The Pit River is a major river draining from northeastern California into the state's Central Valley . The Pit, the Klamath and the Columbia are the only three rivers in the U.S. that cross the Cascade Range .
210-630: The longest tributary of the Sacramento River , it contributes as much as eighty percent of their combined water volume into the Shasta Lake reservoir; the junction of their Shasta Lake arms is 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Shasta Dam . The main stem of the Pit River is 207 miles (333 km) long, and some water in the system flows 265 miles (426 km) to the Sacramento River measuring from
420-517: A Blue Ribbon fishery . The river is also a well-known hiking and sightseeing spot, particularly for people looking for waterfalls and bald eagles. Among the most picturesque spots are Potem Falls. Sacramento River The Sacramento River ( Spanish : Río Sacramento ) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in
630-435: A 16,000-foot (4,900 m) tunnel to Pit 3 Powerhouse, located on the upper end of Pit 4 Reservoir, formed by Pit 4 Dam . Pit 4 is a much smaller diversion dam , drawing water through a tunnel under Chalk Mountain to Pit 4 Powerhouse on Pit 5 Reservoir. Like Pit 4, Pit 5 is also a small diversion dam with minimal pondage. From here, the water is diverted to an offstream regulating reservoir (Tunnel Reservoir) and then through
840-568: A burial place for victims of the Kabyai Creek Massacre . The tribe conducted a war dance in September 2004 for the first time in 117 years in opposition of the dam and Reclamation's raising project; the event reputedly inspired many environmental groups to support the tribe's position. Reclamation holds guided tours of the Shasta Dam year round, each taking two to three hours. There also are
1050-409: A capacity of 379 MW, was also under construction. Five steel penstocks, each 15 feet (4.6 m) in diameter, were installed to provide water to drive the turbines in the power station. The powerhouse was a reinforced concrete structure standing 153 feet (47 m) above the river; electricity was first generated there in 1944. The dam was completed at the dawn of 1945. When Shasta was completed, it
1260-501: A chance to return for spawning. According to UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences these rice fields adjacent to the Sacramento River will serve as potential nurseries for salmon. UC Davis also concluded from past experimental releases of salmon, that the Yolo Bypass floodway could have up to 57,000 acres of a productive breeding habitat with almost no cost to farmers. The Nigiri project has demonstrated off-season agriculture fields such as
1470-509: A conglomerate of twelve smaller companies. Construction started with the excavation of millions of tons of bedrock from the canyon walls adjacent to the construction site, forming keyways for the dam foundations. The Shasta Route of the Southern Pacific Railroad and U.S. Highway 99 (current Interstate 5 ) were rerouted to the east over the steel truss Pit River Bridge , which remains the tallest combined road and rail bridge in
1680-425: A draft geologic technical report prepared pursuant to the planning for modifications of Shasta Dam, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation cites (p. 27) six types of geologic hazards that have the potential to occur within the project area: seismic hazards, volcanic eruptions and associated hazards, mudflows, snow avalanches, slope instability, and seiches . Seismic hazards stem from the proximity of several fault zones,
1890-543: A figure which includes the McCloud River and Sulanharas Creek contributing about 1,010 cubic feet per second (29 m/s) of additional flow below the Montgomery Creek gage. The lower course of the Pit River is one of California's most significant hydroelectric rivers, not just because of its consistent perennial flow, but because of its steep drop: in the 50 miles (80 km) between Fall River Mills and Shasta Lake,
2100-408: A gigantic facility called a TCD (Temperature Control Device) on the rear face of Shasta Dam. This structure enables dam operators to decide the depth of the reservoir from which the water feeding into the penstocks originates. As one progresses deeper into Shasta Lake, the water gets colder where it receives less sunlight. The TCD is equipped with fifteen openings called "shutters" arranged in rows along
2310-617: A great network of pumps and canals that would take water from the Sacramento River in the north, and transport it to drought-prone central and southern California, especially the San Joaquin Valley. The Sacramento River basin receives "two-thirds to three-quarters of northern California's precipitation though it has only one-third to one-quarter of the land. The San Joaquin River watershed occupies two-thirds to three-quarters of northern California's land, but only collects one-third to one-quarter of
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#17328447845072520-453: A large number of furs. This was broken the next year, when two settlers were killed by Atsugewi for an unknown reason. In retaliation, a band of white men attacked a native camp at Beaver Creek (near present-day Pittville ) killing 160 people, mostly women and children. The military Pitt River Expeditions against local Indian Tribes occurred during the 1850s. The first expedition in 1850 was mainly an attempt to establish better relations with
2730-413: A large portion of the habitat currently used by migrating birds. Native bird populations have been declining steadily since the 19th century. Species that were once common but now are endangered or gone include the southwestern willow flycatcher , western yellow-billed cuckoo , least Bell's vireo , and warbling vireo . Another reason for dropping numbers are the introduction of non-native species, such as
2940-564: A large proportion of their population within a few decades of the arrival of Sutter and the following settlers, the start of the gold rush , not to mention the numerous battles fought between the settlers and native bands as well as the forced relocation of some of the tribes to Indian reservations in several places scattered around the Sacramento Valley, mainly in the Coast Ranges. In the early 1850s, several treaties were signed between
3150-646: A major portion of the Depression era federal job-creation programs. Roosevelt first considered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for building the project, but ultimately transferred it to the Reclamation Service, the precursor to the Bureau of Reclamation , which had expertise in building large concrete dams as demonstrated in the Hoover Dam (Boulder Canyon) Project several years earlier. Reclamation chose Frank Crowe ,
3360-465: A narrow canyon, past Likely , then generally north through a broad ranching valley where its waters are diverted for irrigation and waterfowl conservation via an extensive system of canals. The 30-mile (48 km) long North Fork - Linnville Creek tributary begins 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast of the town of Davis Creek, near Goose Lake . It flows generally south-southwest, joining the South Fork from
3570-637: A part in the formation of the 300-mile (480 km) Monterey Submarine Canyon when sea levels were lower during the Ice Ages. The Monterey Bay outlet of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers was blocked off by uplift about 2 million years ago, and runoff from the Sierra began to transform the Central Valley into a gigantic lake, called Lake Clyde . This lake stretched 500 miles (800 km) north to south and
3780-403: A plethora of massive changes to the environment beginning in the 20th century. An early project was undertaken to raise the entire city of Sacramento about 11 feet (3.4 m) above its original elevation. This was followed by much bigger engineering projects to control and store the floodwaters of the Sacramento River; the building of these public works would radically transform the river during
3990-488: A pumping station (which replaced the Red Bluff Diversion Dam ) removes water for irrigation. Beyond Red Bluff the river reaches the low floodplain of the Sacramento Valley, receiving Mill Creek from the east and Thomes Creek from the west near Los Molinos , then Deer Creek from the east near Vina . Southeast of Corning , the Sacramento forms the boundary of Tehama County to the west and Butte County to
4200-502: A railroad. Until this time, the Sacramento River had still been flowing through the middle of the dam site, between the two nearly completed abutments of the dam. An earth/rock filled cofferdam was constructed across the river, which now began to flow through the tunnel, drying out the dam site and enabling work to begin on the middle section of the dam, which contained the spillway bays. The spillways with their 18 high-pressure river outlet valves and massive triple drum gates were completed in
4410-720: A spotty record with environmental responsibility and has been criticized by environmentalists for high levels of pesticide and selenium in the toxic runoff waters from farms operating under the district. In November 2020, the Trump Administration released the Shasta Lake Water Resources Investigation Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to increase water storage capacity in Shasta Lake by 634,000 acre-feet, or more than 200 billion gallons. In
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#17328447845074620-475: A tiny fraction of that land remained theirs. Furthermore, the Winnemem are not recognized by the federal government, an omission that they have been seeking to rectify for over a century. Recently, native hostility to the dam has heightened because of the proposals to raise it – which would drown twenty of the remaining sacred sites, including Children's Rock and Puberty Rock, both used in coming-of-age ceremonies, and
4830-600: A total of over 3,000 cubic feet per second (85 m /s) of water to irrigate some 150,000 acres (610 km ). In 1960, construction began on the State Water Project, whose primary purpose was to deliver water to Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Oroville Dam – the tallest dam in the U.S. – was built on the Sacramento's largest tributary, the Feather River. A series of channels were enlarged in
5040-521: A tunnel bypassing the Pit River reach known as the "Big Bend" and the eponymous town of Big Bend , to feed Pit 5 Powerhouse. These dams and powerhouses are licensed under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as the "Pit 3, 4, and 5 Project", and are operated by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) Below Pit 5 Powerhouse lie two larger concrete arch-gravity dams, Pit 6 and Pit 7 . These dams release water directly from
5250-475: A turning point in the history of the Sacramento Valley, and California as a whole. In 1841, Sutter and his men built a fortress at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers and the Mexican government granted him almost 50,000 acres (200 km ) of land surrounding the two rivers. Naming it New Helvetia, he created an agricultural empire in the lower Sacramento Valley, attracting several hundred settlers to
5460-524: A vast estuary , the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta , and ultimately the Pacific Ocean . By the late 1800s, both the valley and Delta regions were intensely cultivated with various crops including wheat, cotton, rice, citrus, and melons. The low-lying topography of the Sacramento Valley makes it vulnerable to flooding in the winter; conversely, irrigation is necessary during the summer due to
