Scenic USA - Oregon

Scenic USA offers a collection of select photographs from a wide variety of attractions, points of interest, historic sites, state and
national parks found throughout the United States. Each photo feature is coupled with a brief explanation.
For further detailed information, links to other related sites are provided.

Previous
Archives
Home
Next

The Big River

Columbia River

Photo by Rodney Walker

     The Columbia River flows down from Canada's Columbia Mountain Range, cuts across the State of Washington and out into the Pacific Ocean. The river's last 250 miles make up two-thirds of the border between Washington and Oregon. The 1200 mile river was once called the Nichi-wana (The Big River) before Captain Robert Gray and the Louis & Clark team arrived in 1806.
     Since then, the river has been dammed, silted from logging, and polluted with heavy metals, dioxins and sewage. All this adversity has reduced the wild salmon population by half. Salmon to the northwestern states is similar to the importance of wheat and corn crops of the Midwest. Today, the salmon spawn is severely hampered and two-thirds of the river's salmon are raised in hatcheries. In this modern era of environmental safety, river clean-up has stalled on the lips of politicians and remains in the hearts of Pacific Coast Native Americans.


 

 

    Copyright © 2007 Benjamin Prepelka
    All Rights Reserved