Welcome to the Salmon River Restoration Council newsletter. In this issue we’re taking a step back in time to explore some aspects of the history of the Salmon River watershed. the History Edition For thousands of years the native people of the Klamath River basin have been inextricably linked to the fishery of the Klamath River and its tributaries. They depended on the runs of salmon for subsistence. “The awesome cyclical nature of the salmon’s yearly migrations over the centuries influenced almost every aspect of their lives. Religion, lore, law, and technology all evolved from the Indians’ relationship with the salmon and other fish of the Basin” (Pierce, 1998). Because of this dependence, the cultures of the Klamath and Salmon River Tribes developed systems to manage the fish population to ensure the health of the fishery for future generations. Fishing weirs and dams were constructed and harvest was conducted within strict cultural guidelines. The tribes worked together to ensure that there was a sustainable harvest of salmon each year. By all accounts, the Klamath River fishery was alive and thriving when the first white settlers arrived in ap-proximately 1850. The late 19th and early 20th century saw hu-man activities begin to seriously jeopardize popu-lations of anadromous fish. They were reduced to less than 10% of their historic numbers. Hydrau-Klamath and Salmon River Fisherieslic, placer and dredge mining altered the river drastically and directly impacted salmon runs. Dams and water diversions were a continuous problem. During the late 19th century, mining Unless otherwise noted photos in the newsletter are courtesy of the Siskiyou County Historical SocietyCirca 1930dams completely blocked the South Fork two miles up from Forks of Salmon. A fish ladder was installed at the dams in 1911, but it rarely worked. Fish poaching became popular because the fish grouped together below the dam. The California Fish and Game Commission declared the South Fork unfit for spawning due to min-ing activities and pollution.By 1912 “three [canneries] operated on or near the estuary and the river was heavily fished, no limit being placed on the activities of anyone” (Snyder). Overharvest of the Klamath River salmon af-fected the fishery to such a degree that by 1931, Snyder concluded that, “depletion of Klamath salmon is not only apparent, but it seems to be progressing at an alarming rate. There is evidence also that artificial propagation alone is not able to cope with the situation”. Beginning in 1917, hydroelectric dams began to be constructed on the Klamath, ultimately cutting off over 100 miles of spawn-ing habitat in the upper Klamath basin, and continuing to affect water quality and flow to this day. In the 1940’s salmon populations began to rebound, and fishing increased again following WWII. By 1976 the Pacific Fishery Manage-ment Council began to restrict open fishing seasons and in 1985 commercial troll fishing in the Klamath management zone was completely prohibited. Also in the late 1970’s some tribes had their fishing rights reaffirmed. In recent years agreements such as the Klamath Basin Restoration Act and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement began a multifaceted approach to restoring the river’s fisheries, with hopes that eventually the population can be recovered. Today the fishery faces additional chal-lenges including the impacts of climate change, fire and drought, which put even more pressure on anadromous fish. But restoration continues Pierce, Ronnie M., “Klamath Salmon: Understanding Allocation.” February 1998Salter, John F., “A Context Statement Concerning the Effect of Iron Gate Dam on Traditional Resource Uses and Cultural Patterns of the Karuk People Within the Klamath River Corridor.” November 2003. Snyder, John O., “Salmon of the Klamath River, California”. Fish Bulletin 34, 1931.“R.D.Hume in a paper without date, and presum-ably published by himself, says of the Klamath River: In 1850 in this river during the running season, salmon were so plentiful, according to the reports of the earlier settlers, that in fording the stream it was with difficulty that they could induce their horses to make the attempt, on account of the river being alive with the finny tribe...” John O. Snyder 1931and with new interdisciplinary approaches and collaborative management we continue to strive for a healthy and hardy Salmon River fishery. -Tom Hotaling and Maria MullinsSRRC Archive- Pratt CollectionSnow on the SalmonHistoric photos of the winter months in the Salmon River often show the heroic effort that it took to travel over the 6000ft mountain passes, piled deep with snow. Today we must marvel at the fortitude of the people who brought in mail and supplies by skis, sleds and mules. Even now, with all their modern snow removal machines, the efforts of our county road crew to keep the roads open are pretty heroic. It’s by no means an easy task, or one that we can take for granted. But it’s hard not to look back at those old photos and wonder what happened to all that snow; to imagine that it just doesn’t snow like it used to. Other than the photos, there wasn’t any regular data collection on snow pack in our area prior to 1951. In 1929 the California