5670-468: A vast tidal estuary and inverted river delta of over 1,000 square miles (2,600 km ) which receives the entire run-off of the Central Valley, a region covering a third of California. The Sacramento is by far the largest contributor of fresh water to the Delta; in an average year, it accounts for more than 80 percent of the fresh water inflow. At Walnut Grove , the manmade Delta Cross Channel connects
5880-484: A visitor center and auditorium. The tours comprise a 428-foot (130 m) elevator ride to the base of the dam, and visits to the dam's inner galleries and the powerhouse among other areas. Shasta Lake has a surface of 30,310 acres (12,270 ha) at full pool and is surrounded by the Shasta-Trinity National Forest . Many public and private marinas, campgrounds, RV parks, resorts and boat launches border
6090-540: A vital part in the management of state water resources today. However, it has greatly changed the environment and ecology of the Sacramento River, and flooded sacred Native American tribal lands. In recent years, there has been debate over whether or not to raise the dam in order to allow for increased water storage and power generation. This would produce more low carbon electricity, but is opposed by tribes and fish advocates because of negative impacts from water diversions from river flows and impacts on endangered species. In
6300-424: Is 43 miles (69 km) long and is maintained to a depth of 30 feet (9.1 m). The Sacramento River and its drainage basin once supported extensive riparian habitat and marshes , in both the Sacramento Valley and the Delta, home to a diverse array of flora and fauna. Due to the reclamation of land for agriculture and the regulation of seasonal flooding, the amount of water-based habitat declined greatly during
6510-422: Is a massive concrete chute, 487 feet (148 m) long and 375 feet (114 m) wide, controlled by three 110-foot (34 m)-wide drum gates each weighing 500 US tons (454 t). When the reservoir is full, the gates cannot entirely prevent leakage but can raise the water level up to 28 feet (8.5 m) above the spillway crest. The spillway has a capacity of 186,000 cubic feet per second (5,300 m /s), bringing
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6720-407: Is known to have declared, "Look at that Shasta Dam. That dam will stand there forever holding back the river. And that powerhouse will keep right on turning out juice until somebody discovers how to make power out of sunlight." Shasta Dam serves mainly to provide flood control and carryover water storage for the dry season, contributing greatly to irrigation in the Sacramento Valley and navigation on
6930-642: Is named for the pitfall traps the Achomawi dug to capture game that drank at the river. The name Achomawi derives from a Palaihnihan word meaning "people of the river". Achomawi territory was bordered by that of the Klamath and Modoc to the north, the Shasta to the northwest, the Wintun on the west (in the lower Pit and McCloud River valleys), the Yana on the southwest, Maidu to
7140-493: Is often called "Thousand Springs" a few miles above Fall River Mills, west of Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park . Hat Creek and Burney Creek, spring-fed from the Lassen Peak area, supplied a further 900 cubic feet per second (25 m/s) to the Pit River. The aquifers in the Pit River basin may hold as much as 16 million acre-feet (20 km) in storage and are consistently replenished by winter precipitation seeping through
7350-509: Is the eighth-tallest dam in the United States . Located at the north end of the Sacramento Valley , Shasta Dam creates Shasta Lake for long-term water storage, flood control, hydroelectricity and protection against the intrusion of saline water . The largest reservoir in the state, Shasta Lake can hold about 4,500,000 acre-feet (5,600 GL). Envisioned as early as 1919 as an effort to conserve, control, store, and distribute water to
7560-530: Is used to flood the fields for most of this experiment adjacent to the Sacramento River. The water is eventually flushed back into the Delta ecosystem through agricultural canals. Shasta Dam Shasta Dam (called Kennett Dam before its construction) is a concrete arch-gravity dam across the Sacramento River in Northern California in the United States . At 602 feet (183 m) high, it
7770-482: The Blessed Sacrament ". In the following years, two more Spanish expeditions traversed the lower part of the river, the last one in 1817. The next visitors were Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) fur trappers exploring southwards from the disputed Oregon Country , starting in the 1820s. The first organized expedition, led by Peter Skene Ogden , arrived in the area of Mount Shasta in 1826. By this time, California
7980-600: The California Coast Ranges , enclosing the Sacramento Valley and forcing the streams within to flow south instead of west, forming the ancestral Sacramento River. (The Klamath Mountains , which enclose the northwest part of the Sacramento Basin, were formed in the same way but are much older, dating back 7.5 million years.) It is possible that the river once had its outlet in Monterey Bay , and may have played
8190-470: The California Gold Rush in 1848. There was little conflict at first with outsiders who were just passing through the area on their way to the Sacramento Valley . However, after white Americans settled near Fall River, conflict broke out. After initial skirmishes, soldiers led by US general George Crook arrived in the area. The natives negotiated a temporary truce with Crook, in the form of a gift of
8400-651: The Carquinez Strait into San Pablo Bay and San Francisco Bay , joining the Pacific at the Golden Gate . Following the Columbia River , the Sacramento is the largest river by discharge on the Pacific coast of the continental United States. The natural runoff of the river is 22 million acre-feet (27 km ) per year, or about 30,000 cubic feet per second (850 m /s). Before dams were built on its tributaries,
8610-519: The Central Valley , California's main agricultural region, Shasta was first authorized in the 1930s as a state undertaking. However, bonds did not sell due to the onset of the Great Depression and Shasta was transferred to the federal Bureau of Reclamation as a public works project. Construction started in earnest in 1937 under the supervision of Chief Engineer Frank Crowe . During its building,
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8820-509: The Grand Coulee Dam in northern Washington because of the enormous demand for electricity from that dam to power aluminum smelters in the Northwest. The strained supplies and labor forced Reclamation to cut the final height of the dam from 800 feet (240 m) to 602 feet (183 m). With the tunnel cleared, it was resurfaced and modified to accommodate the force of a river instead of
9030-577: The Gulf of California just south of the US-Mexico border near the southeast part of the state, is far larger than the Sacramento in terms of length and drainage area but has a slightly smaller flow. The Sacramento, when combined with the Pit, is also one of the longest rivers in the United States entirely within one state—after Alaska 's Kuskokwim and Texas ' Trinity . The major drainage basins bordering that of
9240-625: The House of Representatives . However, the state of California continued to search for a solution. In 1931, State Engineer Edward Hyatt published a similar but less extensive proposal called the State Water Plan, with a projected cost of about $ 550 million. Including the dam at Kennett and aqueducts from the Delta southwards into the arid San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles Basin , Hyatt's scheme laid
9450-690: The Klamath Diversion , proposed to send the entire flow of the Klamath River into the Sacramento River through a system of large reservoirs, canals, pumping stations and tunnels. Similarly, the Dos Rios Dam project would have diverted a considerable portion of the Eel River to the Sacramento. Both projects were defeated by local resistance, opposition from environmentalists, as well as the high capital cost. The Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel
9660-594: The Klamath Mountains , the river flows south for 400 miles (640 km) before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and San Francisco Bay . The river drains about 26,500 square miles (69,000 km ) in 19 California counties , mostly within the fertile agricultural region bounded by the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada known as the Sacramento Valley , but also extending as far as
9870-506: The Oregon –California border, occasionally overflows into the Pit River during wet years, although this has not happened since 1881. The Goose Lake watershed is the only part of the Sacramento River basin extending into another state. Unlike most California rivers, the Pit and the McCloud Rivers are predominantly spring-fed, ensuring a large and consistent flow in even the driest of summers. At
10080-615: The Shasta , Modoc , and Achomawi /Pit River Tribes of the volcanic plateaus in the north; the Wintu and Hupa in the northern Klamath and Trinity mountains; the Nomlaki , Yuki , Patwin , and Pomo of the Coast Ranges; the Yana , Atsugewi , Maidu , Konkow , and Nisenan in the Sierra and their western foothills; and the Miwok in the south. Most of the Sacramento Valley's native peoples relied on hunting, gathering and fishing, although agriculture
10290-522: The Snake – Columbia River systems; geologic evidence indicates that the two were connected by a series of wetlands and channels about 4-5 million years ago. Located along the Pacific Flyway , the sprawling wetlands of the Sacramento Valley are an important stop for migratory birds; however, only a fraction of the historic wetlands remain. Seasonally flooded rice paddies in the Sacramento Valley comprise
10500-534: The Tehachapi Mountains via four large pumping stations. The project irrigates 750,000 acres (300,000 ha) of land in the San Joaquin Valley and serves 22 million people in Central and Southern California. Over the years, several other plans materialized to divert rivers from California's North Coast into the Sacramento watershed, as future demand was projected to exceed supply. The only one to be built
10710-521: The Trinity River . It then swings east through Redding , the largest city of the Shasta Cascade region, and turns southeast, entering Tehama County . East of Cottonwood it receives Cottonwood Creek – the largest undammed tributary – from the west, then Battle Creek a short distance downstream. Below Battle Creek it carves its last gorge, Iron Canyon, emerging from the hills at Red Bluff , where
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#173284478450710920-526: The United States Geological Survey . It proposed a large dam across the Sacramento River just downstream of its confluence with the Pit River near the copper mining town of Kennett, several hundred miles to the north of the Delta. The dam would store water for release during the dry months when the Delta was most vulnerable to saltwater intrusion, with the added benefit of controlling floods in
11130-437: The foothill yellow-legged frog and western spadefoot are listed as endangered species. Riparian and wetlands areas along the Sacramento once totaled more than 500,000 acres (2,000 km ); today only about 10,000 acres (40 km ) remains. Much of this consists of restored stretches and artificially constructed wetlands. Levee construction has prevented the river from changing course during winter and spring floods, which
11340-443: The 1950s the watershed has been intensely developed for water supply and the generation of hydroelectric power . Today, large dams impound the river and almost all of its major tributaries. The Sacramento River is used heavily for irrigation and serves much of Central and Southern California through the canals of giant state and federal water projects. While it is now providing water to over half of California's population and supporting
