Sources: National Park Service, HistoryLink, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Seattle Times staff research
Created by seattletimes on Aug 24, 2011
Last updated: 09/17/11 at 04:09 PM
Left: Demolition workers punch a hole into Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River. The Elwha Dam, closer to the river's mouth, also is coming out. (Photo credit: Steve Ringman, The Seattle Times) Return to project home
Left: Hatchery-raised coho salmon are feeding at the Elwha tribal fish hatchery near Port Angeles. (Photo credit: Steve Ringman, The Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016005701_hatchery25m.html
Lake Aldwell and Lake Mills, the reservoirs behind the dams, are drawn down in preparation for the start of dam removal.
Left: Water crashes over Elwha Dam as Lake Aldwell is drawn down. (Photo credit: Steve Ringman, The Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015718925_elwha25m.html
Left: Kevin Yancy, manager of the Elwha hydroelectric project for the Bureau of Reclamation, throws a switch to shut down the Elwha Dam for good after nearly 100 years of generating electricity. (Photo credit: Steve Ringman, The Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015202387_elwha02m.html
The National Park Service signed the $27 million contract with Barnard Construction of Bozeman.
Left: Adult chinook salmon swim in a pool below the Elwha Dam, which blocks them from traveling upstream. (Photo credit: Steve Ringman, The Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012733909_elwha27m.html
While the two dams on the Elwha River were not operated for flood control, they did impound sediment, which will be gradually released as the dams come down. The river sediment will raise the bed of the river — and the water line. To help protect against flooding during high water events, the levee was raised, armored with rip rap and extended.
http://www.nps.gov/olym/naturescience/flood-protection.htm
The National Park Service announces the award of a $16 million contract for a new fish hatchery on the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe Reservation.
Left: This fingerling, trapped by the Northwest Science Fisheries Center, will have its stomach emptied to see what it's been eating before the fish is returned to the river. (Photo credit: Steve Ringman, The Seattle Times)
http://www.nps.gov/olym/parknews/national-park-service-announces-recovery-act-contract-award-for-lower-elwha-tribe-fish-hatchery.htm
Olympic National Park, where the dams stand, will get $54 million to accelerate related projects, pushing the start of removal work from 2012 to 2011.
Left: As Vice President Biden applauds, President Obama gets up from the table after signing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Feb. 17, 2009, in Denver.
(Photo credit: Gerald Herbert, AP)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009105595_webelwah22m.html
The City of Port Angeles, the National Park Service and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe sign an agreement allowing the $182 million Elwha Restoration Project to go forward.
Left: Aerial view of the Glines Canyon Dam. (Photo credit: Steve Ringman, The Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001998230_elwha06m.html
The U.S. Department of Interior purchases both dams for $29.5 million.
Left: Michael Q. Langland, river-restoration director for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, explains the sacred significance of the Elwha River in February 2000. (Photo credit: Mark Harrison, The Seattle Times)
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20000211&slug=4004179
The plan to remove the two hydroelectric dams is stalled as Slade Gorton, the Republican chairman of the Interior appropriations committee, limits federal funding for the project, citing high cost.
Left: Slade Gorton, 2000. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Senate)
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19970726&slug=2551471
Rescue Elwha Area Lakes (REAL), a pro-dam group, argues demolition will harm the trumpeter swan, the world's largest waterfowl. It has raised questions about the impact on fish, recreation, flooding, water quality, ground-water supply and the survival of Daishowa America, a Port Angeles pulp-and-paper mill that is the sole remaining consumer of the power the dams produce.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940519&slug=1911315
An Interior Department draft report confirms that both dams need to be removed in order to restore the fish runs. Left: High water temperatures in the river below the dams cause the fish to fall prey to parasites and suffocate. (Photo credit: Mark Harrison, The Seattle Times) See original Seattle Times article from Oct. 1993. (Click on the yellow tab to read an excerpt.)
President George H.W. Bush signs the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act. (Photo courtesy of the White House)
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=21655#axzz1WeOyp6Db
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe intervenes in the relicensing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and petitions for removal of both dams. Environmental groups — Seattle Audubon Society, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club and Olympic Park Associates — join in.
Left: This crack was painted on Glines Canyon Dam in September 1987 by the environmental group Earth First. (Photo credit: Mike Jakubal)
See original Seattle Times article from July 1988. (Click on the yellow tab to read an excerpt.)
http://www.waterplanet.ws/pdf/Busch_ElwhaDamRemoval-2007.pdf
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe reservation is established.
Left: This is one of the earliest known photos of the Ediz Hook. When settlers came to Port Angeles, they pushed the tribe off its homeland on the hook and the Port Angeles waterfront, displacing tribal members inland. While about 372 acres were purchased for the tribe by the federal government beginning in 1935, the land was not put into reservation status for the tribe until 1968. (Photo courtesy of Noreen Frink)
http://www.elwha.org/
Power generation begins at Glines Canyon Dam. Left: Final phase of Glines Canyon construction, with bottom of spill gates showing. (Photo courtesy of Nippon Paper Group) See original Seattle Times article from Feb. 1927. (Click on the yellow tab to read an excerpt.)
Construction starts on Glines Canyon Dam at river mile 13.5. Left: The reservoir behind Glines Canyon Dam begins to fill on Dec. 26, 1926. (Photo courtesy of Nippon Paper Group) See original Seattle Times article from April 1926. (Click on the yellow tab to read an excerpt.)
Congress declares Native Americans to be U.S. citizens. Left: President Calvin Coolidge, wearing a Sioux headdress gifted to him. (Photo credit: New York Times) See original Seattle Times front page from June 1924. (Click on the yellow tab to read an excerpt.)
The hatchery, never successful, is shut down. No fish passage is ever provided.
Left: Inside the Elwha powerhouse, showing installation of the third generator in 1922. (Photo courtesy of Nippon Paper Group) See original Seattle Times article from 1914. (Click on the yellow tab to read an excerpt.)
State fish commissioner offers to let Aldwell avoid fish passage at the dam, and put in a hatchery instead. See original Seattle Times article from 1914. (Click on the yellow tab to read an excerpt.)
Left: The completed Elwha Dam in about 1911, before the blowout and reconstruction. The spill gates are open. (Photo courtesy of Nippon Paper Group) See original Seattle Times front page from Oct. 1912. (Click on the yellow tab to read an excerpt.)
Clallam County game warden alerts state fisheries officials that no salmon appear above Elwha Dam and warns fish run will be destroyed unless action is taken. Left: Elinor Chittenden with a steelhead caught in the Elwha River during the summer of 1907, before construction of the dam. Chittenden was a member of the Mountaineers organization. (Photo credit: Asahel Curtis, courtesy of Washington State Historical Society) See original Seattle Times article from 1911. (Click on the yellow tab to read an excerpt.)
Thomas Aldwell begins construction on Elwha Dam at river mile 5. The dam is built without fish passage, in violation of state law. Photo: The spillway is visible at left in 1910, and the powerhouse, at right, starts to take shape. (Photo courtesy of Nippon Paper Group) See photo of Aldwell in a Seattle Times article from 1910.
The Seattle Press Expedition crosses the Olympic Mountains the winter of 1889-90.
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe signs Treaty of Point No Point, ceding ownership of its land.
Spaniard Manuel Quimper is the first documented non-Indian explorer of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
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