State Legislature estab-lished a statewide cooperative snow survey program that has continued to this day. The Etna Mountain snow course has been monitored since 1951, and pro-vides the snow pack data closest to the Salmon River watershed. Depth and moisture content of snow is measured each month from January-April. In addi-tion, the United States Geological Survey has main-tained a flow gauge near the mouth of the Salmon River since 1911, which provides information on the amount of water in the river through the years. The accompanying graph shows the data from both the snow surveys and the gauge from 1951-2012. You can see that there are slight downward trends for all of the data; however, it is a short time frame, with enough annual variation that the statistical significance of the downward trend is not very strong. The Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath River Basin Study currently in progress, has found that basin-wide, during 1950 to 1999, there was a decline of between 2-13% in the mean annual runoff, and a decline of between 22-44% in April 1st snow pack. This would indicate that we are getting only slightly less moisture than we used to, but that quite a bit less of it is holding on as spring snow pack, which is what keeps our river flowing cool and clean through the hot summer months. So those old photos tell a true story, which the data supports – that there really isn’t as much snow as there used to be. -Lyra Cressey“In 1955, also ‘64 +’65 I opened the road with a D7 Cat...While I was pushing snow, my swamper dug a tunnel into 50 ft of drift snow. Dug steps up and came out like a bird from its nest up 50 ft.” - Wook McBroomEtna Summit Snow Depth & Salmon River Mean FlowsSnow Depth (Inches)River Flows (CFS)0500100015002000250030003500400002040608010012014016018020019511953195519571959196119631965196719691971197319751977197919811983198519871989199119931995199719992001200320052007200920112013Snow DepthSalmon River Mean Annual FlowMembers of the Wilkes Expedition report several condors north of Redding.Selected events in the natural and cultural history of the Salmon River area. the Salmon River TimelineOral histories of the Karuk and Klamath Tribes say that they were always here on the Klamath River. The Shasta people say that the Great Spirit brought their people to the ancestral lands along the Klamath, Shasta, Salmon, and Scott Rivers.Age of the oldest surviving sites of human occupation by ancestors of the Karuk. 12,000 years ago PrehistoryWiyot, Yurok, and Hoopa arrive in the Klamath Basin.850-1300 Little Ice Age : a cold period with three particularly cold intervals: one beginning about 1650, another about 1770, and the last in 1850, each separated by intervals of slight warming. 1550 to about 185018261st journal record of British fur trapper, Peter Skene Ogden traveling in what is now Siskiyou County. 1st party to see the Klamath River is led by Alexander McLeod.18491st miners recorded in what is now Siskiyou County- Lindsey Applegate. 1849California gains statehood.1850James Abrams among the 1st to discover gold on the Salmon River. The town of Bestville is founded. 1852Two Karuk villages at the mouth of the Salmon River are burned by pioneers.State of CA enacts the 1st fish and game law to protect specific species including deer, quail, waterfowl and salmon.Klamath and Salmon River War or Red Cap War. Local miners wanted the Indians armed with guns and ammunition disarmed, and any Indian found with firearms was to be killed. US Army was enrolled to stop the war.1858 Forks of Salmon Post Office opens.185218551861 Civil War begins.1862 Homestead Act signed into law.State Board of Fish Commissioners is created. Fish ladders are now required at state dams. 18701870 Population of Siskiyou County according to US Census is 6,848. 1872 General Mining Act of 1872 authorizes mining on federal public lands.1891 Forest Reserve Act establishes the National Forest System.1890 Population of Siskiyou County according to US Census is 12,163.A road is begun over Etna Summit to connect Etna and Forks of Salmon. It is finished in 1899.1892Organic Act of 1897 establishes most of the National Forests, to be man-aged for timber production, watershed protection, and forest protection.1897Volcanic eruption forms Crater Lake, reported in Karuk oral history.7,700 years ago1841 I remember that the water was high, extra high compared with what it is now because we had to build bridges. Every year we had to build bridges out to where we could catch the fish. There is no water now compared to what it was. Our winter days and our weather was different. Every year back then we always had three feet of snow or more down on the Aubrey place at Dillon Creek and that would stay for a month, two months sometimes. Our weather has changed. We ain’t got the snow. We ain’t got the rain. We ain’t got the water. And with everybody taking water out of the water that’s here, it even makes it less water than we should have. What I see is the water change. We just ain’t got it. It’s just not here. The springs that used to be here. The little creeks, the side lanes and all that’s just all dried up. From Interview with Earl Aubrey, Happy Camp, Dillon Creek, Former Tribal