11550-417: The 20th century. From the late 19th century through the 20th century, California experienced an economic boom that led to the rapid expansion of both agriculture and urban areas. The Central Valley was becoming a heavily developed irrigation farming region, and cities along the state's Pacific coast and the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers were growing rapidly, requiring river control to prevent flooding on
11760-419: The 20th century. Other human impacts include the heavy water consumption for agriculture and urban areas, and pollution caused by pesticides , nitrates , mine tailings , acid mine drainage and urban runoff . The Sacramento supports 40–60 species of fish, and 218 species of birds. The basin also has a number of endemic amphibian and fish species. Many Sacramento River fish species are similar to those in
11970-624: The 395, many fought in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. When they returned in 1945, they found their family members driven out of their traditional villages by the rising waters of Shasta Lake. More than 90 percent of their original land was lost, and the ten percent that remains now lies along the lower McCloud River. On May 1 of 1941, the United States Congress passed the Central Valley Project Indian Lands Acquisition Act, to take ownership of
12180-649: The Cascades; its headwaters rise on the western extreme of the Basin and Range Province , east of major Cascade volcanoes such as Mount Shasta and Lassen Peak . The other two are the Klamath River and Columbia River . By discharge, it is the second-largest contiguous U.S. river draining into the Pacific, after only the Columbia River, which has almost ten times the flow of the Sacramento. The Colorado River , which reaches
12390-516: The Central Valley and some of California's largest agricultural coalitions including the Westlands Water District calling for a more dependable water supply, the Bureau of Reclamation suggested the expansion of Shasta Dam. The expansion is considered feasible because the dam's foundations were originally built to carry the weight of an 800-foot (240 m) structure, but resources shortages at
12600-559: The Delta to facilitate water flow from the Sacramento to the Banks Pumping Plant and the California Aqueduct , which can carry as much as 4.2 million acre-feet (5.2 km ) of water each year. From its origin at the Delta the canal runs 444 miles (715 km) southwards through the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, providing irrigation water to farmlands along its length, and lifted almost 3,000 feet (910 m) over
12810-549: The Delta. This caused water shortages for Delta farms, and led to a teredo (saltwater worm) infestation between 1919 and 1924 that destroyed piers and ships in Suisun Bay . In a bid to solve the salinity problem, local residents proposed constructing a tidal barrage across the mouth of Suisun Bay, a project which was never realized. In 1919 a different solution came in the form of the Marshall Plan, created by Robert Marshall of
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#173284478450713020-476: The Fall River and Hat Creek . The Hat Creek Hydroelectric Project, which consists of two powerhouses on lower Hat Creek built in the early 1920s by Red River Lumber Co., is considered eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places . The Hat Creek facilities were purchased by PG&E in 1945. Before environmental regulations enacted in the late 20th and early 21st century, diversions took up to 95 percent of Pit River summer flows, resulting in
13230-407: The James B. Black Powerhouse, which outlets into the Pit River on the upper end of Pit 6 Reservoir. These facilities are collectively known as the McCloud-Pit Hydroelectric Project and are also operated by PG&E. The lowermost 30 miles (48 km) of the Pit River are flooded by Shasta Lake, which is formed by Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River about 3 miles (4.8 km) below what was formerly
13440-454: The Knaggs Ranch property within the Yolo Bypass by Sacramento River for four consecutive winters. UC Davis shares their results produced the fastest growth of juvenile Chinook salmon in the Central Valley to ever be recorded. The Nigiri project attempted to see if these floodplains as surrogate wetlands which can be controlled to copy the Sacramento River system's annual natural flooding cycle the native fish depend on. Runoff water from agriculture
13650-427: The Modoc, leading to armed conflicts that continued for over twenty years. Despite multiple attempts by leaders on both sides to make peace, "each time the truce was soon broken by irresponsible young fellows whom the chiefs could not control." Native peoples also grew hostile towards Euro-American settlers and traders, who entered the region in great numbers beginning in the mid-19th century, especially during and after
13860-402: The Paiute launched a full-scale attack on the Achomawi, with one raid killing between 200 and 300 people in a camp near modern Fall River Mills. Following this, the Achomawi and other western tribes formed a temporary confederation against the Paiute. After successfully driving off a Paiute attack the next year, a peace treaty was signed. However, in the 1850s tensions grew between the Achomawi and
14070-528: The Pit River area and are considered Palaihnihan speakers, along with the neighboring Atsugewi people who lived along southern tributaries of the Pit such as Burney and Hat Creeks, and the Dixie Valley. Because of the sparse resources of the Pit River's high desert watershed, most natives lived close to the river and subsisted primarily by hunting and fishing. Achomawi moved between hunting camps in summer, consisting of cone-shaped tents covered with tule , and larger wood-frame pit houses in winter. The Pit River
14280-557: The Pit River system receives heavy winter rainfall, which mainly contributes to streamflow between November and April. Nevertheless, summer low water flows rarely drop below 2,000 cu ft/s (57 m/s). While conducting surveys for irrigation projects in the early 1900s, the U.S. Reclamation Service (now Bureau of Reclamation ) noted that the spring-fed Fall River alone contributed a year-round flow of about 1,500 cubic feet per second (42 m/s), from an aquifer fed in part by Mount Shasta snowmelt. Much of this water rises at what
14490-414: The Pit River's longest source. The Pit River drains a sparsely populated volcanic highlands area in Modoc County's Warner Mountains, passing through the south end of the Cascade Range in a deep canyon northeast of Redding . The river is so named because of the semi-subterranean permanent winter homes and large 'sweat houses' that the Pit River Tribe dug, and their pit traps for game that came to water at
14700-435: The Pit River, which is actually the largest river flowing into the lake. Shasta Lake also has arms of the McCloud River , Squaw Creek, Salt Creek, and scores of other smaller streams that feed it. Shasta Dam controls runoff from a drainage basin of 6,665 square miles (17,260 km ), or about a quarter of the 27,580-square-mile (71,400 km ) Sacramento River watershed. In the 1990s, with skyrocketing water shortages in
14910-493: The Pit and McCloud Rivers provided the majority of river flow in dry summers when the Upper Sacramento and other tributaries slowed to a trickle. Monthly combined discharge of Sacramento River at Freeport and Yolo Bypass near Woodland (cfs) The Sacramento River's watershed is the largest entirely in California, covering much of the northern part of the state. The endorheic (closed) Goose Lake drainage basin in southern Oregon , however, has been known to overflow into
15120-439: The Pit descends some 2,200 feet (670 m), or a gradient of 44 ft (13 m) per mile, which is quite considerable for a river of its size. Because of the dependable flow, large reservoirs are not needed to regulate releases for power generation, unlike other major hydroelectric schemes in California. The combined generating capacity of powerhouses on the river and its tributaries is approximately 770 megawatts . As of 2004,
15330-458: The Sacramento River system during particularly wet years. The Sacramento River basin generally lies between the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range on the east and the Coast Ranges and Klamath Mountains in the west, although the part of the basin drained by the Pit River extends east of the Cascades. The Pit River, has the distinction of being one of three rivers that cut through the main crest of
15540-475: The Sacramento River system is the Pit River, which is by far the largest of the three rivers flowing into Shasta Lake. At the USGS Montgomery Creek gauge, the average flow of the Pit River was 4,760 cu ft/s (135 m /s) for the period 1966–2013. By comparison, the Sacramento River at Delta gauge, a few miles above Shasta Lake, recorded an average of 1,191 cu ft/s (33.7 m /s) for
15750-517: The Sacramento River, although not all of them are currently operational. The ones currently in operation are at Delta, California (near the source at Mount Shasta), at Keswick (near Redding), Colusa (about halfway down the river), Verona , and Freeport . The Freeport gauge, which sits just downstream of Sacramento, provides a relatively good metric of the annual outflow from the Sacramento River Basin. The average flow between 1949 and 2013
15960-489: The Sacramento River, as well as keeping freshwater levels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta high enough for diversion into the California Aqueduct and Delta-Mendota Canal . The dam's other major purpose is to generate hydroelectricity. With a hydraulic head of 330 feet (100 m), the dam is capable of generating 676 megawatts (MW) from five turbines – a pair of 125 MW units and three 142 MW units. Each of
16170-512: The Sacramento Valley is below 300 feet (91 m) in elevation; in its lower course, the Sacramento River drops only about 1 foot (0.30 m) per mile. Between the bajadas or alluvial slopes extending from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges, are the low floodplains of the Sacramento River. The river flows at an elevation somewhat higher than the surrounding terrain due to deposits of sediment over millennia that created raised banks (essentially natural levees ). The banks separate
16380-519: The Sacramento and Feather Rivers into the Yolo Bypass , which parallels the Sacramento River down the west side of the valley. Cache Creek and Putah Creek , two major tributaries which formerly joined the Sacramento River from the west, are now intercepted by the Yolo Bypass via man-made channels. The main channel of the Sacramento flows south, forming the Yolo– Sacramento County line. As
16590-658: The Sacramento are that of the Klamath in the north, the San Joaquin and Mokelumne to the south and the Eel River in the west. The Russian River also lies to the west and the endorheic (closed) Honey Lake and Eagle Lake basins to the north. On the east side are many endorheic watersheds of the Great Basin including the Truckee River and Carson River . Parts of the Sacramento watershed come very close to, but do not extend past,
16800-692: The Sacramento to the Mokelumne River channel, allowing a portion of the water to be pumped south toward Clifton Court Forebay , the receiving reservoir for the main CVP and State Water Project aqueducts which irrigate millions of acres and supply water to over 23 million people in the San Joaquin Valley , the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles . Although river levels are tidally influenced here and occasionally as far north as Verona,
