , pushed North America away from Europe and Africa and into the Panthalassic Ocean (ancestor to the modern Pacific Ocean), the Pacific Northwest was not part of the continent. As the North American continent moved westward, the Farallon Plate subducted under its western margin. As

5757-460: The center of an extensive trading network across the Pacific Plateau. Celilo was the oldest continuously inhabited community on the North American continent. Salmon canneries established by white settlers beginning in 1866 had a strong negative impact on the salmon population, and in 1908 US president Theodore Roosevelt observed that the salmon runs were but a fraction of what they had been 25 years prior. As river development continued in

5858-419: The coastal area around the mouth of the river in the late 18th century, trading with local natives. The contact would prove devastating to the indigenous Chinookan speaking peoples; a large portion of their population was wiped out by a smallpox epidemic. Canadian explorer Alexander Mackenzie crossed what is now interior British Columbia in 1793. From 1805 to 1806, the Lewis and Clark Expedition entered

5959-410: The confluence with the Wenatchee River in central Washington. This C-shaped segment of the river is also known as the "Big Bend". During the Missoula Floods 10–15,000 years ago, much of the floodwater took a more direct route south, forming the ancient river bed known as the Grand Coulee . After the floods, the river found its present course, and the Grand Coulee was left dry. The construction of

6060-449: The construction of a Goldendale-based pumped hydroelectric energy storage project. Jeremy Takala of the Yakama Nation embodies Yakama belief on the importance of Columbia River crops to food and medicine, stating "the [Goldendale] project being proposed here, it will definitely impact our life".  The Goldendale-pumped hydro storage unit could allow for reused water use in reservoirs, which would be placed on mountainous terrain overlooking

6161-444: The deeper course through a reef , sand bar , bay , or any shallow body of water. An example of a river running through a sand bar is the Columbia Bar —the mouth of the Columbia River . A stream channel is the physical confine of a stream ( river ) consisting of a bed and stream banks . Stream channels exist in a variety of geometries. Stream channel development is controlled by both water and sediment movement. There

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6262-414: The emerging plains culture , such as equestrian and horse training skills, greatly increased mobility, hunting efficiency, trade over long distances, intensified warfare, the linking of wealth and prestige to horses and war, and the rise of large and powerful tribal confederacies. The Nez Perce and Cayuse kept large herds and made annual long-distance trips to the Great Plains for bison hunting, adopted

6363-403: The floodwaters slowed in the broad flats of the Quincy, Othello, and Pasco Basins. The floods' periodic inundation of the lower Columbia River Plateau deposited rich sediments; 21st-century farmers in the Willamette Valley "plow fields of fertile Montana soil and clays from Washington's Palouse". Over the last several thousand years a series of large landslides have occurred on the north side of

6464-413: The functionality of ports and other bodies of water used for navigability for shipping . Naturally, channels will change their depth and capacity due to erosion and deposition processes. Humans maintain navigable channels by dredging and other engineering processes. By extension, the term also applies to fluids other than water, e.g., lava channels . The term is also traditionally used to describe

6565-427: The idea that the landslide debris present today was formed by more than one slide is relatively recent and may explain the large range of estimates. It has been suggested that if the later dates are accurate there may be a link with the 1700 Cascadia earthquake . The pile of debris resulting from the Bonneville Slide blocked the river until rising water finally washed away the sediment. It is not known how long it took

6666-460: The jetties. In 1891, the Columbia was dredged to enhance shipping. The channel between the ocean and Portland and Vancouver was deepened from 17 feet (5.2 m) to 25 feet (7.6 m). The Columbian called for the channel to be deepened to 40 feet (12 m) as early as 1905, but that depth was not attained until 1976. Cascade Locks and Canal were first constructed in 1896 around the Cascades Rapids, enabling boats to travel safely through

6767-447: The largest run since 1938 was in 1986, with 3.2 million fish entering the Columbia. The annual catch by natives has been estimated at 42 million pounds (19,000 metric tons). The most important and productive native fishing site was located at Celilo Falls, which was perhaps the most productive inland fishing site in North America. The falls were located at the border between Chinookan- and Sahaptian-speaking peoples and served as

