17: expect flooding of some low spots of trails along the west and east banks of the Willamette in and near downtown Portland. The river is about 90 miles long and drains an area of about 1,300 square miles.
It washed out five bridges in Lane County in December 1942,Although the Willamette was, by the mid-20th century, heavily engineered and controlled by a complex system of dams, channels, and barriers, it experienced severe floods through the end of the century. USGS 14211720 WILLAMETTE RIVER AT PORTLAND, OR.
Since the early 1900s, streamflow in the McKenzie River basin has been altered through the construction of dams and canals. The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. By the late 1930s, efforts to stem the pollution led to formation of a state sanitary board to oversee modest cleanup efforts.A 1991 agreement between the City of Portland and the State of Oregon to dramatically reduce In June 2014, Dean Hall became the first person to swim the entire length of the Willamette River.There are more than 20 major dams on the Willamette's tributaries, as well as a complex series of levees, dikes, and channels to control the river's flow. The Willamette provides impor- tant irrigation for the agricultural industry while supporting a variety of recreational opportunities – from boating and … Trade goods from the Columbia basin north of Portland could also be transported southward on the Willamette due to the deeper channels made at the Willamette's mouth.By the early 20th century, major river-control projects had begun to take place. These included the Around the year 1850, the Kalapuya numbered between 2,000 and 3,000 and were distributed among several groups. Although products such as lumber were often transported on an existing network of railroads in Oregon, these advances in navigation helped businesses deliver more goods to Portland, feeding the city's growing economy.
Flowing northward between the Oregon Coast Range and the Cascade Range, the river and its tributaries form the Willamette Valley, a basin that contains two-thirds of Oregon's population, including the state capital, Salem, and the state's largest city, Portland, which surrounds the …
The upper tributaries of the Willamette originate in mountains south and southeast of the twin cities of Eugene and Springfield. The river's two most significant course deviations occur at Newberg, where the stream turns sharply east, and about 18 mile…
The south-to-north-flowing Willamette is the thirteenth largest river in the contiguous United States, with an average annual discharge of 32,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) at its confluence with the Columbia River northwest of Portland. Storms caused a In February 1996, heavy warm rains driven by a subtropical About 450 concrete flood-protection walls in Portland that had been constructed during the February flood, each weighing about 5,500 pounds (2,500 kg), were removed in April 1996.Since as early as 1869, with the introduction of a federally funded "snag puller" designed to keep the waterway clear, human habitation has affected the Despite earlier cleanup efforts, state studies in the 1990s identified a wide variety of pollutants in the river bottom, including Since pollution concerns are primarily along the lower river, the Willamette in general scores relatively high on the Oregon Water Quality Index (OWQI), which is compiled by the Over the past 150 years, a significant change for the Willamette River has been the loss of its floodplain forests, which covered an estimated 89 percent of a 400-foot (120 m) band along each river bank in 1850.Fish in the Willamette basin include 31 native species, among them Species diversity is greatest along the lower river and its tributaries. Periods with no data are plotted as grey areas. It is navigable downstream to Eugene.
Beginning in the 1850s, As commerce and industry flourished on the lower river, most of the original settlers acquired farms in the upper Willamette Valley.
It flows northward for 183 miles (295 km) past Corvallis, Albany, Salem, and Oregon City into the Columbia River near Portland.
Heavy rains and mountain snows are common in winter, and snowpack in the Cascade Range can rapidly melt during warmer winter storms.Rainstorms and warm temperatures in December 1861 combined with a well-above-average snowpack in the Cascades created the largest Willamette River flood in recorded history. It is formed by the confluence of the Coast and Middle forks southeast of Eugene. By the late 1850s, farmers had begun to grow crops on most of the available fertile land.Between 1879 and 1885, the Willamette River was charted by In the second half of the 19th century, the USACE dredged channels and built locks and levees in the Willamette's watershed. The Willamette River at Portland site is located at the Morrison Bridge in downtown Portland, OR. Threatened, endangered, or sensitive species include spring Chinook salmon, winter steelhead, A map of the Willamette River, its drainage basin, major tributaries and major citiesThe river crested at one town after another—at Corvallis 3½ feet above flood stage, Oregon City 18 feet above, Portland 10.5 feet above—much like a meal moving through a boa constrictor.(U.S. Willamette River, watercourse of western Oregon, U.S. Those on the lower river, slightly closer to the coast, often relied on fishing as their primary economic mainstay. An observer of the flood wrote, "The whole Willamette valley [Significant flooding recurred in the winter of early 1890, when the river rapidly rose and crested.Throughout the 1940s the Willamette continued to flood its valley.
These figures are only speculative; there may have been as few as eight subgroups or as many as 16.The indigenous peoples of the Willamette River practiced a variety of life ways.