17010-421: The Sacramento with a portion of its historic flood plain, which it would have naturally flooded had the levee system not been in place. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, the first concrete proposals for a statewide water engineering project emerged, but when the state government could not sell the necessary bonds to fund the project, the federal government took over. The Central Valley Project , one of
17220-466: The Sacramento's main tributaries, enabling the regulation of water for irrigation and hydroelectric power. Starting in the late 1950s, two major canals were extended to irrigate the western side of the Sacramento Valley – the Tehama-Colusa and Corning Canals . Starting at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam on the Sacramento, the canals are 111 and 21 mi (179 and 34 km) long respectively, and divert
17430-529: The Sierra Nevada. The watershed also has Lassen Volcanic National Park , which covers 106,000 acres (430 km ) centered on Lassen Peak, the southernmost Cascade volcano. Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area , which is over 200,000 acres (810 km ) in size, straddles much of the upper Sacramento and Trinity Rivers, and is named for the three local reservoirs (Shasta Lake, Trinity Lake and Whiskeytown Lake ) which are popular tourist areas. Many other state parks and recreation areas lie within
17640-613: The U.S. government and the Native Americans involving their relocation onto a reservation in the Sierra foothills; this promise was broken. Therefore, in 1863, the tribes from the area surrounding the middle Sacramento and Feather rivers , the Konkow group, were removed and marched forcibly to the Round Valley Indian Reservation near the Eel River . A total of 461 people were forced from their homes, but only 277 made it to
17850-479: The United States, Sutter and other large landholders in California held on to their properties. In 1848 Sutter assigned James W. Marshall to build a sawmill on the South Fork American River at Coloma , where Marshall discovered gold. Although Sutter and Marshall originally intended to keep the find a secret, news soon broke attracting three hundred thousand hopefuls from all over North America, and even
18060-421: The Yolo Bypass in the rice field floodplains adjacent to the Sacramento River. The name comes from a form of Japanese sushi which contains a slice of fish on top of a compressed wedge of vinegared rice. Salmon migrate from the Central Valley rivers to the ocean where they increase in size for one to three years then return to rivers to spawn, if a young fish is larger when they enter the ocean, they will have more of
18270-483: The amount of farmland in the Pit River system remained small, and water rights were a contentious issue. Some of these disputes were resolved in court in the 1930s, with water allocations now managed by the California Department of Water Resources . In the early 1900s and 1910s the Pit River was identified by the recently formed Reclamation Service (now Bureau of Reclamation) as the most important water source in
18480-581: The ancient path of the Siskiyou Trail, in the 1880s and 1890s. Many parts of the railroad were treacherous, especially in the mountainous areas north of Dunsmuir . It was not long after Sacramento surpassed a population of 10,000, then the Great Flood of 1862 swept away much of it (and almost everything else along the Sacramento River) and put the rest under water. The flood waters were exacerbated by
18690-408: The annual generation from main stem powerhouses is approximately 2.64 billion KWh . Including powerhouses on tributaries, the total rises to 3.67 billion KWh, or approximately 13 percent of California's total hydropower. The first dam on the Pit River proper is Pit 3 Dam , which forms Lake Britton near Burney about 15 miles (24 km) downstream from Fall River Mills. Water is diverted via
18900-549: The area, and relied on Native American labor to maintain his domain. Sutter had something of a two-faced relationship with the many Native American groups in the area. He was friendly with some of the tribes, and paid their leaders handsomely for supplying workers, but others he seized by force to labor in the fields. After the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 and the Mexican–American War , in which California became part of
19110-441: The back face of the structure. The rows lie 1,022 feet (312 m), 922 feet (281 m), and 817 feet (249 m) above sea level. (The crest of Shasta Dam is at an elevation of 1,077 feet (328 m).) The system has shown significant success in reducing the temperature of the Sacramento River below the dam, although it does exhibit leakage. As for the health of the river overall, the dam has indirectly affected it by promoting
19320-537: The base of the Montezuma Hills , forming the border of Solano and Sacramento Counties. This part of the river is dredged for navigation by large oceangoing vessels and averages three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) across. North of Antioch and Pittsburg , the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers join at the head of Suisun Bay , marking the official end of both rivers. The combined waters flow west through Suisun Bay and
19530-518: The base to generate power, rather than diverting the water through long tunnels. The combined reservoirs flood almost 10 miles (16 km) of the Pit River. Flows for these two dams are supplemented by a diversion from the McCloud River , a tributary of the Pit River. Water is diverted from the McCloud River at Lake McCloud about 20 miles (32 km) south of Mount Shasta , through a tunnel to Iron Canyon Reservoir , and then through another tunnel to
19740-494: The border of California and Nevada . The basin's diverse geography ranges from the glacier-carved, snowcapped peaks of the Sierra Nevada to the sea-level (and often lower) marshes and farmlands of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The highest point is 14,104 feet (4,299 m) at Mount Shasta , a dormant stratovolcano near the headwaters of the Sacramento River. The Sierra Nevada peaks generally decrease in height from south to north—from over 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in
19950-430: The bypass recorded an average throughput of 4,809 cubic feet per second (136.2 m /s) between 1939 and 2013, mostly from December–March. The highest recorded flow was 374,000 cubic feet per second (10,600 m /s) on February 20, 1986. During the dry season of July through September, the bypass carries low to zero flow. Although the Sacramento River nominally begins near Mount Shasta, the true hydrological source of
20160-543: The capacity to store it. As a result, the reservoir will rarely be filled, as no matter how much Reclamation expands the dam, the river's flow will not increase. The cost of the dam raise is projected at $ 500 million-$ 1 billion. One of the expansion's most staunch opponents is the Winnemem Wintu tribe, almost all of whose land was inundated by the construction of Shasta Dam. Raising the dam would destroy much of their little remaining land. Some progress has been made towards
20370-434: The center of an agricultural empire that provided food to feed the thousands of miners working in the hills as well as a place of financial exchange of all the gold that was mined. Sacramento was officially established in 1850 and was recognized as the state capital in 1854. As the economy of the Sacramento Valley grew, the Southern Pacific Railroad established tracks along the river to connect California with Oregon following
20580-513: The conclusion of the Modoc War . This is considered to be the point at which the Pit River valley was opened up to large-scale White settlement. Due to the arid climate, poor soils and rugged topography of the Pit River basin and northeastern California in general, settlement and development of the region was difficult. Ranching became the primary economic activity, thanks to the expansive seasonal grasslands, along with some mining and logging. Although
20790-401: The concrete cured and rebuilt to handle the next block above it. The concrete was "vibrated" into place using specialized equipment, which filled in any accidental cavities and bubbles to ensure maximum density and strength. After the concrete cured, the surface was cleaned and smoothed by sandblasting. At the same time, the railroad that ran through the temporary 1,800-foot (550 m) tunnel on
21000-563: The confluence of North, Middle and South Forks in the Trinity Mountains of Siskiyou County . It flows east into a small reservoir, Lake Siskiyou , before turning south. The river flows through a canyon for about 60 miles (97 km), past Dunsmuir and Castella , before emptying into Shasta Lake near Lakehead in Shasta County . The McCloud River rises on the east slope of Mount Shasta and flows south for 77 miles (124 km) through
21210-404: The confluence of the Pit and Sacramento Rivers. Completed in 1945, Shasta is a key component of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation 's Central Valley Project , a primary source of irrigation water in the Central Valley . The lake also floods parts of two Pit River tributaries, the McCloud River and Sulanharas Creek. There are also multiple hydroelectric schemes on the Pit River's tributaries, such as
21420-503: The counties. Many of the mountainous regions of the watershed are administered by the U.S. Forest Service . The Sacramento River watershed includes large areas of coniferous forests in the Mendocino and Trinity National Forests in the Coast Ranges, Shasta and Lassen National Forests in the southern Cascades and the Plumas , Tahoe and Eldorado National Forests on the western slopes of
21630-473: The crest and replacing the elevator towers on the front of the dam, and the Pit River Bridge and small towns around the lake, if not modified or moved, would be inundated. Finally, the "high option" would raise the dam over 200 feet (61 m), tripling the volume and doubling the surface area of the reservoir. Both the intermediate and high options would require saddle dams constructed at key points along
21840-464: The dam expansion including for the completion of a costly EIR (Environment Impact Report) by the Bureau of Reclamation – and the purchase of over 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of land along the McCloud River by Westlands Irrigation District to help the Bureau gain rights to expand the dam; Westlands believes that the added storage of the dam would greatly benefit its farmers. As of 2007, the irrigation district has spent $ 35 million. However, Westlands has had
22050-463: The dam provided thousands of much-needed jobs; it was finished twenty-six months ahead of schedule in 1945. When completed, the dam was the second-tallest in the United States after Hoover , and was considered one of the greatest engineering feats of all time. Even before its dedication, Shasta Dam served an important role in World War II providing electricity to California factories, and still plays
22260-467: The dam stands 602 feet (183 m) above the foundations with a maximum height of 522.5 feet (159.3 m) above the river. It is 3,460 feet (1,050 m) long, with a maximum thickness of 543 feet (166 m); altogether the dam contains 6,270,000 cubic yards (4,790,000 m ) of material. The dam can release floodwaters through a system of eighteen outlet valves on the face of the spillway. These valves are arranged in three levels, each cutting through
22470-575: The dam's main concrete structure started in July 1940 after the cable systems had been completed and the mixing plant came on line. Steel buckets capable of carrying 8 cubic yards (6.1 m ) of concrete, weighing 16 tons when full, traveled back and forth along the lines. For three years, thousands of men labored building the dam's massive abutments, pouring concrete into large modular "blocks" 50 feet (15 m) square and 5 feet (1.5 m) deep. These blocks were shaped using wooden forms, which were removed when