6868-442: The late 19th century, public and private sectors have extensively developed the river. To aid ship and barge navigation, locks have been built along the lower Columbia and its tributaries, and dredging has opened, maintained, and enlarged shipping channels . Since the early 20th century, dams have been built across the river for power generation , navigation , irrigation , and flood control . The 14 hydroelectric dams on

6969-420: The long-sought Northwest Passage. A 1798 British map showed a dotted line connecting the Columbia with the Missouri. When the American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark charted the vast, unmapped lands of the American West in their overland expedition (1803–1805), they found no passage between the rivers. After crossing the Rocky Mountains , Lewis and Clark built dugout canoes and paddled down

7070-464: The mid- and lower Columbia were not tribal, but instead congregated in social units no larger than a village, and more often at a family level; these units would shift with the season as people moved about, following the salmon catch up and down the river's tributaries. Sparked by the 1847 Whitman Massacre , a number of violent battles were fought between American settlers and the region's natives. The subsequent wars over Northwest territory, especially

7171-413: The north-northwest near Portland and Vancouver, Washington , at the Willamette River confluence. Here the river slows considerably, dropping sediment that might otherwise form a river delta at the Columbia's mouth. Near Longview, Washington and the Cowlitz River confluence, the river turns west again. The Columbia empties into the Pacific Ocean just west of Astoria, Oregon , over the Columbia Bar ,

7272-467: The plains culture to a significant degree, and became the main conduit through which horses and the plains culture diffused into the Columbia River region. Other peoples acquired horses and aspects of the plains culture unevenly. The Yakama, Umatilla, Palus, Spokane, and Coeur d'Alene maintained sizable herds of horses and adopted some of the plains cultural characteristics, but fishing and fish-related economies remained important. Less affected groups included

7373-532: The plate subducted, it carried along island arcs which were accreted to the North American continent, resulting in the creation of the Pacific Northwest between 150 and 90 million years ago. The general outline of the Columbia Basin was not complete until between 60 and 40 million years ago, but it lay under a large inland sea later subject to uplift. Between 50 and 20 million years ago, from

7474-688: The power plant. These harmful chemicals mainly consisted of aluminum. This event is commonly known today as the Salmon Scam . Shortly after the Salmon Scam, many Columbia River-based indigenous tribes received federally recognized status. The Siletz Tribe was the first to restore its federal recognition in 1977, followed by the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe in 1982, the Grand Ronde Tribe in 1983,

7575-400: The product of the sediment load and bed Bukhara size is proportional to the product of discharge and channel slope. A term " navigable channel " is used as a nautical term to mean a lane for ship travel, frequently marked (cf. Buoy ) and sometimes dredged . Thoresen distinguishes few categories of channels, from A (suitable for day and night navigation with guaranteed fairway depth ) all

7676-735: The rapid settlement and economic development of the region. Steamboats operated in several distinct stretches of the river: on its lower reaches, from the Pacific Ocean to Cascades Rapids; from the Cascades to the Dalles-Celilo Falls; from Celilo to Priests Rapids; on the Wenatchee Reach of eastern Washington; on British Columbia's Arrow Lakes ; and on tributaries like the Willamette , the Snake and Kootenay Lake . The boats, initially powered by burning wood, carried passengers and freight throughout

7777-460: The region for many years. Early railroads served to connect steamboat lines interrupted by waterfalls on the river's lower reaches. In the 1880s, railroads maintained by companies such as the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company began to supplement steamboat operations as the major transportation links along the river. As early as 1881, industrialists proposed altering the natural channel of

7878-428: The region's many cultural groups. The river system hosts many species of anadromous fish, which migrate between freshwater habitats and the saline waters of the Pacific Ocean. These fish—especially the salmon species—provided the core subsistence for native peoples . The first documented European discovery of the Columbia River occurred when Bruno de Heceta sighted the river's mouth in 1775. On May 11, 1792,

7979-498: The region. Following Hezeta's reports, British maritime fur trader Captain John Meares searched for the river in 1788 but concluded that it did not exist. He named Cape Disappointment for the non-existent river, not realizing the cape marks the northern edge of the river's mouth. What happened next would form the basis for decades of both cooperation and dispute between British and American exploration of, and ownership claim to,

