Dog on the dock

Lake Ewauna was a reservoir serving the needs of the local lumber industry. Logs were off-loaded from trains, or floated in as log barges. This, and all waterways in the Klamath Basin, were heavily engineered in the 19th and early 20th centuries to serve logging, farming and settlement of homesteaders.

Only in recent years has some of it, such as small dams, been dismantled to prevent the extinction of Chinook salmon. A sizable one, Copco Dam, will be demolished, date unknown. This has been a decades-long battle between white ranchers and the Native American tribes downriver, whose entire culture is formed around the river and the salmon.

In recent years, the welfare of the salmon has been gradually prioritized over cattle. The ranchers have money to fight, and they fight hard. The tribes have public protests, lawsuits, fund raising and the backing of environmental groups. The Yurok, Karuk, and Klamath tribes have won a lawsuit negating the white ranchers' water rights as primary. Current information here: tinyurl.com/y3759rhd