22680-467: The dam's maximum overflow rate to 267,800 cubic feet per second (7,580 m /s). The dam forms a reservoir called Shasta Lake , which is the largest man-made lake and third largest body of water in California with its capacity of 4,552,000 acre-feet (5,615 GL ) and surface area of 29,740 acres (12,040 ha) at maximum pool. The lake extends for 15.3 miles (24.6 km) up the Sacramento River and branches for more than 21 miles (34 km) up
22890-467: The dam. Reclamation originally planned to set up the construction headquarters in Redding, but ultimately decided to move it closer to the dam site. The new company town , Toyon, was laid out on a farm purchased from Porter Seaman in 1938. Toyon served purely to provide housing for Reclamation personnel, government offices, and storage; no stores or restaurants were permitted within its boundaries. Instead of
23100-500: The delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. However, due to their vantage point, neither Fages nor any of his men saw the Sacramento clearly. They assumed that the San Joaquin, coming from the south, was the largest of the merging rivers they saw. In 1808, explorer Gabriel Moraga , on a journey to find suitable sites for the construction of missions, became the first foreigner to see the river clearly. Judging its huge breadth and power he named it Rio de los Sacramentos , or "River of
23310-571: The dewatering of significant stretches between Fall River Mills and Big Bend. PG&E is now required to maintain base flow in the river at all times, which has led to a reduction in hydroelectric power generation but has greatly improved wildlife habitat and fishing on these sections of the Pit. The Pit River is located in historical Achomawi territory, who lived in the area expanding from Big Bend to Goose Lake . Human habitation in this region may date back as far as 12,500 years. The Achomawi (consisting of nine distinct bands) had up to 28 villages in
23520-596: The east. A few miles downstream it forms the border of Butte County and Glenn County to the west. Stony Creek joins from the west in Glenn County, near Hamilton City and about 15 miles (24 km) west of Chico . The river then forms the Glenn– Colusa County line for a short distance before crossing entirely into Colusa County. It passes by the Sutter Buttes , a group of volcanic hills that rise abruptly from
23730-460: The eastern boundary of the Yolo Bypass . The manually operated Sacramento Weir, located across from downtown Sacramento on the west side of the river, serves to relieve floodwater pressure from the American River by allowing it to drain west into the Yolo Bypass instead of continuing down the Sacramento River. Downstream of Sacramento, the river enters the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta ,
23940-479: The foundations for both the present day Central Valley Project (CVP) and the California State Water Project (SWP). Initially, the state of California intended to finance the project entirely on its own through the sale of revenue bonds . However, the 1930s were a time of economic crisis with the onset of the Great Depression and a severe drought that devastated the agricultural sector, pushing
24150-517: The geographically similar Colusa Basin is located to the west. The Sutter Bypass begins at Colusa and runs parallel to the east side of the Sacramento River until reaching the confluence with the Feather River . The Yolo Bypass, located on the west side of the river, starts at the confluence of the Feather and rejoins the Sacramento in the Delta. Although termed "bypasses", the system essentially reconnects
24360-425: The gold fields. As the miners expanded their diggings deeper into the Sierra Nevada and Klamath Mountains, Native Americans were pushed off their land and a long series of skirmishes and fights began that continued until intervention by the state and national governments. The influx of migrants brought foreign diseases like malaria and smallpox , which American Indians had no immunity to. These diseases killed off
24570-426: The gold fields. By the late part of the century mining had ceased to be a major part of the economy, and many immigrants turned to farming and ranching. Many populous communities were established along the Sacramento River, including the state capital of Sacramento . Intensive agriculture and mining contributed to pollution in the Sacramento River, and significant changes to the river's hydrology and environment. Since
24780-625: The greater peaking releases from Shasta. The proposed dam raise has met with significant backlash from area inhabitants, fishermen, Native Americans, recreationalists and environmentalists. First of all, with any increase to the dam's height, significant reaches of the Pit, Sacramento, and McCloud Rivers would be inundated. The McCloud is an area of special interest because it is one of California's best trout fisheries and because many sacred Native American sites lie along its banks. Opponents of dam raise contend that it would cost more (starting with replacing over 600 structures that would be inundated under
24990-400: The growth of cities and farms along it. However, construction of the dam also has had direct consequences to the morphology and vegetation zones along the river. By raising summer flows much higher than their natural average, and moderating the effects of most floods, the post-dam river supplies an even amount of water to the riparian zone each year, and resultantly vegetation has encroached on
25200-425: The head of a long serpentine canyon that cuts through the southern Cascade Range. It then turns south to join the Sacramento River as the eastern arm of Shasta Lake reservoir, approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of Redding. Potem Creek joins the river at Potem Falls. Two major tributaries, Sulanharas Creek and the McCloud River , join the Pit from the north within the lake. The lower 30 miles (48 km) of
25410-597: The headwaters of the American River near Lake Tahoe , to 5,000 to 7,000 feet (1,500 to 2,100 m) in Lassen County where they adjoin the Cascade Range. On the west side, the Coast Ranges are the opposite, increasing in height to almost 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in the north. The arid volcanic plateaus in the northeast, which are characterized by alternating hills and large sedimentary basins, typically lie at elevations of 3,000 to 5,000 feet (910 to 1,520 m). Most of
25620-432: The highly seasonal precipitation. Although the Sacramento River discharges nearly 22.4 million acre-feet (27,600 GL ) of water each year, most of the flow occurs during winter storms and spring snowmelt, with natural runoff reducing to a trickle during late summers and autumns of drought years. As farming increased, low river flows dropped even lower, leading to saltwater intrusion from San Francisco Bay into
25830-483: The homes and lands of the Winnemem Wintu people. Scores of village sites, burial sites and other sacred locations now sit several hundred feet below the surface of Shasta Lake. Over 27 sacred sites lie underneath the water behind the dam. Tribal members argue that several reservation treaties originally set by the U.S. government in the 1850s were later broken so the filling of Shasta Lake could proceed; afterwards, only
26040-621: The indigenous peoples. The second, led by General Crook in 1857, was a military engagement, as the US government decided to forcibly remove the Pit River natives and move them to the Mendocino Indian Reservation (then later the Round Valley Indian Reservation ) in Mendocino County . The former enemies of the Achomawi – the Modocs and Klamaths – were also driven out of the region by 1873 with
26250-573: The lake including the Pit River Bridge) than its benefits. The water supplied from such a raise would be costly and could be saved if Central Valley farmers cut their water use by only a fraction. It would result in more problems for the ecology of the lower Sacramento, not least its dying salmon runs . One of the most important points made by dam expansion opponents is that raising the dam will not create more water (in fact it will actually cause some water loss due to evaporation) but merely increases
26460-513: The lake to keep it from overflowing. The intermediate and high dam raises would allow for increased generation of hydropower. Each would require the construction of a new powerhouse to accommodate five new turbines; for the intermediate expansion, five 215-MW generators would be added for a total capacity of 1,751 MW, while for the high one, there would be five new 260-MW units for a maximum capacity of 1,976 MW. Downstream Keswick Dam would also be raised and its power station retrofitted to accommodate
26670-1090: The land in the delta to gradually sink since the late 19th century. Many of the delta islands would be underwater if not for the maintenance of the levees and pumps that keep them dry. Some of the "islands" are now up to 25 feet (7.6 m) below the adjacent channels and sloughs. The Sacramento River watershed is home to about 2.8 million people; more than two-thirds live within the Sacramento metropolitan area . Other important cities are Chico , Redding , Davis and Woodland . The Sacramento River watershed covers all or most of Shasta , Tehama , Glenn , Butte , Plumas , Yuba , Sutter , Lake and Yolo Counties. It also extends into portions of Siskiyou , Modoc , Lassen , Lake (in Oregon), Sierra , Nevada , Placer , El Dorado , Sacramento , Solano and Contra Costa Counties. The river itself flows through Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Glenn, Colusa, Sutter, Yolo, Sacramento, Solano and Contra Costa, often forming boundaries between
26880-538: The land was probably submerged under the Pacific), they were worn by erosion , and the present-day range only formed about 4 million years ago. The northern part of the Sacramento watershed is more ancient, and was formed by intense volcanic activity over 25 million years ago, resulting in lava flows that covered and created the Modoc Plateau, through which the Pit River flows. Mount Shasta and Lassen Peak are among
27090-471: The land. Most of the villages were small. Although it was once commonly believed that the original natives lived as tribes , they actually lived as bands , family groups as small as twenty to thirty people. The Sacramento Valley was first settled by humans about 12,000 years ago, but permanent villages were not established until about 8,000 years ago. Historians have organized the numerous separate original native groups into several "tribes". These are known as
27300-542: The largest conveyor belt system in the world, 9.5 miles (15.3 km) long, that reached from Redding to the dam site. This was capable of transporting 1,100 tons of material per hour, and over the entire construction process, hauled more than 12 million tons of rock. The belt, which had some 16,000 rollers, was divided into 26 sections, 23 of which were powered by individual 200 horsepower (150 kW) motors. The remaining three were downhill and did not require power; in fact they were retrofitted to generate power for some of
27510-476: The largest irrigation projects in the world, was constructed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation beginning in 1935. Ultimately, the system would distribute 7 million acre-feet (8.6 km ) to irrigate 3 million acres (1.2 million ha) of land in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. Construction of Shasta Dam, the principal water storage facility in the Sacramento River system, started in 1938 and