8080-678: The region. Royal Navy commander George Vancouver sailed past the mouth in April 1792 and observed a change in the water's color, but he accepted Meares' report and continued on his journey northward. Later that month, Vancouver encountered the American captain Robert Gray at the Strait of Juan de Fuca . Gray reported that he had seen the entrance to the Columbia and had spent nine days trying but failing to enter. On May 12, 1792, Gray returned south and crossed

8181-717: The region. For many the final leg of the journey involved travel down the lower Columbia River to Fort Vancouver. This part of the Oregon Trail, the treacherous stretch from The Dalles to below the Cascades, could not be traversed by horses or wagons (only watercraft, at great risk). This prompted the 1846 construction of the Barlow Road . In the Treaty of 1818 the United States and Britain agreed that both nations were to enjoy equal rights in Oregon Country for 10 years. By 1828, when

8282-568: The river he had not yet seen, becoming the first Euro-descended person to travel the entire length of the river. In 1825, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) established Fort Vancouver on the bank of the Columbia, in what is now Vancouver, Washington, as the headquarters of the company's Columbia District , which encompassed everything west of the Rocky Mountains, north of California, and south of Russian-claimed Alaska. Chief Factor John McLoughlin ,

8383-518: The river in 1792, proved that it was possible to cross the Columbia Bar. Many of the challenges associated with that feat remain today; even with modern engineering alterations to the mouth of the river, the strong currents and shifting sandbar make it dangerous to pass between the river and the Pacific Ocean. The use of steamboats along the river, beginning with the British Beaver in 1836 and followed by American vessels in 1850, contributed to

8484-451: The river ranks 23rd in length, and the Canadian part of its basin ranks 13th in size among Canadian basins. The Columbia shares its name with nearby places, such as British Columbia, as well as with landforms and bodies of water. With an average flow at the mouth of about 265,000 cu ft/s (7,500 m /s), the Columbia is the largest river by discharge flowing into the Pacific from

8585-479: The river to break through the barrier; estimates range from several months to several years. Much of the landslide's debris remained, forcing the river about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of its previous channel and forming the Cascade Rapids . In 1938, the construction of Bonneville Dam inundated the rapids as well as the remaining trees that could be used to refine the estimated date of the landslide. In 1980,

8686-635: The river's upper reaches in Canada. All three terms essentially mean "the big river". Oral histories describe the formation and destruction of the Bridge of the Gods , a land bridge that connected the Oregon and Washington sides of the river in the Columbia River Gorge. The bridge, which aligns with geological records of the Bonneville Slide, was described in some stories as the result of a battle between gods, represented by Mount Adams and Mount Hood , in their competition for

8787-454: The river, but nearly all the British colonists moved south to the Willamette Valley. The hope that the British colonists might dilute the American presence in the valley failed in the face of the overwhelming number of American settlers. These developments rekindled the issue of "joint occupation" and the boundary dispute . While some British interests, especially the Hudson's Bay Company, fought for

8888-574: The site of the historic Kwakwakaʼwakw village and maritime fur trade harbor known as Nahwitti . Goletas Channel was named by the Spanish naval officers Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores during their 1792 voyage around Vancouver Island, after their goletas (a Spanish term approximately equivalent to English "schooner"), Sutil and Mexicana . The channel was labeled Salida de las Goletas on their chart, published in 1793. Channel (geography) Channels are important for

8989-430: The so-called "joint occupation" was renewed indefinitely, it seemed probable that the lower Columbia River would in time become the border between the two nations. For years the Hudson's Bay Company successfully maintained control of the Columbia River and American attempts to gain a foothold were fended off. In the 1830s, American religious missions were established at several locations in the lower Columbia River region. In

9090-457: The total watershed. Flow rates on the Columbia are affected by many large upstream reservoirs, many diversions for irrigation, and, on the lower stretches, reverse flow from the tides of the Pacific Ocean. The National Ocean Service observes water levels at six tide gauges and issues tide forecasts for twenty-two additional locations along the river between the entrance at the North Jetty and

9191-678: The unstable subsequent movement of benthic soils. Responsibility for monitoring navigability conditions of navigation channels to various port facilities varies, and the actual maintenance work is frequently performed by a third party. Storms, sea-states, flooding, and seasonal sedimentation adversely affect navigability . In the U.S., navigation channels are monitored and maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), although dredging operations are often carried out by private contractors (under USACE supervision). USACE also monitors water quality and some remediation. This