Chairman, Traditional Fisherman, Age 63, Salter White Paper (2003) “Charlie Snapp has probably driven the Sawyers Bar Road more often than anyone else on Earth. He has driven it six days a week for nearly 50 years, hauling mail and freight from the Scott River Valley up over Salmon Mountain to the miners, loggers, dope-growers and misanthropic bush-bums in the Salmon River canyons beyond. Before this road was plowed each winter, he crossed the mountain on skis with the mail on his back. Later he pulled the mail on a freight sled, with an R-4 Caterpillar bulldozer that had been specially modified to keep its footing in 20 feet of snow. Charlie Snapp once ferried mail on the backs of mules over swollen rivers. And when the road washed out in the big-water winter of 1964, he ferried it on his own back for what he guesses may have been 40 miles…”Wook’s comment on the story - “Charlie Snapp did carry the mail on foot a few times - but never on mules and not 40 miles. In the flood years he came by Cecilville and the Klamath after the roads were open but for months we had no mail. The 1st road to be opened to Sawyers Bar was from Cecilville via Black Bear Road.”On the Salmon River RouteWilliam Poole, Detours Column, This World, July 29, 1990Earl AubreyWook McBroomStories of the Mail, Water, and Snow My Dad… and Luther Lake bought the mail contract from Denny Bar Company… His contract was from Cecilville to Callahan - in one day, out the other, 32 miles, winter or summer. If you didn’t make it there was a $75 fine. Six days a week... See now the mail from Cecilville used to go up Indian Gulch, Orton Gulch, down to the King Solo-mon Mine, down the road and up over the hill to Black Bear, below Black Bear, and then up over the hill to Sawyers Bar... That was a long day. Usually the road was just one way. They shoveled the road open usually in April. People got together from both sides. Salmon Road was the same way. No money involved. The rest of the time it had to go with mules. In to Sawyers one day, back the next. About a 10 hour trip. He did it until about 1937. The road came in from Forks around 1937. From an interview with Wook McBroom 8/23/13Snow tunnel on Etna Summit Newly established Reclamation Service initiates the Klamath Project to drain lakes and wetlands for cultivation.Scott Valley described as flourishing with “small deer; lots of big dogs (wolves), lots of small dogs (coyote); lots of big bears with white faces; and small bears, both brown and black. The creeks and river were full of many kinds of fish, and there are beaver and many small animals.”18981902 Last Grizzly recorded being killed in Northern California, near Hornbrook.Klamath Hydroelectric Project launched. The following 3 decades saw many penstocks, flumes, and dams constructed. Roosevelt establishes the Klamath Nat’l Forest. Use Permit system is initiated for grazing, mining and logging. 19031905Logging becomes a growing industry and railroads are built to accommodate sawmills in the Upper Klamath.A Model T Ford climbs Etna Summit using reverse gear since it was the strongest gear.1906191019103 salmon cannery plants operate on or near the Klamath River estuary and the river was heavily fished, with no limits. Hallie Daggett hired on as the 1st woman in a fire lookout at Eddy Gulch.1914 WWI begins.1915 Mt Lassen erupts.11 fires are counted in the Salmon River watershed, the 3 largest ones consumed about 56,000 acres.191219181918 Bennett Company retire their mules in favor of trucks.1921 Fish planting on the Salmon River Ranger District is initiated.1922 Copco Number 2 Dam completed on the Klamath River.1924 Last wild wolf in California is trapped in Lassen County.1925 Forks to Somes Bar road completed.Due to a “tremendous loss of fish” (because of the lack of fish screens in ditches), the Fish and Game Commission established a Fish and Ladder Commission. Fish populations on the Salmon River are managed by stocking fish in barren waters. 1928 Drought year shuts down many lumber companies.1930 Commercial fishing in coastal streams banned to allow for sport fishing on the Klamath. 1927CCC’s established - there were 7 camps of 200 men on the KNF working primarily on road building projects, but also on facilities and phone lines. Roosevelt’s Fish & Wildlife Coordination Act requires the renamed Bureau of Reclamation to consider the needs of wildlife when planning projects.USFS’s fire management policy is that all wildfires were to be suppressed by 10 a.m. the morning after they were first spotted.193319341935The Quinn bill prohibits hydraulic mining on Klamath River and its tributaries from July through November.19361913SRRC Archive- Dobson Collection1917 Copco dam Number 1 completed on Klamath River.Passage of Weeks Act which established the framework for Fire Suppression.1911Traditional Foods on the Salmon River While it’s difficult to provide a complete list of traditional foods historically gathered by family groups living on the banks of the Salmon and Klamath River, this is an attempt to cover the major food groups typically sought after in various seasons. No country in the world was as well supplied by Nature, with food for man, as California, when first discovered by Spaniards. Every one of its early visitors has left records to this effect – they all found hills, valleys and plains filled with elk, deer, hares, rabbits, quail, and other animals fit for food; its rivers and lakes swarming with salmon, trout, and other fish, their beds and banks covered with mussels, clams, and other edible Mollusca; the rocks on its sea shores crowded with seal and otter; and its forests full of trees and plants, bearing acorns, nuts, seeds and berries.