27720-488: The late 1700s. The Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga named the river Rio de los Sacramentos in 1808, later shortened and anglicized into Sacramento . In the 19th century, gold was discovered on a tributary of the Sacramento River, starting the California Gold Rush and an enormous population influx to the state. Overland trails such as the California Trail and Siskiyou Trail guided hundreds of thousands of people to
27930-440: The late 19th century, the Central Valley was the main destination for large numbers of immigrants traveling into California from the eastern United States . The valley's land was coveted for farming due to its fertile soils, mild climate, gentle topography, and abundant water. The Sacramento River flows south through the northern third of the valley, known as the Sacramento Valley , for 400 miles (640 km) before emptying into
28140-487: The lower end of Shasta Lake is Shasta Dam , which impounds the Sacramento River for flood control, irrigation and hydropower generation. Before the construction of Shasta Dam, the McCloud River emptied into the Pit River, which joined the Sacramento near the former mining town of Kennett , submerged when Shasta Lake was filled. The Pit River Bridge , which carries Interstate 5 and the Union Pacific Railroad over
28350-457: The lower portions of the Pit River contain abundant water, the western watershed is too mountainous for agriculture. On the other hand, the drier eastern part of the watershed contains a number of flat river valleys with deep alluvial soils. Throughout the early part of the 20th century, about 63 reservoirs were built on tributary streams in this region, to support irrigation. Due to limited and uncertain streamflow from these snowfed desert streams,
28560-651: The lower reaches of the river to the Upper Sacramento, Pit, McCloud and other tributary streams. It is estimated that half of the best salmon habitat in the Sacramento basin lies upstream of Shasta Dam. Also, the dam caused temperatures in the river to rise because it released waters from higher elevations of Shasta Lake, which are warmed by the sun far more than the surface of the original river pre-dam. Warm waters are harmful to salmon, which prefer colder temperatures, and also impact other fish populations such as steelhead and wild California trout . In an attempt to save
28770-529: The main channel of the Sacramento. The Sacramento River and the Sutter Bypass flow parallel for over 40 miles (64 km), rejoining on the border of Sutter County and Yolo County near Knights Landing . The Feather River , the largest tributary of the Sacramento, joins from the east at Verona directly below the Sutter Bypass. A second flood control structure, the Fremont Weir, diverts flood waters from both
28980-446: The main dam structure and discharging onto the face of the spillway. The upper level has six outlets, each with a capacity of 6,534 cubic feet per second (185.0 m /s). The middle layer has eight conduits capable of carrying 3,100 cubic feet per second (88 m /s) and the lowest has four exits each able to discharge 4,450 cubic feet per second (126 m /s) for a total of 81,800 cubic feet per second (2,320 m /s). The spillway
29190-525: The majority of the Wintun peoples' traditional lands along the Pit and McCloud rivers, still controversial today. Hydroelectric development of the Pit River system also began early. One of the first major hydroelectric projects was the Hat Creek project, built in 1920 and generating the first power in 1921. The Fall River was developed soon afterwards with a powerhouse coming online by 1922. Pit 3 Dam (Lake Britton)
29400-614: The middle of the Sacramento Valley, where it receives Butte Creek from the east at Colusa . Below Colusa the river flows south-southeast, forming the border of Colusa County and Sutter County to the east. About 20 miles (32 km) further downstream, the Sacramento River reaches the Tisdale Weir. During floods, water overtops the weir and flows east into the Sutter Bypass , the first of two major bypass channels that temporarily store and move floodwaters downstream to reduce pressure on
29610-515: The most productive agricultural area in the nation, these changes have left the Sacramento greatly modified from its natural state and have caused the decline of its once-abundant fisheries. The Sacramento River originates in the mountains and plateaus of far northern California as three major waterways that flow into Shasta Lake : the Upper Sacramento River, McCloud River and Pit River . The Upper Sacramento begins near Mount Shasta , at
29820-413: The most recent being the Great Flood of 1862 . Dams, levees and floodways constructed during the 20th century have thus far prevented this phenomenon from re-occurring. The Sacramento River and its valley were one of the major Native American population centers of California. The river's abundant flow and the valley's fertile soil and mild climate provided enough resources for hundreds of groups to share
30030-401: The natural springs feeding the river and regulation by many hydroelectric dams. Fishing has improved since the 2011 relicensing of several PG&E hydroelectric facilities on the river, which required the power company to increase minimum flows on the formerly dewatered river reaches below Dams 3, 4 and 5, and to monitor the health of fish populations in these reaches. The lower Pit is considered
30240-593: The nearest being the Battle Creek Fault Zone located approximately 27 miles south of the dam and capable of producing a 7.3 magnitude event. Volcanic hazards are Mount Shasta , Mount Lassen , and the Medicine Lake Highlands . The Shasta Dam has had a severe negative effect on populations of Pacific salmon in the Sacramento River watershed ever since its gates were first closed in 1943. The massive structure completely prevents salmon migration from
30450-596: The north near Alturas . Although Goose Lake is generally considered the terminal sink of an endorheic basin , it will overflow into the Pit River during floods; however this has not occurred since 1881 due to large diversions of water for agriculture. The combined river flows west-southwest in a winding course across Modoc County, past Canby and through the Modoc National Forest in the narrow Stonecoal Valley Gorge . It turns south to flow past Lookout and into northern Lassen County , past Bieber , to emerge into
30660-643: The northeastern corner of California. The 58-mile (93 km) South Fork Pit River - West Valley Creek - Cedar Creek source originates just southeast of Buck Mountain in the Warner Mountains , in the extreme southeastern corner of the Modoc National Forest 9 miles (14 km) west of the California– Nevada border. The South Fork is formed from the confluence of several creeks in Jess Valley 13 miles (21 km) northeast of Madeline and flows west through
30870-576: The numerous Cascade Range volcanoes that still stand in the area. As the Sierra rose, water erosion and glaciation carved deep canyons, depositing massive amounts of sediment to form a coastal plain between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean. About 3 million years ago, multiple terranes were formed and smashed into the North American Plate from the Pacific Plate, causing the uplift of
31080-510: The one hand, and to ensure a consistent supply of water on the other. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of California completed reports as early as the 1870s and 1880s which outlined future development of the Sacramento, Feather, Yuba and Bear rivers. In 1873, Colonel B.S. Alexander of the Army Corps of Engineers surveyed the Central Valley's hydrology and irrigation systems and proposed
31290-535: The onset of World War II prevented completing it to that final design height. Reclamation has suggested three options for the dam raise, ranging from less than 20 feet (6.1 m) to more than 200 feet (61 m). The "low option", which simply comprises adding a vertical concrete dike to the top of the dam, would provide maximum additional storage while minimizing requirements for reconstruction of buildings and facilities around Shasta Lake. The "intermediate option" would require adding more than 100 feet (30 m) to
31500-418: The other sections. As the foundations were completed, concrete placement of the main dam body could begin. For this purpose, a system of steel cable towers was erected to carry the steel concrete-pouring buckets. The tower setup comprised one main tower, standing 465 feet (142 m) high from its foundations and 700 feet (210 m) above the river, and seven movable auxiliary towers; cables were strung from
31710-626: The parasitic cowbird , which lays its eggs in the nests of other bird species causing its hatchlings to compete with the others for food. There were once 9 species of amphibians that used the Sacramento River, but some have become extinct and most other populations are declining due to habitat loss caused by agriculture and urban development. Amphibians originally thrived in the marshes, sloughs, side-channels and oxbow lakes because of their warmer water, abundance of vegetation and nutrients, lower predator populations and slower current. This population once included several species of frogs and salamanders;
31920-410: The period 1945–2013. The McCloud River had an average discharge of 775 cu ft/s (21.9 m /s) for the 1967–2013 period. Since the 1960s, the McCloud River flow has been reduced and the Pit River flow increased due to diversion of water for hydropower generation; however the total volume of water entering Shasta Lake remains the same. Before Shasta Dam was built, the volcanic springs feeding
32130-487: The plunging salmon populations, the federal government constructed the Coleman National Fish Hatchery on Battle Creek in 1942. The hatchery is situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Redding, and produces 13,850,000 eggs per year – nearly 87 percent of which are for the fall chinook salmon run. Another remedy was carried out by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1991, with the installation of
32340-411: The precipitation." The topography of the Sacramento River watershed makes it particularly prone to flooding. Storm water runs quickly off the steep mountains flanking the Sacramento Valley, but with few exceptions the alluvial valley floor is strikingly flat, slowing down the runoff and causing it to overflow the river banks. Before flood control works were built, the winter floods frequently transformed
32550-478: The pressure of floodwaters on the main channel. The bypasses are then allowed to drain slowly once flood crests have passed. For most of the year, the bypasses remain dry and are used for annual crops such as rice. Some of the principal features are the Butte Basin, Colusa Basin, Sutter Bypass and the Yolo Bypass. The Butte Basin is a large lowland area on the east side of the river between Hamilton City and Colusa ;
32760-522: The ranching region of Big Valley . North of Little Valley it flows into northeast Shasta County and the Shasta National Forest . Then the river reaches Fall River Valley, where it is joined by the Fall River , which is fed by one of the largest freshwater spring systems in the United States. After passing through the town of Fall River Mills , the river drops over Pit River Falls, then enters
32970-436: The reservation; the others perished of disease, starvation or exhaustion. As mining developed from simple methods such as panning and sluicing to a new form of commercialized extraction, hydraulic mining , profits from the petering gold rush made a second leap, earning more profits than placer miners in the early years had ever made. The city of Sacramento , founded on the original site of Sutter's fort, began to flourish as
