The etymology of the place name “Owhyee” is improbable. As it turns out, about a third of Donald MacKenzie‘s Snake Country Expeditions of 1819–1820 were native Hawaiians. “Owyhee” was then the standard spelling of the islands’ name, a proper spelling of the Hawaiian language name for the islands, hawai’i. The modern spelling then was otherwise unused.
Three of McKenzie’s Hawaiian trappers were detached to trap on what’s now the Owhyee River in 1819 and were probably killed by Native Americans that year. The mountain range in far southeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho is named for those lost Hawaiians. The earliest surviving record of the place name is found on a map dating to 1825, drawn by William Kittson (who was previously with MacKenzie in 1819–1820), on which he notes “Owhyhee River” (his spelling). Journal entries in 1826 by Peter Skene Ogden, a fur trapper who led subsequent Snake Country Expeditions for the Hudson’s Bay Company refer to the river primarily as the “Sandwich Island River”, but also as “S. I. River”, “River Owyhee”, and “Owyhee River”.
The Owhee River originates in northern Nevada, flows some 280 miles through the southwest corner of Idaho and then through southeastern Oregon to its confluence with the Snake River. While the Owhyee River’s drainage is some 11,000 square miles, that drainage is mostly desert, and except for spring runoff, the total water flow is modest. The Owhyee is a Wild and Scenic River, and parts of its drainage are Wilderness Areas.
The river cuts through the ancient path of the Yellowstone Hotspot, an area of intense volcanism 13-17 million years ago. The result is a river canyon through steep-walled rock consisting of lava, basalt, rhyolite, welded tuft and volcanic ash. It’s a stunner.
Most of that canyon is inaccessible by road, seen only by whitewater enthusiasts who can run the river in the spring and early summer, riding the snowmelt through the canyon. By mid-June, the river is too low for rafting.
One of the access points that is available is at Owhyee Dam and Owhyee State Park, 25 very twisty road miles from Adrian, Oregon. There’s a paved road from the dam to two developed campgrounds on the southeasterly shore of Owhyee Reservoir.1 The 52-mile long reservoir is also accessible via Leslie Gulch, at the southerly end of the reservoir.
The dam itself was built from 1928 – 1932 as a means of managing water for irrigation. In the Intermountain West, as Dr. Patricia Limerick wrote in Legacy of Consquest, in the end it’s always about water. The dam is 417 high and, when the reservoir is full, stores some 1.1 million acre-feet of water. The dam is only the most visible part of the Owhyee Project; there’s a network of tunnels that channel the reservoir water to three areas, as far north as Weiser, Idaho and as far south as Marsing, Idaho. Construction of the dam cut off access by salmon to the spawning waters they used to use. Now, of course, the salmon are blocked further downstream by the Hells Canyon Dams of the Snake River.
The dam and its concrete arch form was a proving ground for the later and much higher Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. Except that hydroelectricity wasn’t added to Owhyee Dam until 1985.
The most famous part of Owhyee Dam is its overflow. Instead of the traditional spillway over the shoulder of the dam, Owhyee has the Glory Hole,2 a dam ring gate spillway, the hydro equivalent of a bathtub drain. WC was lucky enough to see it operating.
The water falls 300 feet down to a tunnel releasing the water just beyond the base of the dam. WC is unclear whether the frequent blasts of spray back up the Glory Hole are chaotic or some kind of baffle operating, but it’s impressive to see.
Here’s a link to a nifty video from 2017 Idaho Statesman article on the dam. Most years, there’s insufficient snowfall to fill the reservoir and send water over the spillway.
We are left to wonder how spectacular the drowned canyon must have been before 1932. For the loss of the that canyon, the loss of some 200 miles of salmon spawning habitat, alteration of the water flow in the lower Owhyee and the Snake River, we have gained a bit of flood control, a modest amount of electricity and the ability to grow crops in a desert. All dams involve tradeoffs, some of which we still don’t fully understand.
And all too often simply don’t care.
1 Officially, it’s Owhyee Lake, but it’s not a lake, it an impoundment by a dam, a reservoir. In the Intermountain West, where true lakes are scarce, the cartographers seemingly overcompensate by calling every dam-made reservoir a lake. WC refuses to be a part to such folly.
2 Not to be confused with a mining glory hole, as at the former Treadwell Mine on Douglas Island, near Juneau, Alaska. Or more vulgar meanings.
Wickersham's Conscience 
You must be logged in to post a comment.