(Titus Fey Cronise, The Natural Wealth of California, 1868 - cited in Andersen, Tending the Wild, 2005. Karuk Traditional Ecological Knowledge and the Need for Knowledge Sovereignty, Norgaard, 2013.) Roosevelt Elk (íshyuux) and Black Tail deer (púufich), while not the main sources of year round food supply, were abundant and most often hunted in a traditional way so as to provide a large amount of food for a specific gathering or ceremony. The taking of the animal was con-sidered just as important of a process as the cooking and eating, and the successful hunter enjoyed the respect and admiration of everyone. I guess not much has changed. The main sources of year-round food were acorns and salmon (áama). On the Salmon River the more prevalent acorns were Black Oak (xánthiip) and White Oak (axvêep) with Tan Oak (xunyêep) more abundant closer to the mouth of the Salmon River. The process of gathering, drying, leeching and preparing acorns is quite lengthy, but well worth it. The salmon fishing on the Salmon River ranged from fish weirs and spear fishing to fish traps and trigger nets. Fishing holes were designated by family and were closely monitored to ensure fairness and equity, thus making sure no one went hungry during the lean winter months. Stored fish was most often dried, and sometimes smoked and then dried. In order to have an abundant supply of these foods, Native people employed numerous management practices to build their relationship with, and respect of, these much needed cultural lifelines. Natural and man-made fire provided a benefit to food and fiber on a scale that nothing else could do; with regular fire intervals the upland sources of food benefitted by reduced brush, reduced disease and pests, and increased pro-duction, the in-stream sources of food benefitted through increased amounts of water into the springs, creeks, and rivers and also through healthier riparian vegetation free of pests and disease. While times have changed and decades of land management practices have taken their toll on these once abundant food lifelines, the Salmon River Restoration Council has taken an active role in supporting a return to active, culturally appropriate, and healthy land management practices. We see subsistence living as the backbone of our river communities and encourage local community involvement in all of our endeavors. Yôotva (Thank you) Josh SaxonPaul S. Bartholomew wrote a report listing trouble spots for fish on the Salmon River. There were 9 natural barriers, 17 dams, 6 diversions with a history of screens, 37 di-versions needing screens, 21 diversions without screens, and 6 dams with fish ladders.1936Flood year. CCC’s construct 2 bridges at Forks of Salmon, and worked on the South Fork Salmon road. 1937Population of Siskiyou County is 28,598.1948 1st aerial planting of trout.Commercial logging is being used extensively to harvest Douglas-fir to feed the post war building boom.1940 1950Dept. of Fish & Game initiates aggressive removal program of abandoned mining dams.Klamath River Basin Compact created to manage Klamath River water issues.1955 Flood year. J.C.Boyle Dam built on the Klamath River.1962 Iron Gate Dam and Hatchery built.California Wilderness Act creates the 153,000-acre Siskiyou Wilderness within the Six Rivers, Klamath and Siskiyou Nat’l Forests.An arson fire in Sawyers Bar takes most of the historic buildings in the center of town.1951195319641964100 Year Flood Event occurs over the New Year followed by heavy snow. 1964Endangered Species Preservation Act is passed by Congress - Bald Eagles listed as endangered.Forest Service changes its policy from fire control to fire management, allowing some lightning fires to burn in wilderness areas.Federal Land Policy and Management Act ended homesteading. Federal policy shifts to retaining control of public lands. The term “Multiple Use” is brought into play.1977 Hog Fire burns 58,000 acres. USFS plans to spray herbicides on replanted tree farms. 19661974 1976The Klamath National Forest and Federal Marshals begin eliminating occupancy on federal lands by tearing down and burning cabins located on mining claims. 1977 California’s snowpack reaches an all-time low.1978 State imposes a ban on sports and Indian fishing in the Klamath River estuary.1978Salmon River is given Wild and Scenic River status along with the Klamath from Copco Lake area to CA-OR border.Local citizens group wins a moratorium on the Forest Service’s use of herbicides in the Salmon River watershed.198119821986 Drought, continuing until 1991.Salmon Complex fires started from lightning strikes, burn 90,900 acres.1987National Marine Fisheries Service lists 28 distinctive groups of salmon and steelhead as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.1991SRRC Archive- Nichols CollectionSRRC Archive Next >