33180-550: The reservoir, is structurally the highest double-decked bridge in the United States (although most of the bridge piers are submerged under Shasta Lake when the reservoir is full). The Upper Sacramento River canyon also provides the route for I-5 and the railroad between Lakehead and Mount Shasta. Below Shasta Dam the Sacramento River enters the foothills region of the northern Sacramento Valley. It flows through Keswick Dam , where it receives about 1,200,000 acre⋅ft (1.5 × 10 million km ) of water per year diverted from
33390-473: The rice fields under the Yolo Bypass next to Sacramento River can serve as an important floodplain habitat and feeding ground for juvenile or endangered fish. UC Davis noted juveniles grew much bigger and faster within the flooded rice fields when compared to those released in the Sacramento River. Public agencies, conservation groups and landowners have all been working together and conducting experiments since 2011. Experiments conducted on rice fields took place at
33600-491: The rich valley bottom and marsh lands. Before European contact, the indigenous population of the Sacramento Valley has been estimated at 76,000 people. The first outsiders to see the river were probably the members of a Spanish colonial-exploratory venture to Northern California in 1772, led by Captain Pedro Fages . The group ascended a mountain, likely in the hills north of Suisun Bay , and found themselves looking down at
33810-403: The river after use) are about 4.72 million acre-feet (5.82 km ) for irrigation and 491,000 acre-feet (0.606 km ) for urban use. An additional 7.61 million acre-feet (9.39 km ) is reserved for environmental uses, primarily to maintain a minimum fresh water outflow in the Delta to combat salinity. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has stream gauges on 25 locations along
34020-416: The river channel. The dam has vastly reduced the amount of sediment in the Sacramento, and the riverbanks now suffer decreased erosion, slowing the growth of meanders and side-channels. Additionally, nearly all the rock and sand used in the mixing of concrete for the dam was dredged from the river downstream of the dam, further depleting its sediment supply. Underneath the waters of Shasta Lake lie buried
34230-500: The river continues south it approaches the Sacramento metro area, the largest population center in the watershed. Sacramento International Airport is located on the east bank of the river near Fremont. Near downtown Sacramento it receives the American River from the east, then passes under the historic Tower Bridge and Interstate 80 Business . The California State Capitol sits less than zero point five miles (0.80 km) east of
34440-463: The river flooded up to 650,000 cubic feet per second (18,000 m /s) during the rainy season, equal to the flow of the Mississippi River . Late summers of particularly dry years could see flows drop below 1,000 cubic feet per second (28 m /s). Large volumes of water are withdrawn from the Sacramento River for irrigation, industry and urban supplies. Annual depletions (water not returned to
34650-468: The river forms the longest of the five arms of Shasta Lake, which is formed by Shasta Dam on the Sacramento downstream from the original confluence. Fed by significant volcanic groundwater basins that produce some of the largest contiguous freshwater spring systems in the United States, the middle and lower reaches of the Pit River exhibit a strong year-round flow, in contrast to the highly seasonal nature of most northern California rivers. Before Shasta Dam
34860-415: The river from the lowlands to the east and west that once served as vast overflow basins during winter storms, creating large areas of seasonal wetlands . Since the 19th century, artificial levee systems have been constructed to enable farming in the fertile flood plain. Today there are 2,000,000 acres (8,100 km ) of irrigated farmland in the Sacramento Valley. Due to the reduction of the floodplain area,
35070-521: The river where the Tower Bridge crosses it. Shortly downstream, the Port of Sacramento is located on the west side of the Sacramento, connected to the river by a lock. The Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel provides access to the port from the Pacific, bypassing about 42 miles (68 km) of the winding lower Sacramento. The channel runs parallel to the Sacramento several miles to the west, and also forms
35280-494: The river's flow would be diverted to irrigate some 60,000 acres (24,000 ha) of fertile benchland in the upper Sacramento Valley, east of Redding . The Lower Pit River Project was technically superseded by the Central Valley Project for which Shasta Dam was completed in 1945. Shasta Lake raised the level of the Pit River more than 100 feet (30 m) above the elevation of the proposed Sheep Rocks dam. It also flooded
35490-458: The river. The river is a popular destination for fishing, fly fishing , and rafting in its lower reaches, and is used to generate hydroelectricity in the powerhouses below Fall River Mills where the Pit and Fall rivers join, and at Shasta Dam. It is also used extensively for irrigation and conservation purposes. The Pit River rises in several forks in Modoc , Lassen and Shasta counties in
35700-493: The sediments washed down by the millions of tons by hydraulic mining, which filled the beds of the Sacramento, Feather and American rivers up to 7 feet (2.1 m) in Sacramento and also covered thousands of acres of Central Valley lands. A flood in 1875 covered the city of Marysville and when it subsided the town's streets were filled with debris and rocks washed down from the "hydraulicking" going on upstream. Repeated floods and increased demand for Sacramento River water saw
35910-528: The south, and Paiute to the east. Most of the local tribes have had social and border disputes since ancient times; the Achomawi and Atsugewi were historically subject to raids by the Klamath and the Modoc who would take prisoners to sell as slaves at The Dalles, Oregon – then a major Native American trading hub on the Columbia River , more than 300 miles (480 km) to the north. In the early 1800s, armed with horses and firearms obtained by trading with Europeans,
36120-538: The southern Cascade Range , roughly parallel to the Upper Sacramento, eventually to reach the McCloud Arm of Shasta Lake. The Pit River, by far the largest of the three, begins in Modoc County in the northeastern corner of California. Draining a vast and remote volcanic highlands area, it flows southwest for nearly 300 miles (480 km) before emptying into Shasta Lake near Montgomery Creek . Goose Lake , straddling
36330-509: The southernmost large runs of chinook salmon in North America. For about 12,000 years, humans have depended on the vast natural resources of the watershed, which had one of the densest Native American populations in California. The river has provided a route for trade and travel since ancient times. Hundreds of tribes sharing regional customs and traditions have inhabited the Sacramento Valley, first coming into contact with European explorers in
36540-499: The speed of flood flow in the Sacramento River has increased, creating a significant hazard for the farms and towns along its course. By the early 20th century engineers had realized not all the floodplains could be safely reclaimed, leading to the intentional creation of flood bypasses where development is limited to annual crops and recreational uses. Further south, much of the delta region is actually below sea level: subsidence caused by wind erosion and intensive farming have caused
36750-625: The state authorized the sale of bonds to fund the Central Valley Project, whose main component was to be Shasta Dam. Unable to raise the necessary money, California turned to the federal government for help. In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized the Central Valley Project as part of the New Deal . The construction works at Shasta Dam and other parts of the project would provide thousands of much-needed jobs, contributing
36960-447: The state hoping to get jobs at Shasta Dam. In November 1938, construction started on a diversion channel that would shunt water to the east (left) side of the river so the foundations could be laid on the west side. The left bank of the river was widened and deepened using explosives, and a cofferdam was built to dry up the bypassed section. To supply sand and gravel to make concrete at the construction site, Pacific Constructors built
37170-476: The summer of 1943. By then, a total of 15 million tons of concrete had been used in the dam's construction, comprising the 16,900 50-foot blocks. Water storage at the Shasta Dam began in February 1944 when the diversion tunnel was sealed. As the lake rose behind it, the dam was completed to its final shape and the last bucket of concrete was poured on January 2, 1945. During this time, the Shasta Dam powerplant, with
37380-428: The superintendent of Hoover Dam construction, to direct operations at Shasta Dam. The groundbreaking and official naming ceremony of Shasta Dam occurred on September 12, 1937 in the small town of Kennett shortly upstream of the dam. Congress initially approved $ 12 million for the project. Within five years Kennett would be submerged under the rising waters of Shasta Lake. The dam was initially known as Kennett Dam, but
37590-512: The tents and shacks typical of construction workers' camps, the town was characterized by comfortable multi-room wooden houses. Pacific Constructors set up its main camp, called "Contractor's Camp" or "Shasta Dam Village", near the base of the Shasta Dam site. The company built a 2,000-man mess hall, hospital, recreation center and other amenities at the dam site. Three other makeshift camps nearby, called "Central Valley", "Project City", and "Summit City", soon filled with unemployed men from all over
37800-459: The top of the main tower to each of the others. Using this system, construction crews were able to transport concrete from the mixing plant, which lay directly adjacent to the main tower at the end of the conveyor belt, to the rising structure of the dam faster and cheaper than any other method. The tower was not fully demolished, so it remains submerged behind the dam. On occasion, the lake level can drop low enough to expose it again. Building of
38010-495: The topographic maps, the elevation drop between Fall River and Lake Britton, where the powerhouse was to have been situated, was too small for economical power generation. The Pit River is a well-known trout stream in northern California and is a popular destination for fishing. The river is notorious for its swift, deep water, slippery bed and low visibility, and is considered difficult and dangerous to wade. Flows are fairly consistent year-round, except after storm events, both due to
38220-421: The total watershed. The average streamflow between 1966 and 2012 was 4,786 cu ft/s (135.5 m/s), with a maximum of 73,000 cu ft/s (2,100 m/s) recorded on January 24, 1970, after heavy rainfall. A short minimum flow of 30 cu ft/s (0.85 m/s) occurred on July 12, 1975 due to construction work at Pit 7 Powerhouse requiring temporary cessation of releases. The minimum 7-day flow
38430-425: The traditional lands of the Winnemem Wintu , one of nine groups of the larger Wintu ethnicity of northern California. The Winnemem Wintu tribe is considered to be a ghost tribe because they are not a federally recognized tribe. It is estimated that the pre-colonization population of the valley was roughly 14,000; by 1900, due to diseases and settlers' encroachment it was reduced to 395. Of the men who survived out of
