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1-800-262-1882
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A Quick History of the Snake River and Hells Canyon
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Waves of Western history left their marks in and around America's deepest river gorge.
For hundreds of generations the ancestors of Native Americans inhabited Hells Canyon. Nomadic in nature, they spent most of their days in search of food: hunting, fishing, gathering roots and berries. Mostly they traversed the upper reaches of the canyon, but mild weather and ready food supply at the canyon bottom led them to establish permanent winter villages along the river. About 200 years ago, evidence indicates Native Americans mostly disappeared from the canyon bottom, due in part to the entry of horses into their culture.
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| Abandoned mine shafts, crumbling shacks, and placer tailings remain today as evidence of the 1860's gold rush. Towns sprang up near Jackley Mountain in the Seven Devils and at Eureka Bar on the Scenic Snake River (river mile 58). Both communities are long gone, but foundations from the hotel and stamp mill at Eureka Bar remain to tease visitors about the bawdy lifestyle and bustling commotion of long ago. Many discouraged miners found little color and left the tedious work of panning gold dust to the more fastidious Chinese. Many of the Chinese miners had been laborers on railroad construction crews, and some of their rectangular, subterranean homes of stone are still visible today. In May, 1887 at the mouth of Deep Creek (river mile 50), a band of outlaws tortured and murdered 31Chinese miners for the gold believed to be hidden in their camp. |
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Stern wheel steam boats plied the Snake River's volatile waters from the trade center at Lewiston, serving the mining industry and later, homesteaders. Two vessels made it on high water from Boise to Lewiston through Hells Canyon, but the perils of the trip ended talk of regular transport between the two cities. There are iron rings set in the rocks on the lower reaches of the Scenic River. Cables were attached to the rings to help winch steamboats up through the rapids. In November of 1903, when a cable became entangled, disabling the paddlewheel, the steamer Imnaha drifted back into Mountain Sheep Rapids, turned crosswise in the current, lodged between the canyon walls and broke up. Today a boiler from Imnaha is embedded in the upriver side of Cottonwood Creek camp (river mile 68). |
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River mile 26.3 is home of Kirkwood Ranch where you can visit the museum and interpretative site and learn about Len Jordan, the canyon's most famous resident who later became Governor of Idaho and a U.S. Senator.
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The Homestead Act opened the West to settlers. Nearly 100 families built cabins in Hells Canyon by the turn of the century. In summer they grazed cattle and sheep on upland benches and in lush forests, herding them to the canyon bottom in winter. By 1920 only a handful of homesteaders remained. |
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Hughes River Expeditions, Inc.
P.O. Box 217
Cambridge, Idaho 83610
1-800-262-1882
info@hughesriver.com
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Researchers have identified over 700 archaeological sites in and around Hells Canyon, with evidence of human habitation going back over 7000 years. Sites with historical significance range from rock art and winter “pit house” villages to pioneer cabins and homes of Chinese miners. Hells Canyon is a place where heritage is measured in thousands of years. |
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Early whitewater navigation of the Snake River in Hells Canyon includes many famous early river runners: Amos Burg (1925), Buzz Holmstrom (1939), Blaine Stubblefield (1950's), Georgie White (1950's), Don Harris & Jack Brennan (1950's), Don & Ted Hatch (1962). |
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| In 1975, Congress established Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, managed by the U. S. Forest Service, to protect the fragile ecology, fascinating history, and still unfolding archaeology of the area. This national treasure covers 652,488 acres, including some of the most rugged, spectacular wildlands on earth. The area straddles the wildest whitewater stretch of the mighty Snake River where it runs south to north on the Idaho-Oregon border. About 70 miles of the Snake River are managed under the National Wild & Scenic River System. Nearly 215,000 acres of the National Recreation Area, almost one-third, is managed as Hells Canyon Wilderness. |
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