The Sinlahekin is inaccessible to salmon at present. The 

 upper part of the stream was not adequately examined, but may 

 contain some potential spavming area. 



PART 5 

 NOTES ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER PM) ITS TRIBUTARIES 

 ABOVE GRSiND COULEE DAM 



The Columbia River enters the United States from Canada above 

 Kettle Falls, and extends for some 300 miles nearly due north above 

 the border, amid steep mountain ranges. It then loops back in a 

 southerly direction for nearly another 200 miles to its point of 

 origin in Columbia Lake. Since salmon are known to have ascended 

 to within a few miles of this lake, and since the area developed 

 more slowly than did the lower river areas, it is desirable to in= 

 elude a brief repo'rt on the upper main river and its history. Much 

 of this information was obtained from W. D. Layman's "The Columbia 

 River" and Lo R. Freeman's "Down the Columbia", both of which deal 

 with this upper section in some detail, 



Salmon was a staple in the diet of the early settlers on the 

 upper Columbia, and in later years, at least, many were bought from 

 the Indians who had always taken fish for their own use and to trade 

 with other tribes, particularly in the area around Kettle Falls. 



Since boats have plied most of the river at one time or another 

 since the days of the Voyageurs, and since salmon could, of course, 

 go anywhere that boats could make their way, it is not surprising 

 to find that they have ascended nearly the entire 1,300 miles of 

 the Coltjmbia. In 1881 Lieutenant Symons ran the 350 miles from 

 just below Kettle Falls to the Snake on a Government survey party 

 batteau. Captain McDermid later took the small sternwheel steamer 

 "The Shoshone* down the same stretch from Kettle Falls. In December 

 of 1865, Captain Lew White launched the boat "Forty Nine'* at Colville, 

 Washington and ascended the Columbia for 160 miles until he met ice at 

 the head of the lower Arrov/ Lake. In the same year a party of 18 miners 

 built a sailboat at Colville, Washington and with some portaging ascended 

 the entire upper Columbia River to Columbia Lake, a trip of nearly 550 

 miles J hauled their boat across Canal Flats to the Kootenay River and 

 descended that furious stream to Fort Steele on Wild Horse Creek. Before 

 1900 there were regular steamers on both the Kootenay and Arrow Lakes. 



Grand Coulee Dam, at 595 miles above the mouth of the Columbia, 

 ponded the river to form Roosevelt Lake, which extends almost to the 

 Canadian boundary. From the damsite to Kettle Falls, a distance of 

 103 river miles, the river was formerly a fast-flowing stream for the 



99 