38640-419: The turbines is driven by a high-pressure jet of water fed by a steel penstock 15 feet (4.6 m) in diameter. Two smaller turbines generate power for operations at the dam itself. The plant serves to generate peaking power for the northern Sacramento Valley. Keswick Dam , about 9 miles (14 km) downstream, serves as an afterbay for Shasta, regulating its fluctuating water releases. A gravity structure,
38850-463: The unemployment rate in California up to 20 percent. The project was approved in the state legislature by a slim margin, mostly riding on Central and Northern California voters, who needed both the jobs and the water. Southern California generally opposed the project because they needed money to build an aqueduct to the Colorado River , from which the state had previously secured rights. In 1933,
39060-404: The upper Sacramento River system; the river provides not only the majority of the annual flow, but nearly the entire dependable summer water supply. One of the first proposals to dam the Pit River was in 1915 and was known as the "Lower Pit River Project". A 139-foot (42 m) dam would have been built across the river at Sheep Rocks, above the confluence with Sulanharas Creek. About one-quarter of
39270-418: The valley into an inland sea. In 1880 State Engineer William H. Hall developed the first flood control plan for the Sacramento River. Hall recognized that with the combination of flat topography and extremely heavy winter runoff volumes, a system of levees alone could not hope to contain flooding, as had been proven time and again in the flood prone city of Sacramento. The Sacramento River Flood Control Project
39480-417: The volcanic plateaus of Northeastern California. Historically, its watershed has reached as far north as south-central Oregon where the now, primarily, endorheic (closed) Goose Lake rarely experiences southerly outflow into the Pit River , the most northerly tributary of the Sacramento. The Sacramento and its wide natural floodplain were once abundant in fish and other aquatic creatures, notably one of
39690-480: The water stays fresh in all but the driest years. Saltwater intrusion from the Pacific Ocean was one of the main reasons for the construction of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP), whose dams maintain a minimum flow in the Sacramento River to keep seawater at bay. Below Rio Vista , the lower Sacramento River is rejoined by the Deep Water Ship Channel and the Yolo Bypass and curves southwest along
39900-437: The watershed's porous volcanic rocks and soils. The water typically emerges at points of lower elevation where the surface layers encounter harder metamorphic and sedimentary rock. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) operates a stream gage on the Pit River at Montgomery Creek, directly below Pit 7 Dam and above Shasta Lake. This gage measures streamflow from an area of 4,952 square miles (12,830 km), or 70 percent of
40110-414: The watershed. By geologic standards, the Sacramento is a fairly young river; the borders of its watershed began to form only a few million years ago as magma welling up below the Earth's crust pushed up by the Pacific Plate colliding with the North American Plate caused the formation of the Sierra Nevada . Although mountains had existed as early as 100 million years ago in this region (before then
40320-646: The west side of the river was rerouted. In December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor , prompting the United States to enter into World War II . With thousands of men enlisting in the armed forces, the Shasta Dam site soon had a severe labor shortage. During the war years, many of the people who worked at the dam were women and high school students, working on mostly "non-hazardous jobs". The dam played an important part in World War II even before its completion, supplying much-needed electricity to shipyards and aircraft factories in central California. However, some generators originally intended for Shasta ended up in
40530-410: The winter. Water captured by the dam would increase the irrigation supply, for both the Sacramento Valley and the San Joaquin Valley further south, with which it would be linked by an extensive aqueduct and reservoir system. The Marshall Plan was not widely supported due to its high cost (about $ 800 million in 2008 dollars); when proposed to Congress in 1921, it passed in the Senate but failed in
40740-414: The world, to the Sacramento River in search of fortunes, kicking off the California Gold Rush . People flocked to the region by the Oregon Trail -Siskiyou Trail, California Trail , Southern Emigrant Trail and various land and/or sea routes through the Isthmus of Panama and around southern South America by ship. Steamboats traveled up and down the Sacramento River carrying miners from San Francisco to
40950-400: The world. The bridge was built to a height of more than 500 feet (150 m) above the Pit River, some 7 miles (11 km) east-northeast of the dam site, to accommodate the rising waters of Shasta Lake. The bypassed segment of the railroad from Redding to the Shasta site was re-appropriated as a branch line for construction trains, and was routed through a tunnel beneath the south abutment of
41160-431: The years to come, this path, which eventually extended from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon following parts of the Sacramento, Willamette , Klamath , Rogue , and other rivers would become an important trade and travel route. Although just one of thousands of American emigrants that poured into California over the next few years when California became part of the United States, John Augustus Sutter 's arrival marked
41370-422: Was 23,330 cubic feet per second (661 m /s). The maximum recorded flow was 115,000 cubic feet per second (3,300 m /s) on February 19, 1986; the lowest was 3,970 cubic feet per second (112 m /s) on October 15, 1977. Flow in the Yolo Bypass , a relief channel designed to carry a portion of the flood waters in order to protect the Sacramento area, is not measured by the Freeport gauge. A separate gauge on
41580-407: Was 989 cubic feet per second (28.0 m/s), on September 5–12, 1966. Before the damming of Shasta Lake in the 1940s, the annual flow of the Pit River was about four times the size of the Sacramento at their confluence, making it the true hydrological source of the Sacramento River system. Measured at the mouth, the river's natural discharge likely exceeded 6,000 cubic feet per second (170 m/s),
41790-468: Was at least 1,000 feet (300 m) deep. About 650,000 years ago the lake catastrophically overflowed, draining into San Francisco Bay and creating the Carquinez Strait , the only major break for hundreds of miles in the Coast Ranges. The narrow outlet trapped some of the sediments of the rivers in the Central Valley, forming the inland Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta . Since then, this inland sea has periodically reformed during times of intense flooding,
42000-416: Was authorized by the federal government in 1917. While it intended to contain minor floods in the river banks by strengthening the existing levee system, the main feature was a series of bypasses, or sections of the valley intentionally designed to flood during high water. Weirs placed at strategic points along the Sacramento River release water into the bypasses when the river reaches a certain stage, relieving
42210-443: Was built, the Pit contributed as much as 85 percent of the Sacramento River's dry-season flow as measured at Red Bluff , nearly 100 miles (160 km) downstream of their confluence – making the river an important resource for irrigation, and later, hydroelectricity. The upper reaches of the Pit above Fall River Mills are a snow-fed high desert stream with a much more seasonal hydrograph. The lowermost part (Shasta Lake portion) of
42420-440: Was completed in 1925 and its powerhouse began operation on July 18, 1925. Pit 4 and 5, located further downstream, were completed between the mid-1940s and mid-1950s. The lower Pit River was dammed in the 1960s, forming Reservoirs 6 and 7. A diversion from the McCloud River was also completed during this time to increase water flowing through powerhouses on the Pit River. Pit 2 Powerhouse was planned but never built: due to an error in
42630-465: Was completed in 1945. Controlling runoff from the upper 6,600 square miles (17,000 km ) of the Sacramento River watershed, Shasta greatly reduces flood peaks on the middle and lower parts of the Sacramento River. Flood waters are stored for irrigation in dry years as well as navigation and electricity generation. In the following decades, more huge reservoirs – capable of storing a combined 13 × 10 acre-feet (16 km ) of water – were constructed on
42840-400: Was completed in 1963, and was built to facilitate navigation of large oceangoing ships from the Delta to the port of Sacramento. The channel bypasses the winding lower part of the Sacramento River between the state capital and the Delta thus reducing water travel times. It also serves to discharge floodwaters from the lower end of the Yolo Bypass . Built by the Army Corps of Engineers, the canal
43050-434: Was crucial to the renewal of existing wetlands and the creation of new ones. Since the late 19th century the river has been mostly locked in a fixed channel, which once could shift hundreds of feet or even several miles in a year because of floods. In 2010, about 100 miles (160 km) of the river's riparian forests were undergoing restoration. UC Davis initiated a project known as The Nigiri Project which takes place under
43260-417: Was eventually named after nearby Mount Shasta . After surveying several nearby sites, the Bureau of Reclamation chose to build the dam in a 1,000-foot (300 m) deep canyon about a mile above the abandoned smelter town of Coram and two-and-a-half miles below Kennett. The dam was planned to be over 800 feet (240 m) high. The winning bid of $ 35,939,450 for construction came from Pacific Constructors Inc.,
43470-643: Was practiced in a few areas. Settlement size ranged from small camps to villages of 30–50 permanent structures. Acorns were a staple food , and the Sacramento Valley's riparian zones, which supported seven species of native oaks, provided these in abundance. Native Americans pounded the acorns into flour, which they used to make bread and cakes. Abundant salmon and steelhead runs in the Sacramento River and its tributaries were harvested using fishing weirs, platforms, baskets and nets. The river also provided shellfish, sturgeon, eel and suckerfish They also hunted waterfowl, antelope and deer which all existed in huge numbers in
43680-404: Was the Trinity River Project (which would become part of the CVP), sending over 90 percent of the flow of that river into the Sacramento via a tunnel under the Klamath Mountains. Due to environmental damage and fish kills in the Trinity River, the volume of diverted water has been limited by law since the 1990s. Other, larger projects ultimately failed to take root. One of the most notorious,
43890-432: Was the second highest dam in the world – surpassed only by Hoover Dam on the Colorado – as well as the highest man-made structure in California. It was also the second most massive concrete dam measured by volume, exceeded only by Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in Washington . An anonymous workman reportedly said, "Old Shasta's about the secondest dam there is." When the dam was completed, chief engineer Frank Crowe
44100-407: Was under the control of Mexico , although few Mexican settlers had come to what would later become the state, mostly settling in the small pueblos and ranchos along the south and central coast. The HBC mountain men created the Siskiyou Trail out of several Native American paths that ran through the mountains between Oregon's Willamette Valley and the northern part of the Sacramento Valley. In
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