9292-512: The water between islands is typically called a channel or passage . The English Channel is the strait between England and France. The channel form is described in terms of geometry (plan, cross-sections, profile) enclosed by the materials of its bed and banks. This form is under influence of two major forces: water discharge and sediment supply. For erodible channels the mutual dependence of its parameters may be qualitatively described by Lane's Principle (also known as Lane's relationship ):

9393-551: The watershed, mainly through industrial pollution and barriers to fish migration. The Columbia begins its 1,243 mi (2,000 km) journey in the southern Rocky Mountain Trench in British Columbia (BC). Columbia Lake  –  2,690 ft (820 m) above sea level  –  and the adjoining Columbia Wetlands form the river's headwaters . The trench is a broad, deep, and long glacial valley between

9494-400: The way to D with no navigational aids and only estimated depths provided to the shipmaster . With regard to the dredging , channels can be unrestricted (wide enough to accommodate 10-15 widths of a largest ship used in this channel, semi-restricted with limited dredging in shallow waters, and fully restricted , where the entire channel is dredged. The latter, entirely human-made, channel

9595-416: The winter of 1807–08 at Kootanae House near the source of the Columbia at present-day Invermere, BC. Over the next few years he explored much of the river and its northern tributaries. In 1811 he traveled down the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean, arriving at the mouth just after John Jacob Astor 's Pacific Fur Company had founded Astoria. On his return to the north, Thompson explored the one remaining part of

9696-559: Was 1,240,000 cu ft/s (35,000 m /s) in June 1894, before the river was dammed. The lowest flow recorded at The Dalles was 12,100 cu ft/s (340 m /s) on April 16, 1968, and was caused by the initial closure of the John Day Dam , 28 mi (45 km) upstream. The Dalles is about 190 mi (310 km) from the mouth; the river at this point drains about 237,000 sq mi (610,000 km ) or about 91 percent of

9797-470: Was Grays Bay at the mouth of Grays River . Gray's discovery of the Columbia River was later used by the United States to support its claim to the Oregon Country, which was also claimed by Russia , Great Britain , Spain and other nations. In October 1792, Vancouver sent Lieutenant William Robert Broughton , his second-in-command, up the river. Broughton got as far as the Sandy River at the western end of

9898-521: Was completed in 1975. Among the main commodities are wheat and other grains, mainly for export. As of 2016, the Columbia ranked third, behind the Mississippi and Paraná rivers, among the world's largest export corridors for grain. The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens caused mudslides in the area, which reduced the Columbia's depth by 25 feet (7.6 m) for a 4-mile (6.4 km) stretch, disrupting Portland's economy. Efforts to maintain and improve

9999-605: Was entitled to possess and/or study the remains. Many different Native Americans and First Nations peoples have a historical and continuing presence on the Columbia. South of the Canada–US ;border, the Colville , Spokane , Coeur d'Alene , Yakama , Nez Perce , Cayuse , Palus , Umatilla , Cowlitz , and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs live along the US stretch. Along the upper Snake River and Salmon River ,

10100-1399: Was first established under the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 and modified under acts of 1913, 1935, and 1938. For example, the USACE developed the Intracoastal Waterway , and has the Mississippi Valley Division responsible for the Mississippi River from the Gulf to Cairo, Illinois , the North Atlantic Division for New York Harbor and Port of Boston , and the South Pacific Division for Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach . Waterways policing as well as some emergency spill response falls under United States Coast Guard jurisdiction, including inland channels serving ports like Saint Louis hundreds of miles from any coast. The various state or local governments maintain lesser channels, for example former Erie Canal . Columbia River The Columbia River ( Upper Chinook : Wimahl or Wimal ; Sahaptin : Nch’i-Wàna or Nchi wana ; Sinixt dialect swah'netk'qhu )

10201-472: Was submerged by the construction of The Dalles Dam, and the native fishing community was displaced. The affected tribes received a $ 26.8 million settlement for the loss of Celilo and other fishing sites submerged by The Dalles Dam. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs used part of its $ 4 million settlement to establish the Kah-Nee-Ta resort south of Mount Hood. In 1977, 75 indigenous fishermen of

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