reached Redfish, Payette, and the Yakima 

 Lakes in about 1850, the runs were still large, 

 though variable. When more people moved 

 into the area, larger numbers of sockeye salmon 

 were taken from the spawning beds and soon 

 the white man started a commercial fishery 

 at some of the areas. 



Evermann (1896a), ichthyologist of the 

 U.S. Fish Commission, while investigating the 

 extent of Pacific salmon in Idaho during 1894, 

 reported that two firms fished Payette Lake 

 in 1870-78. One firm processed as many as 

 75,000 sockeye salmon from Payette Lake in 

 1 year, but by 1878, because of the few fish 

 available, it was not profitable to continue. 

 Wallowa Lake had a smaller fishery; Ever- 

 mann and Meek (1898) reported that 2,000 

 fish were caught at the head of this lake in 1894. 



Evermann (1896a) and Evermann and 

 Meek (1898) noted that sockeye salmon and 

 kokanee were caught in Redfish, Alturas, and 

 Petit Lakes of the Upper Salmon River drain- 

 age in Idaho. These early investigators did 

 not find great numbers of sockeye salmon in 

 the area, though occasional large runs were 

 reported by residents. 



Robison (1957), in reviewing the former 

 sockeye salmon runs of the Columbia River, 

 stated that this species was extremely abundant 

 in the Upper Yakima River Basin before 1850 

 and probably made up a good portion of the 

 catch for the entire Columbia River. Crib 

 dams, however, at the outlets of Cle Elum, 

 Kachess, and Keechelus Lakes blocked runs as 

 early as 1905. 



The Salmon River of Idaho was never a 

 large producer of sockeye salmon because of 

 the low productivity of its clear, cold lakes — 

 Redfish, Alturas, Petit, Stanley, and Yellow- 

 belly — and the lack of spawning grounds. 

 Moreover, the area's production was limited by 

 the construction of Sunbeam Dam in 1913, 

 about 576 km. above the mouth. The fishway 

 was ineffective as fish could not enter it during 

 low-water stages. Occasionally, under favor- 

 able circumstances, a few sockeye and chinook 

 salmon were thought to have gone around one 

 side of the dam thi'ough a tunnel. In eflfect, 

 the dam removed the upper Salmon River from 

 production until 1934 when it was partially 

 breached and finally removed (Parkhurst, 



1950b). About 200 sockeye salmon were seen 

 spawning in Redfish Lake during October 1942; 

 in 1955, the number had increased to 4,000 but 

 subsequent runs were under this figure. Ap- 

 parently the run maintained during the period 

 of diflicult passage by (1) the migration of 

 young kokanee from the lake to the ocean and 

 (2) the successful passage of a few sockeye 

 salmon around Sunbeam Dam. 



About 1921, the Okanogan River was 

 blocked by Vaseux Dam, 24 km. above Osoyoos 

 Lake. A wooden fishway was constructed to 

 pass salmon, but it soon became inoperative, 

 and was never repaired or replaced. Conse- 

 quently, Okanogan and Skaha Lakes were 

 blocked from production. They were appar- 

 ently large producers at one time; they are 

 large and have a rich supply of plankton. 

 Osoyoos Lake (about 14 km. long and from 3 

 to 6 km. wide) is productive and has never 

 been blocked from salmon. On the other hand, 

 Vaseux Lake (about 1 km. long) was never 

 suitable for rearing of sockeye salmon because 

 of its shallowness. 



The last lakes to be taken from production 

 of sockeye salmon were those of the Upper 

 Columbia — Lower and Upper Arrow, What- 

 shan, Slocan, Kinbasket, Windermere, and Co- 

 lumbia Lakes. These lakes were cut off by the 

 construction of Grand Coulee Dam in 1939, 

 at which time most of the remaining sockeye 

 salmon of the Columbia River were composed 

 of these stocks. 



In 1938, the Washington Department of 

 Fisheries (1938) estimated the number of 

 spawners in the upper Columbia River system 

 by counting the sockeye salmon that passed 

 through the fishways at Rock Island Dam on 

 the Columbia River, at Tumwater Dam on the 

 Wenatchee River, and at Zosel Dam on the 

 Okanogan River just below Osoyoos Lake. 



Counts at Rock Island Dam for 1935-37 

 were 14,012, 16,516, and 15,091; at Tumwater 

 Dam, 889, 29, and 65 ; and at Zosel Dam, 264, 

 895, and 2,162. Apparently, the spawning 

 escapement to the upper Columbia River was 

 low, especially to the Wenatchee and Okanogan 

 River systems. After the counts in the two 

 streams were subtracted from those at Rock 

 Island Dam, the counts were 12,859, 15,583, 

 and 12,764 fish for the 3 years. In other words, 



27 



